#Sex determiner gene of honey bee more complicated than thoughtbee colonies consist of a queen bee lots of female worker bees and some male drones.
The queen bee who in the course of their mating flight mate with different drones multiple times passes on to fertilized eggs a random combinations of two csd copies so-called alleles.
These are eaten however by worker bees after they hatch. Up until now it was assumed that there were up to 20 csd alleles.
PD Dr. Martin Hasselmann has been the director of the research group Population Genetics of Social Insects at the University of Cologne as a DFG Heisenberg stipendiary since May 2012.
His research foci include the social insects honey bees bumble bees and stingless bees the unique biology
#Green flame moths: Scientists discover two new Limacodidae species from China and Taiwanthe representatives of the Limacodidae moth family are widely known as slug moths due to the resemblance of their stunningly colored caterpillars to slug species. Within this popular family the Parasa undulata group is perhaps one of the most intriguing due to the beautiful
green wing pattern typical for those species. In a recent revision published in the open access journal Zookeys scientists describe two new species from the group
and provide a first record of a conifer-feeding caterpillar. The two new species Parasa viridiflamma and Parasa minwangi described from China
The scientists provide the first record of a caterpillar from the group feeding exclusively on pine trees Picea morrisonicola in Taiwan.
and larval colouration is shared with other Picea-feeding insects. This phenomenon is worth further investigation in the aspect of convergent evolution of crypsis
#Americans would pay to help monarch butterfliesamericans place high value on butterfly royalty. A recent study suggests they are willing to support monarch butterfly conservation at high levels up to about 6 billion dollars
if extrapolated to all U s. households. If even a small percentage of the population acted upon this reported willingness the cumulative effort would likely translate into a large untapped potential for conservation of the iconic butterfly.
Monarch butterfly populations have been declining across Mexico California and other areas of the United states since 1999.
A 2012 survey at the wintering grounds of monarchs in Mexico showed the lowest colony size ever recorded.
The multigenerational migration of the monarch butterfly is considered one of the world's most spectacular natural events said Jay Diffendorfer a USGS scientist and the study's lead author.
Much of the decline in monarch numbers has been blamed on the loss of milkweed the native plants on which monarch caterpillars feed.
This is the first nationwide published economic valuation survey of the general public for an insect.
The study indicates that economic values of monarch butterflies are potentially large enough to mobilize people for conservation planting
Unfortunately many plants purchased by gardeners have been treated with systemic insecticides that can kill both pollinators that consume the nectar
and caterpillars like monarchs that eat the leaves. This study shows that not only might consumers pay more for monarch-friendly milkweeds grown without systemic insecticides in the potting soil
and sunlight may not be the only contributors to a plant's success. Ants in their role as seed dispersers may play an equally important part in determining
-or warm-adapted ants impacts early-blooming spring plants. In Mutualism fails when climate response differs between interacting species the authors assert Timing is everything
In previous research Warren showed that a cold-tolerant ant species Aphaenogaster picea has been displaced in northern Georgia by a warm-adapted ant species Aphaenogaster rudis during three decades of rising
and butterfly migrations seed-setting by plants and the emergence of animals--including ants--from winter dormancy.
and the ants pick up and disperse the seeds. However A. americana drops its seeds weeks before A. rudis begins foraging
A total of eleven ant species and 3066 individuals were observed at the foraging stations. At both sites the later-blooming A. arifolium offspring were dispersed in a manner that suggested that ants picked up its seeds.
However the early blooming A. americana offspring south of the A. picea/A. rudis boundary (where only A. rudis occurs) clustered around the parent plant indicating no dispersal.
#The most widespread ant and its new relative: A revision of the genus Paratrechinalong considered to be one of the most species-rich ant genera latest research has stripped the ant genus Paratrechina down to a single species-Paratrechina longicornis.
This particular ant is one of the most widely distributed found in nearly every tropical and subtropical location on the planet due to accidental human transport
and is considered one of the world's worst invasive ant species. A recent review of the genus in the open access Journal of Hymenoptera Research announces the discovery of a second species P. zanjensis which presents a step forward into determining the native
The remarkable ability of this ant to survive even in extremely human changed environment also makes it a well-known pest in tropical climates commonly called crazy ant due to its erratic movements.
