#Peacocks train is not such a drag afterall: Flight unchanged with and without plumagethe magnificent plumage of the peacock may not be quite the sacrifice to love that it appears to be University of Leeds researchers have discovered.
Dr Graham Askew from the University's School of Biomedical sciences filmed five Indian peacocks taking off using two high-speed video cameras to try to work out
what price male birds pay for carrying the spectacular iridescent feathers they use in displays to attract females.
The train of the peacock is one of the most iconic examples of sexual selection in the animal kingdom.
The results do not mean that having an ornate train carries no costs for peacocks.
The European grape berry moth and the cicada Scaphoideus titanus are considered to be the major pests of cultivated grape.
Providing refuges of conventional plants has been especially effective for suppressing resistance in the pink bollworm an invasive pest of cotton.
#Unusual host preference of a moth species could be useful for biological controla team of Iranian researchers from the Rice Research Institute of Iran have discovered that Gynnodomorpha permixtana a well-known moth species from Europe
The importance of this adaptation for biological control of problematic weeds in rice fields and the biology of the moth on new host plant have been described in the open access journal Nota Lepidopterologica.
Their studies have revealed that the larvae of a certain moth species feeding on the fruits
After this discovery the moth was sent for identification to Dr Leif Aarvik from the Natural history Museum University of Oslo who have diagnosed the species as the commonly known G. permixtana
'To our surprise it looks like this moth chose new host plant in Iran. This moth was reported in 2009 from the northern regions of the country
but its host plant was unknown. Its usual host plants such as water-plantain also grow in Iran
That made this moth host range and biology in Iran rather mysterious at that point and the recent discovery of arrowheads as its preferred host in the region brings even more peculiarity in the story.'
Based on invertebrate surveys primarily representing butterflies dung beetles and ants Burivalova and her colleagues found further diversity losses with logging.
#Study advances DNA revolution, tells butterflies evolutionary historyby tracing nearly 3000 genes to the earliest common ancestor of butterflies
and moths University of Florida scientists have created an extensive Tree of Lepidoptera in the first study to use large-scale next-generation DNA sequencing.
Butterflies are more closely related to small moths than to large ones which completely changes scientists'understanding of how butterflies evolved.
The study also found that some insects once classified as moths are actually butterflies increasing the number of butterfly species higher than previously thought.
This project advances biodiversity research by providing an evolutionary foundation for a very diverse group of insects with nearly 160000 described species said Akito Kawahara lead author
and assistant curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural history on the UF campus. With a tree we can now understand how the majority of butterfly
and moth species evolved. Available online and to be published in the August print edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
Kawahara said the yearlong study is one of the first to utilize a massive amount of genetic data to answer questions about the history of butterflies and moths.
The analysis reveals monumental discoveries about the lineage of Lepidoptera including strongly contradicting the traditional placement of butterflies in evolutionary history Kawahara said.
Using next-generation sequencing a method used to rapidly process large amounts of DNA scientists developed an initial sample of 46 species that represent many of the most bio diverse groups of moths and butterflies.
Daniel Rubinoff entomologist and director of the University of Hawaii Insect Museum said the new study will help scientists conclusively pinpoint where butterflies belong in evolutionary history--a question that has troubled long researchers.
The wispy delicate nature of butterflies and moths is part of their charm but their soft-bodied larval stages have posed a problem for scientists studying them in the fossil record.
The few Lepidoptera fossils we have are from about 15 million years ago Breinholt said.
Previous research based on anatomical features hypothesized that butterflies are close relatives of large moths but the new tree suggests butterflies are more closely related to small (micro) moths Kawahara said.
The study also suggests butterflies are the ancestral group to the tens of thousands of moth species on the planet
and the Hedylidae family commonly known as American butterfly-moths were dismissed as moths and found to be true butterflies.
The tree also provides a baseline to test whether diurnal or daytime activity a common butterfly trait evolved much earlier than scientists previously believed possibly at a time
when bats'spread across the planet as a means of escaping these and other nocturnal predators Kawahara said.
Future research will investigate the causes of evolutionary transitions such as diurnal activity across Lepidoptera. Breinholt said although the new tree clarifies our understanding of butterfly
and moth relationships many lineages still need to be examined. I hope this is a starting point for larger studies that account for the great diversity of Lepidoptera Breinholt said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Florida. The original article was written by Stephenie Livingston.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Panthers prey on ranchers calves, but amount varies, Florida study findsa two-year panther study at two southwest Florida cattle ranches shows that the endangered cats attack
and kill calves but how often that happens can vary greatly by location and landscape.
and pests like the filbert weevil and filbert moth harbored by the duff and litter on the ground.
