Jana Johnson was a struggling grad student in 2003 when she first met the butterfly that would change her life. She was 34, with two little boys and a crumbling marriage. Her research into the effect ...

11:46 a.m. May 25, 2023: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Rudi Mattoni was a professor at UCLA. He was a lecturer. His 1994 survey was also not funded by the Urban Wildlands Group.

Nature, it seems, strategizes so species survive. That’s why a caterpillar crawling amid greenery turns into a green pupa, blending into its surroundings and lessening the chance a bird will make it ...

I talked about your question with my friend Allan Felsot. He’s an insect scientist at Washington State University. He told me cocoons are mostly silk. But they’re usually made by moths. A butterfly ...