#Grooming helps insects keep their senses sharpenedlike a self-absorbed teenager insects spend a lot of time grooming.
In a study that delves into the mechanisms behind this common function North carolina State university researchers show that insect grooming--specifically antennal cleaning--removes both environmental pollutants
and chemicals produced by the insects themselves. The findings published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences show that grooming helps insects maintain acute olfactory senses that are responsible for a host of functions including finding food sensing danger and even
locating a suitable mate. The findings could also explain why certain types of insecticides work more effectively than others.
Insects groom themselves incessantly so NC State entomologist Coby Schal and postdoctoral researchers Katalin Boroczky and Ayako Wada-Katsumata wanted to explore the functions of this behavior.
They devised a simple set of experiments to figure out what sort of material insects were cleaning off their antennae where this material was coming from
The researchers compared cleaned antennae of American cockroaches with antennae that were prevented experimentally from being cleaned. They found that grooming cleaned microscopic pores on the antennae that serve as conduits through
Cockroaches clean their antennae by using forelegs to place the antennae in their mouths; they then methodically clean every segment of the antenna from base to tip.
and nonvolatile chemicals accumulated on the ungroomed antennae of cockroaches but most surprising was the accumulation of a great deal of cuticular hydrocarbons--fatty candlewax-like substances secreted by the roaches to protect them against water loss.
It is intuitive that insects remove foreign substances from their antennae but it's not necessarily intuitive that they groom to remove their'own'substances Schal says.
The researchers also tested groomed and ungroomed cockroach antennae to gauge how well roaches picked up the scent of a known sex pheromone compound as well as other odorants.
Clean antennae responded to these signals much more readily than ungroomed antennae. The researchers then put carpenter ants houseflies and German cockroaches to many of the same tests.
Although they groom a bit differently than cockroaches--flies and ants seem to rub their legs over their antennae to remove particulates with ants then ingesting the material off their legs--the tests showed that these insects also accumulated more cuticular hydrocarbons
when antennae went ungroomed. The evidence is strong: Grooming is necessary to keep these foreign and native substances at a particular level Schal says.
Leaving antennae dirty essentially blinds insects to their environment. Schal adds that there could be pest-control implications to the findings.
An insecticide mist or dust that settles on a cockroach's antennae for instance should be ingested by the roach rather quickly due to constant grooming.
That method of insecticide delivery could be more effective than relying on residual insecticides to penetrate the thick cuticle for instance.
Finally Schal says the study can also be used as a caution to other researchers who use insects in experiments.
Gluing shut an insect's mouth to prevent it from feeding for example also prevents the insect from grooming its antennae Experimental results could be skewed
#24 new species of flower fly have been found in Central and Southern Americaa team of scientists have described twenty four new species of dipterans belonging to Quichuana genus of which only a further 24 species were known.
The researchers including two Spanish biologists have been studying the forests of Central and Southern America for ten years and they have published now their results in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
A ten-year study in forests of the American continent has resulted in the description of 24 new insect species from the Quichuana genus that are also known as'flower flies'.
which is a group with similar characteristics to that of bees and wasps but with a different taxonomic order.
and one of the authors of the study the species of the Quichuana genus are not well known as they live in tropical forest areas where insect studies are scarce.
while in flight whereas others were taken as larva and were raised then in our laboratories as adults outlines the researcher.
and how a relationship has been established between the insect species and their plant development environment adds the researcher.
According to the author the discovery of this insect-plant relationship is especially important for establishing conservation methods both for these species and others that share the same development environment.
and biological control of plagues as their larvae feed on other insects that are damaging to crops
and ornamental plants such as plant louses. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Plataforma SINC.
#West Nile virus spreading due to mosquitoes in orchards and vineyards, experts warnwashington State university researchers have linked orchards
and vineyards with a greater prevalence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes and the insects'ability to spread the virus to birds horses and people.
Is that because there are more mosquitoes there? That hasn't really been linked together. Crowder working with fellow entomologist Jeb Owen other WSU colleagues and the State department of Health merged data from a variety of sources including West Nile infections in humans horses
and birds surveys of virus-bearing mosquitoes breeding bird surveys and detailed land use maps and climate data from around the Northwest.
and birds also have significantly more mosquitoes--as well as American robins and house sparrows the two bird species implicated the most in the disease's transmission.
