Insect

Baby caterpillars have figured out how to get themselves the royal treatment in certain ant colonies – getting carried around like precious cargo, fed on demand, guarded and being rescued from danger – by posing as queen ants.

Some of us get bitten far more often than others – but it seems we each also appear tasty to different species of mosquito. New research illuminates what's making a given individual attractive, and to which mosquitos.

In a groundbreaking new study, scientists took a closer look at how bumble bees respond to positive experiences inside the nest. They found positive attitudes are quite literally contagious, spreading between bees within seconds.

In the world of flying, stinging insects, Asian giant hornets reign supreme, reaching impressive sizes and wielding mighty venom-filled lances. Now, researchers have found an unlikely hero that can vanquish these buzzing badasses: the humble frog.

A stealthy parasite queen can turn an ant colony against itself. The invading queen has been found to sneak into an ant colony, creep towards the resident ant queen, and spray a chemical that tricks ants into slaughtering their own mother.

Once confined to Latin America, Chagas disease – a potentially deadly parasitic infection that is spread in a gross way – is now endemic in the United States, threatening both humans and their pets in what experts are calling a silent public health crisis.

We don't fully understand why some people are more attractive to mosquitoes – it's a complicated web of physiological and bacterial factors, geography and species. But a new study suggests that some insects like to home in on the life of the party.

A species loved by scientists has a new trick under its wings – a "time out" in youth that leads to significantly slower aging throughout life. This discovery, which shows that biological aging isn't fixed, is a breakthrough in human longevity science.

Researchers have developed a new method for preventing bacteria from adhering to surfaces, such as medical devices. It relies on the unique properties of resilin, a natural insect protein that enables fleas to jump hundreds of times their body length.

From fleas to mosquitoes, there's no shortage of organisms we consider pests. But thanks to new genetic detective work, scientists have named and shamed the resilient, highly adaptive – and frustratingly hard to kill – bug that got to us first.

Zombies are real – not in the walking dead sense, but parasites that can force creatures to do things against their will. The launch of The Last of Us season 2 feels like a great time to explore some of the real-world zombie stories that inspired it.

If you ever travel back in time to the reign of dinosaurs, don’t touch any flowers – it might just be a parasitic wasp in disguise. Analysis of wasps preserved in amber show how the insect ensnared hosts for its larvae with a Venus flytrap-like butt.