Coordinated Boa Attacks Are a Horror You Didn’t Know Existed
As twilight descends, nocturnal bat species rouse from their daily resting places to feed, creating spectacular clouds as they pour out of caves en masse. But look closer at Jamaican fruit bat colonies as they emerge from sinkhole caves in Cuba, and you may catch a glimpse of a concurrent macabre ritual: As the bats…
Adorable New Elfin Toad Is Straight Out of Middle-Earth
Far up in the Langbian Plateau in southern Vietnam, a dense, dark forest gently breathes with a passing breeze. Billowing fog continually invades and shrouds the canopy. Thick, verdant moss blankets every rock and tree, and the landscape weeps with trickling rivulets of water. This gorgeous setting feels like it could host any number of…
‘World’s Hottest Pepper’ Will Have You Breathing Fire, But It Won’t Kill You
Not all hot peppers are created equal, and few are as unequal as the Dragon’s Breath chili—a new breed that may soon find itself atop the “world’s hottest” throne. Forged by Wales horticulturalist Mike Smith, the red-orange, fingernail-sized fruit is the unintentional product of a trial of a new performance-boosting plant food developed by Nottingham…
Adorable Tadpoles Become Hungry Murder Machines When Dad Goes Away
Splash-back poison frogs (Ranitomeya variabilis) are generally devoted parents, with the amphibian dads taking on the bulk of the childcare responsibilities. But when the frog fathers skip out on their young, it’s every tadpole for themselves, and that means a horrifying cannibalistic melee from which only one young frog emerges. Like many poison frog species,…
Your Umbrella May Be Getting an Upgrade Thanks to Ladybug Wings
The common ladybug is easily recognized by its signature red and black spotted shell. But when researchers at the University of Tokyo used a creative trick to make its carapace transparent, it revealed insect wing secrets that could impact development of robotics, satellite antennas, and microscopic medical instruments—perhaps even a re-imagining of the folding mechanism…
