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"description": "You know those couples that do everything together? Lovebugs, also known as honeymoon flies, can spend anywhere from a half-hour to a couple of days attached to each other. As the female drags or carries the male from flower to flower, piggyback style, they pollinate cherries, apples and pears.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>You know those couples that do everything together? Lovebugs, also known as honeymoon flies, can spend anywhere from a half-hour to a couple of days attached to each other. As the female drags or carries the male from flower to flower, piggyback style, they pollinate cherries, apples and pears.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>You know those couples that do everything together? These are lovebugs … also known as honeymoon flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are 700 species of lovebugs, and when you find one lovebug, you’ll probably find a lot more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flying in a swarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or maybe even hanging around your house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their love story starts in a massive crowd. A raucous singles mixer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re old friends. They grow up together as maggots underground. Then they take flight all at once, in what’s called synchronous emergence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some places this happens in spring, which is why they’re also known as march flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Males and females look pretty different. He has holoptic eyes. See how they meet at the top of his head?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hers are smaller, and she has the longer head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His holoptic eyes give him nearly 360-degree vision, which helps him find a female inside the swarm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But maybe a flower is a less chaotic place to look for her … if he can get through the competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And we’ve got a winner!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She carries him around piggyback style. Hang on, buddy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no guarantee he won’t be replaced by another male.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reigning champ curls his backside towards hers, and they hook onto each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, he flips his body over and around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wait, who’s driving?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through this safe connection, he delivers his genetic material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The longer he stays attached to her, the longer he keeps her from mating with others. This increases his chances of passing on his genes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on the species, the “honeymoon” can last a half-hour or a couple of days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days full of romance and flowers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they drink sweet nectar, they move tons of pollen around, which helps plants reproduce. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together or apart, honeymoon flies are great pollinators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They pollinate plants we love to look at, like this yarrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plants we love to eat, like cherries, apples and pears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even plants we hate, like this poison oak. Its flowers are just the right size for these tiny flies. Their oily leaves, which give us a rash, don’t hurt them at all. In fact, they make a great marriage bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A couple that pollinates together, sticks together.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Do you really know who you’re sharing the beach with? Purple sand dollars gobble bits of metal to stay grounded in turbulent waters. Mole crabs move sand like a conveyor belt. Hardworking bees sculpt tiny sandcastles. Under the moonlight, horseshoe crabs mate by the thousands and bury their eggs. And beach hoppers spend their nights partying and cleaning up while you sleep.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Surf’s up! Check out these five beach animals with totally surprising hidden lives. Bees that build sandcastles, mole crabs digging right under your feet, beach hoppers partying in the dead of night, and horseshoe crabs mating by the moonlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First up, sand dollars and their heavy metal breakfast.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Sand Dollar’s Breakfast is Totally Metal\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s a beachcomber’s prize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this sand dollar is just an empty husk … a skeleton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is what sand dollars really look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Off the coast of California, Pacific sand dollars snuggle up together, like a big pile of purple sea cookies. They’re fuzzy … almost cuddly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But look closer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That fuzz is actually made up of tiny spines … thousands of them. Some long and spiky, others rounder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mixed in are miniature tube feet with grabby little suckers on the ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They use them to meticulously sift the sand and pass the grains down the line … until they reach the sand dollar’s mouth at the very center of its underside, buried under all those spines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sand dollars eat sand. They’re after the algae and bacteria that coat the grains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And these sand dollars can also stand themselves up on their sides to use the long spines around their edges to trap tiny plankton floating by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what about that part that looks like a flower with five petals? It’s called the petaloid. They have special tube feet there that help the sand dollar breathe, absorbing oxygen out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see that same five-point body plan on the skeletons of their relatives, like starfish and sea urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, sand dollars are just a type of flat sea urchin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while their cousins prefer the rocky shore – chock full of life and spots to hide – sand dollars don’t have such a cozy place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re at the mercy of what’s basically an undersea desert – thrashed and sandblasted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So being flat is an advantage. They’re sleeker, streamlined against the powerful currents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they have another scrupulous solution for staying put.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all sand is the same. Mixed in there are some extra heavy grains. They’re made of magnetite, a type of iron ore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think that as they grow, young sand dollars sort them out and swallow them, grain after grain. The heavy ore builds up inside their bodies and helps weigh them down to the seafloor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, researchers used X-rays of sand dollars to look for it. See those bright white areas? Those are the pockets of magnetite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how these tireless little creatures can hack it – out here in such turbulent waters – where most other things can’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, it takes a lot of work just to lay around.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>For Pacific Mole Crabs It’s Dig or Die\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Where the waves break, there are signs of life underfoot – these expert diggers: mole crabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaotic, turbulent, harsh. The ocean’s edge isn’t the easiest place to make a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, someone does: Pacific mole crabs, also called sand crabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ve probably seen the little holes they make.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They spend their lives just under the surface of the sand, waves crashing overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ever-present flux offers a meal. Each wave kicks up plankton and other tasty morsels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They peep out from below the sand and use their feathery antennae to catch food right out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they can’t just sit around gorging themselves all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crabs want to stay in the swash zone – this part here where the waves break and sweep in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s always moving with the tides, up and down the beach. So the mole crabs have to move with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re not the only ones out here looking for a meal. To birds, they’re basically beach candy. Easy pickings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So mole crabs have become champion diggers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can disappear in a flash, back under the sand to hide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they have to be fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what makes them so good at burrowing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC Berkeley want to find out. Back at the lab, they film the mole crabs in action using high-speed cameras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mole crabs actually burrow backwards, digging into the sand with their pointy rumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But moving densely packed sand is hard work. The grains stick to each other, making it tough to push through. So the crabs have become tiny engineers. They stir up the wet sand with their tails, making it easier to move. A process called liquefaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, they push the loose sand up toward the surface by handing it off between their five pairs of legs. See? Kind of like a conveyor belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The waves never rest, so the mole crabs do this day and night, as they’re tossed and tumbled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they take it all in stride. When you survive on chaos, fluidity is what it’s all about.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>This Bee Builds Sandcastles at the Beach\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>These bees skip the hive life and build their own little sandcastles on the sides of beach cliffs. Ocean views, anyone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might seem peculiar, bees living at the beach. But this is their home. And they spend the spring building their perfect beach condos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At their local watering hole, they’re not actually having a drink. They’re collecting water as a raw material. They slurp it into a pouch in their abdomen called a crop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can carry one sixth of their weight in water, hauling it to the side of this cliff in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that’s a view!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back and forth, back and forth, 80 times a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re building their nests from the cliff’s mix of sand, clay and gravel, spraying water to soften it up. See how she extends her proboscis and uses it like a hose?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she digs and digs and digs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re digger bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females build their nests side by side in what’s called an aggregation. The males, most of them have died by now, after mating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females work peacefully … most of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>-Hey, make your own nest!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even make sandcastles, shaping the earth they dig out into a turret. To do that, they pat down the wet gravel with the tip of their abdomen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think the turrets could help keep out large parasitic insects, like other kinds of bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This cratered landscape isn’t unusual. Most of the world’s bee species – 70%! – nest underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nest opening leads to a burrow a couple of inches long. At the bottom, she digs holes called brood cells. She will lay an egg in each one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first she needs to stock up on food for her future offspring. This flower is a favorite for nectar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And check out the pollen on this bee. Wait a minute! That’s not our digger bee. That’s a yellow-faced bumblebee. She’ll sting you if you mess with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our bee is a bumblebee mimic. She doesn’t sting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The real bumblebee has a bright-yellow band on the bottom of her abdomen. Our bee has a band higher up. By imitating a stinging bumblebee, she scares predators away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back from foraging, our digger packs pollen and nectar into each cell and lays an egg on top. The larva that hatches out will have a ready-made meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she tears down her turret, bit by bit. She uses it as mortar to seal her nest closed and keep her eggs safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After finishing a couple of nests, the bee’s brief, hardworking life comes to an end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beach will be her final resting place. And next year, the ever-shifting sand will bear witness to her young emerging from their nests.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Once a Spawn a Time: Horseshoe Crabs Mob the Beach\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once a year, under a full moon, millions of horseshoe crabs emerge from the ocean for a romantic rendezvous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they’re done, they leave their babies behind in the sand. These delicate, otherworldly creatures are just starting their lives, twitching and twirling inside their translucent homes. They’re baby horseshoe crabs, preparing for the moment they can break free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all started two weeks ago, when the tides were at their highest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs emerge from the briny deep and head for the shore with only one thing on their minds: a springtime spawning spree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These Atlantic horseshoe crabs gather, by the millions, along the east coast of North America, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crowds here in Delaware are some of the biggest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The males show up first, hanging out on the beach and in the shallows of the bay. They scramble to latch on to the backs of passing females.