When did insects evolve wings? Did you know that insects are crustaceans? Or that lice and insects that undergo metamorphosis share a common ancestor? A groundbreaking new study reveals some fascinating new things about these creatures that make up 80 percent of the world’s known species.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says insects will be a viable solution to food scarcity. Edible insects are picking up momentum in the United States and in countries like Thailand, where the edible cricket industry is already worth $30 million.
Bugs are a popular source of protein in a lot of the developing world, but eating insects are almost unheard of in the developed world. A farmer in Spain, though, wants to change that and make bugs a regular source of protein in European diets.
In a warehouse in Spain, a French farmer is raising what she hopes will be the next big thing in French and European cooking: insects.
Not only should we consider eating insects for environmental reasons; they can also be tasty. David George Gordon has just released an updated version of his Eat-A-Bug Cookbook, brimming with recipes that feature crickets, grasshoppers, ants, spiders, centipedes, and their kin. He joins host Steve Curwood from Seattle.
Global trade has made it remarkably easy for exotic insects to move from one side of the world to another. Once they arrive, they can totally devastate an ecosystem.
Researchers at Cornell conducted a five-year experiment that documented how plants evolve quickly to account for changing environmental conditions. The research explains how key features of plants, horseradish's bite, chili pepper's spice, is really a defense against insects.
From the spice of the chili pepper to horseradish’s bitter bite, many plant traits are evolutionary adaptations to insects.
There are literally thousands of different species of ants around the world. A trio of American researchers are traveling the world, to museums and natural habitats, to take high-quality pictures of them, to preserve and make accessible their complex diversity for scientists around the world.
A team of scientists from California is touring European natural history museums to photograph ant collections. The images are being posted to a free website so anyone can study. Ari Daniel Shapiro of our partner program NOVA reports from London.
By tending to infected nestmates, ants protect the entire colony from disease.