Clouds of noxious gas, stink bombs and purple smokescreens may sound like schoolboy pranks, but the animal world is just as capable of executing arresting chemical warfare, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Yossi Yovel The Genius Bat Understanding our most mysterious mammal 336pp. Oneworld. £20. Philosophy begins with wonder, according to Plato and Aristotle. As for philosophy, so, and more so, for biolo

Bringing you some of the gardening news highlights

Handsome, chunky and often brightly marked, shieldbugs emerge in spring, quietly shaping the life of hedgerow and garden

An ecosystem evolves across thousands of years, a biological interaction that is both intricate and fragile. The arrival of a new species can disrupt the balance, as we have seen in Britain with grey

Organic gardening helps predators such as ladybirds, which ...