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females can be the size of dinner plates, way bigger than the males.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They take advantage of the fleeting high tides to haul their precious cargo as high up the beach as possible. The females muscle their way up the beach, with the males in tow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greatest danger for these horseshoe crabs is flipping over, exposing their vulnerable underside. And it only takes a small wave to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the hood, horseshoe crabs’ legs end in pincers. But mature males have something special on their front legs. This “clasper” that looks like a little boxing glove with a hooked finger. It’s perfect for gripping the back of a female’s shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To flip back over, the animals use their long, spiky tail, called a telson. It looks a little scary, but horseshoe crabs don’t sting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs have been making these high tide treks under the glow of the full moon since before the dinosaurs. That’s more than 400 million years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone finds a date. Especially those younger males. But they hike up the beach anyway in hopes of getting in on the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This female is dragging around two admirers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a female finds a good spot, she digs and digs into the wet sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The female lays roughly four thousand eggs in one go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male that clung to her all this time is in the best position to fertilize the most eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those single dudes crowd around too, vying to fertilize the rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the party winds down, the grownups start heading back to sea. But they’ll return for more of these high tide soirees throughout the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They leave their fertilized eggs behind, buried in the damp sand. Each one is smaller than a pea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next couple of weeks the embryos inside develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the high tides return these larvae are ready to hatch. Jostling of the waves stimulates them to break out of their shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is their chance. They have just a few hours to scramble into the turbulent surf, before the high tide recedes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll mature beneath the waves for roughly a decade before they’re ready to return as adults themselves, where they’ll take their turn in this ancient dance of the moon, tides and sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>These Acrobatic Beach Hoppers Shred All Night Long\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Moonlight parties aren’t just for horseshoe crabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beach hoppers throw their own night ragers and the dancing is acrobatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun sinks behind the waves, these performers awaken and get ready for their all-night show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They take cues from the tides, the moon, and their appetite, emerging from sandy underground burrows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might know them as sand fleas, but they don’t bite and they aren’t fleas. They’re called beach hoppers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These crustaceans are as small as an ant or as large as a cricket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their eyes are made up of hundreds of cells called ommatidia, but they don’t see much detail – just blurry shapes, light and dark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re drawn towards shadowy blobs on the horizon. They hope it’s kelp, their favorite food. When they find it, they eat and eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes they even eat one another. This large beach hopper is piercing the other right behind its eye, holding it in place with its claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For protection, they dig burrows about a foot deep where the sand is damp and cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And males will fight over control of burrows, especially if there are females inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep in the night, the beach hopper acrobatics build into a dazzling show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A powerful flick of their curled-up tail launches them skyward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They do not stick the landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A beach hopper can jump as high as your knees, dozens of times the length of its body. It’s a quick way to travel towards food or mates. Or to get out of harm’s way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beach hoppers’ diets are mostly beach wrack – anything natural that washes ashore. Wrack is an essential source of nutrients for sandy beach ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These shredders break down the wrack into smaller parts. It’s the first step in sending nutrients into the food chain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When predators like shorebirds or insects eat beach hoppers, they can carry these nutrients further inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without these hungry acrobats, beaches the world over would be strewn with rotting seaweed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a night of fighting and feasting, they leave only silhouettes behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun rises, the beach hoppers retreat to their burrows, just beyond the tide’s reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The performers need their rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another spectacle is just a night away.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this sand dollar is just an empty husk … a skeleton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is what sand dollars really look like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Off the coast of California, Pacific sand dollars snuggle up together, like a big pile of purple sea cookies. They’re fuzzy … almost cuddly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But look closer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That fuzz is actually made up of tiny spines … thousands of them. Some long and spiky, others rounder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mixed in are miniature tube feet with grabby little suckers on the ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They use them to meticulously sift the sand and pass the grains down the line … until they reach the sand dollar’s mouth at the very center of its underside, buried under all those spines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sand dollars eat sand. They’re after the algae and bacteria that coat the grains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And these sand dollars can also stand themselves up on their sides to use the long spines around their edges to trap tiny plankton floating by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what about that part that looks like a flower with five petals? It’s called the petaloid. They have special tube feet there that help the sand dollar breathe, absorbing oxygen out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see that same five-point body plan on the skeletons of their relatives, like starfish and sea urchins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, sand dollars are just a type of flat sea urchin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while their cousins prefer the rocky shore – chock full of life and spots to hide – sand dollars don’t have such a cozy place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re at the mercy of what’s basically an undersea desert – thrashed and sandblasted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So being flat is an advantage. They’re sleeker, streamlined against the powerful currents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they have another scrupulous solution for staying put.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not all sand is the same. Mixed in there are some extra heavy grains. They’re made of magnetite, a type of iron ore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think that as they grow, young sand dollars sort them out and swallow them, grain after grain. The heavy ore builds up inside their bodies and helps weigh them down to the seafloor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, researchers used X-rays of sand dollars to look for it. See those bright white areas? Those are the pockets of magnetite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how these tireless little creatures can hack it – out here in such turbulent waters – where most other things can’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, it takes a lot of work just to lay around.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>For Pacific Mole Crabs It’s Dig or Die\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Where the waves break, there are signs of life underfoot – these expert diggers: mole crabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaotic, turbulent, harsh. The ocean’s edge isn’t the easiest place to make a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet, someone does: Pacific mole crabs, also called sand crabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’ve probably seen the little holes they make.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They spend their lives just under the surface of the sand, waves crashing overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That ever-present flux offers a meal. Each wave kicks up plankton and other tasty morsels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They peep out from below the sand and use their feathery antennae to catch food right out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they can’t just sit around gorging themselves all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crabs want to stay in the swash zone – this part here where the waves break and sweep in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s always moving with the tides, up and down the beach. So the mole crabs have to move with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re not the only ones out here looking for a meal. To birds, they’re basically beach candy. Easy pickings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So mole crabs have become champion diggers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can disappear in a flash, back under the sand to hide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they have to be fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what makes them so good at burrowing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at UC Berkeley want to find out. Back at the lab, they film the mole crabs in action using high-speed cameras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mole crabs actually burrow backwards, digging into the sand with their pointy rumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But moving densely packed sand is hard work. The grains stick to each other, making it tough to push through. So the crabs have become tiny engineers. They stir up the wet sand with their tails, making it easier to move. A process called liquefaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, they push the loose sand up toward the surface by handing it off between their five pairs of legs. See? Kind of like a conveyor belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The waves never rest, so the mole crabs do this day and night, as they’re tossed and tumbled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they take it all in stride. When you survive on chaos, fluidity is what it’s all about.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>This Bee Builds Sandcastles at the Beach\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>These bees skip the hive life and build their own little sandcastles on the sides of beach cliffs. Ocean views, anyone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It might seem peculiar, bees living at the beach. But this is their home. And they spend the spring building their perfect beach condos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At their local watering hole, they’re not actually having a drink. They’re collecting water as a raw material. They slurp it into a pouch in their abdomen called a crop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can carry one sixth of their weight in water, hauling it to the side of this cliff in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now that’s a view!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back and forth, back and forth, 80 times a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re building their nests from the cliff’s mix of sand, clay and gravel, spraying water to soften it up. See how she extends her proboscis and uses it like a hose?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she digs and digs and digs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re digger bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females build their nests side by side in what’s called an aggregation. The males, most of them have died by now, after mating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females work peacefully … most of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>-Hey, make your own nest!