#Sipping Tarantula Venom Kills Crop-Eating Insects The venom in a tarantula's fangs packs a lethal punch
But the toxic brew could also serve as an insecticide against agricultural pests that consume the venom orally a new study finds.
A component of the spider venom is especially effective against the cotton bollworm a pest that attacks crop plants.
Globally insect agricultural pests reduce crop yields by 10 percent to 14 percent and damage 9 percent to 20 percent of stored food crops.
Farmers primarily use chemical insecticides to control pests but many insects are resistant to them.
In the last decade researchers have been investigating bioinsecticides proteins derived from natural sources such as spider venom.
Photos: The World's Creepiest Spiders In the study researchers milked venom from Australian tarantulas (Selenotypus plumipes)
and isolated a small peptide a molecular building block of cells from the deadly substance. They fed the peptide to termites
and cotton bollworms and compared the effects with those of mealworms injected with the peptide. When ingested by insects the poisonous chemical called orally active insecticidal peptide-1 was as toxic as the synthetic insecticide imidacloprid the group reported today (Sept. 11) in the journal PLOS ONE.
A combination of the venom peptide and synthetic insecticide was even more effective. The venom was more potent against cotton bollworms than against termites and mealworms
which eat stored grains rather than crops results showed. Venoms from other insect-eating animals such as centipedes and scorpions may also contain peptides that could be used as bioinsecticides.
Or scientists could genetically engineer insect-resistant plants or microbes that produce these toxins. The breakthrough discovery that spider toxins can have oral activity has implications not only for their use as bioinsecticides
but also for spider-venom peptides that are being considered for therapeutic use study researcher Glenn King of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland Australiaâ said in a statement.
S. plumipes is one of Australia's largest spiders but is not harmful to humans.
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#Six Science-Based Strategies to Beat Holiday Bloat (Op-Ed) Katherine Tallmadge M. A r. D. is registered a dietitian noted motivational and wellness speaker author of Diet Simple:
195 Mental Tricks Substitutions Habits & Inspirations (Lifeline Press 2011) and a frequent national commentator on nutrition topics.
It reminded me of a dead deer on the side of the road in the Florida Everglades with a big pile of really soggy moldy laundry next to it.
Using creative decorations almost any food can be turned into a spider witch or vampire. For frozen treats such as mini ice pops or frozen yogurt using a cooler filled with dry ice can give a spooky smoky effect enticing kids to choose the treats.
#Snow leopard's Fate Hinges on Historic Talks (Op-Ed) Bradnee Chambers Executive secretary of the United nations Environment Program Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals contributed this article
Snow leopards are struggling to survive in their mountain habitats driven to the brink of extinction by increasing intrusions into their rocky domain and by the insatiable demand for their fur and bones.
But the Global Snow leopard Conservation Forum in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in October can reverse this trend.
Snow leopards often travel huge distances along ridge lines and cliff bases but increasing threats from a growing human footprint are dissecting their habitat putting the survival of these animals at risk.
Expanding human populations and the demand for more and more land for agriculture and livestock herding are encroaching on snow leopard ranges even into protected areas.
As leopards are forced into living in closer proximity to humans conflicts with shepherds are almost inevitable.
Because of overhunting and poaching of their favorite prey the endangered Argali sheep the leopards are turning to domestic animals goats and sheep instead.
This leads to retributive killing of snow leopards by angry herders. Feral dogs hunt livestock as well but since the snow leopard is protected a species farmers blame snow leopards for attacking livestock
because they will be reimbursed. Also contributing to the snow leopard's downfall is its splendid coat essential for the animal to survive the bitter cold of The himalayas the Hindu kush the Pamirs and the Altai Mountains of Central asia at altitudes as high as 5 kilometers (3 miles.
The species is classified as endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)' s Red List.
Despite the highest level of protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) a lucrative illegal trade flourishes as leopards are killed for their skin and bones meeting the demands of both the fur industry and traditional Chinese medicine.
In today's market a top-quality garment made of leopard skin made up of between six and twelve animals could command a price as high as $60000 in affluent global markets.
It is not however the local hunters who are benefiting from this unsustainable trade their share of the profit is unlikely to be much more than $100 per skin and frequently considerably less.
Estimates suggest that there are between 3500 and 7000 snow leopards left in the wild from Afghanistan in the west China to the east Russia to the north and Myanmar to the south.
