insects

“I’ve only got 24 hours of living, and I ain’t gonna waste ‘em here!” groans a disgruntled housefly during a hilarious scene in Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. But do those pesky insects really brandish a day-long life expectancy?

Geckos and shrubs and sharks, oh my! 2013 was a big year for new species. Scientists found hundreds of them this year. Here are some of our favorites.

In the jungles of Panama, a group of farmers ekes out a living by raising fungi for food. They’re peaceful, and when more aggressive neighbors come into their territory, looking for a cut of the crop, they oblige the guests and don’t fight them. But while

At this invisible line, two related species of millipedes meet, but don’t mix—and no one knows why.

Some entomologists, the scientists that study insects, have a work life that presents a challenge: they’ve devoted their careers to creepy-crawly animals, work with them every day, sometimes get up close and personal with them and are maybe even fond of t

On a cloudy spring day, a little spider scales a tall blade of grass. At the peak, the spider arches up, points its abdomen up to the sky and begins releasing strands of silk from its silk glands. Tens of thousands of strands fill the air, fanning out and

Depending on who you ask, ingested creepy crawlies can vary from three, to eight, and even zero.

Black widow spiders, nature’s femmes fatales, have earned their name from a long-held belief that the females often devour their male counterparts immediately after mating. But recent research has uncovered at least one species of the spider in which this

Don't let Mother Nature have all the fun!

In 1996, the cicadas of Brood II (the “East Coast Brood”) swarmed the northeastern United States and then disappeared almost as quickly as they came, leaving only their eggs and molted exoskeletons behind. Once the eggs hatched, the new generation of cica

There are plenty of intrepid scientists doing strange-sounding field work. Here are two.

Scientists have a sense of humor just like the rest of us. The difference is that a scientist's jokes are sometimes enshrined in the body of knowledge for eternity, or close to it. One of the ways they do this is naming things that previously had no name,

No matter how many mistakes your mother may have made, there’s no way she's in the same class as these animal mothers.

Around the world, moths make kamikaze dives into light bulbs and open flames with such regularity that they have their own idiom. What is it about lights that make moths so crazy?

Do Flies Really Have 24-Hour Lifespans?

Darwin's Beetle, Lost and Found

10 Awesome New Species Discovered in 2013

These Ants Use Mercenaries to Fight for Them

Why Won’t These Bugs Cross This Line?

Even Entomologists Are Scared of Spiders

This Wasp Turns Spiders Into Zombie Construction Workers

How Spiders Win the Lottery

How Many Spiders Do You Really Swallow in Your Sleep?

Male Black Widows Practice Cannibalism, Too

6 Cool Insects You Can Raise at Home

Why Do Cicadas Spend So Much Time Underground?

Painting Frogs, Licking Wounds & Other Adventures with Poisonous Animals

14 Great Names for Bugs

The 9 Worst Moms in the Animal Kingdom

Why Are Moths Drawn to Flames?