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some even make sandcastles, shaping the earth they dig out into a turret. To do that, they pat down the wet gravel with the tip of their abdomen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think the turrets could help keep out large parasitic insects, like other kinds of bees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This cratered landscape isn’t unusual. Most of the world’s bee species – 70%! – nest underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nest opening leads to a burrow a couple of inches long. At the bottom, she digs holes called brood cells. She will lay an egg in each one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first she needs to stock up on food for her future offspring. This flower is a favorite for nectar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And check out the pollen on this bee. Wait a minute! That’s not our digger bee. That’s a yellow-faced bumblebee. She’ll sting you if you mess with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our bee is a bumblebee mimic. She doesn’t sting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The real bumblebee has a bright-yellow band on the bottom of her abdomen. Our bee has a band higher up. By imitating a stinging bumblebee, she scares predators away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back from foraging, our digger packs pollen and nectar into each cell and lays an egg on top. The larva that hatches out will have a ready-made meal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then she tears down her turret, bit by bit. She uses it as mortar to seal her nest closed and keep her eggs safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After finishing a couple of nests, the bee’s brief, hardworking life comes to an end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beach will be her final resting place. And next year, the ever-shifting sand will bear witness to her young emerging from their nests.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Once a Spawn a Time: Horseshoe Crabs Mob the Beach\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once a year, under a full moon, millions of horseshoe crabs emerge from the ocean for a romantic rendezvous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they’re done, they leave their babies behind in the sand. These delicate, otherworldly creatures are just starting their lives, twitching and twirling inside their translucent homes. They’re baby horseshoe crabs, preparing for the moment they can break free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It all started two weeks ago, when the tides were at their highest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs emerge from the briny deep and head for the shore with only one thing on their minds: a springtime spawning spree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These Atlantic horseshoe crabs gather, by the millions, along the east coast of North America, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crowds here in Delaware are some of the biggest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The males show up first, hanging out on the beach and in the shallows of the bay. They scramble to latch on to the backs of passing females.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The females can be the size of dinner plates, way bigger than the males.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They take advantage of the fleeting high tides to haul their precious cargo as high up the beach as possible. The females muscle their way up the beach, with the males in tow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greatest danger for these horseshoe crabs is flipping over, exposing their vulnerable underside. And it only takes a small wave to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the hood, horseshoe crabs’ legs end in pincers. But mature males have something special on their front legs. This “clasper” that looks like a little boxing glove with a hooked finger. It’s perfect for gripping the back of a female’s shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To flip back over, the animals use their long, spiky tail, called a telson. It looks a little scary, but horseshoe crabs don’t sting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horseshoe crabs have been making these high tide treks under the glow of the full moon since before the dinosaurs. That’s more than 400 million years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone finds a date. Especially those younger males. But they hike up the beach anyway in hopes of getting in on the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This female is dragging around two admirers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a female finds a good spot, she digs and digs into the wet sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The female lays roughly four thousand eggs in one go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male that clung to her all this time is in the best position to fertilize the most eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All those single dudes crowd around too, vying to fertilize the rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the party winds down, the grownups start heading back to sea. But they’ll return for more of these high tide soirees throughout the season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They leave their fertilized eggs behind, buried in the damp sand. Each one is smaller than a pea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next couple of weeks the embryos inside develop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the high tides return these larvae are ready to hatch. Jostling of the waves stimulates them to break out of their shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is their chance. They have just a few hours to scramble into the turbulent surf, before the high tide recedes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll mature beneath the waves for roughly a decade before they’re ready to return as adults themselves, where they’ll take their turn in this ancient dance of the moon, tides and sand.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>These Acrobatic Beach Hoppers Shred All Night Long\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Moonlight parties aren’t just for horseshoe crabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beach hoppers throw their own night ragers and the dancing is acrobatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun sinks behind the waves, these performers awaken and get ready for their all-night show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They take cues from the tides, the moon, and their appetite, emerging from sandy underground burrows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might know them as sand fleas, but they don’t bite and they aren’t fleas. They’re called beach hoppers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These crustaceans are as small as an ant or as large as a cricket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their eyes are made up of hundreds of cells called ommatidia, but they don’t see much detail – just blurry shapes, light and dark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re drawn towards shadowy blobs on the horizon. They hope it’s kelp, their favorite food. When they find it, they eat and eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes they even eat one another. This large beach hopper is piercing the other right behind its eye, holding it in place with its claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For protection, they dig burrows about a foot deep where the sand is damp and cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And males will fight over control of burrows, especially if there are females inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deep in the night, the beach hopper acrobatics build into a dazzling show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A powerful flick of their curled-up tail launches them skyward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They do not stick the landing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A beach hopper can jump as high as your knees, dozens of times the length of its body. It’s a quick way to travel towards food or mates. Or to get out of harm’s way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beach hoppers’ diets are mostly beach wrack – anything natural that washes ashore. Wrack is an essential source of nutrients for sandy beach ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These shredders break down the wrack into smaller parts. It’s the first step in sending nutrients into the food chain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When predators like shorebirds or insects eat beach hoppers, they can carry these nutrients further inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without these hungry acrobats, beaches the world over would be strewn with rotting seaweed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a night of fighting and feasting, they leave only silhouettes behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the sun rises, the beach hoppers retreat to their burrows, just beyond the tide’s reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The performers need their rest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Once clothes moth larvae start eating your favorite garments, they’re tough to get rid of. Tiny parasitoid wasps are here to help – they lay their eggs inside the moth’s eggs so you can say bye-bye to those smelly mothballs.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This little larva is knitting itself a tiny sweater. Made of its own silk, and fibers it stole from your wardrobe. It’s a clothes moth, and as a larva it feasts on your favorite sweater. But don’t worry, you’ll meet its nemesis soon enough. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This larva’s love of fashion comes from its appetite for keratin, a protein in your sheep’s wool and cashmere sweaters. It’s also after the vitamin B in the sweat, oil and skin flakes you shed onto your clothes every day. But how did the moths get into your home in the first place? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, they didn’t fly in. You probably brought them home yourself! Their eggs or larvae hitchhike on thrifted clothing or vintage rugs. Once inside, that’s where they grow and reproduce, later spreading to the dark forgotten corners of your home. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This larva chomps on strand after strand of wool like al dente spaghetti. As it eats, it poops sand-colored frass. The pellets add some bling to the cocoon, and make it a nice, dark home to grow up inside. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey! Turn the light off! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult clothes moths are about the size of a pinkie nail, and they’ve had a glow up. They’re no longer hungry for what’s left of your sweaters. They couldn’t eat them anyways; they have no working mouthparts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They turn around and plop their eggs in the same nutritious sweaters and rugs they grew up in. And in others nearby. And they mate with their own siblings. That means they multiply – fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you’ve got them in your closet, you might want to call in some backup. To fight clothes moths, researchers are enlisting another tiny insect: parasitoid wasps. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re no bigger than a grain of salt. Trichogramma wasps have long been used to control pests in agriculture and gardening. They come on what looks like a business card, covered in thousands of eggs – moth eggs that have already been parasitized. Slip it into your closet, and about a week later, wasps emerge. They’re all female, ready to lay their own eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This lady patrols your sweaters, searching for moth eggs. When she finds one, she inspects it with her antennae to sense its freshness, size, and if it’s already been parasitized. Then she pierces the egg with her needlelike ovipositor and pushes her own egg inside. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She didn’t even have to mate before laying her eggs – she reproduces asexually. A few days later, instead of a moth larva, a wasp emerges; she’s ready to parasitize more moth eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new wasps keep the cycle going until the entire moth population is gone. That could take as little as a few weeks, depending on the size of the infestation. The best way to stop a clothes moth invasion is to prevent it in the first place! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspect and vacuum secondhand rugs and furniture. Toss thrifted clothes in the freezer for at least seven days to kill any hidden eggs or larvae. And remember those smelly mothballs? They’re effective, but some contain chemicals that can be harmful to humans and pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So next time you find holes in your clothes, you might want to consider starting up a little biology experiment in your closet.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, they didn’t fly in. You probably brought them home yourself! Their eggs or larvae hitchhike on thrifted clothing or vintage rugs. Once inside, that’s where they grow and reproduce, later spreading to the dark forgotten corners of your home. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This larva chomps on strand after strand of wool like al dente spaghetti. As it eats, it poops sand-colored frass. The pellets add some bling to the cocoon, and make it a nice, dark home to grow up inside. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hey! Turn the light off! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult clothes moths are about the size of a pinkie nail, and they’ve had a glow up. They’re no longer hungry for what’s left of your sweaters. They couldn’t eat them anyways; they have no working mouthparts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They turn around and plop their eggs in the same nutritious sweaters and rugs they grew up in. And in others nearby. And they mate with their own siblings. That means they multiply – fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So if you’ve got them in your closet, you might want to call in some backup. To fight clothes moths, researchers are enlisting another tiny insect: parasitoid wasps. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re no bigger than a grain of salt. Trichogramma wasps have long been used to control pests in agriculture and gardening. They come on what looks like a business card, covered in thousands of eggs – moth eggs that have already been parasitized. Slip it into your closet, and about a week later, wasps emerge. They’re all female, ready to lay their own eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This lady patrols your sweaters, searching for moth eggs. When she finds one, she inspects it with her antennae to sense its freshness, size, and if it’s already been parasitized. Then she pierces the egg with her needlelike ovipositor and pushes her own egg inside. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She didn’t even have to mate before laying her eggs – she reproduces asexually. A few days later, instead of a moth larva, a wasp emerges; she’s ready to parasitize more moth eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new wasps keep the cycle going until the entire moth population is gone. That could take as little as a few weeks, depending on the size of the infestation. The best way to stop a clothes moth invasion is to prevent it in the first place! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspect and vacuum secondhand rugs and furniture. Toss thrifted clothes in the freezer for at least seven days to kill any hidden eggs or larvae. And remember those smelly mothballs? They’re effective, but some contain chemicals that can be harmful to humans and pets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So next time you find holes in your clothes, you might want to consider starting up a little biology experiment in your closet.