A recent study published in the open access Journal of Hymenoptera Research aimed to obtain empirical data on the activity
The paper suggests that the invasive creeping daisy could in fact have a positive influence on a wild bee pollinator species
A recent survey by Mr Abhineshwar Prasad of The University of the South Pacific reported over 100 species of arthropods associated with road side patches of S. trilobata including Hymenoptera such as parasitoid wasps
In the future we may rely on other insect species to perform crop pollination services including naturally-occurring native
Pollination success of generalist plants tends to be positively related to pollinator diversity so any habitat modifications that increase the number of pollinating species present at a site would tend to be of some inherent value.
Outside of agro-ecological systems many studies have indicated that even flowering plants considered as invasive may have positive effects on insects especially on nectar
and augmenting local populations of pollinating insects explains Dr Hodge. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Pensoft Publishers.
They experience anaphylactic shock including a drop in blood pressure itchy hives and breathing problems and may die if not promptly treated.
The study builds on earlier work by the researchers characterizing the innate immune response to snake venom and honeybee venom.
and that mast cells can also enhance innate resistance to honeybee venom. Such innate immune responses do not require prior immunization or the development of specific antibodies.
and Remko Leys at the South australia Museum to model a mass extinction in bee group Xylocopinae or carpenter bees at the end of the Cretaceous and beginning of the Paleogene eras known as the K-T boundary.
Analyzing DNA sequences of four tribes of 230 species of carpenter bees from every continent except Antarctica for insight into evolutionary relationships the researchers began to see patterns consistent with a mass extinction.
Understanding extinctions and the effects of declines in the past can help us understand the pollinator decline
and the global crisis in pollinators today Rehan says. The article First evidence for a massive extinction event affecting bees close to the K-T boundary was published in the Oct 23 2013 edition of PLOS ONE.
Lowering the veil A curious finding that arose from work with social insects some our work
although social insects are pretty good at recognizing foreigners from a different colony they seem almost universally bad at distinguishing among different degrees of relatedness within their own colony Queller said.
because all of the insects are the progeny of a single mother so they're all full sisters.
But in others such as honeybee colonies the queen mates with multiple males and so there are 17 or 20 sets of paternal genes
The insects are half sibs; they all share the same mother but they have different fathers he said.
It works to the advantage of the colony because if the bees can't tell half and full sisters they'll be out foraging rather than loitering near the queen cells to make sure a full sister becomes the next queen he said.
If a worker bee is isolated it will develop a distinctive hydrocarbon profile and be rejected if it is reintroduced into a colony.
The red fire ant for example has a gene that worker offspring can recognize and workers with this gene kill all queens that don't have it.
Genes like this one are called greenbeards because they confer an externally visible label that allows them to spot copies of themselves
Slave-making ants he said have lost the ability to care for their young and themselves. To survive they raid the nests of other ants and steal the pupae.
Once the pupae emerge they imprint on the colony odor and work as if they were members of that colony.
#Grazers, pollinators shape plant evolutionit has long been known that the characteristics of many plants with wide ranges can vary geographically depending on differences in climate.
It is known that a prominent floral display increases attractiveness to pollinators but also increases the risk of damage from grazing animals and seed-eating insects.
To investigate how pollinators and grazing animals affect the characteristics of natural plant populations these researchers studied bird's eye primrose populations in alvar grasslands on the Baltic island of Ãand.
Two distinct morphs of primrose occur there: a short morph that produces its flowers close to the ground
The tall morph is better at attracting pollinators but on the other hand it is damaged more frequently by grazing animals and seed predators.
#Economic assessment of mountain pine beetle timber salvagea recently published study by U s. Forest Service researchers evaluates potential revenues from harvesting standing timber killed by mountain pine beetle in the western
--which have the largest volume of standing dead timber--would not generate positive net revenues by salvaging beetle-killed timber.
Center were asked to evaluate the circumstances under which salvaging pine beetle-killed timber would be cost-effective.
and Colorado--two states heavily affected by the mountain pine beetle--to evaluate the effects of efforts to encourage
#and the beesare our favourite garden flowers attractive to hungry visitors such as bees and butterflies to feed on?
Researchers at the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI) at the University of Sussex have completed one of the first scientific studies to put the business of recommending pollinator-friendly garden flowers on a firmer scientific footing.
