Ecology & Zoology

Chemical Crypsis: Fish Use Camouflage From Diet To Avoid Predators

A species of small fish uses a homemade coral-scented cologne to hide from predators- the first evidence of chemical camouflage from diet in fish. Filefish evade predators by feeding on their home corals and then emitting a similar odor that makes them in ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 11 2014 - 1:47pm

Culling Kangaroos Could Help The Environment

How many kangaroos is too many? David Jenkins /Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA By Brett Howland, Australian National University; David Lindenmayer, Australian National University, and Iain Gordon, James Hutton Institute ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 11 2014 - 10:04pm

A Vegetarian Carnivorous Plant...Wait, What?

A carnivorous plant is a delight for people because everyone knows plant don't catch and eat animals- except some do. Like us, they need animals for nutrition. Do carnivorous plants also sometimes shake off nature and become vegetarians?  It seems so ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 19 2014 - 10:53am

Hermit Cockroaches: Two New Taxa From China Prefer Woods

Cockroaches are most often though of as infecting human homes but a new species and a new subspecies discovered in China prefer to live a hermit life, drilling logs far away from crowds and houses.  ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2014 - 11:53am

Coming Out Of The Closet: Moths Deserve Some Love Too

Butterflies aren't the only ones with snazzy stripes. Ben Sale, CC BY By Callum Macgregor, University of Hull Ask people to describe what they associate with butterflies, and you will probably get an image of a sunny summer’s day, with a beautiful pe ...

Article - The Conversation - Dec 20 2014 - 3:18pm

Pheidole: The Genus Of Ants That Evolved To Conquer The World- Twice

10 percent of the world's ants are close relatives, belong to just one genus out of 323. That genus is  called Pheidole. Pheidole fill niches in ecosystems ranging from rainforests to deserts.   ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 29 2014 - 12:58pm

How Your Brain Tells Good Smells From Bad Ones

A pleasant or disgusting odor is not always just a preference, in some cases an organism's survival depends on it. Odors can provide important information about food sources, oviposition sites or suitable mates and can also be signs of lethal hazards ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 31 2014 - 1:13pm

Most People Can't Name This Important Bee Killer, But Science Is Fighting It

There is a disease killing honeybee populations around the world but you won't be surprised to find that environmental groups never mention it. It's called American foulbrood disease and it doesn't get much attention because groups can' ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 30 2014 - 7:36pm

What No Other Frog Does: New Species Bypasses Egg And Gives Birth Directly To Tadpoles

A new species of frog, Limnonectes larvaepartus, from the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, does what no other frog does: It gives birth to live tadpoles instead of laying eggs. A member of the Asian group of fanged frogs, the new species was discovered a ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 3 2015 - 3:42pm

Sinea Incognita: New Assassin Revealed

In 2006,  Dr. J. E. McPherson, professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University, was working with colleagues on a key to the nymphs of three midwestern species of assassin bug in the genus Sinea (i.e., S. complexa, S. diadema, and S. spinipes). To test ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 5 2015 - 1:30pm