Hacker News with Generative AI: Insects

A recent study suggests that insects branched out from crustaceans (smithsonianmag.com)
Shrimp look an awful lot like bugs. The exoskeletons, jointed legs and compound eyes of both groups of living things give them more than a passing resemblance to each other, so no wonder some people call shrimp-like crawfish “mudbugs,” and a tattoo reading “shrimps is bugs” became a viral meme for underscoring the resemblance. But the tattoo got the reality backwards. Shrimp are not bugs. Bugs—or, more properly, insects—are technically a form of crustacean.

Evolution, Biology, Entomology, Crustaceans, Insects

96 points by Carrok 15 days ago | 90 comments

Levitating Bugs with Sound Could Transform Scientific Photography (petapixel.com)
Scientists used precisely controlled soundwaves to suspend insect specimens, capturing detailed photographs from multiple angles without damaging the specimens.

Science, Photography, Insects, Acoustics

50 points by PaulHoule 18 days ago | 10 comments

Jumping Spiders (tnconservationist.org)

Jumping Spiders, Spiders, Insects, Nature

133 points by rolph 25 days ago | 75 comments

A cretaceous fly trap? Remarkable abdominal modification in a fossil wasp (biomedcentral.com)
Here, we describe †Sirenobethylus charybdis n. gen. & sp., based on sixteen adult female wasps in Kachin amber from the mid-Cretaceous, 99 Mya (million years ago), and place it in Chrysidoidea: †Sirenobethylidae n. fam.

Paleontology, Entomology, Fossils, Cretaceous Period, Insects

38 points by gnabgib 29 days ago | 6 comments

Agriculture in Ants (wikipedia.org)
Agriculture and domestication are practices undertaken by certain ant species and colonies.

Agriculture, Ants, Biology, Insects

6 points by tardismechanic 46 days ago | 0 comments

First analysis finds America's butterflies disappearing at "catastrophic" rate (apnews.com)
America’s butterflies are disappearing because of insecticides, climate change and habitat loss, with the number of the winged beauties down 22% since 2000, a new study finds.

Environmental Issues, Climate Change, Insects, Biology, Conservation

10 points by lelandfe 50 days ago | 0 comments

Flies fed excessive caffeine die within week: Japan study (kyodonews.net)
Researchers in Japan have found that flies fed excessive amounts of caffeine generally die within seven days, a discovery that could lead to the development of insecticides that are less harmful to humans.

Science, Insects, Japan, Caffeine, Insecticides

8 points by anigbrowl 62 days ago | 2 comments

The teeming life of dead trees (knowablemagazine.org)
Though no one may be around to hear when a tree falls in the forest, countless critters take note. Dormant fungi within the tree awaken to feast on it, joined by others that creep up from the soil. Bacteria pitch in, some sliding along strands of fungi to get deeper into the log. Termites alert their colony mates, which gather en masse to gobble up wood. Bit by bit, deadwood is decomposed, feeding new life along the way.

Ecology, Decomposition, Fungi, Insects, Nature

8 points by rntn 70 days ago | 1 comments

Do Insects Feel Pain? (newyorker.com)
Insects make up about forty per cent of living species, and we tend to kill them without pause. New research explores the possibility that they are sentient.

Insects, Sentience, Science, Animal Behavior

20 points by Hooke 87 days ago | 72 comments

MIT Unveils New Robot Insect, Paving the Way Toward Rise of Robotic Pollinators (thedebrief.org)

Robotics, Insects, Pollination, Technology

49 points by bookofjoe 95 days ago | 34 comments

The color and color-patterns of moths and butterflies (1897) (publicdomainreview.org)
Although better known for his study of marine life, Alfred G. Mayer began his career in the natural sciences researching insects.

Insects, Biology, History, Scientific Research

22 points by prismatic 96 days ago | 0 comments

Why do bees die when they sting you? (2021) (subanima.org)
As Richard Feynman points out, every 'why' question in science needs to be treated with caution. This is because there are always several different levels at which a why problem can be answered, depending on what kind of response you're looking for.

