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Wing fossil from Permostridulus brongniarti
Listen to Extinct Crickets Chirp
The land’s first known singer may have sounded like a raspier version of today’s familiar insect fiddlers.
Listen to Extinct Crickets Chirp
Listen to Extinct Crickets Chirp

The land’s first known singer may have sounded like a raspier version of today’s familiar insect fiddlers.

The land’s first known singer may have sounded like a raspier version of today’s familiar insect fiddlers.

entomology, evolution

A fossil imprint of the stridulatory apparatus from an extinct cricket species
Book Excerpt from Sounds Wild and Broken
David George Haskell | May 16, 2022 | 5 min read
In a chapter entitled “Predators, Silence, Wings,” author David George Haskell explores the soundscapes of bygone eras of animal communication.
Close up photo of a wing
Unearthing the Evolutionary Origins of Insect Wings
Jef Akst | Apr 4, 2022 | 6 min read
A handful of new studies moves the needle toward a consensus on the long-disputed question of whether insect wings evolved from legs or from the body wall, but the devil is in the details.
Photo of a Jewel beetle <em>(Sternocera aequisignata)</em>.
Why Are Some Beetles Shiny? It’s Not What Researchers Thought
Connor Lynch | Mar 1, 2022 | 4 min read
The glossy shell of some beetles, it has long been speculated, helps hide the insects from predators. A recent paper put the hypothesis to the test—and found it wanting.
The Hidden World of Millipede Sex
Yao-Hua Law | Jun 1, 2020 | 4 min read
Researchers use advanced imaging techniques to see what happens when a male and a female mate.
When Is an Endosymbiont an Organelle?
Ruth Williams | Oct 3, 2019 | 3 min read
The finding that a bacterium within a bacterium within an animal cell cooperates with the host on a biosynthetic pathway suggests the endosymbiont is, practically speaking, an organelle.
Graduate Student Identifies Dozens of New Fly Species
Jef Akst | Feb 1, 2018 | 3 min read
Over the past seven years, Xiao-Long Lin has characterized nearly 70 new species of nonbiting midges and developed DNA barcodes to aid in future ecological surveys.
Image of the Day: Moth Resurrection
The Scientist and The Scientist Staff | Dec 18, 2017 | 1 min read
Entomologists have rediscovered a species of moth that was considered lost for 130 years. 
How an Invasive Bee Managed to Thrive in Australia
Ben Andrew Henry | Jan 1, 2017 | 4 min read
The Asian honeybee should have been crippled by low genetic diversity, but thanks to natural selection it thrived.
Capsule Reviews
Bob Grant | May 1, 2016 | 4 min read
Sorting the Beef from the Bull, Cheats and Deceits, A Sea of Glass, and Following the Wild Bees
Spider and Centipede Venom Remarkably Similar
Bob Grant | Jun 12, 2015 | 2 min read
The predatory toxins employed by animals separated by millions of years of evolution are virtually identical, a study shows.
A Deathly Pallor
Carina Storrs | Mar 1, 2015 | 4 min read
Global warming could lead to lighter-colored insects with waning immune defenses.
Sleep Tight
Emily Monosson | Oct 1, 2014 | 3 min read
Bed bugs are but one example of a species whose populations have evolved in response to human behavior.
Book Excerpt from Unnatural Selection
Emily Monosson | Sep 30, 2014 | 4 min read
In chapter 5, “Resurgence: Bedbugs Bite Back,” author Emily Monosson chronicles the rise of the pesky pests in the face of humanity’s best chemical efforts.
Connecting the Dots
Anna Azvolinsky | Aug 1, 2014 | 8 min read
Extending her initial studies of social wasps, Mary Jane West-Eberhard has spent her career probing the evolutionary relationship between social behavior and developmental flexibility.
Discovering Phasmids
Jef Akst | Jun 9, 2012 | 1 min read
Shortly after a rat infested supply ship ran around in Lord Howe Island off the east coast of Australia in 1918, the newly introduced mammals wiped out the island's phasmids—stick insects the size of a human hand. 
Finding Phasmids
Jef Akst | Jun 1, 2012 | 4 min read
Researchers rediscover a giant insect, thought to have gone extinct a century ago, and plan to reintroduce it to its native island off the coast of Australia.
Capsule Reviews
Bob Grant | Apr 1, 2012 | 3 min read
Consciousness, The Social Conquest of Earth, How Not to Be Eaten, and Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms
Anthropomorphism: A Peculiar Institution
Marlene Zuk | Jan 1, 2012 | 3 min read
Should we rethink the parallel drawn between “slave-making” ants and human slavery, and other such oversimplifications of animal behavior?
War zone
Mark W. Moffett | May 20, 2010 | 4 min read
An invasive ant defies the rules of social evolution by conquering California with battles between enormous colonies that act like separate species.
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