Gardens are more important than ever as a source of food for a wide variety of insects who feed on the nectar
pollinators such as bees and butterflies are in decline globally with one of the main causes being the loss of flowers especially in the countryside.
and other insects by providing attractive flowers in their gardens for insects to feed on. To do this they often rely on#oepollinator-friendly#plant lists.
The study funded by the Body shop Foundation involved repeatedly counting flower-visiting insects over two summers as they foraged on 32 popular summer-flowering garden plant varieties in a specially planted experimental garden on the University s
and his Phd student Mihail Gaburzov was that garden flowers attractive to the human eye vary enormously (approx 100-fold) in their attractiveness to insects meaning that the best plants for bees
and other insects are 100 times better than the worst. So it pays to make an informed choice of plants from the thousands available to gardeners.
Bees (87 per cent) and hoverflies (nine per cent) were the most frequent visitors with butterflies and moths just two per cent and all other insects also two per cent.
The researchers observed clear differences in the mix of bee and insect types attracted by different varieties indicating that careful plant choice can
not only help insects in general but also help a range of insects. Other findings were: Professor Ratnieks says:#
#oeour trial is by no means exhaustive#we looked at a small selection of the thousands of plants you can find in a typical garden centre.
But our study clearly shows that planting pollinator-friendly flowers is a no-cost win-win solution to help the bees.
and as pretty as those that are less attractive to insects.##oegarden plants do not have to be native to help most pollinating insects.
Nectar for example is basically sugar and water and so it is of value to British insects whether it is from a native garden plant or one from another part of the world.
Lavender is from the Mediterranean and dahlias are from Mexico.##oehelping bees in your garden is a no-brainer.
and other insects visiting flowers in bloom to determine the most attractive. Anyone can do this in their own garden or park or even when shopping for plants in a garden centre.#
#1#Quantifying variation among garden plants in attractiveness to bees and other flower-visiting insects Functional Ecology (October 2013.
In fact in some regions the magnitude of carbon uptake or release due to the effects of specific animal species or groups of animals--such as the pine beetles devouring forests in western North america--can rival the impact of fossil fuel
#Climate change creates complicated consequences for North americas forestsclimate change affects forests across North america--in some cases permitting insect outbreaks plant diseases wildfires
Tree-killing insects and plant diseases are natural elements of healthy forest ecosystems but climate change is rapidly altering the distribution and magnitude of forest pestilence and altering biodiversity and the ecosystem.
For example pine bark beetles have killed recently trees over more area of U s. forests than wildfires including in areas with little previous experience managing aggressive pests.
That has permitted population explosions of tree-killing bark beetles in forests that were shielded previously by winter cold
Dieldrin was used extensively to kill crop pests termites and mosquitoes before it was banned in 1987 in the U s. Its use in the Midwest agricultural belt was pronounced particularly.
Before these compounds were banned U s. farmers applied more than 15 million pounds of dieldrin and aldrin (its parent compound) to their crops every year--much of it in the Midwest.
Drought conditions appear to decrease host tree defenses against spruce beetles which attack the inner layers of bark feeding
Spruce beetles like their close relatives mountain pine beetles are attacking large areas of coniferous forests across the West.
Spruce beetles range from Alaska to Arizona and live in forests of Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir trees in Colorado.
and tree defenses like pitching beetles out of tree interiors with resin were likely high.
The area of high-elevation forests affected by spruce beetles is growing in the West Hart said.
In 2012 U s. Forest Service surveys indicated that more area was under attack by spruce beetles than mountain pine beetles in the Southern Rocky mountains
In the short term trees killed by spruce beetles will lead to less water use by trees
But in the long term the absence of the trees killed by beetles may lead to less persistence of snow and earlier runoff.
They would look like butterfly wings Artyukhov said. Bundles might stick to each other but they wouldn't collapse completely Yakobson added.
Ants more closely related to bees than to most waspsants and bees are surprisingly more genetically related to each other than they are to social wasps such as yellow jackets
and paper wasps a team of University of California Davis scientists has discovered. The groundbreaking research is available online
Scientists previously thought that ants and bees were related more distantly with ants being closer to certain parasitoid wasps.
Ants bees and stinging wasps all belong to the aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera clade--the insect group in which social behavior is developed most extensively said senior author
and ant specialist Phil Ward professor of entomology at UC Davis. Despite great interest in the ecology and behavior of these insects their evolutionary relationships have never been clarified fully.
