Our ability to learn more about insect behavior—which affects ecology, health, and economy on a global scale—depends largely on suitable recording technology. But until now, these tools have been considerably limited.
The migratory monarch butterfly might not be as endangered as previously thought, according to a new study published in Current Biology.
Plants & Animals
Aug 25, 2023
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For the first time, scientists have managed to induce virgin birth in an animal that usually reproduces sexually: the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
Biotechnology
Jul 28, 2023
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In nature, smaller animals often attach themselves to larger ones to "hitch a ride" and save energy migrating large distances. In paper published on June 21 in the journal Current Biology, researchers show how microscopic ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 21, 2023
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A new study has shown that bumblebees pick up new "trends" in their behavior by watching and learning from other bees, and that one form of a behavior can spread rapidly through a colony even when a different version gets ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 7, 2023
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A trio of paleontologists, two with the Russian Academy of Sciences, the third with the University of Silesia in Katowice, has identified the oldest known pollen-carrying insect. The research by Alexander Khramov, Tatiana ...
Two pairs of academics are making the case for using insects as a food source in Perspectives pieces published in the journal Science.
Insects are the world's smallest flying migrants, but they can maintain perfectly straight flight paths even in unfavorable wind conditions, according to a new study from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 11, 2022
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Even as gas prices soar, most people don't destroy their car's engine just to save energy—and that's one luxury certain insects have that those humans don't.
Plants & Animals
Jul 19, 2022
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A pair of researchers at Kobe College has found that in one species of wasp, cannibalization of sibling larvae is common. In their study, published in PLOS ONE, Yui Imasaki and Tomoji Endo describe the insects and what they ...
Insects (Class Insecta) are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include approximately 30 gladiator and icebug, 35 Zoraptera, 150 snakefly, 200 silverfish, 300 alderfly, 300 webspinner, 350 jumping bristletail, 550 scorpionfly, 600 Strepsiptera, 1,200 caddisfly, 1,700 stonefly, 1,800 earwig, 2,000 flea, 2,200 mantis, 2,500 mayfly, 3,000 louse, 3,000 walking stick, 4,000 cockroach, 4,000 lacewing, 4,000 termite, 5,000 dragonfly, 5,000 thrips, 5,500 booklouse, 20,000 cricket, grasshopper, and locust, 82,000 true bug, 110,000 ant, bee, sawfly, and wasp, 120,000 true fly, 170,000 butterfly and moth, and 360,000 beetle species described to date. The number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million, with over a million species already described. Insects represent more than half of all known living organisms and potentially represent over 90% of the differing life forms on Earth. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species occur in the oceans, a habitat dominated by another arthropod group, the crustaceans.
Adult modern insects range in size from a 0.139 mm (0.00547 in) fairyfly (Dicopomorpha echmepterygis) to a 56.7-centimetre (22.3 in) long stick insect (Phobaeticus chani). The heaviest documented present-day insect was 70 g (2½ oz) Giant Weta, though the Goliath beetles Goliathus goliatus, Goliathus regius and Cerambycid beetles such as Titanus giganteus hold the title for some of the largest species in general.
The largest known extinct insect is a kind of dragonfly, Meganeura.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