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Regal jumping spiders train themselves from a young age to become masterful hunters. From the day they leave mom’s silk nest, the tiny spiderlings practice, practice, practice, using some of the best vision in the animal world, athletic leaps, sharp fangs and lethal venom.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>With fangs that bite … \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>venom that paralyzes … \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>and liquifies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This regal jumping spider rules her tiny garden domain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She squeezes out every last drop, leaving nothing but a crumpled husk behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The size of a bottle cap, she had to teach herself how to be this fearsome, starting when she was smaller than a sesame seed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every jumping spider must learn to stalk and pounce — they don’t use a web to catch prey. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To make the next generation of killers-in-training, she’ll need a mate. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A male arrives in formal attire — jet black with white markings. And blue-green iridescent chelicerae. That’s the name for these appendages that house their venom glands and end in their fangs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quite dashing, indeed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He captivates her attention with his dance moves. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They embrace, and things get intimate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A couple of weeks after mating, the female jumping spider lays 50-200 eggs inside her cozy nest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She spins a protective silk sac around them … and guards them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they hatch, the nest serves as both their nursery and a silky jungle gym.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They grow up here under the many watchful eyes of their mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t eat during these first few weeks, surviving off of yolk, an energy source left over from when they were in their eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their exoskeletons harden and darken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they grow, so does their curiosity … and their appetite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have to venture out into the world to find their first meal. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jumping spiders’ keen eyesight is fine-tuned for daylight hunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have eight eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see them more clearly on their mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three smaller pairs on the sides see motion, making it hard for predators to sneak up on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their central pair are their principal eyes that allow them to see crisp detail and vivid color. They also help these cuties judge distance so they can land on target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something catches the spiderling’s attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at first, the spiderling is a bit unsure of what to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It doesn’t have a teacher. So it’s gotta improvise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, that could have gone better. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Got it! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now what? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aww! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All right, this time, no messing around. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spiderling tries out its fangs for the very first time. It doesn’t take long before this tiny hunter enjoys the sweet taste of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With practice, the spiderling improves its technique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she grows, she gets fuzzy, like really fuzzy. And gains the confidence to take on bigger and stronger prey. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over six to nine months, this self-made spider has become a stone cold killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s the apex predator … at least on this twig.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This regal jumping spider rules her tiny garden domain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She squeezes out every last drop, leaving nothing but a crumpled husk behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The size of a bottle cap, she had to teach herself how to be this fearsome, starting when she was smaller than a sesame seed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every jumping spider must learn to stalk and pounce — they don’t use a web to catch prey. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To make the next generation of killers-in-training, she’ll need a mate. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A male arrives in formal attire — jet black with white markings. And blue-green iridescent chelicerae. That’s the name for these appendages that house their venom glands and end in their fangs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Quite dashing, indeed. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He captivates her attention with his dance moves. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They embrace, and things get intimate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A couple of weeks after mating, the female jumping spider lays 50-200 eggs inside her cozy nest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She spins a protective silk sac around them … and guards them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they hatch, the nest serves as both their nursery and a silky jungle gym.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They grow up here under the many watchful eyes of their mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t eat during these first few weeks, surviving off of yolk, an energy source left over from when they were in their eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their exoskeletons harden and darken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they grow, so does their curiosity … and their appetite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have to venture out into the world to find their first meal. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jumping spiders’ keen eyesight is fine-tuned for daylight hunting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They have eight eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see them more clearly on their mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three smaller pairs on the sides see motion, making it hard for predators to sneak up on them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their central pair are their principal eyes that allow them to see crisp detail and vivid color. They also help these cuties judge distance so they can land on target.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something catches the spiderling’s attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at first, the spiderling is a bit unsure of what to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It doesn’t have a teacher. So it’s gotta improvise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, that could have gone better. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Got it! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now what? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aww! \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All right, this time, no messing around. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spiderling tries out its fangs for the very first time. It doesn’t take long before this tiny hunter enjoys the sweet taste of success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With practice, the spiderling improves its technique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she grows, she gets fuzzy, like really fuzzy. And gains the confidence to take on bigger and stronger prey. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over six to nine months, this self-made spider has become a stone cold killer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s the apex predator … at least on this twig.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>We hope your spring cleaning doesn’t uncover bed bugs, dust mites, termites, drain flies or cockroaches.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dread them. Run from them. But that won’t stop these unwelcome house guests from coming to visit you anyway. In fact, you’ve probably got them in your home right now making themselves comfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s start with the tiny dust mite. It might seem harmless but in large numbers they can cause serious problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Meet the Dust Mites, Tiny Roommates That Feast On Your Skin\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Long ago – around the time we started growing our own food – humans settled down. We went home, inside. We built permanent shelters to protect us from the elements and keep the wild animals at bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or so we thought. Surprise! The animals were right there with us. They still are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is dust. Zoom in and you find an ecosystem almost as elaborate as the one we left outside. But small enough for us to forget it exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dust is pretty much anything small. But the most important ingredient of dust – at least for the purposes of this story – is skin. Your skin. Her skin. His skin. Tiny flakes that fall off our bodies all day long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco collect and study house dust to find out what exactly makes up this micro-universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the cleanest homes are teeming with tiny, almost invisible roommates. And even more so if you have pets or kids or live on the ground floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most homes have over 100 species, no matter how often you vacuum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not just these guys. But these. And these. And these. Most of these microscopic roommates are harmless. Just freeloaders, basically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one can cause real trouble: the house dust mite. This is like the roommate who leaves his crap around and makes you sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dust mites don’t bite people. They don’t need to. We feed them constantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skin flakes are hard to digest. It’s like eating hair, or feathers. So dust mites have powerful digestive enzymes to break the skin down. Those enzymes turn up in dust mite poop. And let’s just say you really don’t want to know how much dust mite poop is in your house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When people breathe dust, they breathe in the poop – and the enzymes, too, which irritate the lungs and can aggravate asthma, especially in kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like us humans, dust mites haven’t always lived inside either. These tiny relatives of spiders and scorpions once lived in birds’ nests. But then, some intrepid dust mites made the jump from birds’ homes to ours. And as our society thrived and grew, so did theirs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These bed bugs are after your blood and they go for it while you’re sleeping. Keep watching to see how researchers stop them dead in their tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Watch Bed Bugs Get Stopped in Their Tracks\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the … OK, you know where this is going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lured in by our breath, bed bugs come for us when we’re most vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In dreamland, we’re oblivious to bed bug chow time. You won’t even feel it. It’s a quick meal. Just a few minutes. But it’s a filling one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stuffed with blood, it scurries to a nearby cranny: the seam of your mattress or behind a baseboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, they get to work growing their families. Until you get …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can recognize them by their signature work of art: these tiny splotches. It’s the digested blood they leave behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1950s, we made bed bugs retreat with DDT. But some became resistant and now they’re back. We help them spread – in our clothes or luggage – when we travel around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can kill them with other insecticides or heat, but their game of hide-and-seek makes it tricky. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, there might be another way to stop them in their tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch this. It’s just taking a stroll and … Gotcha! Its foot is stuck. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This bean leaf can incapacitate the bloodsuckers. People in the Balkans discovered that years ago and would spread the leaves around their beds as a trap. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The leaf’s surface is covered in these tiny hooked hairs called trichomes. They pierce right through the bed bug’s feet, impaling their soft joints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many bean plants – like kidney and green beans – developed the hooks to defend against aphids and other plant-eating pests. But it just so happens to work on our bloodthirsty pest too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologist and engineer Catherine Loudon is trying to copy the plant at the University of California, Irvine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s creating a synthetic material that can pierce bed bug feet just like bean leaves do. It’s not quite as effective as a real bean leaf, but she’s working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, bed bugs are still a step ahead. So keep an eye out. Spot them early and maybe you can get them before they get you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Termites can infiltrate your home without being seen, and the results can be catastrophic. But these tiny homewreckers wouldn’t be able to do so much damage without the help of special microorganisms hidden in their gut.