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Category: Amazing Insects

Amazing insect stories, insects in pop culture, and answers to common bug questions

Spider Solidarity: Scientists Discover New Species With Unprecedented Social Behavior

Sociality in spiders is quite rare, but a new species found in Madagascar takes it a step further. Isoxya manangona kite spiders build large colonies of webs, all connected by a central silk line where multiple adult males gather harmoniously. Researchers suggest the males could be "lekking," gathering in a group to perform mating displays for females, a behavior never before seen in spiders.

closeup view of a webbing clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella) adult on a gray fabric or carpet surface, of which individual fibers are visible in focus below the moth, but the foreground and background are blurry. the moth is near uniformly light brown in color, its wing scales somewhat pearlescent. its eyes are dark gray, and its head is fuzzy and slightly orange-brown.

In Defense of Clothes Moths, Marvels of Evolution

Though they cause headaches for dining on your wardrobe, webbing clothes moths are unique creatures with fascinating specialized biology. They can eat hair and metabolize their own water. They can chew through plastic and digest mercury. And that's not all. An entomologist studying these moths makes a case for appreciating their evolutionary feats.

side-by-side image of two spiders. at left, a brown widow, hanging vertically in webbing, showing its underside toward the viewer. the spider is dark brown to black in color, with an bright orange blotch on the bottom of its abdomen. at right is a black widow spider, hanging vertically on a stick, viewed from the side. the spider is dark black in color with a bright red splotch visible on the underside of its abdomen.

Brown Widow Spiders’ Aggression Likely Driver of Black Widow Decline

Black widow spiders have earned a fearsome reputation for their venomous bite. But in parts of the southern U.S. these spiders have much to fear themselves—from spider relatives who really don't like their company. A new study shows that brown widow spiders, of a species in the same genus, have a striking propensity to seek out and kill nearby black widows.

Closeup overhead view of a soldier Asian subterranean termite on a light gray background. Termite body is slightly tear-drop shaped and light yellowish brown in color. Its head is nearly as large as its body, also tear-drop shaped but darker honey brown in color with two long reddish brown mouthparts extending forward from its face.

Nitro-Nosh: Why Termites’ Molted Exoskeletons Never Go to Waste

Termites' wood-heavy diet offers little nitrogen, a critical nutrient for growth and reproduction. But their exoskeletons are nitrogen rich, and new research shows that eating shed exoskeletons after molting is a core strategy for recycling nitrogen throughout the termite colony and boosting the queen's egg-laying.