Search | New Scientist

Giant sea spiders sit and wait for prey to knock themselves out

2 May 2018

Huge sea spiders move excruciatingly slowly, but they can still catch prey animals that move much faster than them – because their prey sometimes crash into the seafloor

Ants build a medieval ‘torture rack’ to catch grasshoppers

24 April 2018

A species of tropical ant builds traps on tree trunks that allow them to catch prey almost fifty times their size, by biting their legs and spread-eagling them on the tree surface

Neanderthals ambushed cave bears as they awoke from hibernation

26 March 2018

Our extinct cousins the Neanderthals seem to have targeted cave bears, which were normally intimidating foes, while they were sleepy and weak from hibernating through the winter

Beetles escape alive after almost 2 hours in a toad’s stomach

7 February 2018

Bombardier beetles sometimes get eaten by toads, but they can squirt hot, toxic jets of liquid from their backsides so the toads often vomit them right back up

Great tits avoid bad food after seeing grossed-out friends

18 December 2017

If a great tit eats something nasty, it will disgustedly wipe its beak on a branch – and other great tits watch and learn

Freeloading mites are squatting on spider webs and stealing food

1 November 2017

A newly-discovered species of mite sets up home on a spider’s web and nibbles away at any insects the spider catches – and the spider doesn’t seem to mind