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>These Termites Turn Your House into a Palace of Poop\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That lump on the side of this tree in the Amazon? It’s packed with termites. In the rainforest, that’s a good thing. They break down wood into stuff other creatures can eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But inside our homes, termites are pests. They cost us billions of dollars of damage every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take these dampwood termites that live on the cool California coast. They eat wood that’s wet or decayed, maybe from a leak in your house. Slowly, but surely, they gnaw and scrape away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What comes out the other end isn’t waste. It serves as a kind of mortar. And dried poop pellets make perfect building blocks for their nests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, they’re turning your house into theirs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s amazing is that they can digest wood, which is so hard, and get nutrients out of it. We certainly can’t do that. Termites are one of the only animals that can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out they don’t do this alone. Researchers are looking inside termites to figure out who’s actually responsible for this feat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Exploratorium, in San Francisco, museum biologists give the insect a little puff of carbon dioxide. When it’s nice and relaxed, the termite poops itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the microscope, multitudes appear. Hundreds of species of microbes live packed inside a termite’s gut, about one one-thousandth of a teaspoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This big one is called Trichonympha. It’s not an animal, plant or fungus. It’s a protist. Watch it move with the help of its flagella.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Protists like Trichonympha are essential for termites to turn the wood into a source of energy. They do this by fermenting the wood, much the same way a brewer turns grain into beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something else is hidden deep in the termite’s gut: a powerful bacterium that combines nitrogen from the air and calories from the wood to make protein. That’s like turning a potato into a steak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Termites can’t live without their microbes. And many of these microbes can’t live outside the termite. So what if we used the microbes against their hosts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, when we want to get rid of termites, we fumigate our houses with poison. But maybe we could just kill the protists instead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Louisiana State University entomologists are engineering a gut bacterium to kill gut protists. They’d sneak the bacteria into the termite colony on something the termites would eat. The bacteria would kill the protists that help the termites digest wood, leaving them surrounded by food but starving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cuties are experts in making their way into your house through some secret and slimy passageways. Check it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why Does This Fly Live in Your Bathroom?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ever wonder where those little insects crawling around your bathroom came from? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bad news: your drain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all that fluffy hair, it looks like a tiny moth. And some do call it a moth fly. But a fly it is. A drain fly. It’s called Clogmia – how appropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It grew up over several weeks, out of sight, among things you thought you’d washed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drain flies sneak in from the outside, through a crack in an old pipe, for example, to sip some water they sensed with this long mustache – their maxillary palps. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here, on the plentiful gunk in your pipes, they’ll grow a family. Welcome, little one! The larva is the length of an eyelash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That gunk it lives in? Those are bits of you: hair, saliva and food. They make a nice meal for bacteria and fungi, which form this dark, living slime called a biofilm. This is what the larvae feed on. It also keeps them well moisturized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the larva ends up submerged, it can still chow down. It sweeps slime particles out of the water with a hairy mouthpart called the labrum and rakes them in with its mandibles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underwater, it breathes with a bubble on its backside that it collected at the surface. This allows it to venture through deep pools in your pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When larvae, or the more grown-up pupae, like this guy here, end up in a toilet bowl, it can be a shock. You might think the squigglers came out of you. Ew! Don’t worry – they can’t live inside us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even though the drain flies in your bathroom muck around in bacteria, they don’t really spread it to humans. They’re not interested in landing on us. Or even leaving the bathroom. They’re in their happy place. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you wash your hands? They protect themselves from the water with their hairy wings. Each hair has ridges that trap air so the drops roll right off. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if they’re caught off-guard by a sudden surge, the flies skate across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re not invincible. When they get trapped underwater long enough, they can drown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you find you really need to get rid of them, drain cleaner helps, but it won’t keep them away forever. There will always be some slime left behind, deep in your pipes, that could attract the flies again. So, if they want it, why not let ‘em have it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are cockroaches – those disgusting disease-spreading roommates – good for anything at all?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think their super-strength might teach us some tricks that could someday save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cockroach vs. Hydraulic Press: Who Wins?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The American cockroach is one of the fastest insects on the planet. It can run up to 3.4 miles per hour. That’d be like a human knocking out eight marathons over their lunch break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It uses hooks, called tarsal claws, to flip over ledges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And not even a wall can stop it. Better to keep up the momentum and figure it out as you go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roach is both tough and flexible. Its exoskeleton isn’t one large piece of armor, but many shield-like plates made of a tough material called chitin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re held together by lots of pliable joints. And they use all those bendy joints to fold up, origami-style, and push through impossibly small cracks, like that gap you never knew existed in your kitchen cupboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cockroach can army-crawl through a space a quarter of its normal standing height. That’s one reason it’s so good at surviving your thwack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how much pressure can the cockroach take?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley found it can withstand a thwack equivalent to 900 times its body weight and walk away unscathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why are researchers so interested in all this? They think the roach, despite its ability to make us sick, can teach us to save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those researchers is now building robots the size of insects to squeeze into places you and I cannot. Like piles of rubble left by major earthquakes or hurricanes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And maybe down the line, much smaller versions of these robots could even enter our bodies to perform life-saving tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the one hand, we want to keep these creatures out – by sealing cracks, caulking windows and storing food in airtight containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But we also want to learn from them. The cockroach teaches us that the key to overcoming adversity isn’t just toughness. It’s also flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>We hope your spring cleaning doesn’t uncover bed bugs, dust mites, termites, drain flies or cockroaches.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Dread them. Run from them. But that won’t stop these unwelcome house guests from coming to visit you anyway. In fact, you’ve probably got them in your home right now making themselves comfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s start with the tiny dust mite. It might seem harmless but in large numbers they can cause serious problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Meet the Dust Mites, Tiny Roommates That Feast On Your Skin\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Long ago – around the time we started growing our own food – humans settled down. We went home, inside. We built permanent shelters to protect us from the elements and keep the wild animals at bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or so we thought. Surprise! The animals were right there with us. They still are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is dust. Zoom in and you find an ecosystem almost as elaborate as the one we left outside. But small enough for us to forget it exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dust is pretty much anything small. But the most important ingredient of dust – at least for the purposes of this story – is skin. Your skin. Her skin. His skin. Tiny flakes that fall off our bodies all day long.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco collect and study house dust to find out what exactly makes up this micro-universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even the cleanest homes are teeming with tiny, almost invisible roommates. And even more so if you have pets or kids or live on the ground floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most homes have over 100 species, no matter how often you vacuum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not just these guys. But these. And these. And these. Most of these microscopic roommates are harmless. Just freeloaders, basically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one can cause real trouble: the house dust mite. This is like the roommate who leaves his crap around and makes you sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dust mites don’t bite people. They don’t need to. We feed them constantly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Skin flakes are hard to digest. It’s like eating hair, or feathers. So dust mites have powerful digestive enzymes to break the skin down. Those enzymes turn up in dust mite poop. And let’s just say you really don’t want to know how much dust mite poop is in your house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When people breathe dust, they breathe in the poop – and the enzymes, too, which irritate the lungs and can aggravate asthma, especially in kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like us humans, dust mites haven’t always lived inside either. These tiny relatives of spiders and scorpions once lived in birds’ nests. But then, some intrepid dust mites made the jump from birds’ homes to ours. And as our society thrived and grew, so did theirs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These bed bugs are after your blood and they go for it while you’re sleeping. Keep watching to see how researchers stop them dead in their tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Watch Bed Bugs Get Stopped in Their Tracks\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the … OK, you know where this is going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lured in by our breath, bed bugs come for us when we’re most vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In dreamland, we’re oblivious to bed bug chow time. You won’t even feel it. It’s a quick meal. Just a few minutes. But it’s a filling one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stuffed with blood, it scurries to a nearby cranny: the seam of your mattress or behind a baseboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, they get to work growing their families. Until you get …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can recognize them by their signature work of art: these tiny splotches. It’s the digested blood they leave behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1950s, we made bed bugs retreat with DDT. But some became resistant and now they’re back. We help them spread – in our clothes or luggage – when we travel around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can kill them with other insecticides or heat, but their game of hide-and-seek makes it tricky. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, there might be another way to stop them in their tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch this. It’s just taking a stroll and … Gotcha! Its foot is stuck. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This bean leaf can incapacitate the bloodsuckers. People in the Balkans discovered that years ago and would spread the leaves around their beds as a trap. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The leaf’s surface is covered in these tiny hooked hairs called trichomes. They pierce right through the bed bug’s feet, impaling their soft joints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many bean plants – like kidney and green beans – developed the hooks to defend against aphids and other plant-eating pests. But it just so happens to work on our bloodthirsty pest too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biologist and engineer Catherine Loudon is trying to copy the plant at the University of California, Irvine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s creating a synthetic material that can pierce bed bug feet just like bean leaves do. It’s not quite as effective as a real bean leaf, but she’s working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, bed bugs are still a step ahead. So keep an eye out. Spot them early and maybe you can get them before they get you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Termites can infiltrate your home without being seen, and the results can be catastrophic. But these tiny homewreckers wouldn’t be able to do so much damage without the help of special microorganisms hidden in their gut.