However the breeding population is probably little more than 2500 animals distributed over an area of more than 1 million square kilometers (386102 square miles.
But the upcoming Global Snow leopard Conservation Forum in the Kyrgyz Republic might change the course of the snow leopard's fate.
In promoting the conservation of the snow leopard Kyrgyz's President Almazbek Atambayev is playing a similar role to the one played by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Global Tiger Summit in St petersburg Russia in November 2010.
Surprising Ally For Snow leopards: Buddhist Monks At St petersburg a cast of celebrity supporters such as Leonardo Di caprio as well as donor nations and conservation nongovernmental organizations were in attendance.
The contributions over five years will to try to double the number of tigers living in the wild.
Despite countries making encouraging noises half of them had failed to meet their obligations to protect tigers under CITES.
The snow leopard one of the tiger's smaller more elusive and enigmatic cousins is in a similar predicament.
Kyrgyzstan has already hosted a preparatory meeting with support of the World bank Global Tiger Initiative.
The meetings provided an opportunity for countries to present the zero drafts of their National Snow leopard Ecosystem Protection Priorities
which are the initial building blocks for the proposed Global Snow leopard Protection Program. CMS is represented well in the region of the 12 snow leopard range states six are parties to CMS four more participate in regional CMS conservation instruments
and one of the remaining two is reportedly close to joining to the convention. The snow leopard has been inscribed on the CMS Appendix
I since 1985 requiring parties to accord the species the highest level of protection. CMS has a long track record of engagement in Central asia the first CMS agreement between governments concluded more than 20 years ago
and covers species such as the Siberian crane along with recent additions of the Saiga antelope the Bukhara deer and the Argali sheep.
There are many forums dealing with the conservation of endangered species. We cannot afford fruitless attempts to conserve this magnificent big cat
The World bank's resources and the Convention on Migratory Species'expertise and experience in the region could be the winning combination that the snow leopard so desperately needs.
Though often too low or too high for human ears to detect insects and animals signal each other with vibrations.
Even trees and plants fizz with the sound of tiny air bubbles bursting in their plumbing.
And there is evidence that insects and plants hear each other's sounds. Bees buzz at just the right frequency to release pollen from tomatoes and other flowering plants.
And bark beetles may pick up the air bubble pops inside a plant a hint that trees are experiencing drought stress.
but there are many ways that listening to plants already bears fruit. When the bubble bursts Scientists first recognized in the 1960s that listening to leaves revealed the health of plants.
Walnut sphinx caterpillars whistle by forcing air out of holes in their sides. Flying insects perform death drops
when they sense a bat's sonar clicks. Earthworms flee the vibrations of oncoming moles.
Listen to caterpillars communicate with their butts Of course there may be another explanation for the apparent response to sound reported by Gagliano.
One that could also account for the century of researchers and home gardeners (including Charles darwin) who manipulated plant growth with music.
Could a sense of touch be why plants seem to respond to sound? Even humans can perceive sound without hearing it said Frank Telewski a botanist at Michigan State university
or an animal passing on a trail. And like the wind sound is a wave that travels through air.
Some of the beneficial vibrations also drive away pesky insects that munch on crops. We're not there yet Telewski said of the effort to prove plants communicate.
And the fizzy bubble bursts in xylem are ultrasonic about 300 kilohertz detectable only by insects and some other animals.
Examples of Southern-style foods included fried chicken fried fish fried potatoes bacon ham liver and gizzards and sugar-sweetened beverages such as sweet tea.
#Spider Traps Prey Using Amazing Ladder Webs Scientists have gotten a rare glimpse of the enigmatic odd-clawed spider
After sunset the spiders stand facing down from the odd-looking web waiting for insects to get caught
The spider uses a thicker silky piece of webbing as a zip-like type connection between the external webs and the more secure tree hollow.
The natural history of this spider was described in September in the journal Zookeys. Follow us@livescienceâ Facebook &â Google+.
what ruffled people's feathers Carmen Small of neighboring Robbinston told the Associated press. Doing it at a cemetery is sacrilegious and disrespectful.
#Strange Ancient Ape Walked On all fours A bizarre ancient ape whose gait has stumped researchers for decades walked on all fours
Oreopithecus bambolii an ape that lived on an isolated island 7 million to 9 million years ago in
Their conclusion detailed online July 23 in the Journal of Human Evolution overturns an earlier hypothesis that the mysterious ape independently evolved bipedal or two-legged walking.
