insects

The fire ant (Solenopsis invicta), nicknamed "the invincible", is famous for its painful sting and for causing invasive pests in countries such as China and Australia. Their societies are characterized by the fact that some have hundreds of queens and others only one strictly. Now an investigation, led by the University of London, has analyzed the genome of more than 500 of these insects and, according to their conclusions, the multiplicity or not of queens in this species is determined by the Gp-9 gene, considered a "supergene "being actually made up of more than 600 genes.

Researchers from the University of Valencia (UV) and the University of Oxford have discovered that some insects have a sophisticated counting mechanism, a cognitive ability that until now was believed to be exclusive to vertebrate animals.

Dung beetles in Africa feed on the droppings of large mammals, usually forming a huge ball that they roll over the ground. Now a team of researchers from South Africa and Sweden has identified a practical use for transporting these wastes: keeping your body cool, as it allows you to stand at a distance from the hot sand.

Did you know that the shark, and not the ostrich, is the animal that lays the largest eggs, which can be 20 centimeters long? And that the tongue of the adult blue whale weighs four tons? Or that some species of snail can have up to 25,000 teeth?

A well-known fable tells that, after spending a whole summer singing and idling, a cicada found itself without food and decided to ask its neighbor the ant for something to put in its mouth. She offered him grains of rice accompanied by a moral: better safe than sorry. Do ants deserve their reputation for being far-sighted and eager?

Researchers from Trinity College, Dublin (Ireland) have shown that insect wings are not as fragile as they appear. In a study published in the journal PLoS ONE, they show that the network of veins present in the wings of insects such as grasshoppers or dragonflies help them avoid breakage.

By browsing through the image portfolios posted by Flickr users, scientists have managed to identify a new species of lacewing. They are fragile insects, with soft bodies and transparent wings, which during their larval phase greedily devour other insects.

Some termites of the Neocapritermes taracua species have blue spots on their back that contain explosive crystals. These individuals are usually the oldest in the colony and act on suicide missions to protect their companions, according to a study published in Science.