Two genes that help insulin regulate mosquitoes’ growth have been identified as key contributors to how the insects enter a dormant state to survive winter’s cold.

Dutch ecologist Roxina Soler and her colleagues have discovered that subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects can communicate with each other by using plants as telephones. Subterranean insects issue chemical warning signals via the leaves of the plant. This way, aboveground insects are alerted that the plant is already ‘occupied’.

Pretending to be dead is an effective self-defense strategy adopted by young fire ant workers under attack from neighboring colonies. This tactic makes them four times more likely to survive aggression than older workers who fight back. As a result, these young workers are able to contribute to brood care and colony growth to ensure the survival and fitness of their queen.

The bombardier beetle is inspiring designers of engines, drug-delivery devices and fire extinguishers to improve spray technologies, writes Andy McIntosh, from Leeds University, and Novid Beheshti, of Swedish Biomimetics 3000 Ltd, in April’s Physics World.

One species of armed beetle is proving that size doesn’t necessarily matter when it comes to finding a mate. The creature’s ‘pulling techniques’ will be revealed in the April edition of the Royal Entomological Society’s Ecological Entomology journal.

An international research consortium with the participation of a research team led by Professor Cornelis Grimmelikhuijzen from the Department of Biology, has sequenced the genome from the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum.

It turns out ants, like humans, are true farmers. The difference is that ants are farming fungus.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at an alarming rate, and new research indicates that soybean plant defenses go down as CO2 goes up. Elevated CO2 impairs a key component of the plant’s defenses against leaf-eating insects, according to the report.

Their gentle nature, large size, odd sounds and low-maintenance care have made Madagascar hissing cockroaches popular educational tools and pets for years. But the giant insects also have one unfortunate characteristic: Their hard bodies and feces are home to many mold species that could be triggering allergies in the kids and adults who handle the bugs, according to a new study.

Fifty years have passed since the United States Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Army invented DEET to protect soldiers from disease-transmitting insects (and, in the process, made camping trips and barbecues more pleasant for the rest of us civilians).

Katydid (or didn’t she?) respond to the mating call of her suitors. According to scientists at the University of Missouri, one species of katydid may owe its ecological success and expanded habitat range to the ability of male katydids to adjust their mating calls to attract females.

Far from being a model of social co-operation, the ant world is riddled with cheating and corruption – and it goes all the way to the top, according to scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Copenhagen.