The sex life of a bark beetle

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Let’s talk about sex... among bark beetles. New research out of CU-Boulder shows that warmer temperatures are speeding up the critters’ mating cycle, which explains why their numbers are exploding. Beetles that mate in the early summer can have “grand beetles” by the end of the year. Bad news for pines trees. Ryan Warner talks about the research with Scott Ferrenberg, a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

[Photo: Jeffry Mitton]