The bedraggled bumblebee queen seemed lifeless. Yet she was somehow alive — still breathing after being underwater for roughly a week in the lab. Did she manage to hold her breath for…
Category: Animals
A koala population’s rapid rebound may let it escape inbreeding’s perils
A rapid koala rebound in southeastern Australia is also boosting their genetic variation, showing one way out of an extinction death spiral. After nearly disappearing from the region over a…
Cockroaches that eat each other’s wings turn into a fierce fighting force
Humans might show commitment with a ring, penguins offer prospective mates rocks and some beetles gift a ball of dung. Wood-feeding cockroaches show commitment with a nibble of cannibalism —…
Here’s how honeyeaters and other birds thrive on sugary diets
To eat a sugar-filled diet, birds had to evolve some sweet genetic tricks. Birds that feed on nectar and fruits have important variants in genes that control metabolism, fat processing…
Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration
Climate change may threaten North America’s iconic mass monarch butterfly migration. Every fall, millions of monarchs (Danaus plexippus) travel thousands of kilometers over North America as they leave their breeding…
Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places
Some caterpillars speak ant by rocking to a beat. By jiggling like a cellphone receiving a call while on vibrate, the caterpillars cozy up to ants, reaping benefits for them both.…
An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox
A monkey making a meal of a squirrel may have sparked an outbreak. In early 2023, mpox broke out among a group of a few dozen sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) living…
Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs
Rufus net-casting spiders can tune the stiffness and elasticity of their webs thanks to loops of silk, scanning electron microscope images reveal.
This itch-triggering protein also sends signals to stop scratching
People who can’t stop scratching itches may finally have a culprit to blame. In mice (and probably people), a protein called TRPV4 is involved both in starting an itch and…
A mouth built for efficiency may have helped the earliest bird fly
About 150 million years ago, in a coastal lagoon in what is now southern Germany, the oldest known bird gobbled up food with a beak built for efficient eating. It’s…