Ape oddity When O. bambolii was formed alive Italy a string of islands that were covered with swampy forests and teeming with crocodilians.
The ape went extinct after a land bridge connected their island to other land allowing large saber-toothed cats
and other predators to stalk the island. But the strange creature was a bit of a mystery:
whether it was an ape or a monkey. Apes have longer arms for swinging through trees
and monkeys often have tails that let them grab branches). O. bambolii had apelike arms odd teeth with ridges more like a monkey's
and feet that each had one backward-pointing toe similar to those found on birds.
Image Gallery: Our Closest Human Ancestor It's always been a kind of controversial beast. It's an ape that's not closely related to any living apes at all said William Jungers a physical anthropologist at Stony Brook University in New york who was involved not in the study.
In the 1990s one group of researchers took a second look at O. bambolii's pelvis
and spine and concluded the animal had adapted to walk on two legs. That was a bold claim.
Because no other mammals aside from humans and their ancestors routinely walked upright anthropologists use bipedal adaptations to determine which fossil apes are in humans'direct evolutionary lineage said study co-author Liza Shapiro an anthropologist at the University
of Texas at Austin If O. bambolii which isn't considered a direct ancestor to humans had evolved independently upright walking that line of logic would have to be rethought.
It would be really extraordinary to see an animal we don't think is closely related to us who got around this way said William Sanders a paleoanthropologist at the University of Michigan who was involved not in the study.
Prior research suggested this specimen had a wider pelvis compared with apes 'and a unique lower-back curvature called lordosis. Both of these features give humans better balance
That doesn't mean the ancient ape never walked on two legs just that it wasn't its dominant mode of transport.
A chimpanzee with an armful of bananas can stand up on two legs and run quite a distance Sanders told Livescience.
and sulfuric acid gives the worms an odd flavor. If it weren't for the sulfur who knows they might even be told tasty Girguis Livescience.
It's been a tradition to eat animals that we study Girguis said. I figured that
And though it wasn't intentional Watson even shared his species with his dog. Watson brought home some bioluminescent ctenophores (comb jellies) to show his wife then left them on the lawn.
His dog ate them. The most amazing barf I have seen ever said Watson a professor at the University of New hampshire.
But tasting your research goes far beyond the field of marine biology. Scientists'natural curiosity has led them to put some strange things in their mouths.
In the 1800s scientists in Europe tried to eat every animal and bird they could import.
Charles darwin dined on all the species he described including more than 40 tortoises. Technological advances mean today's scientists can sample Antarctic ice cores ancient water invasive species
and toxic plants. 8 Strange Things Scientists Have tasted Party ice At camps on sea ice scientists drink their study subject
Denise Dearing a biologist at the University of Utah studies how herbivores deal with toxins from plants such as creosote juniper and alpine avens a wildflower.
I usually taste all the toxic plants that my wood rats and pikas eat. They are usually unworthy of a second tasting Dearing said.
Mammoth straddles the line between digestible and disgusting. The stories of people eating mammoth go back more than 100 years
but are more legend than truth. That's because the animals emerge from their icy tombs looking like furry freezer-burned jerky thanks to decomposition
and multiple freeze-thaw cycles. At least one apocryphal but unconfirmed tale of mammoth eating comes from the National geographic Explorer's Club annual dinner
Rattlesnake Sliders & Goat Penis: Photos of Exotic Food However one true tale of a Pleistocene repast comes from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Paleontologist Dale Guthrie
and a strong aroma Guthrie wrote in the book Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe:
Edible bugs Eating insects might also fall into the not good category for many Western scientists.
Of course meals from bugs are neither new nor unusual outside of modern Western cultures. Thus many researchers make an effort to overcome their fear of eating bugs
when they travel. I felt both repulsed and attracted by the opportunity to chow down on our study organisms said Nalini Nadkarni an ecologist at the University of Utah.
Nadkarni worked as a field assistant in Papua new guinea during the 1970s studying long-horned beetles (Cerambycids. The group's local assistants would collect beetle larvae during the day and roast them at night.
They weren't terribly tasty being gristly and fatty at the same time. But it did provide a good connection with our helpers.
Sometimes as a real treat we ate the occasional fruit bats they caught. They would singe the fur off in the fire and then skin out the meat.
