The vast majority of living insects either have wings or evolved from flying ancestors, said Linz, an evolutionary biologist now at Indiana University. “When the average person thinks about an insect ...

Genes from a tiny shrimp-like crustacean could help in the search for the origin of insect wings, a new study finds. To be clear, there is no evidence that any crustaceans ever evolved to fly, ...

It sounds like a just-so story—“How the Insect Got its Wings”—but it’s really a mystery that has puzzled biologists for over a century. Intriguing and competing theories of insect wing evolution have ...

In 1870, a German anatomist named Karl Gegenbaur was the first person to theorize that abdominal gills on water insects like mayflies eventually developed into wings. For the next 150 years, ...

Eating a blend of non-toxic corn and genetically modified toxic corn can result in corn earworm pests (Helicoverpa zea) developing longer, more narrow and more tapered wings—shaped like the wings of a ...

The evolution of wings not only allowed ancient insects to become the first creatures on Earth to take to the skies, but also propelled their rise to become one of nature's great success stories, ...

Biological structures sometimes have unique features that engineers would like to copy. For example, many types of insect wings shed water, kill microbes, reflect light in unusual ways and are ...

Exploring anywhere on Earth, look closely and you’ll find insects. Check your backyard and you may see ants, beetles, crickets, wasps, mosquitoes and more. There are more kinds of insects than there ...