The caterpillar of the swallowtail butterflies changes its appearance and colour at various stages of its elaborate life cycle, to escape predators. But, how exactly do they do this? A new study by researchers, Nikkil Gaitonde, Janhavi Joshi and Krushnamegh Kunte at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, answers some of these questions. The study was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

The structure of the vegetation determines the foraging areas and resources available to birds. It also provides protection from predation.

The researcher, Zeeshan Mirza, has named his latest find, a ground-dwelling gecko that he found in northern Karnataka, the Hemidactylus vijayraghavani after the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Modi government, K. VijayRaghavan.

Mandran and NCBS (National Centre for Biological Sciences) have put together Jigyasa event for 2018, themed on Traditional Knowledge meets Modern Science. The event starts at 9.30 am on December 15, 2018 at the Dasheri Hall in the NCBS campus in Kodigehalli, Bangalore.

In a series of collaborative studies, researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru; Villanova University, USA; and the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, have discovered eight new species of bent-toed geckos from Northeast India.

In a recent study, Mr Joseph Thottacherry of NCBS, along with his collaborators from other Indian and Spanish institutes, has tried to understand how cells maintain their shapes in spite of expelling material from their membrane.

In the backdrop of climate change, the National Centre for Biological Sciences, a subsidiary of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, has taken up a study on the carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption by evergreen forests of Western Ghats.

A 30-member scientists team, led by Dr Mahesh Shankaran and Dr Jayashri Ratnam, is conducting such studies in four places across the country.

A study by