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Baby mantises harness mid-air ‘spin’ during jumps for precision landings
The smaller you are, the harder it is not to spin out of control when you jump. Miniscule errors in propulsive force relative to the centre of mass results in most jumping insects – such as fleas,...
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Burying beetles: could being a good father send you to an early grave?
When a good insect father pairs with a bad mother, he risks being exploited by her for childcare and could bear the ultimate cost by dying young.A new study carried out with burying beetles also shows...
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Power up: cockroaches employ a “force boost” to chew through tough materials
The study, published today in PLOS ONE, shows that cockroaches activate slow twitch muscle fibres only when chewing on tough material such as wood that requires repetitive, hard biting to generate a...
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Why Spider-Man can’t exist: Geckos are ‘size limit’ for sticking to walls
A new study, published today in PNAS, shows that in climbing animals ranging in size from mites to geckos, the percentage of body surface covered by adhesive footpads increases as body size increases,...
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Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting biodegradable solution to...
Scientists have found that a caterpillar commercially bred for fishing bait has the ability to biodegrade polyethylene: one of the toughest and most used plastics, frequently found clogging up landfill...
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Speed of animal evolution enhanced by cooperative behaviour
Cooperative behaviour is a key part of animal family life: parents help offspring by supplying them with food, and siblings can also work together to acquire food. The Cambridge study, published today...
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Ultra-white coating modelled on beetle scales
The material – which is 20 times whiter than paper – is made from non-toxic cellulose and achieves such bright whiteness by mimicking the structure of the ultra-thin scales of certain types of beetle....
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Neglected baby beetles evolve greater self-reliance
In gardens, parks and woods across the UK, the Sexton burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides quietly buries dead mice and other small vertebrates to create edible nests for its young. Most parents...
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Bats to the rescue
READ THE STORY HEREA new study shows that bats are giving Madagascar’s rice farmers a vital pest control service by feasting on plagues of insects. And this, a Cambridge zoologist believes, can ease...
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Butterflies are genetically wired to choose a mate that looks just like them
A team of academics from the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, observed the courtship rituals and sequenced the DNA from nearly 300...
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