NEWSWORTHY
Greek spiders spinning giant webs, enjoying smorgasbord of insects brought on by summer heat
It's not quite the World Wide Web — but the spiders of Aitoliko in Greece have made a good start. Spurred into overdrive by an explosion in the populations of insects they eat, thousands of little spiders in the western Greek town have shrouded coastal ...
'Death by a thousand cuts': Scientists fear non-pest insects are declining
A staple of summer — swarms of bugs — seems to be a thing of the past. And that makes scientists worry. Pesky mosquitoes, disease-carrying ticks, crop-munching aphids and cockroaches are doing just fine. But the more beneficial flying insects of summer — native bees, ...
Bugs struggle amid Japan's record summer heat
Specialists in Hyogo believe populations of mosquitoes and beetles have suffered this year as the moist environments where their young thrive have dried up in the heat wave.
Kids cheer on their bugs at the Kabutomushi Sumo Competition
The National Kabutomushi Sumo Tournament, where rhinoceros beetles are made to fight on tree branches instead of sumo rings, was held recently in Yamagata Prefecture.
Research into reverse-sex genitalia deserved award
In caves in Brazil there lives a tiny insect with the most extraordinary story. It feeds on bat droppings and chews on the dead carcasses of fallen bats. When it copulates, it does so slowly — a single sexual act takes up to 70 ...
Nagoya teen brings 100 paper insects to life at an art exhibit
With just a pair of scissors and plain drawing paper, Shinichiro Ishikawa, a 15-year-old high school student from Nagoya, can quickly create lifelike cutouts of insects such as a pink mantis poised to take down its prey or a yellow swallowtail butterfly with its ...
Red fire ants were found late last week in a container yard at the port of Kobe after some first turned up in a container that had passed through the port last month, the Environment Ministry said. Red fire ants are native to South America, ...
Ramen flavored with insects attracts thrillseekers in Tokyo
Within about four hours, the Ramen Nagi restaurant had sold out of the 100 bowls of "insect tsukemen" noodles it had prepared for Sunday's single-day event. The noodles were topped with about a dozen small crickets and mealworms, which customers then dipped into soups flavored ...
Japan's coveted cherry blossoms and other ecosystems threatened by alien species
Spring has come — the season when cherry blossoms bloom nationwide. But ecologists warn that Japan's most popular sites for hanami (cherry blossom-viewing) might disappear in the next couple of decades. This is because red-necked longhorn beetles, a species foreign to the country, are eating the ...
Tokyo bar adds fear factor to Valentine's Day by putting edible insects on the menu
Tired of the usual box of chocolates? Try a bug cocktail or a caramel creepy crawly for Valentine's Day. A Tokyo bar on Sunday offered courageous couples and curious gourmets a special menu of desserts and drinks made with insects ahead of Tuesday's holiday. "They are ...
Medical personnel said 115 people taking part in a marathon Sunday in Hida, Gifu Prefecture, were stung by hornets, but no one suffered serious allergic reactions. The runners were treated by doctors and ambulance attendants who were on standby along the marathon route, according to ...
