Insects, features and articles | Educational Science

Jan 11, 2017

Rusty Patched Bumblebee Declared Endangered

The rusty patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) is now the first bumblebee species to receive protections under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The listing of the bee species was finalized today (Jan. 11) after a five-year campaign by environmental groups. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation first petitioned for the listing...

Jan 13, 2017

Facts About Bumblebees

Bumblebees are large, fuzzy insects with short, stubby wings. They are larger than honeybees, but they don't produce as much honey. However, they are very important pollinators. Without them, food wouldn't grow. Two-thirds of the world's crop species depend on animals to transfer pollen between male and female flower parts,...

Feb 23, 2017

Goal! Ball-Rolling Bees Score Big Science Wins

Bumblebees in a lab recently channeled their inner Lionel Messi by learning to move a tiny ball across a platform and into a target goal. But they weren't in training for the insect World Cup; scientists were testing the bees' learning capabilities, by training them to perform tasks unlike any...

Mar 7, 2017

Bumblebees Leave 'Smelly Footprints' Behind on Flowers

Bumblebees mark the flowers they've visited with smelly footprints, and they can tell the difference between odors from family members' feet and those of strangers, researchers have found. By sniffing out these dainty footprints, bumblebees can locate good food and steer clear of flowers whose nutrients have been depleted, the...

Mar 30, 2017

Gruesome Wasp Named After Shape-Shifting 'Star Trek' Character

A group of wasps with a gruesome lifestyle has just gained 15 new members. Like their kin, the newbies make a habit of laying their eggs in developing insects. Once a wasp baby emerges, it consumes its gooey host from the inside out. Many of the newfound species, all of...

Apr 11, 2017

Do Honeybees Feel Pain?

Most complex animals feel pain, but what about insects? Does the buzzing fly feel the crunch of a swatter? Does the pesky mosquito recoil in agony when stung by a bug zapper? Do experiments on fruit fly gladiators constitute torture? Seeing as how research on insect pain is scant, those...

Oct 24, 2017

Why a Wasp Just Cut a Bee in Half (and Left with Its Rear End)

Nature is red in tooth and claw — an adage that applies to the smallest creatures as well as the largest. Just ask one unfortunate half-bee, who was gnawed in two by a yellowjacket wasp in a new video posted to Reddit by user Iamnotburgerking. The video, posted without additional...

Oct 27, 2017

Incredible Image of Bubble-Blowing Wasp Has a Scientific Explanation

A jaw-dropping image of what appeared to be a bubble-blowing wasp balancing the liquid sphere on its front legs captivated Reddit users yesterday (Oct. 26). But what's the wasp actually doing? Several of the industrious insects were recently observed with droplets dangling from their mouths. Turns out, they were removing...

Dec 4, 2017

The Biggest Myth About the 'Bee Apocalypse'

In 2006, an ominous term entered the public lexicon: colony collapse disorder. The mysterious, somewhat vague word describes instances where entire colonies of honeybees abruptly disappear, leaving behind their queens. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) has since fueled claims of an ongoing bee apocalypse, which summarizes the perilous plight of our...

Jan 22, 2018

Nobody Knows Why These Bees Built a Spiral Nest

The Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria is not your average pollinator. For starters, out of about 20,000 known bee species in the world, T. carbonaria is one of only 500 without stingers. That's not to say this bee is defenseless. Invasive beetles that have tried to infiltrate T. carbonaria nests...

Feb 1, 2018

New 'Slasher' Wasp Comes Equipped with Its Own Body Saw

Freddy Krueger, eat your heart out. A new species of parasitic wasp comes equipped with built-in saws, which the killer insect may use to slice its way out of its host's body. In a new paper published Jan. 30 in Biodiversity Data Journal, researchers from Penn State and the Natural...

Apr 27, 2018

Bee-Harming Pesticides Face Complete Ban in Europe

Countries in the European Union (EU) announced today (April 27) their support for a proposal to ban the outdoor use of neonicotinoids, widely used pesticides that have been linked to declines in pollinators — especially bees. Their decision tightens restrictions on this group of pesticides enacted in 2013, and follows...

Jun 8, 2018

Honeybees Know a Lot About Nothing

Humans aren't the only species that can ponder abstract mathematical concepts like nonexistence. In addition to some other animals, honeybees understand that the number zero is less than 1, according to a new study. Dolphins, African gray parrots and nonhuman primates also understand the idea of zero, but researchers were...

Jul 9, 2018

Amazon Wasp with Enormous Stinger May Just Haunt Your Nightmares

There's a new species on the list of terrifying creatures of the Amazon: Calistoga crassicaudata. It's a tiny parasitoid wasp with a giant stinger that the female uses not only to paralyze her host but also to deposit eggs inside the unsuspecting creature (who will soon suffer a grueling death...

Aug 23, 2018

Deadly 'Love Vine' Penetrates Wasps' Homes (and Drains Their Bodies)

Smooth, shiny balls that cling to the undersides of oak leaves often hold a grim secret inside, or, depending on how you look at it, a crunchy surprise: the dried-up corpse of a wasp, killed by a parasitic plant known as the love vine. These tiny spheres are leaf deformities...