Blue natural pigments are rare, especially among plants. However, flowering species that evolved to attract Hymenoptera pollinators are colored by blue anthocyanin-metal complexes. Plants lacking anthocyanins are pigmented by betalains but are... more

Pollen: essential for the pollination of many plants, but the bane of allergy sufferers. Pollen warning services provide information about daily exposure and allergy risk and are an important source of information for affected... more

While they can't pick out precise numbers, animals can comprehend that more is, well, more. From birds to bees and wolves to frogs, animals use numbers to hunt, find a... more

Spending a lot more time in your house doesn't have to make you any less curious about the world around you. Just look inside... more

Snake venom did not evolve as self-defense, according to a paper published in the journal Toxins. To provide... more

An analysis out of the University of Georgia details the relationship between consumer awareness and the attentiveness and care given to pollinator-friendly plant purchases. more

It’s not that fallen bees smell dead—they just don’t smell alive anymore more

In the neotropical forest of Barro Colorado Island in Panama, an unusual bee hatched: half male and half female. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute students and scientists working on nocturnal, socially flexible Megalopta bees at BCI... more

Bees are excellent dancers. When a forager bee alights upon an Eden of pollen and nectar, it goes home to tell its hive mates. The greater the intensity of the dance, the richer the source of food being... more

Paleontologists have found an exceptionally well-preserved and diminutive skull of a previously unknown bird-like dinosaur species in a piece of Cretaceous-period amber... more