In a paper release today, a group of scientists from Macquarie University studying the evolution of disease resistance in insects have found evidence that social species of wasps show significantly higher antimicrobial activity than solitary species.

The research, which was attempting to explain what allowed such complex societies to evolve, found that the origin of antimicrobial defenses in wasps is strongly linked to the species group size and social complexity.

Research published recently in PLoS One delivers new insight about rapid toxin evolution in venomous snakes: pitvipers such as rattlesnakes may be engaged in an arms race with opossums, a group of snake-eating American marsupials. Although some mammals have long been known to eat venomous snakes, this fact has not been factored into previous explanations for the rapid evolution of snake venom. Instead, snake venom is usually seen as a feeding, or trophic, adaptation. But new molecular research on snake-eating opossums by researchers affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History suggests that predators factor into the rapid evolution of snake venom.

There's a subtle hierarchy among the women in banded mongoose societies: only older females get to breed, while younger ones have to wait their turn. If a young female mongoose decides to buck this trend, she risks the wrath of her older female relatives, who will throw her out of the group.

Lack of food and the stress involved almost always causes the younger mongoose to lose her unborn pups.

Scientists have now found that there are also considerable costs for female banded mongooses who try to prevent younger females from having pups.

An expectant silence hangs over the Pukaha bird sanctuary as hundreds of spectators await a glimpse of a rare white kiwi, a bird held sacred by New Zealand's indigenous Maori people.

A collective sigh follows his unveiling to the crowd, although this appears to be prompted more by the chick's cute appearance than any mystical qualities.

Resembling a fluffy white tennis ball with an elongated beak and stout, three-toed feet, the white kiwi has become a symbol of New Zealand's efforts to prevent its emblematic national bird from becoming extinct.

McMaster researchers are learning about one of Earth's oldest creatures by using some of its newest technology.

Bob Christensen, a master's student in the Faculty of Science, is currently on Beausoleil Island in Georgian Bay studying the Blanding's turtle - a medium-sized reptile considered threatened throughout much of its range. Using a combination of radio transmitters and GPS devices, Christensen is tracking the daily, and even hourly, movements of the turtles as they nest and breed in the hopes of gaining a better understanding of the species' essential foraging, nesting and overwintering sites.

A rare half-male and half-female butterfly has emerged at the Natural History Museum's Sensational Butterflies exhibition.

The butterfly is a pure bilateral gynandromorph. One half of the butterfly is female, with paler colouring and flecks of blue, red and tortoiseshell. The other half is male, with darker coloring.

Moths and butterflies have a short life span, but visitors who are quick may be lucky enough to see it in the butterfly house on the Museum's front lawn.

A gynandromorph

Misbehaving in front of others can ruin your reputation even if you are a fish, according to an international study that has shown for the first time an audience can influence levels of cooperation in non-human animals.

Scientists from The University of Queensland (UQ), University of Cambridge, and the University of Neuchatel have found that cleaner fish that remove parasites from larger ‘client' fish – providing a type of cleaning service – are less likely to bite their client if they have an audience of other fish (eavesdropping bystanders).

These cleaner fish sometimes get greedy and bite clients rather than sticking to parasites. This bad behaviour brings mealtimes to an abrupt end as the disgruntled larger fish swims off.

A new paper soon to be published in Coral Reefs reveals the first ever photographs of a fish, in this case the blackspot tuskfish, using tools to acquire their food.

Scott Gardner, a professional diver, was out diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef when he heard a strange banging noise under water and went to investigate. What he discovered was the blackspot tuskfish with a clam in its mouth. The fish was banging and slamming the clam against a rock in order to crack it open. Once it cracked, the fish ate the bivalve inside. Gardner, having his camera with him, was quick to snap up some shots of this fish and its apparent use of tools.

For decades, scientists and the public alike have wondered why some fireflies exhibit synchronous flashing, in which large groups produce rhythmic, repeated flashes in unison – sometimes lighting up a whole forest at once.

Now, UConn’s Andrew Moiseff, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has conducted the first experiments on the purpose of this phenomenon. His results, reported in the journal Science, suggest that synchronous flashing encourages female fireflies’ recognition of suitable mates.

“There have been lots of really good observations and hypotheses about firefly synchrony,” Moiseff says. “But until now, no one has experimentally tested whether synchrony has a function.”

A new study by scientists in the US has solved the mystery of why predatory fish have a far greater digestive capacity than they actually need. The study suggests the reason is that the extra-large guts allow them to gorge on food when it is available so they can store the calories for use in the lean times.

It has long been known that in captivity predatory fish can grow much larger than they do in the wild. Their stomachs are usually sac-shaped and capable of processing enormous quantities of food at a time, and in captivity it is easy to over-feed the fish. In the wild the fish must expend a great deal of energy in foraging, stalking, capturing and then digesting their prey.