Australia—riding on the insect's back

As you may have spotted, the title of this article is a cheeky reference to the famous saying that Australia rides on the back of a particular woolly ruminant. The reference dates back to 1894, when the wool industry was ...

French beetles tackle Great Southern cattle dung

A two-year survey of dung beetle populations in Australia's south-west has pinpointed Kojonup as the WA release site most likely to establish a new population of French dung beetles.

Flowering plants revolutionised life on Earth

New evidence from liverworts and beetles shows how the rise of flowering plants 100 million years ago created ideal conditions for a boom in terrestrial life.

Beneficial organisms react differently to parasite drug

The substance ivermectin has been used for more than thirty years all over the world to combat parasites like roundworms, lice and mites in humans, livestock and pets. The active ingredient belongs to the chemical group of ...

Large mammals were the architects in prehistoric ecosystems

Elephants, rhinoceroses and aurochs once roamed around freely in the forests of Europe, while hippopotamuses lived in rivers such as the Thames and the Rhine. New research shows how we can use knowledge about the past to ...

Galloping beetles could be counting steps

(Phys.org) —A species of dung beetle in the Western Cape has given up its ability to fly and instead gallops across the sand in a behaviour which researchers suspect evolved as a way to navigate back and forth from home.

Beetles modify emissions of greenhouse gases from cow pats

Cattle contribute to global warming by burping and farting large amounts of greenhouse gases. Some of the same gases are also emitted from cow pats on pastures. But now researchers from the University of Helsinki have found ...

Stinky corpse flower blooms in Washington

A towering plant that smells like rotting meat and is native to the Indonesian rainforest is in full bloom in the US capital, drawing throngs of tourists, officials said Monday.

Dung beetles use stars for orientation

You might expect dung beetles to keep their "noses to the ground," but they are actually incredibly attuned to the sky. A report published online on January 24 in Current Biology shows that even on the darkest of nights, ...

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