In particular it has been uncertain how ants--the world's most successful social insects--are related to bees
and wasps Ward said. We were able to resolve this question by employing next-generation sequencing technology and advances in bioinformatics.
This phylogeny or evolutionary tree provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of nesting feeding and social behavior in Hymenoptera.
The collaborators included Ward Assistant professor Joanna Chiu Assistant professor Brian Johnson graduate student Marek Borowiec and postdoctoral researcher Joel Atallah all with the UC Davis Department
and/or behavioral traits evolved in these groups of insects and even examine the genetic basis of these phenotypic changes Chiu said.
and health of honeybees noted that the study showed that ants and bees are related more closely than previously thought.
--and genomic (DNA) data from a number of species of ants bees and wasps including bradynobaenid wasps a cuckoo wasp a spider wasp a scoliid wasp a mud dauber wasp a tiphiid wasp
a paper wasp and a pollen wasp; a velvet ant (wasp; a dracula ant; and a sweat bee Lasioglossum albipes.
Of particular interest was the finding that ants are a sister group to the Apoidea a major group within Hymenoptera that includes bees
and sphecid wasps (a family of wasps that includes digger wasps and mud daubers). The UC Davis results also provide a new perspective on lower Cretaceous fossil Cariridris bipetiolata originally claimed to be the oldest fossil ant.
Scientists later reinterpreted it to be a spheciform wasp. Our discovery that ants and apoids are sister taxa helps to explain difficulty in the placement of Cariridris the authors wrote in the paper
and suggests that it is treated best as a lineage close to the root of the ant-apoid tree perhaps not assignable with certainty to either branch.
The scientists discovered that the ancestral aculeate wasp was likely an ectoparasitoid which attacks and paralyzes a host insect
and leaves its offspring nearby where they can attach to the outside of the host and feed from it.
The research drew financial support from UC Davis. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Davis. Note:
New research by neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) published in The Journal of Neuroscience reveals a set of cells in the fruit fly brain that respond specifically to food odors.
when the fly is presented different food odors--apple mango banana--predicts incredibly well how much the flies will given'like'a odor says the lead author of the research paper Jennifer Beshel Ph d. a postdoctoral investigator in the laboratory of CSHL
when flies were hungry. The amplitude of their response could in fact predict with great accuracy how much the flies would like a given food odor--i e. move toward it;
the scientists needed simply to look at the responses of the dnpf-expressing neurons. When they switched off these neurons the researchers were able to make flies treat their most favored odor
as if it were just air. Conversely if they remotely turned these neurons on they could make flies suddenly approach odors they previously had tried to avoid.
As Dr. Beshel explains: The more general idea is that there are areas in the brain that might be involved specifically in saying:'
Malaria is caused by a handful of species of parasites in the Genus plasmodium through the bite of mosquitos
which roost in trees may have been exposed to the same mosquito vectors that transfer the parasites between the tree-dwelling rodent hosts.
Our research provides important insights to the biology of pollinators said co-author Professor Vincent Jansen.
The research was funded as part of the £10 million'Insect Pollinators Initiative'setup to understand the causes of pollinator declines
and safer for farm workerssince 1996 corn containing a gene that allows it to create a protein that is toxic to certain insects yet safe for human consumption has been grown in the United states
The study Multi-State Trials of Bt Sweet corn Varieties for Control of the Corn earworm (Lepidoptera:
Noctuidae) analyzed the performance of Bt sweet corn comparing its rate of infestation and marketability to genetically identical varieties that lacked Bt proteins.
The authors found that for pest management of the corn earworm Bt sweet corn consistently performed better than its non-Bt counterparts even those that were sprayed with conventional insecticides.
The authors predict that growers could realize increased profits with Bt sweet corn because of lower inputs and higher marketability while simultaneously conserving populations of beneficial insects that keep damaging pests at bay.
Famous weevils moths and borer beetles live in a very comfortable environment when in the middle of a silo or warehouse fill with grains.
This insects alongside some fungi bacteria and viruses cause annual loses of between four and ten percent of all the stored grains worldwide mainly corn wheat sorghum rice and beans.
The ozone removes the comfort zone of the insects making them unable to breathe and modifying the internal atmosphere of the room using this technique pest free grains are obtained during the whole purchase sale and storage cycle.
and can even be deposited atmospherically on the hive itself said Kristen Hladun the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral entomologist.
in order to mimic the chronic exposure this insect may face when foraging in a contaminated area.
