Farewell, murder hornets. We got you.
AP News reports that a particularly dramatic “invasive exotic” species – Vespa mandarinia, the Asian giant hornet, better known as the “murder hornet”… Read the rest “Farewell, murder hornets. We got you.”
entomology
Hyper-sexual zombie cicadas… on speed.
That’s how the CBS headline starts, and I can only improve upon it by adding the drugs in the interest of accuracy. The story is about a sexually-transmitted fungal disease expected… Read the rest “Hyper-sexual zombie cicadas… on speed.”
Science Art: Four Phymata species from “Notas Sobre Phymatidae Neotropicales II,” October 1951.
An illustration of four ambush bugs from Anales de la Sociedad Científica Argentina, found in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Or parts of ambush bugs.
At the top left is Phymata carioca… Read the rest “Science Art: Four Phymata species from “Notas Sobre Phymatidae Neotropicales II,” October 1951.”
Bumblebees teach each other.
Nature shares a study that found that bumblebees somehow communicate the solutions to complex puzzles to each other, something that only humans were thought to do. Instead, the insects… Read the rest “Bumblebees teach each other.”
Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.
Wired reveals a very strange insect-monitoring device called DAS, or “distributed acoustic sensing,” normally used to track vibrations made by seismic shifts and volcanic… Read the rest “Cicadas are so loud, they cause fiberoptic-cable interference.”
Science Art: The beetle (Byturus tomentosus) living on raspberry, from Nordisk familjebok, 1920
A raspberry beetle and its favorite fruit, from a very special category on Wikimedia Commons.
We do love an encyclopedia.
Science Art: Habitus images of Chimairacoris lakshmiae, 2015.
This is a plant bug. That’s the technical term – it’s part of that group of insects called “true bugs,” the family Miridae; plant bugs are the subfamily … Read the rest “Science Art: Habitus images of Chimairacoris lakshmiae, 2015.”
The last leg of the longest butterfly migration has been mapped at last.
Science News brings tidings from Central Africa, where painted lady butterflies born in Europe spend their winters in the longest migration of any butterfly:
… Read the rest “The last leg of the longest butterfly migration has been mapped at last.”Pinpointing exactly where
Science Art: Papillons, from Larousse Universe, 1922
Thanks to an unexpected gift from an old friend, I was just reading an article in the print edition of Scientific American about the Sora people of eastern India, who have a unique culture … Read the rest “Science Art: Papillons, from Larousse Universe, 1922”
Butterfly wing-patterns come from ancient DNA, switched around by junk.
The National Science Foundation follows researchers taking a second look at “junk” DNA – the genes that don’t seem to do anything and instead just sit in a genome… Read the rest “Butterfly wing-patterns come from ancient DNA, switched around by junk.”
Silk for Teflon. Non-stick silk. Silk without friction.
The National Science Foundation puts a spotlight on Tufts University, where researchers have taken proteins from the cocoons of silk moths and used them to create a new water-repellent… Read the rest “Silk for Teflon. Non-stick silk. Silk without friction.”
A bee swarm can generate 8 times more electricity than a storm cloud.
New Scientist reveals an accidental discovery that happened when a passing swarm of bees got close to a weather station on a clear day – and the sensors noted a jump in atmospheric electricity… Read the rest “A bee swarm can generate 8 times more electricity than a storm cloud.”
Robot honeybees can steer hives to safer flowers.
MIT Technology Review offers a strange solution to a serious problem. They’ve got robot bees who can dance inside a bee hive to direct workers to pesticide-free flower patches:
… Read the rest “Robot honeybees can steer hives to safer flowers.”After
In case you ever wondered, there are 20 quadrillion ants in the world. And that makes them important.
Reuters reports on a painstaking headcount that proves that for every one of the nearly 8 billion humans on Earth, there are 2.5 million ants:
… Read the rest “In case you ever wondered, there are 20 quadrillion ants in the world. And that makes them important.”“Ants certainly play a very central role
“Necrobotic” spiders grab things more precisely than machine fingers.
Rice University robotics engineers are playing with dead things – spiders, to be precise – and say they’ve come up with a breakthrough in precision picker-uppers by… Read the rest ““Necrobotic” spiders grab things more precisely than machine fingers.”