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>These Termites Turn Your House into a Palace of Poop\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That lump on the side of this tree in the Amazon? It’s packed with termites. In the rainforest, that’s a good thing. They break down wood into stuff other creatures can eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But inside our homes, termites are pests. They cost us billions of dollars of damage every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take these dampwood termites that live on the cool California coast. They eat wood that’s wet or decayed, maybe from a leak in your house. Slowly, but surely, they gnaw and scrape away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What comes out the other end isn’t waste. It serves as a kind of mortar. And dried poop pellets make perfect building blocks for their nests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, they’re turning your house into theirs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s amazing is that they can digest wood, which is so hard, and get nutrients out of it. We certainly can’t do that. Termites are one of the only animals that can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out they don’t do this alone. Researchers are looking inside termites to figure out who’s actually responsible for this feat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the Exploratorium, in San Francisco, museum biologists give the insect a little puff of carbon dioxide. When it’s nice and relaxed, the termite poops itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the microscope, multitudes appear. Hundreds of species of microbes live packed inside a termite’s gut, about one one-thousandth of a teaspoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This big one is called Trichonympha. It’s not an animal, plant or fungus. It’s a protist. Watch it move with the help of its flagella.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Protists like Trichonympha are essential for termites to turn the wood into a source of energy. They do this by fermenting the wood, much the same way a brewer turns grain into beer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something else is hidden deep in the termite’s gut: a powerful bacterium that combines nitrogen from the air and calories from the wood to make protein. That’s like turning a potato into a steak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Termites can’t live without their microbes. And many of these microbes can’t live outside the termite. So what if we used the microbes against their hosts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, when we want to get rid of termites, we fumigate our houses with poison. But maybe we could just kill the protists instead. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Louisiana State University entomologists are engineering a gut bacterium to kill gut protists. They’d sneak the bacteria into the termite colony on something the termites would eat. The bacteria would kill the protists that help the termites digest wood, leaving them surrounded by food but starving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cuties are experts in making their way into your house through some secret and slimy passageways. Check it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why Does This Fly Live in Your Bathroom?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ever wonder where those little insects crawling around your bathroom came from? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bad news: your drain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all that fluffy hair, it looks like a tiny moth. And some do call it a moth fly. But a fly it is. A drain fly. It’s called Clogmia – how appropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It grew up over several weeks, out of sight, among things you thought you’d washed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drain flies sneak in from the outside, through a crack in an old pipe, for example, to sip some water they sensed with this long mustache – their maxillary palps. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here, on the plentiful gunk in your pipes, they’ll grow a family. Welcome, little one! The larva is the length of an eyelash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That gunk it lives in? Those are bits of you: hair, saliva and food. They make a nice meal for bacteria and fungi, which form this dark, living slime called a biofilm. This is what the larvae feed on. It also keeps them well moisturized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the larva ends up submerged, it can still chow down. It sweeps slime particles out of the water with a hairy mouthpart called the labrum and rakes them in with its mandibles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underwater, it breathes with a bubble on its backside that it collected at the surface. This allows it to venture through deep pools in your pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When larvae, or the more grown-up pupae, like this guy here, end up in a toilet bowl, it can be a shock. You might think the squigglers came out of you. Ew! Don’t worry – they can’t live inside us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even though the drain flies in your bathroom muck around in bacteria, they don’t really spread it to humans. They’re not interested in landing on us. Or even leaving the bathroom. They’re in their happy place. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you wash your hands? They protect themselves from the water with their hairy wings. Each hair has ridges that trap air so the drops roll right off. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if they’re caught off-guard by a sudden surge, the flies skate across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re not invincible. When they get trapped underwater long enough, they can drown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you find you really need to get rid of them, drain cleaner helps, but it won’t keep them away forever. There will always be some slime left behind, deep in your pipes, that could attract the flies again. So, if they want it, why not let ‘em have it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Are cockroaches – those disgusting disease-spreading roommates – good for anything at all?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists think their super-strength might teach us some tricks that could someday save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cockroach vs. Hydraulic Press: Who Wins?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The American cockroach is one of the fastest insects on the planet. It can run up to 3.4 miles per hour. That’d be like a human knocking out eight marathons over their lunch break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It uses hooks, called tarsal claws, to flip over ledges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And not even a wall can stop it. Better to keep up the momentum and figure it out as you go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The roach is both tough and flexible. Its exoskeleton isn’t one large piece of armor, but many shield-like plates made of a tough material called chitin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re held together by lots of pliable joints. And they use all those bendy joints to fold up, origami-style, and push through impossibly small cracks, like that gap you never knew existed in your kitchen cupboard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cockroach can army-crawl through a space a quarter of its normal standing height. That’s one reason it’s so good at surviving your thwack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So how much pressure can the cockroach take?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at UC Berkeley found it can withstand a thwack equivalent to 900 times its body weight and walk away unscathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why are researchers so interested in all this? They think the roach, despite its ability to make us sick, can teach us to save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those researchers is now building robots the size of insects to squeeze into places you and I cannot. Like piles of rubble left by major earthquakes or hurricanes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And maybe down the line, much smaller versions of these robots could even enter our bodies to perform life-saving tasks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the one hand, we want to keep these creatures out – by sealing cracks, caulking windows and storing food in airtight containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But we also want to learn from them. The cockroach teaches us that the key to overcoming adversity isn’t just toughness. It’s also flexibility.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Praying mantises, barnacles, newts and earthworms have some of the strangest love lives.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>We get it, dating is hard. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From meeting the right special someone, to getting to know them, to avoiding imminent death. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bizarre romantic lives of these four tiny creatures sometimes end in strange and tragic ways. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially for the praying mantis. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to hooking up, a male mantis has good reason to fear commitment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Praying Mantis Love is Waaay Weirder Than You Think\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This mantis is at the top of her game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All summer, she’s been bulking up on grasshoppers and flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re called bordered mantises. Ambush hunters, cloaked by camouflage – some green and some brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And check out those forelimbs. They’re lined with sharp spikes – almost like a couple extra sets of jaws to grab her prey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve served her well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But summer is coming to an end here in California’s Owens Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing left for them to do is start the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sends out a chemical signal – an alluring cocktail of pheromones – into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This guy picks up the message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s way, way smaller than she is, simply outclassed when it comes to strength and deadliness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He makes his move, to pass on his genes …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uh …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he’s not the only male to meet his end this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why would praying mantises do this – eat their own kind at a rather intimate moment? Seems like they wouldn’t last long as a species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, it takes a ton of energy for females to produce their eggs, about a hundred of them developing inside her. She’ll lay them in a foamy cluster like this called an ootheca.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that male is fueling the survival of his species, nutritionally speaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they hatch in the spring, there will be plenty more mantises to replace this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And these bordered mantises weren’t going to live much longer anyway. They can’t survive the cold autumn nights. So males might as well take a shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aww … This time it worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He delivers a packet of sperm to fertilize her eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But each time, it’s a serious gamble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, that didn’t go so well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But wait, look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s been decapitated, but his body is still moving, like it’s on autopilot – kind of a zombie mating machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s being controlled by nerves in the mantis’ abdomen and can still get the job done. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, males who successfully mate and get eaten in the process may father more eggs than those who get away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, while it may not really seem that way, this guy may be the ultimate winner in the primal quest to pass on his genes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles might look like jagged little rocks at low tide. But they’re surprisingly well-equipped when it comes to finding a date.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barnacles Go To Unbelievable Lengths To Hook Up\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Finding a date is hard enough in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s especially tricky when you’re stuck to a rock in the middle of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, acorn barnacles don’t get discouraged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These crusty little animals actually have a pretty wild sex life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At low tide each one is sealed up inside its own miniature fortress. shielded by a ring of armored plates. The two central plates press together to form a water-tight seal so they don’t dry out in the open air. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re ready and waiting for the tide to rise so they can get down to business. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first they need to freshen up a bit. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barnacle unfurls eight pairs of delicate feathery legs called cirri, which they use to absorb oxygen from the water. The legs filter out plankton and debris churned up by the waves, bringing the catch inside to the mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may not look like it from the outside, but beneath their shell it’s easier to see that barnacles are crustaceans related to crabs and shrimp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a nice meal, it’s ready for some action. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The little barnacle lets loose the longest penis of any animal – relative to its body size of course – stretching up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this penis has skills. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can taste and smell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the tip can feel around, probing to see which neighbors have ripe eggs inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it finds what it’s looking for the barnacle delivers sperm to fertilize the eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles aren’t exactly prudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty much everyone is fair play. Because they’re all hermaphrodites, simultaneously male and female.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes it’s one-on-one, sometimes more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles are nurturing parents, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They hold on to their fertilized eggs and protect them until they hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cuties are their baby larvae called nauplii. