One of the most commonly asked questions about long-extinct ancient animals is what they looked like and, more specifically, what color they once were. Now, researchers have been able to figure out ...

A native New Zealand insect that once mimicked its toxic neighbor has changed color in deforested areas, in a striking example of human-induced evolution. Researchers from New Zealand's University of ...

A new, simple scanning system can create precise 3D models of insects in color. The system uses off-the-shelf equipment, including a camera and a computer, to obtain detailed, true-color 3D images of ...

When young spotted lanternflies grow, they become bright red. Around this time, they also begin to feed almost exclusively on the so-called tree of heaven, from which they suck bitter juices. In this ...

Understanding the material basis of adaptive evolution has been a central goal in biology dating back to at least the time of Darwin. One focus of current debates is whether adaptive evolution relies ...

Color patterns play central roles in the behavior of insects, and are important traits for taxonomic studies. Here we report striking and stable structural color patterns—wing interference patterns ...

The intense red color of classic lipstick traditionally comes from an unlikely source: crushed bugs that live on cactus plants in South America. It takes tens of thousands of the ground-up insects to ...