https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. When a fruit fly catches a whiff of a ripe peach, it quickly heads toward it. Time after time, it finds the fruit—even from many feet away and even if the scent arrives only as a few drifting, disconnected puffs. How do they home in with such unerring accuracy? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-fruit-flies-fleeting-scent-puffs.html Plants & Animals Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:00:29 EDT news703857961 What determines which tasks bees perform in their colony? Biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the universities in Cologne and Frankfurt/Main have investigated the role neural activity plays in this process. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they explain that by manipulating a specific gene, they can selectively inhibit neural circuits in bees and thus influence their work behavior. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bee-brains-reveal-colonies-central.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news703766341 Honeybees do not like cold weather. When temperatures dip, they can become sluggish and unable to fly. But no matter the conditions in the outside world, they try to keep their hives close to a comfortable 34°C–36°C (93°F–97°F). However, extreme weather, both hot and cold, can overwhelm this internal temperature control and ultimately cut their lives short. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bees-probiotic-diet-extreme-temperatures.html Ecology Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:00:06 EDT news703758461 If you've driven down two-lane highways in rural parts of North Florida recently, you may have noticed a spate of new signs that designate the grassy knolls bordering the asphalt as wildflower areas. The signs likely feel redundant right about now as thousands of milkweeds produce thick umbels packed full of pentagonal buds and fully developed flowers. Many of these flowers and all the monarchs they attract have the same attention-grabbing orange color as the safety vests worn by workers who carefully planted each milkweed by hand months earlier. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-butterfly-experts-milkweed-florida-roadsides.html Plants & Animals Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:30:01 EDT news703499199 Just as careful blending of eye shadow can make a difference to our looks, a recent study has shown how flowers go to considerable trouble to fine-tune their shades. In the relentless competition to attract bees, a slight edge can make the difference between life and death for a gene. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-wild-snapdragons-subtle-bees.html Plants & Animals Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:00:14 EDT news703500019 An international team led by Dr. Gary Lewin, group leader of the Molecular Physiology of Somatosensory Perception lab at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin, has discovered that the queens of naked mole-rat colonies release a volatile compound called isopropyl myristate, which induces temporary infertility in all other females in the colony. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-naked-mole-rat-queens-odorous.html Ecology Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:00:33 EDT news703229499 Honey bee larvae lack the sophisticated olfactory capabilities of adult honey bees, a new study finds. Scientists point to this temporary loss of function as a side effect of the nurse bees' heroic level of brood care, calling it a consequence of social evolution. The new findings are detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-honey-bees-larval-adult-life.html Plants & Animals Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:10:01 EDT news703255278 During the winter of 2025–2026, 24% of Dutch honeybee colonies were lost. The upward trend observed in recent years therefore continues. This is the fourth consecutive year in which winter mortality has exceeded 20%. The figures are based on the annual survey of Dutch beekeepers. The results show substantial regional differences. Groningen recorded the highest winter losses, at 41.5%, while Overijssel had the lowest figure, at 16.9%. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-quarter-dutch-bee-colonies-survive.html Ecology Sat, 11 Jul 2026 22:40:01 EDT news702901229 How do bees make group decisions without a leader? Math experts have determined that the best strategy is for a few to assume the risk of foraging under all conditions while the majority stay safely back and forage only when conditions are favorable. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-math-reveals-honeybee-hives-patient.html Ecology Fri, 10 Jul 2026 13:20:06 EDT news702900976 Hummingbirds make bromeliad plants split into new species twice as fast as other pollinators do, scientists at the University of Reading have found. The research team gathered records of which animals pollinate 403 types of bromeliad, which include pineapples and more than 3,700 species, and found three in four of these plants are visited by hummingbirds. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hummingbirds-pineapple-family-evolution.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jul 2026 19:00:03 EDT news702539370 New research proving bumblebees exhibit emotion-like behaviors—previously thought to exist only in mammalian species—has implications for how scientists understand the consciousness of insects. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bees-reveal-emotion-reactions-lip.html Plants & Animals Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:00:11 EDT news702537952 Worker bees are the first line of defense when it comes to removing contamination in honeybee colonies, but a queen has her ways, too. A honeybee queen facing chronic exposure to pesticides will take up that contamination and pass it along to her eggs, a process researchers call maternal offloading. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-honeybee-queens-pesticides-eggs-offspring.html Ecology Thu, 02 Jul 2026 11:00:05 EDT news702201061 Spider venoms contain ingredients that could lead to a new treatment to protect honeybees from the deadly Varroa destructor mite, according to a study led by the University of the Sunshine Coast. Researchers identified components in the venoms of the Tasmanian cave spider and the giant Japanese funnel-web spider that killed the parasitic mites without harming the bees. The study is published in the journal npj Drug Discovery. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-spider-venoms-deadly-varroa-mites.html Plants & Animals Thu, 02 Jul 2026 09:20:03 EDT news702200161 Honey bees infected with a gut parasite smell different, which could allow bee colonies to detect disease and influence behavior inside the hive, new research finds. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gut-parasite-honey-bee-infection.html Plants & Animals Tue, 30 Jun 2026 10:40:01 EDT news702030782 Bumblebees are only an inch long, but they help power the global food system. Roughly one-third of the food we grow depends on pollinators like bees—and those bees are regularly decimated by pesticides. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-generation-pesticide-disrupts-bumblebee-reproduction.html Ecology Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:00:06 EDT news701437083 Researchers have identified "DNA switches" that become active as honeybee larvae grow into worker bees, offering new insight into the development of these important pollinators and the ecosystems they support. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-honeybee-metamorphosis-uncovers-dna-worker.html Ecology Tue, 23 Jun 2026 10:20:07 EDT news701425717 Bumblebees see the world differently under stress, processing visual information more sharply and making quicker decisions, new research from Newcastle University reveals. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-stress-bees-sharper-vision-faster.html Plants & Animals Sun, 21 Jun 2026 12:00:03 EDT news700831602 An international team of researchers have published a new review in Animal Behavior revealing how communication enables cooperation between different animal species. The review, titled "The ecology and evolution of cues and signals in animal interspecies cooperation," highlights how movements, visual displays, calls, and other behavioral cues and signals help partners coordinate interactions and align interests across species boundaries. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-animals-communicate-species-boundaries.html Plants & Animals Fri, 19 Jun 2026 10:00:01 EDT news701079434 New Oxford University-led research reveals that bees can regulate their feeding to avoid overconsuming certain essential nutrients, and that honey bees make a specialist "baby food" that gives their larvae a better-balanced diet. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bees-good-nutrients-pollen-reveals.html Plants & Animals Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT news700758414 A new study demonstrates that honeybees can evaluate the reliability of their own communication, actively adjusting the vigor of their "waggle dance" based on the truthfulness of the information they provide. By manipulating whether a dancing bee's followers successfully found food, experiments revealed that only bees with verified, "honest" information increased their recruitment effort over time when advertising a new location, whereas "liar" or "unverified" bees did not. This internal self-control mechanism naturally filters out ambiguous or misleading signals, allowing the hive to function efficiently as a cooperative superorganism. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-honeybees-adjust-based-reliability-reveals.html Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:20:01 EDT news700828981 Bee species that nest in plant stems appear to be at the greatest short-term risk from increasing temperatures due to climate change, while those that nest in the ground are better able to evade extreme heat, according to new research from Australian evolutionary ecologists. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bees-tiny-homes-crisis-harder.html Plants & Animals Mon, 15 Jun 2026 05:00:07 EDT news700486201 It's an insect everybody loves to hate. Pesky mosquitoes will be out in swarms as the weather warms up across the U.S.—and their bites aren't just itchy. They can transmit pathogens that can cause diseases like West Nile virus, Zika virus and malaria, to name a few. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-harmonic-radar-tags-reveal-mosquitoes.html Plants & Animals Sat, 13 Jun 2026 09:00:02 EDT news700403639 Migration flights of dragonflies and damselflies crisscross much of our planet, new research reveals. Scientists from the universities of Exeter and Lund reviewed global evidence and found 100 dragonfly and damselfly species that migrate, and a further 85 possible migratory species. This means that only 1.5% of all dragonfly and damselfly species migrate (or 2.9% including possible migrants)—but the migrations can include millions of individuals, and some travel thousands of kilometers. The study is published in Biological Reviews. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dragonfly-damselfly-migrations-crisscross-planet.html Ecology Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:00:05 EDT news700478139 Nature is filled with remarkable visual phenomena created by microscopic surface structures that interact with light in fascinating ways. The iridescent wings of butterflies, the shimmering feathers of birds and the glossy surfaces of flower petals are all examples of how living organisms control the reflection, absorption and scattering of light. These optical effects are not only visually striking but also serve important biological functions, including attracting pollinators, communication, camouflage and protection from environmental stress. Understanding these naturally occurring photonic structures has become an important area of research, as they provide inspiration for the development of advanced biomimetic materials and optical technologies. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hardy-ice-optical-possibilities.html Optics & Photonics Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news700243562 A new study by plant biologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, challenges a longstanding idea that stems from the large number of flowers in the mountains of Central and South America that have evolved to be pollinated by hummingbirds instead of bees. According to the research team, flowers make this switch—not because bees avoid cool, wet cloud forest conditions at higher elevations—but because hummingbirds are simply more effective pollinators. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pollinators-evolutionary.html Evolution Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:00:04 EDT news699801783 In a new study, bumble bees solve a completely novel object-manipulation task. What makes this behavior especially remarkable is that the bees had never been trained. The findings challenge the long-standing assumption that spontaneous problem-solving is restricted to humans and other large-brained vertebrates. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bumble-bees-spontaneous-problem-big.html Plants & Animals Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:00:07 EDT news699791281 For generations, scientists believed a queen honeybee was made almost entirely by diet: feed an ordinary larva enough royal jelly and a ruler emerges. But new research suggests queens are created through a more elaborate process. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-honeybees-crown-queens.html Plants & Animals Wed, 03 Jun 2026 11:00:05 EDT news699695221 When a bee crashes into water, it may still be able to swim to safety. New research from Michigan State University confirms that honeybees can propel themselves across the water's surface, and their movement is purposeful and directional. They swim toward darker areas—likely using visual cues to locate the shoreline and escape. This study was recently published in Communications Biology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-bees-visual-cues-survive.html Plants & Animals Tue, 02 Jun 2026 17:10:06 EDT news699636121 Newly created grassland habitats that compensate for nature lost to development can effectively support wild pollinators like bees and hoverflies, according to a first of its kind study in the Netherlands. The findings are published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-biodiversity-offsetting-pollinator.html Plants & Animals Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:10:01 EDT news699531242 Insects are declining across Europe. Czech scientists have determined this decline can be mitigated by returning large ungulates—horses, aurochs cattle, and wisents—to landscapes. This has been shown by a recent study by a group of researchers from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences (BC CAS), who surveyed five insect groups across eleven sites rewilded by large ungulates in Czechia. Their results have just been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-trophic-rewilding-large-herbivores-insect.html Plants & Animals Tue, 26 May 2026 12:00:06 EDT news699011561