Animals
- Animals
Farmer ant species may have lost all its males
A fungus-growing ant may be the first ant species known to have no power of sexual reproduction.
- Animals
Jumping spiders buzz, thump when dancing
Some jumping spiders, long considered visually oriented animals, turn out to utilize seismic communication for a successful courtship.
- Animals
Hot Bother: Ground squirrels taunt in infrared
California ground squirrels broadcast an infrared signal when confronting a rattlesnake.
- Animals
Thoroughly Modern Migrants
Butterflies and moths are causing scientists to devise a broader definition of migration and this has raised some old questions in new ways.
- Animals
A tale of new whiskers
A newly discovered, featherweight tree mouse with an unexpected evolutionary past has survived widespread habitat destruction on the Philippine island of Luzon.
- Animals
Well-Tuned Bats: These animals are what they hear
Two studies of bats find that neighbors can live in virtually different worlds because their echolocation calls are tuned to detect different prey.
- Animals
Turtle Trekkers: Atlantic leatherbacks scatter widely
Satellite monitoring of leatherback turtles in the Atlantic show that these animals range widely instead of sticking to "turtle corridors."
- Animals
Red Sweat: Hippo skin oozes antibiotic sunscreen
The hippo version of sweat, which is red-orange, contains pigments that can block microbial growth and some ultraviolet light.
- Animals
Toxin Takeout: Frogs borrow poison for skin from ants
Scientists have identified formicine ants as a food source from which poison frogs acquire their chemical weapons.
- Animals
Din among the Orcas: Are whale watchers making too much noise?
Whale-watching boats may be making so much noise that killer whales off the coast of Washington have to change their calls to communicate over the racket.
- Animals
Shielded cells help fish ignore noise
Fish can sort out the interesting ripples from the background rush of water currents through sensors shielded in canals that run along their flanks.
- Animals
Male spiders amputate organs, run faster
Tiny male spiders of a species common to the southeastern United States routinely remove one of their two oversize external sex organs, enabling them to run faster and longer.