These same habitats are also resulting in much higher rates of infection within mosquitoes themselves said Crowder.
and American robins abundance of mosquitoes and the actual prevalence of West Nile in mosquitoes--are increasing in landscapes with a higher proportion of land in orchard habitats.
It's still unclear why the habitats would create such a perfect storm for the virus. The researchers speculate that mosquitoes are drawn to orchards for plant nectar during flowering
Together the insects and birds become focal points for the disease. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Washington state University.
#Biologists use diag trees to help solve gypsy moth mysteryworking beneath the towering oaks and maples on the University of Michigan's central campus Diag undergraduate researchers and their faculty adviser helped explain an observation that had puzzled insect ecologists who study voracious leaf-munching gypsy moth caterpillars.
The caterpillars which defoliate and sometimes kill stands of trees in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast are especially fond of oaks
but sugar maple trees appear to be relatively resistant to the European pest. Biologists wondered whether the caterpillars shun sugar maples in part
because their leaves are less nutritious than the leaves of other trees. To find out U-M biochemist Ray Barbehenn
when gypsy moths do most of their feeding. However the researchers found that protein is more abundant in oak leaves than in maple leaves.
These results help us understand the nutritional reasons why insects perform better or worse on different species of plants.
and forestry to improve the resistance of plants to insect pests he said. In the short term though this is basic research that is driven by the curiosity of ecologists to understand nature better.
She said her work studying protein metabolism in gypsy moth caterpillars shaped her decision to pursue a doctorate in nutrition.
In the gypsy moth study the students used a long-pole pruner to reach into the crowns of Diag oaks and maples and collect leaves.
The whole-body essential amino acid composition of gypsy moth caterpillars was measured to estimate their optimum dietary protein composition which was compared with the EAA compositions of oak and maple leaves.
The ability to literally walk out the door to work on tree defenses against pests like the gypsy moth coupled with an abundance of undergraduate talent makes the U-M campus an ideal location for studies in insect chemical ecology Barbehenn said.
The protein study showed that gypsy moths would have to devour more maple leaves than oak leaves to achieve the same amount of nourishment.
and Great depression-era ditches constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) in an effort to control mosquitoes.
but squattier Spartina patens) and other high marsh plants dominate The old WPA mosquito ditches also fulfill the crabs'habitat requirements.
Mosquito ditches that can only be reached by a hard slog through undeveloped marshland do not display the striking die off
The revelation of the slumbering menace of the mosquito ditches raises the prospect of other submerged impacts that may surface under the influence of new contemporary pressures.
As land use shifted from agriculture toward tourism the local chamber of commerce funded an effort to draw off standing water through drainage ditches to suppress the mosquito population.
The program was probably not very effective at controlling mosquito-borne disease Coverdale says but it did put a lot of people to work
The Cape cod Mosquito Control Project continues ditch-dredging under the Barnstable County Department of health and the Environment.
#New control strategies for bipolar bark beetlespopulation explosions of pine beetles which have been decimating North american forests in recent decades may be prevented by boosting competitor
Bark beetles are the most destructive forest pests worldwide. Management and climate change have resulted in younger denser forests that are even more susceptible to attack.
Though intensively studied for decades until now an understanding of bark beetle population dynamics--extreme ups and downs--has remained elusive.
That is different from most species such as deer warblers and swallowtail butterflies whose populations tend to be regular around some average abundance based on food weather and other external factors says Matt Ayres a professor in the Department of Biological sciences at Dartmouth and senior author on the paper.
The new research by Dartmouth scientists and their forester colleagues could provide the means to limit this seemingly bipolar dynamic keeping the bark beetles at the lower stable population level.
The studies identify the presence of bark beetle competitors and predators (specifically two other beetles) as the predominant limiting factor that can keep the bark beetles at a low stable equilibrium.
The authors suggest that the presence of these competitors and predators could be encouraged as a control strategy.
The pine beetles produce pheromones chemical signals that attract enough competitors and predators to prevent outbreaks says Sharon Martinson a member of the research team and first author on the new paper.
