Born Pregnant: Aphids Invade with an Onslaught of Clones
Female aphids are the matriarchs of a successful family operation — taking over your garden. But don’t lose hope; these pests have some serious predators and creepy parasites looking to take them down....
View ArticleWhy Did the Mexican Jumping Bean Jump?
To find its place in the shade! Each hollowed-out seed is home to a head-banging moth larva, just trying to survive the harsh Sonoran Desert sun. TRANSCRIPT What if you spent most of your life in near...
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Leaf Miner Fly Babies Scribble All Over Your Salad
If you have a green thumb, spring in the Bay Area marks the harvesting of lemons and oranges, onions and garlic, and greens like arugula, kale and mustard. But what are those squiggly marks...
View ArticleThe Undying Hydra: A Freshwater Mini-Monster That Defies Aging
Could this tiny creature, named after a mythical multiheaded monster, hold the secret to eternal youth? Related to jellyfish and anemones, the hydra has an almost otherworldly ability to heal itself...
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Earth Day 2021: 11 Bay Area Events to Get You Inspired
The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, kicked off the modern environmental movement with more than 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population — hitting the streets to demand action against...
View ArticleScorpions Are Predators With a Sensitive Side
Look past their grasping claws and lightning-fast stingers, and you’ll see scorpions have a delicate pair of comb-like organs on their belly called pectines. These sensory body parts help them...
View ArticleThe Pipevine Caterpillar Thrives in a Toxic Love Triangle
The devilish caterpillars of the pipevine swallowtail butterfly *devour* the California pipevine, never mind that the plant is trying to poison them. Their butterfly moms don’t pollinate the pipevine...
View ArticleWatch These Hermit Crabs Shop for the Perfect Shell
Hermit crabs are obsessed with snail shells. These crafty little crabs, found in California’s rocky intertidal zone, are more than happy to let the snails build them a perfect home. When the crabs find...
View ArticleThe Axolotl Salamander Doesn’t Wanna Grow Up
Native to the lakes of Mexico City, the axolotl stays in the water its whole life, swimming with a tail fin and breathing through frilly external gills. It’s nearly extinct in the wild, but survives in...
View ArticleThis Bee Builds Sandcastles at the Beach
While you’re enjoying a day at the beach, female bumblebee-mimic digger bees are hard at work nearby building a different kind of sandcastle. This one’s not for play – it’s part of the nest where their...
View ArticleOnce a Spawn a Time: Horseshoe Crabs Mob the Beach
Horseshoe crabs may look scary, but when it’s springtime in Delaware Bay, millions of these arthropods show they’re lovers, not fighters. They lay masses of blue-green eggs up on the shore. At just the...
View ArticleThese Rare Damselflies Find Love With a Twist in Fog City
Most damselflies prefer sunny spots, but the quirky San Francisco forktail damselfly digs the fogginess of its hometown. When they hook up, they do it in style — linking their delicate bodies in a...
View ArticleYou Can’t Unsee the Assassin Bug’s Dirty Work
Under the bright yellow petals of a tarweed plant, an insect known as the assassin bug kills its caterpillar victim by stabbing it over and over. But does this perpetrator have an accomplice? Sticky...
View ArticleTadpole Shrimp Are Coming For Your Rice
Tadpole shrimp are neither tadpoles nor shrimp. They’re time-traveling crustaceans called triops. Their eggs can spend years – even decades – frozen in time, waiting to hatch. When California rice...
View ArticleSkeleton Shrimp Use 18 Appendages to Feed, Fight and … Frolic
On first impression, skeleton shrimp anatomy is confusing. These crustaceans use a funky assortment of body parts to move around like inchworms, feed on bits of sea garbage, stage boxing matches, and...
View ArticleHow a Kissing Bug Becomes a Balloon Full of Your Blood
A kissing bug gorges on your blood. Then it poops on you. And that poop might contain the parasite that causes Chagas disease, which can be deadly. Without knowing it, millions of people have gotten...
View ArticleThese Swarming Locusts Are Grasshoppers Gone Wrong
They might look like harmless grasshoppers, but locusts have an appetite for destruction. When the conditions are right, they transform from mild-mannered loners into gregarious partiers. They swarm,...
View ArticleAustralian Walking Stick Insects Are Three Times Weirder Than You Think
The Australian walking stick is a master of deception, but a twig is just one of its many disguises. Before it’s even born, it mimics a seed. In its youth it looks and acts like an ant. Only when it...
View ArticleFlying Termites Take a Dangerous Journey to a New Life
After the first big rain, western subterranean termites swarm by the thousands. Hungry ants, spiders and birds pick them off as they emerge from the soil. The survivors fly off to find mates, and...
View ArticleThis Mushroom Tricks Flies By Faking Its Own Death
The cage fungus looks and smells like decaying meat — on purpose. Its goopy lattice gives off a rotten odor that attracts flies, which help spread its spores far and wide. It’s like a bee to a flower,...
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