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the young barnacles’ chance for adventure. They roam the sea searching for food and growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they survive long enough the barnacle larvae mature into cyprids. At this stage the barnacle doesn’t eat. The cyprid’s only mission is to find the ideal spot to glom onto before it starves. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having survived the trials of youth, the barnacle settles in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s time to get to know the neighbors. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How far would you go for love? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California newts make an epic journey back to the pond where they were born. Check it out. \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Newt Sex: Buff Males! Writhing Females! Cannibalism!\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Life is struggle. Sex. Death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s true across nature. It’s especially true for a newt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the time, California newts live quiet, hidden lives in the forest. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But every winter – and newts can live for 20 years – they experience an uncontrollable urge. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s called water drive. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They leave the safety of their burrows to go mate. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They begin a treacherous odyssey, a migration back to the pond in which they were born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It begins with a hormone called prolactin, the same one that helps women produce breast milk. In newts, prolactin sparks a need to become aquatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water could be miles away, like three miles. That’s the equivalent of 36 miles for you and me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t know for sure, but some think newts use their sense of smell to help guide them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they only have one real defense against snakes hiding in the brush: their skin. It’s covered in a poison strong enough to kill a person, if you ate one. Newts’ yellow eyes and belly tell predators to stay away. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But poison isn’t always enough to protect them. Many never make it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they move toward water, newts’ skin starts to lose its bumps and becomes smooth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their long tails flatten into fins. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their amphibian bodies transform from terrestrial to aquatic to prepare for a mating frenzy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male newt bulks up. It grows thick pads on its feet, perfect for clamping onto a female. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The word is “amplexus,” Latin for “embrace,” which is one word for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newts can stay like this for hours, or days. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result: egg clusters that females lay in the pond. So many eggs that newts sometimes eat a few for extra protein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ones that survive will grow into larvae and stay in the water for several months, transforming into adults. In the fall, they’ll leave the pond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then, if they’re lucky, they’ll come back here, again, and again, and again. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or at least, they’ll try.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Earthworm Love Is Cuddly … and Complicated\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Earthworm love. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s cuddly … and complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the start, the earthworm is built for romance, with four or five pairs of hearts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a match, though, that’s a challenge for these mostly solitary animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They go out looking when they’re a few months to a year old, and they’ve grown this fleshy, saddle-shaped patch, called a clitellum. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re now mature enough to get down to business. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tube-shaped invertebrate seeks mate to share loamy soil and good times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The earthworm follows tastes and smells through dirt or leaf litter to find its valentine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It crawls around by anchoring its body with these bristles called setae … then pushing forward with its muscles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, it fuels up on bacteria and tiny fungi in the soil and leaves, sucking them in with its mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a luscious … lip?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every earthworm has some non-negotiables: Must breathe through iridescent skin. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially for the praying mantis. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it comes to hooking up, a male mantis has good reason to fear commitment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Praying Mantis Love is Waaay Weirder Than You Think\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This mantis is at the top of her game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All summer, she’s been bulking up on grasshoppers and flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re called bordered mantises. Ambush hunters, cloaked by camouflage – some green and some brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And check out those forelimbs. They’re lined with sharp spikes – almost like a couple extra sets of jaws to grab her prey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ve served her well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But summer is coming to an end here in California’s Owens Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing left for them to do is start the next generation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sends out a chemical signal – an alluring cocktail of pheromones – into the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This guy picks up the message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s way, way smaller than she is, simply outclassed when it comes to strength and deadliness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He makes his move, to pass on his genes …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uh …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he’s not the only male to meet his end this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why would praying mantises do this – eat their own kind at a rather intimate moment? Seems like they wouldn’t last long as a species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, it takes a ton of energy for females to produce their eggs, about a hundred of them developing inside her. She’ll lay them in a foamy cluster like this called an ootheca.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that male is fueling the survival of his species, nutritionally speaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they hatch in the spring, there will be plenty more mantises to replace this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And these bordered mantises weren’t going to live much longer anyway. They can’t survive the cold autumn nights. So males might as well take a shot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aww … This time it worked out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He delivers a packet of sperm to fertilize her eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But each time, it’s a serious gamble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, that didn’t go so well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But wait, look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s been decapitated, but his body is still moving, like it’s on autopilot – kind of a zombie mating machine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s being controlled by nerves in the mantis’ abdomen and can still get the job done. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, males who successfully mate and get eaten in the process may father more eggs than those who get away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, while it may not really seem that way, this guy may be the ultimate winner in the primal quest to pass on his genes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles might look like jagged little rocks at low tide. But they’re surprisingly well-equipped when it comes to finding a date.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Barnacles Go To Unbelievable Lengths To Hook Up\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Finding a date is hard enough in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s especially tricky when you’re stuck to a rock in the middle of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, acorn barnacles don’t get discouraged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These crusty little animals actually have a pretty wild sex life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At low tide each one is sealed up inside its own miniature fortress. shielded by a ring of armored plates. The two central plates press together to form a water-tight seal so they don’t dry out in the open air. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re ready and waiting for the tide to rise so they can get down to business. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But first they need to freshen up a bit. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The barnacle unfurls eight pairs of delicate feathery legs called cirri, which they use to absorb oxygen from the water. The legs filter out plankton and debris churned up by the waves, bringing the catch inside to the mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may not look like it from the outside, but beneath their shell it’s easier to see that barnacles are crustaceans related to crabs and shrimp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a nice meal, it’s ready for some action. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The little barnacle lets loose the longest penis of any animal – relative to its body size of course – stretching up to eight times the length of the barnacle itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this penis has skills. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can taste and smell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the tip can feel around, probing to see which neighbors have ripe eggs inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it finds what it’s looking for the barnacle delivers sperm to fertilize the eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles aren’t exactly prudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty much everyone is fair play. Because they’re all hermaphrodites, simultaneously male and female.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes it’s one-on-one, sometimes more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barnacles are nurturing parents, too. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They hold on to their fertilized eggs and protect them until they hatch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cuties are their baby larvae called nauplii. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the young barnacles’ chance for adventure. They roam the sea searching for food and growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they survive long enough the barnacle larvae mature into cyprids. At this stage the barnacle doesn’t eat. The cyprid’s only mission is to find the ideal spot to glom onto before it starves. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having survived the trials of youth, the barnacle settles in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now it’s time to get to know the neighbors. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How far would you go for love? \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California newts make an epic journey back to the pond where they were born. Check it out. \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Newt Sex: Buff Males! Writhing Females! Cannibalism!\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Life is struggle. Sex. Death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s true across nature. It’s especially true for a newt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the time, California newts live quiet, hidden lives in the forest. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But every winter – and newts can live for 20 years – they experience an uncontrollable urge. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s called water drive. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They leave the safety of their burrows to go mate. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They begin a treacherous odyssey, a migration back to the pond in which they were born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It begins with a hormone called prolactin, the same one that helps women produce breast milk. In newts, prolactin sparks a need to become aquatic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water could be miles away, like three miles. That’s the equivalent of 36 miles for you and me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t know for sure, but some think newts use their sense of smell to help guide them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they only have one real defense against snakes hiding in the brush: their skin. It’s covered in a poison strong enough to kill a person, if you ate one. Newts’ yellow eyes and belly tell predators to stay away. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But poison isn’t always enough to protect them. Many never make it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they move toward water, newts’ skin starts to lose its bumps and becomes smooth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their long tails flatten into fins. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their amphibian bodies transform from terrestrial to aquatic to prepare for a mating frenzy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The male newt bulks up. It grows thick pads on its feet, perfect for clamping onto a female. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The word is “amplexus,” Latin for “embrace,” which is one word for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newts can stay like this for hours, or days. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result: egg clusters that females lay in the pond. So many eggs that newts sometimes eat a few for extra protein.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ones that survive will grow into larvae and stay in the water for several months, transforming into adults. In the fall, they’ll leave the pond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then, if they’re lucky, they’ll come back here, again, and again, and again. