Pollination often brings to mind bees and butterflies and long-beaked sunbirds buzzing about fragrant flowers, hungry for nectar. But a largely unrecognised fact is the role of lesser glamorous beetles…
The clicking sound it makes, during an acrobatic jump that it has mastered, gives this insect its name – the click beetle. Surprise movements or, conversely, feigning dead, are common…
In a laboratory in Medellín, Colombia, scientists grow about 30 million Aedes aegypti mosquitoes every week. The Aedes mosquitoes are carriers of the dengue virus; paradoxically the ones grown in…
Bush crickets, also known as katydids, form an important part of the diet of the insectivorous lesser false vampire bat Megaderma spasma. A new research study by the Centre for…
The metaphor of the butterfly effect, for how tiny, almost imperceptible changes may lead to massive outcomes, is often used in the discussion of chaos theory: a butterfly flaps its…
India surpassed China as the world's most populous country as of January 17, 2023 - a fact that we were perplexed about whether to celebrate or be concerned. This was…
Insects act in coordination with natural light regimes and are sensitive to changes in light intensity, wavelengths, sources and other factors. Nocturnal insects perform various activities such as foraging, reacting…
The mid-morning ambience in the wild patch of ground beside my home is consumed with the ecstatic hum of many busy bees. And while news of their staggering contribution to…
As many as 10 invasive alien species (IAS), out of 330 that are known to be invasive in India, have cost the economy $127.3 billion (Rs. 8.3 trillion) in the…
Eyes straight out of a cartoon, raptorial legs resembling the praying mantis, a body pattern like a wasp, and finely woven wings that would be a lacemaker’s dream – mantispids…
Travel bloggers and butterfly enthusiasts Paulmathi Vinod and Vinod Sadasivan were at Dhanushkodi Beach in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state for some bird-watching on February 14 of this year. It…
Marine biologist Charles Anderson saw swarms of globe skimmer dragonflies landing at the Maldives during autumn, before they took off towards East Africa. Back in 2009, these observations led Anderson…
Seventeen new species have been added to the moth fauna of India from Tale Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, following moth biodiversity assessments that took place over 29 days in…
A team of researchers studying stingless bees have observed that the bees feed on the sweat and tears of humans – reportedly, a first-of-its-kind finding from India. The reports of…
Thai Sacbrood, a viral disease affecting honey bee colonies, has resurfaced in southern India. The disease, which has been dormant in the southern states for some years, is back and…
Since March 2020, scientists from the Institute of Natural History Education and Research (INHER), Pune have described seven new species of scorpions from the Western Ghats – six from the…
What is entomophagy? Entomophagy is the practice of eating insects. Humans have harvested insects, as components of their food, for thousands of years. This practice was previously considered ‘ancient’ and…
One morning in April 2020, early in the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, I leaned over the terrace parapet of my home in Bengaluru, scanning the spreading branches of a…
What are dung beetles? Dung beetles use the dung of warm-blooded herbivores for… everything. They are attracted to fresh dung via volatiles (meaning, the smell). Adults feed on the soup…
During the monsoon season of 2011, H.M. Yeshwanth, a doctoral student studying insects, browsed the bushes of the thorny Acacia catechu plant in Hesaraghatta near Bengaluru, Karnataka and came across…
