Insects (including Butterflies) News

February 4, 2025

Top Headlines

Life Cycles of Some Insects Adapt Well to a Changing Climate: Others, Not So Much

Jan. 31, 2025 — Some biologists speculate that animals will get smaller with global warming to reduce heat stress. While this may be true of warm-blooded animals, what about exotherms like insects? Thanks to a ...

Why Maggots Love the Texture of Decaying Fruit

Jan. 30, 2025 — Researchers have discovered neurons in the fly larva mouth that allow the taste of food texture. The study found that the fly peripheral taste organ has neurons with texture-tasting mechanoreceptors that derive their ability from the painless ...

Cold Waves in the Rainforest: What They Mean for Wild Animals

Jan. 30, 2025 — It's not always cozy and warm in the Amazon rainforest: Cold waves can cause temperatures to drop drastically. Researchers have investigated how animals react to ...

Zika Uses Human Skin as 'Mosquito Magnet' to Spread Virus Further

Jan. 30, 2025 — Zika virus hijacks the skin of its human host to send out chemical signals that lure more mosquitoes to infect and spread the disease further, new research ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:45am EST

Bat Wings Boost Hovering Efficiency

Jan. 30, 2025 — Researchers have designed flexible, bat-like wings that boost lift and improve flight performance. This innovation could lead to more efficient drones or energy-harvesting ...

Fruit Flies' Courtship Song May Hold Key to Controlling Mosquitoes

Jan. 24, 2025 — Researchers have found and confirmed a gene that allows female fruit flies to get on the same frequency as courting males. Mosquitoes have the same gene and a similar courtship ritual, meaning that ...

'Buzz Me In:' Bees Wearing Itty Bitty QR Codes Reveal Hive Secrets

Jan. 23, 2025 — Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs to track when they go in and out of their hives. The work, a collaboration among entomologists ...

Reading the Genome and Understanding Evolution: Symbioses and Gene Transfer in Leaf Beetles

Jan. 17, 2025 — Scientists explored the evolutionary success of leaf beetles, the most diverse herbivores on Earth. They showed that symbioses with bacteria have ...

How Crickets Co-Exist With Hostile Ant Hosts

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have identified the behavioral strategies that parasitic cricket species employ to infiltrate and inhabit host ant colonies. Their research demonstrates that these crickets use ...

Pesticide Impacts on Bees More Complex Than Expected

Jan. 15, 2025 — A new study shows distinct effects of neonicotinoid pesticide exposure in different bumble bee body parts, explaining why pesticides have diverse harmful effects and highlighting the need for more ...

Mosquitoes Can Be Extra-Bitey in Droughts

Jan. 15, 2025 — Mosquitoes can survive prolonged droughts by drinking blood, which helps to explain why rates of mosquito-borne illness don't always decline in dry ...

This Fast and Agile Robotic Insect Could Someday Aid in Mechanical Pollination

Jan. 15, 2025 — New insect-scale microrobots can fly more than 100 times longer than previous versions. The new bots, also significantly faster and more agile, could ...

Ash Tree Variability May Offer Restoration Path Post-Beetle Decimation

Jan. 13, 2025 — The invasive emerald ash borer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was first found in the United States in southeast Michigan in 2002. In the decades since, the wood-boring beetle has ...

Evolutionary Biology: Ants Can Hold a Grudge

Jan. 8, 2025 — Evolutionary biologists are investigating the extent to which ants learn from past experiences. After being attacked by ants from a particular nest, ants behave more aggressively towards others from ...

The Life Cycle and Climate Adaptability of South Africa's Endemic Cape Autumn Widow Butterfly

Jan. 30, 2025 — A recent study provides insights into the life history and behaviour of the endemic Cape Autumn Widow butterfly (Dira clytus), a species endemic to South ...

Climate Change Is Accelerating Forest Defoliation by Helping Invasive Species Spread

Jan. 6, 2025 — Computer models predict that hotter, drier conditions in North America will limit the growth of a fungus that normally curbs the spread of the spongy moth, an invasive species that has caused ...

Fly Vs. Wasp: Stealing a Defense Move Helps Thwart a Predator

Dec. 25, 2024 — Many flies are plagued by parasitic wasps, which lay their eggs in fly larvae, turning them into surrogate wombs for wasp larvae. One common fly has successfully fought off its wasp predator by ...

