In 1978, when he moved to his current home on the rural outskirts of Campinas, Brazil, Thomas Lewinsohn, a professor of ecology at Campinas University, routinely encountered a “rewarding assortment of insects” at night, he writes in a new paper in Biology Letters. Today, Campinas, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from São Paulo, is a booming […]
Tag: insects
6 Harmless Ways To Keep Birds Away From Your Property
You can appreciate a bird from a distance, but when they invade your space it can lead to a variety of issues. Bird droppings are corrosive, which can cause serious damage to your property over time – not to mention it just looks untidy and gross. They can ruin any fruit and veg you’re trying […]
Moth Species with Nearly 10-Inch Wingspan Spotted in Washington State
A moth native to Asia has fluttered its wings on over to the United States and surprised agriculture officials in the process. The atlas moth, one of the largest moths in the world with a nearly 10-inch wingspan, was found outside a garage in Bellevue, Washington, in early July. After a University of Washington professor […]
Earth: Muted review – bees go missing in China despatch from the eco-apocalypse file
This Swedish-produced documentary about China’s Hanyuan valley is nominally another dispatch from the eco-apocalypse file, so the final harmonious impression it leaves behind suggests it hasn’t done its job properly. Located in Sichuan province, the valley is a place where bees are on the verge of extinction, the consequences of which we see in the […]
That ‘killer’ spider story you read online? Fake news, most probably
The prevalence of political and scientific misinformation in the media is a hot-button topic these days, and rightfully so — it has serious negative consequences for society. Emerging research shows that not even the animal kingdom is safe from the dangers of misinformation: a new study has quantified the global spread of misinformation about spiders, […]
World heading towards a devastating insect apocalypse according to new study
Land overuse, resource depletion, and global warming have all had disastrous implications for the world. According to a new study, portions of the planet are now on the verge of an insect apocalypse. The study, which was published in the journal Nature, discovered a link between high-intensity agriculture and the ever-present climate emergency. They discovered […]
Spiders use their webs as “hearing aid” to sense incoming prey or predators
Orb-weaving spiders, according to a recent study, use their webs as extended auditory arrays to catch sounds, potentially providing them earlier warning of approaching prey or predators. Jonathan Cohen is the photographer for this image. Humans and most other vertebrate species hear through eardrums, which convert soundwave pressure into signals for our brains. But what […]
Scientists have discovered why vampire bats are the only mammals that can survive on a diet of just blood
Scientists compared the genomes of common vampire bats to those of 26 other bat species and discovered 13 genes in vampire bats that are either absent or no longer function. Those gene changes allowed them adapt to a blood diet high in iron and protein but low in fats and carbohydrates over time, according to […]