Ants care for wounded comrades by licking their wounds clean
If a Matabele ant loses a limb in a battle with termites, its nestmates will tend its injuries - a behaviour never before seen in any non-human animal
Beetles escape alive after almost 2 hours in a toad’s stomach
Bombardier beetles sometimes get eaten by toads, but they can squirt hot, toxic jets of liquid from their backsides so the toads often vomit them right back up
How besieged ants decide when it’s time to abandon their nests
Colonies of turtle ants are often attacked by competing species, and the ants understand enough military strategy to decide when certain nests should be abandoned
Plants use sand armour to break teeth of attacking caterpillars
Some plants are coated in sand, and it seems the sand grains act like medieval armour that protects these “psammophorous” plants from munching caterpillars
Bumblebees solve the travelling salesman problem on the fly
While buzzing between flowers, bees can solve the maths dilemma called the travelling salesman problem by finding the shortest route that visits every blossom
How a tiny fly can ‘scuba dive’ in a salty and toxic lake
Alkali flies plunge into the salty and alkaline Mono Lake, to feed and lay their eggs, but until now it has been unclear how they manage to survive
Secrets of butterfly wing patterns revealed by gene hacking
Butterflies' wings have extraordinary patterns and colours, and it turns out they are controlled by a single "master gene" that performs many roles
Meet the vampire ant from hell with huge jaws and a metal horn
Linguamyrmex vladi had ferocious snapping jaws and a horn reinforced with metal, which it may have used to puncture prey and drain their blood
‘Highwaymen’ beetles rob ants of the food in their stomachs
As jet ant workers carry honeydew back to their nests, beetles approach them and trick them into vomiting up the precious food
Maths explains how bees can stay airborne with such tiny wings
The tiny wings on bees shouldn’t be able to lift their big bodies. How they fly has eluded mathematicians since the 1930s, but the mystery is now solved