The black cocoa ant (Dolichoderus thoracicus) is one of Southeast Asia’s most common and widely recognized arboreal ant species. Recently, they have also attracted attention as an invasive species in several Asian countries. What’s particularly interesting about the black cocoa ant is its unique breeding system, which involves multiple queens that aid the formation of…

I typically tell my summer camp kids that damselflies perch with their wings together, but this is an odd damselfly out. What’s its deal? How else can you properly identify a damselfly on the fly?

As they vanish from shelves and their prices skyrocket, everyone has eggs on the brain. But today, let’s talk about the animal that hatches out of them! Chickens are the most abundant domesticated animal on the planet. Every breed of chicken is a descendant of the red junglefowl, a group-living bird found across South and…

How do birds choose a place that will allow them to keep their chicks safe from the time the first egg is laid until the last fledgling flies away? For chickadees, including the Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and Carolina Chickadees (Poecile carolinensis) that I studied in Pennsylvania, the answer lies in tree trunk cavities which…

Every time I go home to New Jersey for break, I make sure to stop at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park. There’s something really nice about visiting the same place season after season and watching the birds, crabs, sand, waves, etc. change; and at BLSP I also get to watch the people shift from large groups…

Praying Mantids (Order Mantodea), like this Mediterranean Mantis* (Iris oratoria), are well-known for their awesome predatory strikes and cannibalistic tendencies. Our subject here is doing neither; based on its pupils, it appears to be simply watching the photographer. But wait—surely insects don’t actually have pupils like us… what are those black dots in its eyes?…

Now that we’ve lured you in with a cute baby turtle, let’s talk about conservation and science! The Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) is a native of East Coast marshes and the only turtle in the United States to live in brackish water (a mix of fresh and salt water). They are surprisingly speedy swimmers and…