Complete metamorphosis transforms caterpillars into butterflies, reshaping not only the bodies of the insects but their behaviors and identities. New work reveals in detail for the first time how ...

John E. Woodmansee Photo: Tobacco hornworm on a tomato plant that has been attacked by a parasitic Braconid wasp. The white capsules on its back are the pupal stage of the tiny wasp. Braconid larvae ...

When a caterpillar hatches from its egg, it spends the first few weeks of its life eating as much as it physically can. Then, it hangs itself upside down from a leaf or stem and sheds its outer skin ...

New University of Washington research shows that a regulatory gene named broad, known to be necessary for development of insects that undergo complete metamorphosis, also is key for the maturation of ...

Every spring, I see spiny bugs that look like tiny alligators. They spend all day chomping up other insects outside my window. I asked my friend Rich Zack about them. He’s an insect scientist at ...

The transformation of metamorphosis evolved gradually over hundreds of millions of years. It involves both genetics and natural selection pressures on species. This insect is studied by scientists to ...

Two new datasets on insect evolution have compiled by biologists, revealing that metamorphosing insects diversify more quickly than other insects and are therefore the biggest contributors to the ...