Insects & Invertebrates
In the Amazon, bullet ants deliver agonising pain to boys as young as 12 – here's why. And can Steve Backshall handle the heat?
The bullet ant delivers the most painful sting in the world – so why are they being woven into gloves?
Ancient creatures found encased in amber in remote forests of Myanmar – and they’ve been hiding a deadly secret
The 99-million-year-old specimens were discovered in the isolated Hukawng Valley in the north of the country.
What’s the world’s biggest butterfly? Here's a clue – it has an enormous, 28cm wingspan and weighs a staggering 12g
Did you know the largest butterfly in the world has a wingspan of 28cm and weighs 12g?
The Dracula ant that MUST drink the blood of its young to survive - despite causing them pain and trauma
Has an animal ever been more aptly named?
There's an animal in French Guiana that blows itself up when faced with danger
How a 'backpack' full of a toxic blue substance allows a termite to blow itself up, along with the threat, if its colony is threatened
If all Earth's insects suddenly disappeared, here's what would happen
Why are insects so crucial to the world? Richard Jones explains what would happen if they weren't here
This innocent-looking insect delivers the most painful sting in the world and can leave you in agony for 24 hours or more
It may only be 2.5cm but it sure packs a punch. Here's all you need to know about bullet ants
“If you’re stung, you must have sex within 24 hours or you’ll die” – the legend behind the insect that looks like a peanut
Its hefty headgear has garnered the lantern bug mythical status.
How is a queen bee chosen? And how are they different from worker bees?
A beehive and its worker bees revolve around its queen – but are queen bees made, or born?
It has an incredibly painful bite and you can die just hours after being bitten
Unsurprisingly, the deadliest spider in the world is native to Australia – and requires one victim to take 12 vials of antivenom to survive its lethal bite
Dusty old moth found in London museum leads taxonomists to remarkable discovery
Using DNA analysis, along with other clues, the researchers were able to uncover a number of incredible secrets.
Asian hornet guts contain more than 1,400 different species, new study finds
Bees, wasps, flies, beetles, butterflies, moths and spiders were all found inside the Asian hornets.
It has one of the most painful stings on Earth and can eat a tarantula alive from inside out - meet the deadly tarantula hawk wasp
Meet the wasp that has a taste for tarantulas
Deadly is the female: 11 ferocious female animals that you wouldn't want to mess with
'For the female of the species is more deadly than the male' – here are our top 11 deadliest females that prove just that.
Meet the alien-looking gangly lancer sea spider, a strange creature that sucks up and spits out its prey alive after taking a tasty nibble
Sea spiders are strange creatures, and the gangly lancer sea spider is one of the strangest of all
Meet the hydra, a tiny weird – and deadly – ribbon-like creature that can devour prey many times its size – and live forever...
Nick Baker takes a look at the fascinating hydra
Could midges hold the answer to painless injections?
Could midges inspire next-generation medical needles?
It has huge fangs, is the size of a dinner plate, and liquidises its prey – meet the biggest spider on Earth
This monster of the spider world weighs 175g, is 30cm long and eats amphibians, snakes, rodents and sometimes even birds.
Scientists spent decades watching a rare creature on an island near Miami – now they've discovered something unexpected
The researchers, who have been working on Elliott Key since 1985, say the animal has developed an unusual relationship with hurricanes.
It's tiny, covered in hair, and has spines filled with venom potent enough to cause long-lasting, painful, effects, like muscle spasms, in humans
This is one caterpillar you shouldn't touch says Stuart Blackman
The deadly Asian hornet: how to identify, what they like to eat, why they are a grave worry- and how to report a sighting
Considered a pest, and a particular threat to honeybees, Asian hornets were accidentally introduced to Europe in 2004.
Here's what ants taught humans about managing a pandemic
The sophisticated social structures of ants can teach us how to better respond to pandemics
Meet the tube web spider, a British spider that can pierce skin with its fangs
The tube web spider is one of only a handful of British species with fangs long enough to pierce human skin.
Bees wearing QR codes reveal secrets from the hive
Measuring no more than 2.6mm in diameter, the tiny QR codes are being used to record the foraging behaviour of honeybees in Pennsylvania and New York