Why do some male bats have sticky, odorous arms? The first clues only led to more questions. But now a new sleuth, Mariana Muñoz-Romo, described by a colleague as “probably the world’s expert on chemical communication in a bat species,” is on the case.
Unrelated butterflies may have the same wing patterns. These patterns warn off predators and help suitors find the right mate. But if wing patterns in each species evolved the same way, knocking out an important gene should have the same effect in both. Carolina Concha and her team discovered that knocking out the WntA gene results in different effects in co-mimics, so the two species evolved the same pattern via different pathways.
Hubert Szczygieł recently arrived at STRI in Panama and is already becoming one of Gamboa’s most awesome natural historians.
Eavesdropping behavior in the canopy may answer questions about how acoustic interplay among animals has developed over millions of years in the forest
As some of the most savvy and sophisticated predators out there, bats eavesdrop on their prey and even on other bats to collect a wide variety of information about their prey.
Three adventure-seekers meet in the clouds, each with their own reasons to learn more about mysterious jewel-like bees.
