How Do Cicadas Know When to Emerge from the Ground?
By Kevin Fitzgerald If you’ve never seen a cicada, you’ve certainly heard them, filling summer days and nights with their loud, raspy love songs. If you’ve seen any, you’re not […]
A Nearly Extinct Butterfly Makes a Comeback in South Florida
By Richard Levine An article published in the journal Florida Entomologist tells the story of a butterfly that was nearly gone, but is now recovering. In fact, it’s doing so […]
Did the Malaria Parasite First Evolve in the Insect Vector or the Vertebrate Host?
By John P. Roche Malaria is a terrible problem, killing nearly half a million people per year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. This serious disease is caused by a protozoan parasite […]
Video on How to Make Delicious Cockroach Tapioca
By Richard Levine This week I attented the joint annual meeting of the Entomological Society of Brazil and the Latin American Congress of Entomology in Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. One day […]
A Report from the Summit on the Aedes aegypti Crisis in the Americas in Brazil
By Richard Levine Yesterday, March 13, 2016, nearly 70 scientists, public-health officials and other participants attended the Summit on the Aedes aegypti Crisis in the Americas, a one-day meeting convened […]
This Dragonfly’s Migratory Route is Even Longer than the Monarch Butterfly’s
A dragonfly called Pantala flavescens that is barely an inch and a half long appears to be the animal world’s most prolific long distance traveler, flying thousands of miles over […]
Adding Pheromones to Baits Helps Control Invasive Argentine Ants
By Josh Lancette Argentine ants have been marching across the United States for the past few decades, despite the best pest control efforts. However, the authors of a new study […]
Radio Tagging Bumble Bees to Figure Out What the Buzz Is All About
By Jeremy Hemberger Bees are on a lot of folk’s minds these days, and for good reason. They provide pollination services to over 70% of the crops worldwide, helping to […]
The Aedes aegypti Mosquito Was a Problem Way Before the Zika Virus
By Richard Levine Today I wrote a guest article for the Oxford University Press blog. What do Napoléon Bonaparte, Walter Reed, the Panama Canal, and the Zika virus all have […]
Old Data May Provide New Insights on Honey Bee Populations
By Josh Lancette Over the past decade, beekeepers in the U.S. and other countries have had problems keeping their bees healthy. Some of the potential causes of their problems include […]
An Opportunity to Study Bees and Pollination in Costa Rica
By Gerrit van de Klashorst The importance of bees and other pollinators for natural and agricultural ecosystems has been well documented. But during the past decades, pollinators have been in […]
Bed Bugs Have Developed Resistance to Neonicotinoids
By Richard Levine An article published in the Journal of Medical Entomology is the first to report that bed bugs have developed resistance to a class of insecticides known as […]
Termite Experts Attempt to Solve Taxonomic Cold Cases
By Richard Levine Coptotermes is one of the most economically destructive genera of termites, and it includes the Formosan subterranean termite (Coptotermes formosanus). For years, taxonomists have struggled with a […]
Entomologists Instruct Teachers on How to Use Insects in the Classroom
By Josh Lancette – “People with tarantulas have more fun.” – “When you have an insect, you have people’s attention.” – “Those cookies you just ate? They were made with […]
Help Name a Beetle Species with Spectacular Genitalia After Stephen Colbert
By Michael L. Ferro Amazingly, many animals can only be told apart by their tallywhackers, and there is one that is so amazing that it needs to be named after […]
Higher Temperatures Impair Efficacy of Permethrin Insecticide
By Harvey Black The effectiveness of an important mosquito-fighting insecticide may be a casualty of global climate change, according to a recent study in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Two […]