Ecology & Zoology

Some Ecuadorian tribes were famous for making mummified shrunken heads (click for the recipe) from the remains of their conquered foes.  Perhaps they got the idea from nature. Field work in the…

There are about 9,700 known species of grasshoppers in the world. Now there is one more, and it has beeen named  Grammy-award winning singer and Mexican activist Ana Lila Downs Sanchez. Locals…

How can science help save the wild finches Darwin made famous in the Galapagos Islands from invasive species? By leaving cotton balls treated with a mild pesticide laying around. In an experiment,…

"The spotted owl is the poster boy on how to use the Endangered Species Act to accomplish a goal beyond the species itself and how things can get messed up." Ban Nock writing in the Daily Kos The U.…

A paper in Zootaxa describes a new species of spider, Cebrennus rechenbergi, the only spider that is able to move by means of flic-flac jumps.  The nocturnal spider Cebrennus rechenbergi lives…

It's official - females prefer courtship over competitiveness. And she may talk with her friends about the size of your mandibles, but it really doesn't matter.    Female mate choice and…

Sweet potato products have increased in popularity so growers and processors are interested in identifying ways to make the crop more widely available.  In the United States, sweet potatoes are…

Feral camels in the Australian outback are reviled as pests. Yet they thrive, totaling some one million strong. How did they go from historic helper to overbearing invader? As usual, numbers make the…

Researchers report that they have discovered a new genus and species of electric knifefish in several tributaries of the Negro River in the Amazonia State of Brazil. Professor Cristina Cox Fernandes…

Researchers have discovered little-known cave insects, four distinct but related species in the genus Neotrogla, with rather novel sex lives - the first example of an animal with sex-reversed…