Voles know which acorns have insect larvaeresearchers at the UPM have observed as voles are able to distinguish the acorns containing insect larvae from those that have not.
when seed are attacked by insects the fact that larva is or not inside of the acorn can modify the dispersion pattern and consequently the regeneration of these types of forests.
This is the case of small beetles the weevils (Curculio sp. that lay their eggs inside the unripe acorns
When larva completes its development it drills a small hole out of the acorn and buries itself in the soil
and through the metamorphosis becomes a new adult beetle. Voles are the main consumers of acorns
However those acorns in which the larva was still inside the fruit were moved and stored by voles.
The fact that the larva was resulted still inside definitive for the near future of the acorn and therefore the future of oak forests.
and an apparent harmful beetle can be attractive to voles that at the same time releases acorns from this enemy
study suggestsin Missouri forests dense thickets of invasive honeysuckle decrease the light available to other plants hog the attention of pollinators
The parasite is transmitted through the bite of the tsetse fly a large flying insect found throughout the midcontinent of Africa that survives by drinking blood from human and animal hosts.
or eradicating the tsetse fly which has proven difficult. Even when humans are successful in avoiding the bite of the tsetse fly domesticated animals like cattle
and pigs may fall victim to nagana the animal version of sleeping sickness which when translated from Zulu means depressed in spirit.
and insects that depend on the plants. Earlier blooming exposes plants to a greater risk of experiencing cold snaps that can damage blossoms
In an analysis of 18 years of data from 1296 counties in 15 states researchers found that Americans living in areas infested by the emerald ash borer a beetle that kills ash trees suffered from an additional
It was as it turns out bugs says Robert Kennedy a remote sensing specialist at Boston University who consulted with U s. Forest Service experts to confirm his observations.
and near Mount Rainier where the insect outbreak lasted ten years from its onset in 1994 till the insects killed all the trees
--but also the slow and subtle changes that take place over many years including pulses of insect outbreaks.
In the satellite imagery they had found two kinds of insect signals. The first is a classic mountain pine beetle outbreak.
The beetles attacked lodge pole pines the same species affected in outbreaks throughout British columbia and Colorado.
and Mount Rainier is the western spruce budworm an insect that moves into an area and eats the needles off the trees.
We found that the beetles do not disturb watersheds in the same way as logging
beetle-killed areas another indication of how understory vegetation compensates for environmental conditions in beetle kill areas.
The researchers measured stream nitrate concentrations at more than 100 sites in western Colorado containing lodgepole pines with a range of beetle-induced tree damage.
These findings show that wild pollinators not only contribute directly to almond pollination but also indirectly through increasing the pollination service provided by the honey bees.
A second study in the same system published in Global Change Biology found two other mechanisms by which pollinator diversity improved pollination service to almond.
Where wild pollinators were present they often visited the lower parts of the trees filling the gap in pollination service left by the honey bees.
In orchards with a diversity of pollinators pollination service was buffered to an extent by the wild bees.
Wild pollinators can therefore help sustain pollination service under extreme weather conditions when the service by honey bees declines.
and are applied frequently insecticides are employed only in cases of acute insect infestation. Accordingly correspondingly high doses are applied discretely to fields
Although insecticides often show only short half-lives in the environment these highly toxic substances potentially enter water resources where they can be harmful to aquatic insects and other invertebrates.
#Genome of diamondback moth provides new clues for sustainable pest managementan international research consortium led by Fujian Agriculture Forestry University (FAFU)
and BGI has completed the first genome sequence of the diamondback moth (DBM) the most destructive pest of brassica crops.
This work provides wider insights into insect adaptation to host plant and opens new ways for more sustainable pest management.
The diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) preferentially feeds on economically important food crops such as rapeseed cauliflower and cabbage.
The completed genome sequencing of DBM will lay a solid foundation for tracking the evolutionary mechanisms of how an insect evolves to become a successful herbivore that can defense many insecticides. said Professor Minsheng You Vice president of FAFU and leader of the research team.
and how new strategies can be developed to control insect pests. In this study researchers sequenced the genome of DBM by whole genome shotgun (WGS)
Compared with other sequenced insect species they found that the diamondback moth possesses a relatively larger set of genes
Additionally the genome-based phylogeny demonstrated that DBM was a basal lepidopteran species which is supported well by its modal karyotype.
