American Museum of Natural History

Mantises may be some of the most out-of-this-world-looking critters on Earth, but they’re uniquely adapted to life on this planet. These incredible hunters have repeatedly evolved into “ecomorphs”—groups that aren’t closely related, but share incredible adaptations to similar habitats. These dazzling displays of convergence may have something to tell us about evolution. 

In the latest episode of Insectarium, join host and Museum Curator Jessica Ware as she visits mantis expert and graduate student Lohit Garikipati at the Towson University Mantis Lab to see how researchers are using high-speed infrared cameras to track the movements of mantis prey capture. The similarities (and differences) in hunting techniques can help reveal how environments shape the animals that live in them.

🪳 Have you ever had a cockroach fly in your direction? While many species of cockroach possess wings as adults, few of them actually use them to fly. Learn why with Insectarium host Dr. Jessica L Ware! "Fly" even deeper into the world of the incredible cockroach in the latest episode of Insectarium!

It’s the unicorn of insects! This species of planthopper (Pyrops candelaria) is easy to recognize thanks to its long proboscis, which it uses like a straw to feed on sap behind tree bark. Sometimes called a “lanternfly” or “lantern bug,” this insect does not actually emit any light. Like other planthoppers in the superfamily Fulgoroidea, the antennae on this critter can be found on its “cheeks” below the eyes. Photo: Richard Ling

Would you want to see one of these crawling around your house? This beetle, a member of the scarab family, is among the largest insects on Earth. Found in tropical forests in Central and South America, the 6-inch (15-centimeter) male uses those impressive structures in head-to-head competitions with rivals. One grasps the other sideways, holds the captive aloft for up to eight seconds, then drives him to the ground. Believe it or not, this hefty insect can also fly, making a helicopter-like noise when flapping its wings.   Photo: R. Mickens

Inspiring fear and fascination alike in humans, insects are capable of incredibly complex behavior like personality, and language. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, behavioral ecologist Marlene Zuk examines the bedroom lives of bugs, showing how six-legged sex lives can be just as interesting as our own.

This SciCafe took place at the Museum on February 1, 2017.

A newly discovered 99-million-year-old fossil suggests that as soon as ancient insects began forming colonies, their nests became targets for parasitic beetles. The study, conducted by researchers at the Museum, Columbia University, and Kyushu University, was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

Read more on our blog. 

What makes butterfly wings colorful? Butterfly wings are covered with tiny scales, each a single color. Most of the colors are produced by pigments, but the beautiful iridescence of some butterflies results from a reflective microstructure on the scale's surface. Don't touch a butterfly's wing—the "powder" that rubs off is actually the scales.

Explore the Butterfly Conservatory. 

Forget dragonflies, ladybugs, and lightning bugs—it’s national moth week! Here are some moth-facts to help you fully appreciate these winged beauties:

See a gallery of stunning moth photos. 

Images: Atlas moth and Elephant hawkmoth, Jean Pierre Hamon 

Orchid bees are famous for their long tongues, which are ideally suited to sipping pollen from the narrow necks of orchids in the neotropical regions of South America, where both are common. The massive mouthparts are just one of many adaptations born out of the partnership between the orchid family and this group of bees, many of which are distinguished by their bright, metallic colorations that make them look like flying green, gold, or blue gemstones. As orchids and bees have evolved close relationships, certain species of bee have come to prefer certain species of orchid, and vice versa. The flowers even have a specialized way of transferring their pollen via bee.

Learn more about these amazing adaptations. 

Image: AMNH/R.Mickens

At 11 am ET, tune in as Entomologist Lou Sorkin discusses bugs, the Museum’s Identification Day, and introduces viewers to some tiny pink mantises.

Tune in here for the Facebook Live broadcast. 

A peek into the Museum archives: "Preparing Millipede model, Preparation Department, 1957" photographed by Alex J.Rota.

Check out over 10,000 digitized images in the Museum Archives. 

AMNH/325009

From the Museum archives: Yellow jacket wasp, close-up of face

See over 10,000 biology, anthropology, and history-related images in the Digital Special Collections. 

AMNH/K15130

No common insect, Wingless midge (Belgica antarctica) is an extremophile!

Only one true insect species makes its home on the icy continent of Antarctica where temperatures dip to –30˚F (–34˚C), and where it is considered the largest animal that lives exclusively on land. Its larvae can be frozen and dried until they lose two-thirds of their body weight and can go up to four weeks without oxygen.

Meet more extremophiles in Life at the Limits, now open at the Museum.

Image: Wikipedia

Insects evolved at least 420 million years ago, and over time became tremendously diverse and ecologically important. Amber, the fossilized resin from ancient trees, preserves whatever may have become trapped in it with microscopic clarity and vivid detail. Arthropods—including insects and arachnids—make up the majority of amber fossils, although plants and other invertebrates are also found. From this fossil record, scientists can trace evolutionary change over millions of years in exceptional detail. 

The Museum's collection now holds tens of thousands of amber fossils from around the world, principally from the Early Cretaceous about 130 million years ago to the Miocene about 20 million years ago. The specimen pictured here is an extinct termite, Mastotermes electrodominicus, in Dominican amber, 1 1/3 inches (4.4 cm) long.

Learn more about the Museum’s amber collection.

The Museum’s iconic forest floor diorama is another example of how the best Museum exhibits combine craftsmanship and science, artistry and education. It depicts the forest floor at 24 times life-size, and was installed in the Museum in 1958.

In the somewhat fantastic cross section of forest soil, we see the process of decomposition vividly depicted. Staff artists studied each specimen they were to reproduce under a microscope and then made models out of a wide variety of materials including clay and wax, plaster, papier-mâché, and balsa wood. The models were then coated with anything from shellac to petroleum jelly and even shoe polish to achieve a realistic look and texture. 

Today we’re talking about the anatomy of a butterfly.

Butterfly wings are made of hardened membrane, strengthened by veins and covered by tiny scales. Each scale is a single color. The intricate designs of butterfly wings are produced by thousands of scales, arrayed in complex patterns and overlapping one another like shingles on a roof.

The specialized mouth parts of the adult butterfly are unusual. Most insects chew their food with large, jawlike mandibles, but butterflies consume only liquids, sucking up their food through the proboscis, a tube that resembles a drinking straw. In some species, a very long proboscis—up to one and a half times the body length—allows the butterfly to probe deep into flowers for nectar.

A butterfly finds food by using its large compound eyes—which are sensitive to light, movement, color, and patterns—as well as its antennae. The antennae may look like "feelers," but they have chemical receptors and are used primarily for smelling.

Ready to see them in real life? Visit the Museum’s Butterfly Conservatory, now open!

Wasp homes are among the most impressive structures in nature, and the American Museum of Natural History houses the world's largest collection of wasp nests, with over 1,200 specimens. 

This nest, built by wasps in the genus Parachartergus, lost its paper-thin outer envelope prior to collection, offering an excellent glimpse of the delicate inner structure.

See more wonderful wasp nests.