Animals

Animals

Hyena androgens exact high cost

Blocking androgens for spotted hyenas before they're born shows that the exposure of a female fetus to male hormones normally takes a heavy physical toll when females bear their own pups.

Animals

Deer littermates have different dads

Twin fawns may not have the same dad—the first time multiple paternity has turned up in a large, free-ranging hoofed mammal.

Animals

Dragonfly Glitter

Dragonflies bring a lot of glitter to glamour shots. Texas A&M’s entomology program offers a variety of stunning images to illustrate the considerable diversity of dragonfly species. A video captures a female laying eggs, and a sequence of images shows how junior grows up. Go to: http://stephenville.tamu.edu/~fmitchel/dragonfly/index.html

Animals

Altruistic Sperm: Mouse gametes team up to power one winner

The sperm of wood mice hook together by the thousands to form high-speed teams racing toward an egg, even though only one of the pack will get the prize.

Animals

Pesticides Mess with Immunity: Double whammy promotes frog deformities

Agricultural pollutants may conspire with parasites to cause the epidemic of limb deformity that's sweeping through North America's frog populations.

Animals

Wasp Painting: Do insects know each other’s faces?

A researcher who dabbed tiny stripes on the faces and abdomens of paper wasps says that she's found the first evidence that the insects can recognize individuals by their markings.

Animals

Oops. Woodpecker raps were actually gunshots

The knock-knock noises recorded last winter that raised hopes for rediscovering the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker in Louisiana turn out to have been gunshots instead of bird noises.

Animals

Marine Mules: Near-sterile hyrids boost coral diversity

Reef corals that spawn in great mixed-up soups of many species may be maintaining their diversity because their hybrids are sterile mules.

Animals

Bay leaves may make rat nests nicer

Wood rats may be fumigating their nests with bits of California bay leaves, sprigs that killed flea larvae in lab tests.

Animals

Sniff . . . Pow! Wasps use chemicals to start ant brawls

Wasps sneak around in ant colonies thanks to chemicals that send the ants into a distracting frenzy of fighting among themselves.

Animals

Walking sticks mimic two leafy looks and split their species

A species of walking stick may be evolving into two species by adapting to different environments.

Animals

Mole-rats: Kissing but not quite cousins

Damaraland mole-rats live underground in rodent versions of bee hives, but a genetic analysis of these colonies finds that kinship isn't very beelike.