Fighting invasive species--like buckthorn and gypsy moths and garlic mustard--is a big part of our work here Herrick says
#Moth invasions cause widespread damage in the subarctic birch forestin just seven years as much as one-third of the mountain-birch forest in the North Calotte region was defoliated severely by two moth species
and North Finland was damaged severely by moth outbreaks. Attacked over centuriesthe autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) has been in Northern Fennoscandia for centuries.
In roughly ten-year cycles the larvae of this moth occur in high densities occasionally so high that it results in widespread defoliation growth reduction and sometimes death of the birch forest.
A century ago an additional species the winter moth (Operophtera brumata) began to appear in the north.
Since then both these species have increased their outbreak ranges to include even the coldest and most continental regions.
During the last 15 years a third moth species the rare umber moth (Agriopis aurantiaria) has invaded the coastal regions of North Norway and established itself as a serious pest in the coastal birch forest.
During the major outbreak of the 2000s researchers know that all three moth species attacked the mountain-birch forest.
Longer-term invasion intensifies forest destructionclimate has an impact on the geometrid moth system in the north--we see clear indications that the system is changing says Senior Research Scientist Jane U. Jepsen of the Norwegian Institute for Nature
and provided a deeper understanding of the extent and duration of the moth outbreaks and
During the most recent major outbreak the autumnal moth struck first continues Dr Jepsen. In the most severely defoliated areas an outbreak of the winter moth occurred a year or two later.
So the forest was defoliated twice in effect an unusually long-lasting attack which resulted in more pressure on the forest compared to previous outbreaks.
Changing vegetationthe researchers have studied also the impact of these moth invasions on the northern birch forest ecosystem.
Moth attacks in sparse woods cause extensive changes in ground vegetation--the dwarf shrub heath disappears
Moth outbreaks cause large amounts of larvae excrement and dead larvae to fall to the ground which fertilises the soil and promotes the growth of grass.
Writtle College and several conservation organizations (the Society for Conservation Biology Royal Society for Protection of Birds Birdlife Europe Butterfly Conservation Europe and Friends of the Earth--Switzerland.
#Butterfly eyespots add detail to story of evolutiona new study of the colorful eyespots on the wings of some butterfly species is helping to address fundamental questions about evolution that are conceptually similar to the quandary Aristotle wrestled with about 330 B c
and across vast numbers of species. Repeated vertebra that form a spinal column rows of teeth and groups of eyespots on butterfly wings are all examples of serial homologues.
Butterfly wings are helping to answer that question. These eyespots common to the butterfly Family nymphalidae now serve many butterflies in dual roles of both predator avoidance and mate identification.
One theory of their origin is evolved that they from simpler single spots; another theory is evolved that they from a band of color
What we basically conclude is that neither of the existing theories about butterfly eyespots is correct said Jeffrey Oliver a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Integrative Biology of the OSU College of Science.
and because of that value were retained by future generations of butterflies. And at all times they retained the biological capacity for positional awareness--the eyespots formed in the same place until a new mutation came along.
At first it appears the eyespots helped this group of butterflies with one of the most basic aspects of survival value
There they performed a completely different function--helping the butterfly to attract and be identified by optimal mates.
But one bone or butterfly eyespot at a time the pieces continue to come together. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Oregon State university.
In Quebec the European corn borer is a pest that farmers face every year. The parasitoid Trichogramma for its part is an ally
The discovery is reported this week in the journal Physical Review Letters by associate professor of mechanical engineering Thomas Peacock and four others.
The finding was unexpected an outcome of research on other effects of temperature differences such as the way winds form over glaciers in a valley Peacock says.
People had studied only ever this phenomenon in relation to a fixed object Peacock says. But his group realized that
Peacock's first study of the concept about four years ago focused on slow flows caused by diffusion--work that demonstrated that induced boundary flows can generate small propulsive forces.
and cooling of an object could be more significant Peacock says. But perfecting the experimental setup was challenging.
The effect itself is surprisingly simple Peacock explains: By virtue of heating or cooling the surface of an object you change the density of any fluid next to that surface.
The changed density of the fluid generates a flow over the surface Peacock says adding That flow then creates unbalanced forces with lower pressure on one side
and its temperature is different from that of the fluid Peacock says. The basic equations that govern convection are well known Peacock says.
This type of flow has been studied for over 100 years but somehow in all that time no one had thought to do this.
Peacock is already working on such follow-up experiments to figure out whether the effect can be exploited in an engineering sense
It may Peacock says even turn out to be something that living organisms have learned to harness:
It's very rare in fluid mechanics to discover a new phenomenon like this Peacock says.
In addition to Peacock the work was carried out by former MIT postdoc Matthieu Mercier now at the Institut de MÃ canique des Fluides de Toulouse in France;
Their findings reported in the May 19 issue of the journal PLOS ONE shed light on how the global caterpillar pest called pink bollworm overcomes biotech cotton
Based on laboratory experiments aimed at determining the molecular mechanisms involved scientists knew that pink bollworm can evolve resistance against the Bt toxin
Farmers in the U s. but not in India adopted tactics designed to slow evolution of resistance in pink bollworm.
and implement resistance management strategies such as providing refuges of standard cotton plants that do not produce Bt proteins and releasing sterile pink bollworm moths.
