insects
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Washington State Entomologists Ask: ‘Have You Seen This Huge Moth?’
Washington State entomologists are asking people to be on the lookout for a potentially problematic newcomer to the state: the Atlas moth. Fortunately, the insects are pretty hard to miss, with their nearly 10-inch wingspans and distinctive diamond markings.
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This Aussie Grasshopper Gave up Sex 250,000 Years Ago and Is Thriving, Apparently
Most animals on Earth have two sexes, male and female, that combine and mix their genes when they reproduce. We are so accustomed to this state of affairs that the existence of all-female species that don’t have sex, but instead reproduce by cloning, comes as a great surprise. The beautiful green grasshopper Warramaba virgo is…
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Researchers Could Lure Murder Hornets to Their Deaths with Sex
Birds do it, bees do it — even the wasps that kill bees do it. A clever team of scientists now has an idea to use the Asian giant hornets’ horniness against them, in hopes of stopping the invasive species from decimating U.S. bee populations. They’ve identified the sex pheromones of the queen and propose…
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The Genetics Behind Bees’ Black and Yellow Butts
If you’re close enough to a bumblebee to see the order of its stripes, you’re probably too close to it. But lucky for you, a team of geneticists recently did a more highfalutin version of that task, analysing several species of bee to suss out what causes different species of the insect to get different…