I have never seen this before. It’s an interesting reminder that insects as well as people make a positive effort to go to higher ground to escape flooding. In this instance it almost seems that the spiders are on a … Continue reading →
Neonicotinoids used in pesticides makes bees sleep in the day and it makes them go out at night when flowers are not open to be pollinated. Bees are a major and critical pollinator. The numbers have declined significantly. The reason? … Continue reading →
The narrow-headed ant is England’s rarest. They are identifiable by a deep notch at the back of their heads. They live on the verge of the A38 trunk road near Chudleigh Knighton and on an adjoining small nature reserve run … Continue reading →
Why do some insects not have wings when having wings is an advantage? Wings on insects are described as “being the key evolutionary innovation leading to the success of the group” (Daly 1978). I think the key (to repeat the … Continue reading →
NEWS AND COMMENT: There’s an invasive species controversy surrounding the popular television programme in the UK, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! The BBC Springwatch presenter, Iolo Williams has complained to ‘rural crime officers’, reports The Guardian newspaper, … Continue reading →
Due to an invasion of the emerald ash borer beetle in conjunction with climate change causing flooding, swamp ash as it is known by musicians, is dying out which means the wood will no longer be used to make the … Continue reading →
It appears that ants are very intelligent, far more intelligent than perhaps 99.9% of the human population believe. A recent study supports the assertion. The study was published on 8 October 2020 and the source is the British Ecological Society. … Continue reading →
Bees are animals! I just wanted to get that out of the way because this website is about the animal-to-human relationship. People want to help bees because they have read many stories about bees struggling in the modern world because … Continue reading →
I’m going to treat bees as animals in this article (actually they are animals in any case). That’s important because beehives have been installed at HMP Warren Hill in Suffolk. They have proved to be very popular with the inmates. … Continue reading →
Locusts have been trained to detect explosives and to send back a signal wirelessly to an operator. It sounds like science fiction but locusts have an excellent sense of “smell” (they don’t use a nose to sniff the odour!). They … Continue reading →
A research project has discovered that the reason why locusts swarm and cause such devastating damage to crops is because of a pheromone that they produce. This triggers a desire to join together and form swarms. When they form a … Continue reading →
Neonicotinoid pesticides kill bees. The governments and scientists know this. They were banned in order to protect bees in various countries. In France the ban has been lifted under pressure from sugar beet growers to save their crop from a … Continue reading →
This is a neat bit of photoshopping by the guy who runs the Jasper Blue The Persian Instagram webpage. He is a good photoeditor. This creation caught my eye: In terms of the human-to-animal relationship which is the purpose of … Continue reading →
The Saharan silver ant is an amazing creature. It has amazing abilities but a small brain. They ran incredibly quickly in order to survive the heat. Their body temperature can reach 53°C. The ambient temperature can reach 60°C. They live … Continue reading →
Despite honeybees having less than 0.01% of the number of brain cells as humans, they are surprisingly dexterous with numbers. They can perform basic arithmetic. They understand the concept of zero. I’m told that some experts believe that humans did … Continue reading →
