The birds and the bees

What It Covers

Biologist Noah Wilson-Rich, ornithologist Karen Bondar, and entomologist Marlene Zook explain how urban beehives thrive with diverse plant species, how bird mothers customize egg contents based on environmental factors, and how Hawaiian crickets evolved silent wings within 20 generations to evade parasitic flies.

Key Questions Answered

• •Urban pollinator habitats: City beehives access 200+ plant species versus 150 in rural areas, supporting the habitat hypothesis that plant diversity drives bee survival more than reduced pesticides or disease. Rooftop gardens and unmowed lawn patches provide critical food sources for struggling pollinator populations.
• •Maternal egg customization: Female blue-footed boobies adjust egg nutrient content within 36 hours based on male partner quality. When researchers darkened a male's feet (health indicator), mothers reduced nutrients in the second egg, demonstrating real-time reproductive investment decisions based on paternal genetics.
• •Rapid evolutionary adaptation: Pacific field crickets developed a wing mutation preventing sound production in maximum 20 generations to avoid parasitic flies that hunt by listening. Silent males survive longer and intercept females approaching remaining callers, demonstrating evolution occurring in observable timeframes rather than millions of years.
• •Insect reproductive flexibility: Male katydids produce nuptial gifts weighing one-third their body mass containing protein and nutrients, making males selective and females aggressive competitors. This reverses typical sex role assumptions, showing biological sex roles vary dramatically across species based on reproductive investment costs.