The honey bee is an important agricultural pollinator in the United states and throughout the world.
Several insect species suffer toxic effects from feeding on Se-contaminated food. In the case of the honey bee Se enters the body through ingestion of contaminated pollen and nectar.
It is not clear how selenium damages the insect's internal organs or if the bee has the ability to detoxify these compounds at all Hladun said.
Hladun explained that honey bees may also be more susceptible than other insects due to a lack of detoxification enzymes that other insects still possess.
Further honey bees at the larval stage are more susceptible to selenium relative to other insect species. Mortality within the hive can reduce the number of workers
According to Hladun knowing which contaminants are the most important to regulate is key to minimizing the exposure of honey bee hives to contaminants.
or to move hives away from contaminated areas she said. Also better management of weedy plant species that are known to be Se-accumulators can prevent them from becoming a route of exposure.
and lead in particular) that have been found in honey bee hives especially the ones located near urban or industrial areas.
or the tiny bugs that live in house dust have sneezing itching eyes and a running nose that often significantly impacts their productivity at school or work.
-looking Asian Giant hornet Vespa tropica and a smaller hornet species known as Vespa velutina which has invaded Europe
and now poses a threat to European honey bees. The Asian Giant hornets are armored dangerous heavily predators says Ken Tan the first author of the paper who also works at the Chinese Academy of Science's Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden.
Bee colonies respond by forming balls of defending bees encasing the hornet and in some cases cooking it to death with heat generated by the bees.
The researchers found that bees treated the bigger hornet species which is four times more massive than the smaller species as more dangerous.
In a series of experiments they presented bees with different combinations of safe and dangerous feeders--depending on their association with the larger
or smaller hornets--containing varying concentrations of sucrose. Bees avoided the dangerous feeders and preferred feeders that provided sweeter nectar says Nieh.
They avoided the giant hornet at the best food but continued to visit the lower quality food with the smaller hornet.
Other scientists involved in the research were Zongwen Hu Weiwen Chen Zhengwei Wang and Yuchong Wang all of the Eastern Bee Research Institute of Yunnan Agricultural University.
Scientists find insect DEET receptors, develop safe alternatives to DEETINSECTS are repelled by NN-diethyl-m-toluamide also known as DEET.
But exactly which olfactory receptors insects use to sense DEET has eluded scientists for long. Now researchers at the University of California Riverside have identified these DEET-detecting olfactory receptors that cause the repellency--a major breakthrough in the field of olfaction.
which olfactory receptor insects used to avoid DEET said Anandasankar Ray an associate professor of entomology who led the research team.
The method Ray's team used to identify the receptors examined in an unbiased fashion all the sensory neurons in the insect
In their experiments the researchers used the genetic model system Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) that was engineered genetically in such a way that neurons activated by DEET glowed fluorescent green.
because the receptor in insects for DEET was unknown. Capable of dissolving plastics and nylon DEET has been reported to inhibit an enzyme (acetylcholinesterase) in mammals that is important in the nervous system.
and inconvenient for use in Africa and other parts of the world where hundreds of millions of people suffer from insect-transmitted diseases.
But now they can be applied to bed-nets clothes curtains--making them ward off insects. Using novel chemical informatics strategies Ray's lab screened half a million compounds against the DEET receptor to identify substitutes.
Of these eight were strong repellents on flies of which four were tested in Aedes mosquitoes and found to be strong repellents.
Of the four compounds three are approved already by the Food and Drug Administration as food additives.
All three compounds activated the same antennal cells in flies as DEET Ray said. What's really encouraging is that some of these compounds may be affordable to produce in large quantities.
In past work his lab identified compounds that mask the host from insects as well as compounds that serve as lures.
The lab's new research has given us compounds that serve as repellents making possible safe alternatives to DEET for a variety of applications including control of mosquitoes flies and possibly lice bed bugs ants cockroaches grain pests and agricultural pests.
Ir40a and its related proteins are conserved not only in flies and mosquitoes but also in many other insects that are human
and plant pests Ray explained. Our findings could lead to a new generation of cheap affordable repellents that could protect humans animals and in the future our crops as well.
Specifically the researchers used their computational approach to study the interactions between 24 odorant receptors in Drosophila antennae
They then tested their predictions for some receptors on living flies and found that approximately 71 percent of the predicted compounds activated
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011