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or at least, they’ll try.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Earthworm Love Is Cuddly … and Complicated\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Earthworm love. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s cuddly … and complicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the start, the earthworm is built for romance, with four or five pairs of hearts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finding a match, though, that’s a challenge for these mostly solitary animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They go out looking when they’re a few months to a year old, and they’ve grown this fleshy, saddle-shaped patch, called a clitellum. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re now mature enough to get down to business. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tube-shaped invertebrate seeks mate to share loamy soil and good times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The earthworm follows tastes and smells through dirt or leaf litter to find its valentine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It crawls around by anchoring its body with these bristles called setae … then pushing forward with its muscles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, it fuels up on bacteria and tiny fungi in the soil and leaves, sucking them in with its mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a luscious … lip?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every earthworm has some non-negotiables: Must breathe through iridescent skin. Must want kids. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But male or female is not one of them. All earthworms are both. They’re hermaphrodites, which automatically doubles their chances of finding a mate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they do, they waste no time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Side by side, they surround each other with rings of slime they exude from their skin, bodies pointing in opposite directions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And they embrace with these flaps on their clitella.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They can canoodle like this for an hour, swapping sperm. It travels outside their bodies, here, where they press up against each other, and flows between these segments into storage sacs inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their tender act has a dark side. As they do the deed, the earthworms stab each other with their pointy setae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those wounds mean the injured lovers won’t be hooking up with others anytime soon. 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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sharpshooters survive by guzzling a lot of plant sap. But drinking all of that liquid nutrition presents a problem for these tiny insects: how do you move it all out? They’ve perfected a super-propulsive urination technique using a special catapult in their butt.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Not a cloud in the sky. So how is it raining under this grapevine?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not rain … that’s pee!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It comes from this insect, a sharpshooter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And flinging pee rapid-fire like this is crucial to its survival.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sharpshooter gets all its nutrition from the thin, watery liquid inside a plant, called xylem sap, which it sucks out with this tube-shaped stylet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the brilliant blue adults and their translucent nymphs feed on the sap in grapevines and other plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sap has so little nutrition that sharpshooters need to guzzle nonstop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They consume more than 300 times their body weight a day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’d be like you downing over 80 bathtubs of cucumber water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yummmmmm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sharpshooter uses massive muscles in its head to suck out the liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking all that liquid in presents a problem – how to move it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you’re this small, gravity won’t just roll this effluent away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, surface tension makes the drops stick to the sharpshooter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gah!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if it can’t remove those drops, the sharpshooter could get sick … or rot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, best to send that pee flying away as fast as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the sharpshooter has evolved the perfect tool for the job: an anal stylus – or butt flicker, if you will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the pee flows out of the sharpshooter, it accumulates. When enough of it collects, kapow! The flicker catapults the drop away with tremendous power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They even do it while doing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s something incredible: Each drop of pee actually travels faster than the speed at which the butt flicker launched it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s called superpropulsion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at Georgia Tech filmed sharpshooters peeing in slo-mo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers noticed that after the sharpshooter forms a pee droplet, it gets compressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like what happens to a water balloon that hits the ground and flattens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A force builds in that compression, which then springs the balloon back into shape and away from the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same goes for the drop of pee!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It picks up speed as it returns to its orb shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, why would researchers want to study insect urination?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning how sharpshooters eject liquid could help our own tiny devices do the same and be more reliable. Things like hearing aids or phones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everyone has something they’re good at, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sharpshooter, it’s a whiz at whizzing.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ever wonder how those tiny, jumpy flies got onto your bathroom wall? Well, they came out of your sink drain after growing up down in the pipes. A goofy, long “mustache,” fuzzy wings and some aquabatics help them survive in that soggy environment.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ever wonder where those little insects crawling around your bathroom came from? Bad news: your drain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all that fluffy hair, it looks like a tiny moth. And some do call it a moth fly. But a fly it is … a drain fly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s called \u003cem>Clogmia \u003c/em>– how appropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It grew up over several weeks, out of sight, among things you thought you’d washed away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drain flies sneak in from the outside, through a crack in an old pipe, for example, to sip some water they sensed with this long mustache – their maxillary palps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And here, on the plentiful gunk in your pipes, they’ll grow a family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welcome, little one! The larva is the length of an eyelash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That gunk it lives in? Those are bits of you: hair, saliva and food. They make a nice meal for bacteria and fungi, which form this dark, living slime called a biofilm. This is what the larvae feed on. It also keeps them well moisturized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the larva ends up submerged, it can still chow down. It sweeps slime particles out of the water with a hairy mouthpart called the labrum and rakes them in with its mandibles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Underwater, it breathes with a bubble on its backside that it collected at the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This allows it to venture through deep pools in your pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When larvae, or the more grown-up pupae, like this guy here, end up in a toilet bowl, it can be a shock. You might think the squigglers came out of you. Ew! Don’t worry – they can’t live inside us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even though the drain flies in your bathroom muck around in bacteria, they don’t really spread it to humans. They’re not interested in landing on us. Or even leaving the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re in their happy place. When you wash your hands? They protect themselves from the water with their hairy wings. Each hair has ridges that trap air so the drops roll right off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if they’re caught off-guard by a sudden surge, the flies skate across.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re not invincible: When they get trapped underwater long enough, they can drown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you find you really need to get rid of them, drain cleaner helps, but it won’t keep them away forever. There’ll always be some slime left behind, deep in your pipes, that could attract the flies again. So, if they want it, why not let ‘em have it?\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dl_subscribe]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> Covered in a shiny bubble, the alkali fly scuba dives into the harsh waters of California’s Mono Lake. Thanks to an abundance of hair and water-repellent wax, this remarkable insect remains dry while embarking on a quest for tasty algae and a place to lay its eggs.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>TRANSCRIPT\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This fly is the Jacques Cousteau of flies. It dives where no other insect dares, in its very own scuba gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It risks it all for food and a place to lay its eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alkali fly thrives in waters three times saltier than the ocean, here in California’s Mono Lake. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discover more about Mono Lake and the efforts of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.monolake.org/\">Mono Lake Committee\u003c/a> to protect the lake, restore its tributary streams and educate the next generation about wise water use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote] \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It lives among these otherworldly towers of limestone deposits called tufas. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those same minerals make the water inhospitable for almost every other form of life. Like if someone made a soup of table salt, baking soda, and soda ash, an abrasive stain remover. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the alkali fly? It loves it. Scientists call this kind of creature an extremophile. It survives in an extreme environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a larva, it spends all its time underwater. It gets oxygen through its skin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These special kidneys, called lime glands, pump excess salts out of its body. It’s a process called osmoregulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it grows up, it gets its wings, but it loses those lime glands and can’t breathe under the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So this extremophile employs an extreme solution: a shimmering bubble shield enclosing its entire body. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only things sticking out are its eyes … and its claws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it dives from the surface, it captures air between its body and hairs, like its very own oxygen tank. And the fly isn’t actually getting wet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can do this thanks to its charming looks. It’s far hairier than your average fly. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out its shaggy wings, fluffy legs, and bristly abdomen. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These hairs, and the fly’s body, are covered in water-repellent wax. It’s a lot of product, but these waxy hairs are crucial to the fly’s survival. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s an animal that doesn’t have as many hairs: This red ant wandered too close to the lake’s edge. Now, it can handle some amount of freshwater, but the mineral-rich Mono Lake water bogs it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mono Lake’s water is some of the \u003cem>wettest \u003c/em>water in the world. Yeah, you heard me right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You see, all water sticks to itself; that’s why rain comes down in neat droplets. But the minerals in Mono Lake water make it even stickier. It feels slippery and soapy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Check out the wing of this house fly when it touches a droplet of pure water. The wing pulls away from the drop easily. But when it touches water with the same compounds as Mono Lake? It sticks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So your standard fly, frog, even fish avoids the lake at all costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only other life down here is brine shrimp and one type of microscopic worm. That leaves nearly all the delicious algae for the alkali fly. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fly sticks out its proboscis and slurps it up where the algae collects on tufas. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this diving fly is not invincible. The water levels of Mono Lake are getting lower. We divert water from the streams that feed the lake, and rising temperatures mean it’s drying up faster than before. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This makes the lake more salty, and those larvae that spend their days underwater can only handle so much. Fewer of them are growing into adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe you’re thinking, “So what, it’s just a few flies!” But these swarms help feed millions of birds as they migrate across the Americas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the alkali fly may seem audacious, even indestructible, it still relies on a delicate balance to survive.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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