On the brighter side honeypot ants make an out and out delicious snack according to Joe Sapp an ecology graduate student at the University of California Santa cruz. They are full of nectar
But pop into any in U s. entomology department and one will find plenty of advocates for bug eating.
As a corn entomologist one of my suggestions to corn growers who were plagued by insects was to eat them.
So Turpin concocted corn fritters laced with European corn borers for an insect-cooking demonstration. Edible Bugs to Help Fight World Hunger Turpin also enthusiastically eats raw insects.
He recalls biting down on a raw grub for a TV SHOW on eating insects the cameraman fainted
when juice squirted out. After we revived him we did a second take this time without incident Turpin said.
Also technically a bug eater is Barry Marshall a Nobel prize laureate. Marshall drank a culture containing the microbe H. pylori to prove the bacteria cause stomach ulcers.
but has nibbled never an Antarctic pteropod called the naked sea butterfly (Clione limacina) which makes a chemical antifeedant compound.
if I don't clean the chambers very thoroughly after use that the next animal I put in that chamber will die Seibel said.
Observations of the system revealed a dust trap of millimeter-size grains on one side of the star with smaller micrometer-size particles spread evenly throughout the disc.
Enter the dust-trap theory: If there were a way to form an environment for the dust to grow perhaps it could solve the radial-drift problem.
and could potentially have created the massive planet that is partially responsible now for creating this other trap said Phil Armitage a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder who wrote an analysis of the paper in the journal Science.
He said the dust-trap theory has been around for a while but few astronomers suspected it would be so obvious in an image.
and other designs such as two peacocks flanking an amphora a dove and a partridge and one amphora with a pomegranate and a lemonlike fruit inside.
From Antarctica's glacial lakes to acidic hot springs to unkempt home aquariums diatoms are everywhere.
or carried in by water birds he added. Diatoms particularly love volcanic lakes because they are the only creatures that build shells of glass.
Glass sponges for instance produce a skeleton of glass spicules tiny spike-like structures but not a hard shell.
The giant plume of ash from Toba stretched from the South china sea to the Arabian sea and in the past investigators proposed the resulting volcanic winter might have caused this die off.
This is the unintended consequence of a longstanding federal policy symbolized by Smokey Bear to stamp out forest fires.
Deer lose edge habitat. Threatened owls and raptors can't navigate through increasingly dense thickets.
And when the inevitable forest fires rage through over-forested lands they burn hotter and faster
#Surprisingly Simple Logic Explains Amazing Bee Abilities Bumblebees and Pavlov's dogs have something in common:
Both can learn to associate two things they've never seen together before. A new study finds that bees use simple logical steps to learn from other bees which flowers hold the sweetest nectar.
It really gives us an insight into how complex social-learning behaviors can arise in animals said study researcher Erika Dawson a doctoral student at Queen Mary University of London.
Just by watching another bee forage through a screen a bumblebee could go on to pick the sweetest flowers on its own Dawson said.
Learning to bee Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov became famous in the early 1900s for discovering that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell they associated with food.
He also found that he could get dogs to drool at a completely unrelated stimulus they'd never seen alongside food.
Very quickly dogs would start salivating at the sight of the black square which they associated with the metronome
which they in turn associated with food. 10 Really Weird Animal Discoveries Dawson and her colleagues thought that bees might be taking a similar series of logical steps.
Lots of animals from sea slugs up to primates learn by copying she said and the researchers hope to learn
Chocolate-Covered Elephant Ivory Seized in Macau Ivory poachers go to sometimes-absurd lengths to smuggle prized pieces of elephant tusks across borders.
From September to December 2012 more than 90 ivory seals were found hidden in chocolate packages being sent from South africa to Taiwan according to WWF.
 The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES for short) banned the ivory trade in 1989
Based on the amount of ivory seized worldwide in 2011 some researchers have estimated that up to 50000 African elephants were killed that year for their tusks.
1. Turkey troubles Nothing says Thanksgiving like cooking an obscenely large farm bird. Perhaps it's not surprising then that emergency rooms see a lot of fowl-related injuries on Turkey Day.
when it hits the oil the bird can catch fire or even explode. We've had singed fires that hair
so it's important to cook the bird thoroughly. Food allergies also rear their ugly heads at the holidays.
#The 10 Weirdest Spills in Naturefrom molasses to rubber ducks some strange substances have spilled into waterways and onto roadways.