Insecticide tolerance or resistance may have contribution to the option of detoxification pathway in insect herbivores.
In this study researchers found DBM has a larger set of insecticide resistance-related genes than silkworm (B. mori) that had little exposure to insecticide over 5000 years of domestication.
They identified in DBM obvious gene duplications of four gene families that participated in xenobiotic detoxification in insects including ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter families the P450 monooxygenases (P450s) glutathione
and have the first publicly accessible database of diamondback moth genome. I expect we could translate our achievements into real actions for sustainable pest management in the near future.
The complete genome sequence of diamondback moth is publicly available via visit http://www. iae. fafu. edu. cn/DBM.
#Bugs reveal the richness of species on Earthan international team of researchers has carried out a survey of the biological diversity in a tropical rainforest.
Arthropod (Phylum arthropoda) is a collective term comprising insects arachnids and crustaceans commonly referred to in the vernacular as bugs.
Although arthropods make up the majority of all living animal species little is known about their true numbers.
and that the vast majority of them live in tropical rainforests it makes perfect sense that you can carry out a census of all the bugs in the rainforest to find an answer to the overriding question.
and identified 130000 bugs representing over 6000 different species. A large portion of all species discovered in the forest were found in a rather small area--a fortuitous development for the researchers.
#Research revisiting the safety of GM weevil-resistant peas in mice contradicts previous risk assessment findingsresearchers at the Medical University of Vienna have conducted feeding trials with mice to investigate the allergenicity of genetically modified (GM) weevil-resistant peas.
which can be devastated by pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum) infestation. Unlike peas beans are attacked not by pea weevils as they contain a protein called Î-amylase inhibitor (Î AI) that causes the weevils feeding on beans to starve before they cause any damage.
The Meduni Vienna-team investigated immune responses in mice fed several varieties of beans non-transgenic peas
and the role it may play in attracting pollinators. An iridescent surface appears to change colour as you alter the angle you view it from.
It is found in the animal kingdom in insects inside sea shells and in feathers and is seen also in some plants.
Iridescence in flowers may act as a signal to pollinators such as bumblebees which are crucial to crop production.
Understanding how petals produce iridescence to attract pollinators is a major goal in plant biology. An estimated 35 per cent of global crop production depends on petal-mediated animal pollination
but a decrease in pollinator numbers across the world has started to limit the odds of pollination
Pollinators such as bumblebees can detect the iridescent signal produced by petal nanoridges and can learn to use this signal as a cue to identify rewarding flowers.
#Buy local firewood to prevent spread of invasive beetle, forest service saysenjoying the cooler temperatures with a warm toasty fire?
The Kansas Forest Service is asking residents to help save trees by buying their firewood locally all to prevent the further spread of an invasive beetle killing millions of ash trees.
The emerald ash borer is a small green metallic beetle that was detected first in the United states in 2002 in Detroit said Ryan Armbrust a forest health specialist with the Kansas Forest Service.
The invasive beetle is attacking ash trees in the Kansas city area specifically in Wyandotte Johnson and Leavenworth counties.
The beetle invades a tree by landing on the bark and laying an egg. That larva will hatch
and penetrate into the tree feeding on the thin layer between the bark and the heartwood.
The larva feed on the tree's vascular system eventually killing the tree. Trees that have been invaded by the emerald ash borer have a thin canopy Armbrust said.
because the beetle larva is a food source for the woodpecker. Unfortunately once these symptoms appear the beetle has already been in the tree for a few years
and has most likely spread to other trees. Armbrust says they believe the beetle first arrived in the United states through packing material.
Now it is spreading through the transportation of firewood and lumber. The adult beetles are poor flyers
and only travel about a mile on an annual basis Armbrust said. Where we really see rapid movement is assisted through human movement like cutting down logs for firewood and taking them 50 miles or 200 miles away.
Salinity plays role in insect grazingtwenty years ago biologists Kathy Boyer and Joy Zedler then researchers at San diego State university speculated that too many insects feeding on cordgrass in the marshes of San diego bay could endanger the grass
and in turn endanger the bay wildlife that relies on it. Picking up where Boyer and Zedler left off SDSU biologist Jeremy Long is currently further exploring the dimensions of this relationship.
What he's found so far suggests that it's not a simple as saying too many insects spell death for a host plant.
