Animals

  1. Animals

    Termites, not fairies, cause plant circles in African deserts

    Underground insect engineers create water traps in the soil, allowing rings of green grasses in the sand.

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  2. Animals

    Native pollinators boost crop yields worldwide

    Farms with crops from coffee to mangoes don’t get the best yields if they rely solely on honeybees.

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  3. Animals

    How weaver ants get a grip

    Strong sticking power and quick reaction time help the insects stay put in trees.

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  4. Animals

    Sea slug carries disposable penis, plus spares

    A hermaphroditic gastropod sheds its penis after one use, then uncoils another.

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  5. Animals

    Compared with rodents, bat species carry more viruses

    Viruses that can jump from animals to people may find the flying mammals a fine place to lurk.

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  6. Animals

    Mole sniffs the world in stereo

    Nostrils of the common mole recognize slight differences in smells to steer it toward its food.

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  7. Animals

    Cats kill more than one billion birds each year

    New analysis doubles estimate of avian death tolls, revealing that hunting felines take bigger bite out of wildlife than expected.

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  8. Animals

    Dung beetles steer by the Milky Way

    The insects orient themselves using starlight, researchers find in planetarium experiments.

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  9. Animals

    Finally, the truth about barnacle sex is revealed

    A genetic analysis shows that the sessile crustaceans can broadcast sperm in water, contrary to previous assumptions.

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  10. Animals

    Integrative and Comparative Biology

    The hormonal roller coaster that is male pipefish pregancy and collision safety features for flying insects.

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  11. Animals

    Claims of fairness in apes have critics crying foul

    A report that chimps divvy up rewards much as people do draws criticism.

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  12. Science & Society

    Insect illustrator

    Taina Litwak is an “art department of one” in D.C. for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Systematic Entomology Laboratory.

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