Animals

Animals

Female giant rainforest mantises grow up to strike harder than males

Scientists tracked mantis strike force from youth to adulthood, showing females eventually hit far harder than males. Why is a mystery.

Animals

Mosquitoes get the ‘I’m full’ signal from their butts, not their brains

Mosquitoes stop feeding because signals from rectal cells tell them they’re full, offering a target for preventing human bites.

Animals

Sharks are ingesting drugs in the Bahamas

Nearly one third of sharks studied near the Bahamas’ Eleuthera Island were found to have caffeine, painkillers and other drugs in their bloodstreams.

Animals

Platypus fur has a surprising feature seen only in bird feathers

Platypuses are the first mammals known to have hollow melanosomes, pigment-bearing structures found in the hair of many animals.

Animals

Wild monkeys invaded Florida. Should people protect them?

A colony of African vervets in Dania Beach raises big questions about how humans can and should manage nonnative species.

Genetics

Why African striped mice can be the best of dads — or the worst

Environmental cues can flip a molecular switch in the brain, turning males from caregivers to killers.

Genetics

The Amazon molly — a sex-skipping fish — hacks evolution

The Amazon molly reproduces without sex. A genomic copy-and-paste trick called gene conversion may explain how it avoids evolutionary meltdown.

Animals

Submerged bumblebee queens breathe underwater

Submerged bees breathe and use strategies that don’t require oxygen, lab tests show. In nature, that trick could help the bees survive floods.

Animals

A koala population’s rapid rebound may let it escape inbreeding’s perils

As koalas in southern Australia have grown from a few hundred to almost half a million, the marsupials show signs of regaining lost genetic variation.

Animals

Cockroaches that eat each other’s wings turn into a fierce fighting force

The wood-feeding cockroach’s cannibalistic love bites lead to a lasting bond. Afterward, the pair prefer each other over all other roaches.

Animals

Here’s how honeyeaters and other birds thrive on sugary diets

Birds that feed on nectar or fruit evolved better mechanisms for managing metabolism, blood pressure and high glucose.

Animals

Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration

Suitable milkweed habitat in Mexico may shift south, fracturing existing migration routes and possibly pushing some butterflies to stay put.