Insects in the Mail
The efficiency of the postal system and generosity of local experts played important roles in the advancement of entomology in eighteenth-century France.
A Blind Beetle Named Hitler?
The case for changing offensive names of animals and plants, and how it can be done
Sting! (Don’t Stand So Close to the Tarantula Hawk)
Tarantula hawk wasps offer some of the most painful stings known to humans, giving them almost absolute protection from vertebrate predators.
The War on Bugs
In the 1950s, supersized insects were the villains in a rash of big-screen horror movies. What did those monstrous roaches represent, and how were they vanquished?
As You Lakh It
How did an oleoresin produced by insects in Asia become a standard part of European furniture manufacture and conservation?
Historical Bugs: Archaeoentomology
The remains of ancient insects reveal new information about Paleo-Eskimo life and the history of the Norse in Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.
How “Termites of the Sea” Have Shaped Maritime Technology
These small marine pests have been eating our ships for millennia, forcing us to keep building better boats throughout history.
How Do Insects Survive Winter?
Some species have adapted to get themselves close to freezing without dying.
How Ornithologists Figured Out How to Preserve Birds
A very nineteenth-century-science problem: lots of decaying avian specimens.