News Animals

Earthy funk lures tiny creatures to eat and spread bacterial spores

Master chemist soil bacteria can waft a scent appetizing to springtails

Microscopic springtail

Microscopic springtails (all-female species Folsomia candida shown) find the earthy pong of the compound geosmin quite appetizing. Soil bacteria take advantage of this.

Andy Murray/Wikimedia commons (CC BY-2.0)

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

The master chemists known as Streptomyces bacteria have turned a compound rich with the tangy odor of moist soil into a hitchhiking scam.