Insects and Arachnids

Structures in some butterflies' wings are actually part of their ears.

By Jesslyn Shields

Thanks to a citizen science project in the path of totality, researchers studied bee activity and were surprised by the results.

By John Perritano

For five nights in a row, a praying mantis came to the same garden spot to hunt for fish, completely confounding scientists.

By Jesslyn Shields

Beekeeping, when you get down to it, is the art and science of removing honey from hardworking bees without them missing it. But beekeeping is about so much more than just the honey.

By Dave Roos

Being eaten from the inside out by wasps sounds like something out of a nightmare, but for some caterpillars, sadly, it's just life.

By Jesslyn Shields

It seems like flying cockroaches want to dive bomb your face. Are they aggressive? Defensive? Or maybe it's all just in your scared ape mind.

By Jesslyn Shields

Entire colonies of half a million venomous ants are one scary threat following serious flooding.

By Jesslyn Shields

Part of the fun is trying to finagle a spot at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park viewing site in late spring.

By John Donovan

The secrets to ladybugs' wing-folding could yield new designs in flying robots and even newfangled umbrellas.

By Amanda Onion

For one species of dragonfly, the hassle of dealing with aggressive suitors is worth playing possum over.

By Jesslyn Shields

Spiders not only eat more meat than humans every year, they also spend a lot of time getting eaten themselves.

By Jesslyn Shields

And its special endowment is not the thing that intrigues scientists the most.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

In a state already teeming with pythons, tourists and Jimmy Buffett singalongs, the flesh-eating screwworm makes Florida a little more menacing.

By Jesslyn Shields

Of course they do. You're an attractive person. But what is it about you specifically that draws them in for a tasty meal?

By Laurie L. Dove

An oar-shaped protrusion of microscopic hairs on the legs of a grain-sized spider is bringing sexy back to the arachnid kingdom.

By Laurie L. Dove

If people had exoskeletons and wings maybe they'd be around forever, too. Insects are born survivors because they have certain traits that other animals don't.

By Nicholas Gerbis

It's not to entertain the insect. Figuring out how mantises perceive the world could lead to tiny, energy-efficient robots with depth perception, too.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The bright colors of this Malaysian spider, first described in 2009, earned it comparisons to the flamboyant styles of David Bowie.

By Christopher Hassiotis

You were a soldier ant. Each day you mostly did that job until one day a scientist came along, jabbed a needle into your brain and your behavior changed.

By Christian Sager

Scientists wanted to figure out how desert ants found their way home without tree shadows to guide them. This is how they did it.

By Laurie L. Dove

Think spiders are terrifying? It turns out that spiders with a taste for human blood are actually our allies in the fight against malaria.

By Maria Trimarchi

Bugs can destroy crops and spread disease, but those little critters also pollinate our plants. These are just a few of the reasons they're important - and even cool! - to study.

By Erin Wright

Bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. What differentiates the two?

By Debbie Swanson

We think we know all about spiders - they spin webs to trap prey; if they bite you, you might die. And if you find one in your house, you should set it free. But what if all these beliefs are a web of lies?

By Chris Opfer

Worried about creepy-crawlies entering your mouth while you sleep? Relax, spiders have no interest in being eaten. In fact, there's no record of anyone swallowing a spider while sleeping.

By Bambi Turner