beetle

(Newser) - Peanut-sized bark beetles have drilled into and killed millions of acres of green pines from New Mexico to British Columbia, threatening the Rockies’ iconic lodgepoles with extinction, reports the New York Times. With only costly and temporary fixes available, preservationists are hoping for an atypically frigid winter to contain the...

(Newser) - The biggest infestation of mountain pine beetles in decades is devastating huge tracts of forest in the Western states, USA Today reports; forestry workers say the bugs are killing even more trees than the wildfires ravaging California's forests. The larvae consume the inner bark of trees, usually lodgepole pines, killing...

(Newser) - A new spider species has been named for rocker Neil Young, an outspoken advocate for environmental issues, Reuters reports. A biologist and Neil Young fan who discovered the species named it Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi. It's not the first such honor for a singer. A beetle was recently named Orectochilus orbisonorum after...