The sugary fluid which has sunk to the bottom has killed thousands of fish attracting sharks and other scavengers.
A truck in Wagontire Ore. swerved to avoid a deer in 2008 spilling hundreds of gallons of molasses over the highway.
In 2004 a whale carcass exploded while being transported from a beach where it died to a laboratory in the Taiwanese city of Tainan according to BBC News. Gas buildup inside the decomposing cetacean was thought to be responsible for the explosion
which took 13 hours and 50 workers to clean up. When a truck carrying construction glue collided with a bus in Chengdu City China it dowsed the street with its sticky contents.
In the past few years honeybees have spilled onto highways in Montana Canada and California where 10 million to 16 million angry buzzers responded by stinging firefighters police and drivers.
Honeybee hives are shipped regularly to farms around the country to pollinate crops since colony collapse disorder has decimated local bee populations.
Imagine Hercules fighting a Hydra that grows heads like a tree. If he cuts off one head the<a href=http://www. livescience. com/11320-top-10-beasts-dragons-reality-myth. html>mythic monster</a>simply grows back a certain number
of heads governed by a few rules. Amazingly Hercules will always prevail against the Hydra eventually
and chop off all of the Hydra' s heads.</</p><p>But even if Hercules is clever
and chooses the most efficient strategy the Hydra will first grow more than a googolplex of heads (or 10 raised to the power of 10 raised to the 100 power).<
#The Amazing Mating Dance of the Peacock Spider The animal dances and lifts up its tail-flap which once unfurled resembles an abstract Indian blanket of intense color.
Meet the peacock spider. Males from several species within this group of spiders put on remarkable mating displays to win over mates of the opposite gender.
JÃ rgen Otto has done perhaps more than anybody else to document and share footage of this arachnid's terrific breeding ritual it has won even over people who previously hated spiders Otto told Livescience.
Watch the Peacock Spider's Mating Dance For a creature so tiny most species are around an eighth of an inch (a few millimeters) long the display is surprisingly complex and visual.
Due to their tiny size and perhaps because they only live in certain areas in Australia the animals haven't been documented well.
But Otto an entomologist who usually studies marine mites is working to change that. Livescience corresponded with Otto to hear more about his experiences with these remarkable animals.
Livescience: What's your favorite thing about peacock spiders? JÃ rgen Otto: I realize that they are colorful but to me that is not the most important aspect since
I am partially colorblind. It is the fact that they perform some complex rituals on a scale at
which it appears almost surreal to the point where it is hard to believe. People associate complex behavior usually with large animals usually vertebrates animals with backbones so it is unexpected very to see a similar behavior in much smaller invertebrates in particular spiders that most people hate so much.
Incredible Photos of Peacock Spiders I also love the way they interact with their environment how they exhibit fear excitement and curiosity.
In fact somebody has called them kittens with too many legs and I think that is a very good description.
These spiders are perceived as cute even by the staunchest of arachnophobes and I regularly get comments from people telling me how watching my videos have helped them to overcome their fear of spiders.
I also like that it requires a lot of patience and persistence to observe photograph or film them.
How did you first get interested in peacock spiders? J. O.:I did not know anything about them until I stumbled over one during a walk in nearby bushland near Sydney purely by accident.
It attracted my attention in the way it jumped it seemed more nimble than other spiders.
and photograph the courtship of that spider for the first time. I realized that this was something very special and exciting not only for me but the entire world.
What is your favorite type of peacock spider? J. O.:That's a really a hard question to answer.
because my obsession with peacock spiders started with that species . However Maratus vespertilio is probably a close second.
I do think it is extraordinarily cute and I like this species for its male-male hopping contests as well something
Photos of Spiders LS: How do you film peacock spiders? J. O.:When I started to film them I had no idea about how to go about it.
I simply thought one day to explore the video option on my DSLR a Canon 7d with a 100 mm macro lens.
me to follow the spiders on the ground and use natural lighting. Once you find a place where they occur you simply have to search for specimens
but it evolved probably in a similar fashion as it did inâ birds of paradise or peacocks a result of sexual selection.
Sexual selection involves the development of exaggerated features like the tail-feathers of a peacock
which broadcast an animal's evolutionary fitness. Emailâ Douglas Mainâ or follow him onâ Twitterâ orâ Google+.
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