Habitats & Ecology
Where insects live and the roles they play, from backyard habitats to global ecosystems, how insects evolved to dominate the planet, and the rare and beneficial species at the edges of the six-legged world. (13 guides.)
Habitats & EcologyRead article →Understanding Microhabitats: From Leaf Litter to Rock CrevicesUnderstanding microhabitats starts with looking at the few square inches most people walk past: the underside of a leaf, a crack in a rock, three inches of decaying log. These smal
Habitats & EcologyRead article →How to Restore Degraded Insect Habitats EffectivelyHow to restore degraded insect habitats effectively comes down to matching the repair work to what the local species actually need: bare soil for burrows, dead wood for shelter, an
Habitats & EcologyRead article →The Interdependence of Insects and Ecosystem Health: Dung BeetlesThe Interdependence of Insects and Ecosystem Health runs in both directions: insects prop up the systems around them, and those systems determine whether insect populations survive
Habitats & EcologyRead article →How Genetic Mutations Drive Insect Evolution: Moths to FliesHow genetic mutations drive insect evolution comes down to a simple mechanism repeated over millions of generations: random changes in DNA occasionally give an individual insect an
Habitats & EcologyRead article →Discovering Rare and Exotic Moths: Atlas to White WitchDiscovering rare and exotic moths starts with looking past the porch light. Moths outnumber butterflies roughly nine to one within the order Lepidoptera, and the group ranges from
Habitats & EcologyRead article →How Seasonal Change Affects Insect HabitatsHow seasonal changes affect insect habitats and their biodiversity comes down to three moving parts: temperature, rainfall, and the plants insects depend on. Shift any one of those
Habitats & EcologyRead article →How Urban Ecosystems Affect Local Insect HabitatsHow urban ecosystems affect local insect habitats comes down to three forces: heat, light, and fragmentation. A city block of asphalt and rooftops behaves nothing like the meadow o
Habitats & EcologyRead article →Unique Characteristics of Rare and Exotic BeetlesUnique characteristics of rare and exotic beetles show up first in size and color, then in the stranger stuff: chemical weapons, horns built for wrestling, and life cycles tied to
Habitats & EcologyRead article →How Agricultural Practices Shape Insect Habitats in FarmlandsHow agricultural practices shape insect habitats in farmlands depends less on whether a farm uses chemicals at all and more on how much structural diversity survives in the field.
Habitats & EcologyRead article →How Terrestrial Ecosystems Shape Insect DiversityUnderstanding the Influence of Terrestrial Ecosystems on Insect Diversity starts with a simple fact: insects make up more described species than every other animal group combined,