Insects, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 24, 2013

Wow! Dung Beetles Navigate by the Stars

Despite having tiny brains, dung beetles are surprisingly decent navigators, able to follow straight paths as they roll poo balls they've collected away from a dung source. But it seems the insects' abilities are more remarkable than previously believed. Like ancient seafarers, dung beetles can navigate using the starry sky...

Mar 12, 2013

Images: Amazing Rhinoceros Beetles

Rhinoceros Beetle Diversity (Image credit: Erin McCullough)Rhinoceros beetles show an amazing diversity in their horns, even within the same species (here, Trypoxlus dichotomus). Females lack horns, but males use them to fight each other. Horned Beetle (Image credit: Douglas Emlen)A rhinoceros beetle shows off its antler-like horn. Rhinoceros Beetle on...

Mar 12, 2013

How the Rhinoceros Beetle Got Its Horns

Sporting a horn on your head two-thirds the length of your body might seem like a drag. For the rhinoceros beetle, though, massive head-weapons are no big deal. Turns out, pitchfork-shaped protrusions on the heads of rhinoceros beetles don't slow them down during flight, new research shows. The findings may...

Mar 27, 2013

101 Beetles Get Names from Phone Book

What do you do when you run across hundreds of nameless species of beetle in the wilderness of New Guinea? No, the correct answer is not run away screaming — at least if you're a scientist dedicated to discovering the massive diversity of insect life. Instead, researchers from the German...

Aug 14, 2013

Tahiti: A Paradise for New Beetle Species

Mont Aorai, Tahiti (Image credit: James Kenneth Liebherr)The steep slopes of Tahitian mountains isolate insect communities by creating physical barriers between ridges, and by being vulnerable to rain and erosion that fragments populations and leads to species divergence. Bug catching in the rainforest (Image credit: James Kenneth Liebherr)The researchers, led...

Aug 14, 2013

Tahiti Abounds in New Beetle Species

Dozens of new beetle species have been discovered in Tahiti, adding to the long list of unique insects known to crawl among the island's rich biodiversity . Though Tahiti looks like a speck on a map of the South Pacific — spanning only about 28 miles (45 Kilometers) at its...

Aug 22, 2013

Dung Beetles Cut Gas Emissions from Cow Poo

Beetles that root around in cow dung may be even more useful than previously thought (seriously, who else is going to eat that stuff?). New research suggests that by digging through and aerating the excrement, beetles actually reduce the amount of methane released, since the gas is formed under anaerobic,...

Oct 22, 2013

Grab-and-Go Beetle Hoards Poo and Gallops

Given the choice between flying and hoarding dried feces, most of us would take to the air, but a certain beetle in Africa prefers to spend its time on the ground collecting poop. The dung beetle, which lives in the Western Cape, now gallops across the sand — like an...

Nov 1, 2013

Leafy Abode: Newly Discovered Beetle Makes Shelter with Feces

A new species of leaf beetle discovered in the Western Ghats Mountains in India uses its own feces to modify shelters in leaves. The Orthaltica terminalia — named after their host trees found in jungles of the Western Ghats Mountains — is the size of a pinhead and makes what...

Dec 10, 2013

Unique Talents of Galloping Dung Beetle Revealed (Photo)

A South African dung beetle species, Pachysoma Endrodyi, is unique both for its galloping gait and for the way it collects dung. This species of Pachysoma grabs small pieces of dry dung and gallops back to a nest where it is stored; the beetle shores up the pile of dung...

Feb 12, 2014

Found: Rare Beetle Collected by Darwin 180 Years Ago

A brightly colored beetle collected by Charles Darwin more than 180 years ago has been identified as a new species after hiding in museum storage for decades. The discovery of Darwinilus sedarisi — whose scientific epithet honors both Charles Darwin and the writer David Sedaris — was announced Wednesday (Feb....

Apr 23, 2014

Female Seed Beetles Fight Unequal Battle During Sex

The war of the sexes occurs even among insects, and it can be quite violent and unequal. During mating in bugs called seed beetles, the females violently kick the males because the males hurt them with their spiky penises. And although researchers used to think this kicking was in the...

Apr 30, 2014

Female Beetles: All They Need Is Love

When it comes to choosing a mate in the beetle world, females prefer males that are better lovers than fighters, a new study finds. Female horned flour beetles favored males that courted the females the most, rather than those with the largest jaws, a sign of fighting prowess. The findings...

Jun 10, 2014

Suction is Key to Diving Beetle's Loving Embrace

When it comes to wooing a female, male diving beetles don't have it easy: A male must latch onto his mate underwater, as she wriggles about erratically like a tiny bucking bronco. During courtship, male diving beetles (Dytiscidae) use special adhesive hairs, or setae, to keep a grip on the...

Nov 30, 2014

Animal Sex: How Dung Beetles Do It

Dung beetles are known for their rather unappetizing food choice: animal feces. But dung doesn't only provide sustenance for these insects; it also plays an integral part in their mating behaviors. There are thousands of known dung beetle species, and these creatures live on every continent except Antarctica. Though each...