Insects

Dragonflies are fast, powerful and unbelievably aggressive, using a rudimentary form of 'trigonometry' to calculate distance and move in for the kill.

ByJesslyn Shields

It's a battle of the buzzing insects. We're talking hornets vs. wasps. How do these two differ and which one has the worst sting?

ByNathan Chandler

The sting of a tarantula hawk is so painful you are advised to lie on the ground as soon as you're stung to avoid falling.

ByJesslyn Shields

Black soldier fly larvae will eat almost anything and they taste pretty good themselves, too.

ByJesslyn Shields

These nasty pests are developing cross-resistance to multiple classes of insecticides.

ByKristen Hall-Geisler

Just like bees, wasps are pollinators that are also endangered. But you rarely hear anyone pleading to save wasps. A study finds out why wasps are despised by the public and researchers alike.

ByDave Roos

These nasty little bugs have been reported in 28 U.S. states and can cause an illness called Chagas disease.

ByMichelle Konstantinovsky

The world's largest bee, lost to science for 38 years, has been rediscovered on a remote island in Indonesia.

ByJesslyn Shields

There's an old saying that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Scientists have now found out why sour tastes are so repellent to flies.

ByAlia Hoyt

Think a teeny tiny ant can't pack a punch? Think again. The Dracula ant can subdue its prey so fast, they never know it's coming.

ByJohn Donovan

Justin O. Schmidt studies insect venom and has a rating system for the relative agony inflicted by the world's most painful stings. Which is the worst?

ByJesslyn Shields

Structures in some butterflies' wings are actually part of their ears.

ByJesslyn Shields

Thanks to a citizen science project in the path of totality, researchers studied bee activity and were surprised by the results.

ByJohn Perritano

For five nights in a row, a praying mantis came to the same garden spot to hunt for fish, completely confounding scientists.

ByJesslyn Shields

Beekeeping, when you get down to it, is the art and science of removing honey from hardworking bees without them missing it. But beekeeping is about so much more than just the honey.

ByDave Roos

被黄蜂从里面吃出声音ke something out of a nightmare, but for some caterpillars, sadly, it's just life.

ByJesslyn Shields

It seems like flying cockroaches want to dive bomb your face. Are they aggressive? Defensive? Or maybe it's all just in your scared ape mind.

ByJesslyn Shields

Entire colonies of half a million venomous ants are one scary threat following serious flooding.

ByJesslyn Shields

Part of the fun is trying to finagle a spot at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park viewing site in late spring.

ByJohn Donovan

The secrets to ladybugs' wing-folding could yield new designs in flying robots and even newfangled umbrellas.

ByAmanda Onion

For one species of dragonfly, the hassle of dealing with aggressive suitors is worth playing possum over.

ByJesslyn Shields

And its special endowment is not the thing that intrigues scientists the most.

ByMelanie Radzicki McManus

In a state already teeming with pythons, tourists and Jimmy Buffett singalongs, the flesh-eating screwworm makes Florida a little more menacing.

ByJesslyn Shields

Of course they do. You're an attractive person. But what is it about you specifically that draws them in for a tasty meal?

ByLaurie L. Dove

If people had exoskeletons and wings maybe they'd be around forever, too. Insects are born survivors because they have certain traits that other animals don't.

ByNicholas Gerbis