Instead his research suggests a complex interplay between insects plant growth and the overall stress of the marsh environment.
Haliaspis spartinae otherwise known as scale insects. These pinhead-sized insects form white protective armor that allows them to live
and feed for their entire lives on a single blade of cordgrass. Funded by a grant from California Sea Grant Long set out to discover exactly how these scale insects affect the growth of cordgrass.
Concentrating on cordgrassfor his study Long and Laura Porturas then an undergraduate research assistant at SDSU conducted three experiments on the marsh.
and used toothbrushes to remove scale insects from cordgrass in a particular cropping. They let the scale insects go about their usual business on another set of plants.
After 20 weeks they compared the normally-infested plants with the brushed-off ones. We saw major negative effects from the scale insects Long said.
Plants with scale insects were weighed shorter less and died off earlier in the season than did brushed the-off cordgrass.
This makes sense Long said as scale insects sap the cordgrass of sugars and nutrients. But he was curious
whether another factor might also be at play: soil salinity. Saltiness is a constantly churning variable in a salt marsh
So he performed a second experiment in the lab growing the cordgrass with and without scale insects in either fresh water or seawater.
when it was infested with scale insects than when it wasn't. Long was puzzled initially. Why did these insects appear to help the cordgrass grow in fresh water but not in salt water?
Then he had an idea. Compensating for consumptionthere's an idea in plant biology called the'compensatory continuum hypothesis
when these plants aren't stressed they can compensate for their grazing by scale insects by growing more Long said.
Back in the salt marsh he raised the salinity of select locations of cordgrass by adding locally sourced salt then repeated his toothbrush experiment in these locations brushing off the insects from some plants but not from others.
He found that once the salinity got high enough it negated the positive effects of removing the scale insects.
whether there's an insect infestation or not; the plant grows the same either way. Salt of the earthputting the results from all three experiments together Long concluded that salinity is a key factor in
whether scale insects positively or negatively affect the growth of cordgrass. Long and Porturas published their findings this week in PLOS ONE.
But when the plant gets too stressed by the salt it doesn't care about the insects anymore.
#Efficacy of natural bed bug pesticides comparedconcerns over human-insecticide exposure has stimulated the development of alternative bed bug control materials
and marketed for bed bug control. The results are published in an article in the Journal of Economic Entomology.
The nonsynthetic bed bug pesticides--which contain ingredients such as geraniol rosemary oil mint oil cinnamon oil peppermint oil eugenol clove oil lemongrass oil sodium lauryl sulfate
-Bed bug 911--Bed bug Bully--Bed bug Fix--Bed bug Patrol--Ecoexempt IC2--Ecoraider--Eradicator--Essentria--Rest Assured--Green Rest Easy--Stop Bugging Mewhen
the researchers sprayed the 11 nonsynthetic pesticides directly on bed bug nymphs they found that only two--Ecoraider (1%geraniol 1%cedar extract
and 2%sodium lauryl sulfate) and Bed bug Patrol (0. 003%clove oil 1%peppermint oil and 1. 3%sodium lauryl sulfate)--killed more than 90 percent of them.
None of the nonsynthetic insecticides had any noticeable effect against bed bug eggs except for Ecoraider which killed 87 percent of them.
because it is extremely difficult to spray any product directly on bed bugs because of their ability to hide in tiny cracks and crevices.
Under field conditions bed bugs hide in cracks crevices creases and many other places where insecticide application may not be applied directly onto the hidden insects the authors wrote.
Additional studies under field conditions are warranted to determine the field efficacy of Ecoraider and Bed bug Patrol and how they can be incorporated into a bed bug management program.
Curiously some of the active ingredients in Ecoraider and Bed bug Patrol are also found in some of the other tested products that exhibited very low rates of efficacy an indication that the products'inactive ingredients are also important.
Other factors besides the active ingredients must have accounted for the high efficacy of some essential oil-based pesticides the authors wrote.
Adjuvants such as wetting agents spreaders stabilizers defoamers stickers and solvents may produce synergistic effects to essential oils by improving penetration through insect cuticle and translocation of the active ingredients within insect body.
and cottonwood trees revive insects and dormant crustaceans give respite to birds migrating on the Pacific Flyway
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