Twig mimicry is most common and diversified in Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects), a group of iconic models for understanding the evolution of camouflage and mimicry among insects. Extant stick and ...

In the early 1990s, Keith Willmott and a friend, both undergraduate students from the United Kingdom, arrived in Ecuador with impressionable minds and big aspirations. Willmott initially imagined ...

A new study demonstrates the first known correlation between latitude and the rate of mimicry evolution in butterflies, consistent with a longstanding theory of biodiversity that can trace its origin ...

Several stick insect fossils from the Mesozoic: (a) Adjacivena grossa sp. nov. and (b) Ambrotophasma vetulum gen. et sp. nov. from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China (~165 Ma); (c) ...

Aposematic signalling describes the use of conspicuous colours, patterns or sounds by prey to advertise the presence of toxins or other defences to potential predators. This system relies on predator ...

A yellow band across a wing might look like a simple flourish. In the South American rainforest, it can mean survival. Across butterflies and a day-flying moth that split from one another tens of ...

I had always been a huge admirer of evolution and the process of natural selection. I mean look at its achievements: from ...

Some people -- and animals -- will go to any lengths to attract members of the opposite sex, including the use of aliases and lies. As many as 10,000 species of dainty orchids in the floral world also ...

The Nature Index 2025 Research Leaders — previously known as Annual Tables — reveal the leading institutions and countries/territories in the natural and health sciences, according to their output in ...