Biology in the News Explained

Cool Bugs #7 – Pipevine swallowtail

The pipevine swallowtail is aposematic: it incorporates noxious compounds from its host plant and uses them and its black and red coloring to deter predators.

Cool Bugs #6 – Trap-jaw ants

Trap-jaw ants (genus Odontomachus) use their jaws for more than springing a trap on prey.

Plant (non-invasive) trees this Arbor Day

The Arbor Day Foundation needs to focus its efforts on promoting local tree species.

More on the western “drought”

Whether the western "drought" is a new phenomenon or a reversion back to the way things were, it is likely here to stay.

Cool Bugs #3 – Fly wasp mimics

A host of different fly species do their best to pretend that they are wasps.

The definition of “drought”

"Drought" is increasingly being used in the West to describe a typical, rather than exceptional, climate.

Cool Bugs #2 – Rhagoletis juglandis

Arizona walnut flies (Rhagoletis juglandis) have interesting mating dynamics.

Cool Bugs #1 – Myrmecocystus mexicanus

Honey pot ants are very cool, for a lot of reasons.

Are humans natural?

Is everything humans do natural, just because we evolved on this planet too?

Border fence would be an ecological disaster

The fence along the Mexican border with the U.S. is bad news for migrating large mammals.