Photo via C.E. Bucephalus They´re the insect that everyone loves to hate - but one day a cockroach just may save your life. Typically despised for being ugly, dirty, and icky, the hearty critters actually possess powerful antibiotic properties inside their little brains which could be used to help combat drug resistant bacte...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Example of a sweat bee -- Metallic colored sweat bee species are diverse, and difficult to identify to which species a specimen belongs; photo via zackzen Researchers Jason Gibbs who was working on a study of sweat bees discovered a new species while commuting from downtown Toronto to York University. It is one of 19 new species he found while examining 84 species of sweat bees in Canada -- so named because they are attracted to perspiration -- which are common in North America. His study goes a long way in cataloging a variety of bee that has proven a "nightmare" to study. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via National Geographic Insect eggs are neat, but we had no idea they looked this neat. Gizmodo points us to a phenomenal slideshow of insect eggs photographed from and ant-eye view, making the less-than-2-millimeter eggs look other-worldly. Using a scanning electron microscope, National Geographic and Prüftechnik Uri and School of Applied Sciences, FHNW, show us what the beginnings of life look like for bugs. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

photo: minnemom via flickr I admit there's no direct connection between this next one and sustainability, but from a science perspective it's just too interesting to pass by: New research shows that tobacco plants have evolved a "chemical SOS" signal that attracts insect predators when caterpillars are eating their leaves. Like TreeHugger said back in 2007, Plants, they're smarter than you think......Read the full story on TreeHugger

Biting female mosquito. Image credit:James Gathany/CDC , via the Gazeteer Extra. Fear of disease is such a strong motivator. And most people hate insects,. Hence, you will occasionally see reference to the risk of climate-led outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases like encephalitis or West Nile as a way to get people to pay attention to climate change. That fear-factor didn't materialize in the political game, nor should it. (Mosquito species which spread those particular diseases do not grow more numerous with passing flood waters.) Forty ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via Fast Company A British beekeeper has been working on creating a new strain of honeybee resistant to the varroa mite, a prime suspect in colony collapse disorder (CCD), and it looks like he's hit a high note after 18 years of careful observation and selective breeding. Ron Hoskins found that bees in one of his hives figured out what a great idea mutual grooming can be -- they learned to clean the mites off one another. Hoping that this learned behavior is hereditary, he spread the genes of bees from this colony t...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo Peter Shearer, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research via darkroastedblend.com When the sun goes down, the creatures of the night come out: And some have really weird and incredible built-in ways to keep the lights on. The scientific term is Bioluminescence -- or the production and emission of light by a living organism. From a giant squid that s...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Recently, officials in Thailand issued a message to women, particularly teenage girls, warning them of the dangers of wearing black leggings -- suggesting instead that they switch to jeans. While it may sound a bit like the sentiments of an overbearing father who, like, totally doesn't get it, the unsolicited fashion advice is less about being prude and more about saving lives. It turns out that mosquitoes are attracted to darker colors, meaning that thin, blac...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Photo via James Jordan If mosquitoes have nightmares, odds are Huang Yuyen will be making an appearance in them. Yuyen, a pig farmer from Taiwan, may soon find a place in the record books for killing the most winged-bloodsuckers in a month -- over 4 million of them, in fact. The insect slaughter was part of a contest held by a company that makes bug-catchers, which awarded Yuyen around $3,000 for her 3 lbs, 5 ounces worth of mosquito carcasses....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Image via Make Ants are amazing creatures. When we stop to really take a look at them, their status bumps up from pest to anything from hero to inspiration for biomimicry. So it's no wonder some people like to keep ant farms for a close-up look at how these phenomenal insects work. But one ant keeper, Franç...Read the full story on TreeHugger