Tortoise leaf beetles enjoy the protection the fungus provides from insect predators such as ants, then carry the microbe to a mutual plant host, which their fungal symbiont infects.
Neurons in mosquito antennae can express more than one olfactory receptor at a time, a redundancy that likely ensures they don’t lose a potential host’s scent.
The Scientist speaks with Trier University’s Henrik Krehenwinkel, whose group recently detected traces of hundreds of arthropod species from a sample of dried plants—in this case, the contents of a tea bag.
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.
A study finds that a baculovirus that infects cotton bollworm larvae changes the expression of genes involved in light perception, driving them to seek heights that could favor viral transmission.
NIH researcher Andaleeb Sajid discusses her study’s finding that ticks were unable to feed on vaccinated guinea pigs, preventing transmission of the pathogen that causes Lyme disease.
Across the tree of life, animals use sound and other vibrations to glean valuable sensory information about their environments even before they are born.
Recent findings buck the traditional idea that embryos are passive agents and instead suggest that by tuning into vibrations, organisms can better prepare to enter the outside world.
More and more people are traveling around the world to watch the luminous displays of fireflies, but tourism-related light pollution and habitat degradation threaten to snuff out the insects at some locations.