Science, Biology, Insects

347 points by ohjeez 98 days ago | 240 comments

Doctors find live cockroach in Indian man's small intestine (nationalpost.com)
Plagued by a stomach bug for a few days, an Indian man and the doctors treating him were surprised to discover the source of his malaise: a three-centimetre cockroach alive and wriggling in his small intestine.

Medical News, Health, India, Insects

3 points by popcalc 128 days ago | 0 comments

Cyborg cockroaches can now be mass-produced in a robotic factory (scmp.com)
Researchers have taken the concept of cyborg insects to the next level – automated mass production that could turn out cybernetically controlled bugs every 68 seconds, a technology that may prove useful in search-and-rescue operations or factory inspections.

Robotics, Bioengineering, Insects, Technology

4 points by larrysalibra 133 days ago | 0 comments

Butterflies Shouldn't Remember Being Caterpillars (But They Do) [video] (youtube.com)

Butterflies, Insects, Memory, Biology, Video

10 points by gmays 135 days ago | 1 comments

Insects rely on sounds made by distressed vegetation to guide reproduction (nytimes.com)
You may not want to sit next to a crying baby on an airplane. Apparently, moths feel the same way about plants.

Science, Biology, Insects, Plants

204 points by tintinnabula 139 days ago | 188 comments

Plastic-eating insect discovered in Kenya (theconversation.com)
There’s been an exciting new discovery in the fight against plastic pollution: mealworm larvae that are capable of consuming polystyrene. They join the ranks of a small group of insects that have been found to be capable of breaking the polluting plastic down, though this is the first time that an insect species native to Africa has been found to do this.

Environment, Science, Insects, Kenya

12 points by thunderbong 165 days ago | 3 comments

The evolutionary mystery of the German cockroach (johnhawks.net)
The species evolved to exploit human-built environments and exists nowhere else. So where did it come from?

Evolution, Biology, Insects, Urban Environments

96 points by softwaredoug 174 days ago | 18 comments

Vegetable growers in Australia deploy 'good bugs' to reduce pesticide use (abc.net.au)
You would not know it from the outside, but inside the glasshouses of the Adelaide Plains a silent war is being waged daily — a battle of the bugs.

Agriculture, Australia, Pesticides, Environmental Sustainability, Insects

10 points by PaulHoule 176 days ago | 1 comments

The electrostatic world of insects (wired.com)
Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen, and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.

Insects, Static Electricity, Biology, Evolution, Science

198 points by noleary 179 days ago | 49 comments

Oriental hornets can't get drunk (economist.com)
Like people, many animals enjoy having a drink every now and again.

Animals, Biology, Insects

30 points by ioblomov 183 days ago | 34 comments

The World of Electrostatic Ecology (quantamagazine.org)
Invisibly to us, insects and other tiny creatures use static electricity to travel, avoid predators, collect pollen and more. New experiments explore how evolution may have influenced this phenomenon.

Science, Biology, Evolution, Insects

48 points by EA-3167 207 days ago | 13 comments

Wildlife experts warn of butterfly emergency as count reveals record low numbers (news.sky.com)
Conservationists have declared a "butterfly emergency" after a vast community survey recorded the lowest ever numbers of the insect.

Conservation, Environment, Wildlife, Insects

51 points by austinallegro 218 days ago | 2 comments

Emerald Cockroach Wasp (wikipedia.org)
The emerald cockroach wasp or jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) is a solitary wasp of the family Ampulicidae.

Insects, Entomology, Biology, Nature

6 points by wazdra 226 days ago | 1 comments

Here a Bee, There a Bee, Everywhere a Wild Bee (hakaimagazine.com)

Wildlife, Insects, Environment

72 points by Petiver 236 days ago | 63 comments

Portraits of insects reveal the intricacies of a world (smithsonianmag.com)

Photography, Nature, Insects

89 points by sohkamyung 241 days ago | 25 comments

Spider Species Uses Male Fireflies as Ghastly Puppets to Seduce Its Prey (sciencealert.com)