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Instead of nurturing their sick young, ant queens eat their infected offspring at the first sign of illness then "recycle" them into energy to produce new eggs, a new study led by the University of Oxford has shown. The findings have been published in Current Biology.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tackled a thorny problem: How do nutritional stress, viral infections and exposure to pesticides together influence honey bee survival? By looking at all three stressors together, the scientists found that good nutrition enhances honey bee resilience against the other threats.

A new species of flatworm has been discovered and has already invaded several states in the southern United States. The particularity of the new species is that it looks a lot like Obama nungara, a species that has invaded much of Europe. The new species has been named Amaga pseudobama in reference to this resemblance.

Knowing how animals use their environments to survive and thrive is a key challenge for predicting how global climate change will affect wildlife. A global collaborative study of four species of crane has shed light on the way that migrations are finely tuned to unpredictable and complex environments.

Scientists have shown that light pollution—especially light in the blue spectrum—can alter the behavior of fish after only a few nights, and have knock-on effects for their offspring. The team from China has studied how female zebrafish responded after being exposed to artificial light at night, which is considered to be the main source of the world's light pollution.

The diving gear is on, the cameras are ready—biologist Eduardo Sampaio and his colleagues are set to go. They dive in the Red Sea, scanning left and right underwater—and wonder: Where can an octopus hunting be found? Finally, they spot one. The team operates the two cameras they have with them, and station many more to collect data. Then, it's time to wait.

Since the 1970s, coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) have experienced catastrophic declines in coral cover, with as much as a 50% reduction between 1998 and 2011 alone. Although coral reefs within the FKNMS have been heavily studied, research in the mesophotic zone, which extends from about 100 to 500 feet deep, has historically been more limited in this region.

New research out of Southern Cross University has found previously undocumented variation in coral heat tolerance on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, giving hope that corals' own genetic resources may hold the key for us to help in its recovery and adaptation.

Researchers working in Finland propose that the unique light environment of the Earth's polar regions creates conditions that result in circumpolar hybrid zones around the North and the South Poles. These extreme conditions increase the synchrony of reproductive phenology among species, i.e., force all species into a smaller window for reproduction. This will sustain biodiversity in the long term.

Researchers from the CANECEV laboratory, an international collaboration between Deakin University and the University of Montpellier, have observed for the first time the birth of transmissible tumors in freshwater brown hydras—tiny, jellyfish-like creatures.

It's not easy finding food at sea. Seabirds often stay aloft, scanning the churning waters for elusive prey. Most seabirds take fish, squid, or other prey from the first few meters of seawater. Scavenging is common.

Asteraceae, a family of flowering plants, are the most diverse group of flowering plants in the world. This plant family comprises about 34,000 species. An international research team with the participation of the University of Göttingen has now compiled and analyzed a new global database on the distribution and evolutionary history of all Asteraceae species.

Women working in the field of ecology contribute overproportionately to research output, as shown by a recent study that reveals facets of gender bias in the context of scientific publications that have received little attention until now.

A small team of biologists at the University of Bristol has found that black garden ants modify the physical structure of their nests to mitigate infection spread. The group has written a paper describing the experiments they conducted with black garden ants and fungal infections in their lab and posted it on the bioRxiv preprint server.

A team of oceanographers and marine biologists from the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University has identified a mysterious noise heard in the Pacific Ocean for two decades as the sounds of Bryde's whales.

Scientists in South Africa say they have identified an outbreak of rabies in seals that is believed to be the first time the virus has spread in sea mammals.

Birds of a feather flock together but strong pairing in geese has been shown to produce better breeding results, according to a new study.

Captive tigers in the United States outnumber those living in the wild. The World Wildlife Federation estimates around 5,000 of the big cats reside in the U.S., mostly owned by private citizens.

Hydraulic failure in tropical environments is expected to increase, according to new research published in New Phytologist. As weather patterns change and temperatures rise, plants will need to adapt in order to survive. Hydraulic failure occurs when more water is lost from transpiration than is taken in through the roots. If uncorrected, the xylem loses conductivity and the plant will not survive.

A team led by researchers at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has uncovered key information about what resident killer whale populations are eating. Researchers had long known that resident killer whales—also known as resident orcas—prefer to hunt fish, particularly salmon. But some populations thrive, while others have struggled. Scientists have long sought to understand the role that diet...

Researchers have discovered an exceptionally preserved fossil site in Massachusetts that provides a rare glimpse into terrestrial life from over 300 million years ago. The findings, published in Nature Communications, reveal a diverse ecosystem of early land-dwelling animals and plants from a time period that has been poorly understood.

Ecologists have long sought clarity on the dietary habits of different animal species. For scientists at Brown University and the National Park Service, it wasn't obvious how herbivores in Yellowstone National Park, who subsist on grasses, wildflowers and trees, could compete for enough of those foods to survive the winter.

Bumblebees collect pollen by various methods. Some types of flowers, such as potato plants, need tougher treatment to make them release their pollen. In these cases, the bee uses a technique called "buzz pollination" where it bites the flower's anthers and shakes them.

A little yellow-and-white bird that prefers to date its mates in an idyllic island lifestyle rather than fly to the mainland to mingle is an example of avian species evolution in action, according to new Australian research.