Pollinators Most Vulnerable to Rising Global Temperatures Are Flies, Study Shows

Dec. 20, 2024 — Despite their reputation as buzzing nuisances, flies serve a critical role as some of the Earth's most prolific pollinators -- and new research suggests they are increasingly at risk due to ...

Study Maps Bed Bugs' Genomes in Unprecedented Detail to Find out Why They Just Won't Die

Dec. 17, 2024 — Near-gap-free and near-error-free genomes of a susceptible bed bug strain and a superstrain with around 20,000-fold insecticide resistance offer the broadest look yet at the full scope of mutations ...

Detailed Bedbug Genome Analysis May Improve Pesticides

Dec. 16, 2024 — Scientists now have a better genetic understanding of the insect. The research offers an updated genome analysis of the common bedbug Cimex lectularius, providing new insight for those working to ...

How Fighting Female Flies Focus on Their Foes

Dec. 12, 2024 — New research uses pioneering tools to show how aggressive female fruit flies' vision is regulated to focus on what's ...

Australia's Extinction Tally Is Worse Than We Thought

Dec. 11, 2024 — A new study estimates that more than 9000 insects and other native invertebrates have become extinct in Australia since European arrival in 1788 and between 1-3 additional species become extinct ...

A microRNA Solves an Evolutionary Mystery of Butterfly and Moth Wing Coloration

Dec. 6, 2024 — Over the past two decades, scientists discovered that the majority of melanic wing color variants are controlled by a single genomic region surrounding the protein-coding gene 'cortex'. It ...

Desert Ants Use the Polarity of the Geomagnetic Field for Navigation

Dec. 6, 2024 — Desert ants of the Cataglyphis nodus species use the Earth's magnetic field for spatial orientation, but rely on a different component of the field than other insects. The survey suggests that ...

A Blueprint for the Brain's Circadian Clock

Dec. 5, 2024 — Circadian clocks control physiological processes and behavior in virtually all living organisms. Now an international research team has created a detailed map of the internal clock in the brain of ...

Spotted Lanternflies in the US Are Living Longer--and Cities May Be Helping Them Spread

Dec. 5, 2024 — Spotted lanternflies -- invasive insects that first landed in the United States a decade ago -- are emerging earlier and staying active later each year, according to an analysis of citizen-science ...

Lifesaver for Wild Bees: The Importance of Quarries

Dec. 4, 2024 — A research team has investigated the importance of limestone quarries for wild bee conservation. Diverse landscapes with good connectivity between quarries and calcareous grasslands proved to be ...

Natural 'Biopesticide' Against Malaria Mosquitoes Successful in Early Field Tests

Dec. 4, 2024 — An experimental bacteria-derived biopesticide is highly effective in killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes, including those that have developed resistance to chemical pesticides, according to initial ...

Insects Wearing Two Hats Solve Botanical Mystery

Dec. 4, 2024 — The discovery of a unique case where the same insect species both pollinate a plant and distribute its seeds not only solves a long-standing botanical mystery. The find also stresses the diverse ...

Can Plastic-Eating Bugs Help With Our Microplastic Problem?

Dec. 3, 2024 — Previous research found that insects can ingest and absorb pure, unrefined microplastics -- but only under unrealistic, food-scarce situations. Zoologists have now tested mealworms in a more ...

Insect Fossil Find 'Extremely Rare'

Dec. 2, 2024 — Newly discovered insect fossils are so small they can barely be seen by the human eye but have been preserved in an 'extraordinary' ...

New Gene Drive Reverses Insecticide Resistance in Pests... Then Disappears

Nov. 22, 2024 — Geneticists have developed a gene drive-based solution to the widespread problem of insecticide resistance. In an effort to protect valuable crops, the researchers created an 'e-Drive' that ...

Caste Differentiation in Ants

Nov. 22, 2024 — Scientists have revealed how a specific hormone regulates ant caste differentiation by phenotypic measurements of organ-level developmental changes and matching transcriptome ...

What's the Story, Morning Glory?

Nov. 21, 2024 — Morning glory plants that can resist the effects of glyphosate also resist damage from herbivorous insects, according to a new ...