Similarly mass release of sterile moths also makes it less likely for two resistant individuals to encounter each other and mate.
As a result pink bollworm has been eradicated all but in the southwestern U s. Suppression of this pest with Bt cotton is the cornerstone of an integrated pest management program that has allowed Arizona cotton growers to reduce broad spectrum insecticide use by 80
In the U s. pink bollworm populations have not evolved resistance to Bt toxins in the wild. However resistant pink bollworm populations have emerged in India
which grows the most Bt cotton of any country in the world. Crops genetically engineered to produce proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis
The emergence of resistant pink bollworm in India provided the researchers an opportunity to test the hypothesis that insects in the field would evolve resistance to Bt toxin by the same genetic mechanism found previously in the lab. In the lab strains the scientists had identified mutations in a gene
if field-resistant pink bollworm from India harbored these same changes in the cadherin gene Fabrick said.
but the mutations are different and much more numerous than the ones we found in lab-selected pink bollworm from Arizona.
Sequencing the DNA of resistant pink bollworm collected from the field in India the team found that the insects produce remarkably diverse disrupted variants of cadherin.
The researchers learned that the astonishing diversity of cadherin in pink bollworm from India is caused by alternative splicing a novel mechanism of resistance that allows a single DNA sequence to code for many variants of a protein.
An important implication is that DNA screening would not be efficient for monitoring resistance of pink bollworm to Bt toxins.
The nests have several cells with an egg in each one that metamorphosizes--like butterflies do--through the summer.
UF researchers discovered species from more than 25 countries on four continents including 35 fossil crustaceans 24 Lepidoptera 17 plants (11 fossils) eight mollusks two
Don Davis curator of Lepidoptera at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History said the Florida Museum has pursued actively the goals of all natural history museums including discovering new organisms to better understand the current distributions
Florida Museum assistant curator of Lepidoptera Akito Kawahara said new species of insects sometimes lead to powerful discoveries that affect other fields including agriculture and medicine.
Future research will include the investigation of a potential new species of moth in Hawaii that appears to delay plant aging by altering the process of plant senescence (aging) in leaves he said.
This moth could have potential for improving agriculture and extending the shelf life of some foods.
and draw a host of butterflies birds and other wildlife that depend on these plants for survival.
and caterpillars as well as a few ants were collected also. The team also collected fresh leaves of the insects'host plants
#Crocodile tears please thirsty butterflies and beesthe butterfly (Dryas iulia) and the bee (Centris sp.
It is not uncommon to see butterflies sipping mineral-laden water from mud puddles. When minerals are rare in the soil animals sometimes gather salt and other rare minerals and proteins from sweat tears urine and even blood.
De la Rosa had seen butterflies and moths in the Amazon feeding on the tears of turtles and a few caimans.
Tear-drinking lachryphagous behavior in bees had only recently been observed by biologists. He remembered a 2012 report of a solitary bee sipping the tears of a yellow-spotted river turtle in Ecuador's Yasunã National park
A lot of people have recorded butterflies and some bees doing this said de la Rosa. A search of the scientific literature produced a detailed study of bees drinking human tears in Thailand as well as the remembered October 2012 Trails
Forest harvest creates a temporary opening that is needed by forest species such as butterflies and some birds and deer before it regrows to large trees.
Bt is a soil bacterium that produces proteins that are toxic to some species of caterpillars
Since farmers began planting Bt crops in 1996 with 70 million hectares planted in the United states in 2012 there have been only three clear-cut cases in agriculture of resistance in caterpillars
They studied populations of diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) larvae a pest of broccoli and their natural enemies ladybird beetles (Coleomegilla maculata) for six generations.
The results showed that diamondback moth populations were reduced in the treatment containing ladybird beetles and unsprayed non-Bt refuge plants.
and predators diamondback moth populations were reduced but the larvae more quickly evolved resistance to the Bt plants. â#oethese results demonstrate the effectiveness of Bt plants in controlling the pest population the lack of effect of Bt on the predators
the Caribbean fruit fly and the invasive cactus moth. The low-oxygen effect has been known for decades
and sterilize the cactus moth. The reseachers found using a low-oxygen environment during sterilization boosted the sterile males'longevity as well as their ability to attract and successfully mate.
#Moths trapped with plant-produced sex pheromonea collaborative experiment involving a Kansas State university biochemist may mark the beginning of an effective environmentally friendly plant-based method of insect control.
and moth enzymes to engineer plants that emitted sex pheromones that mimic those naturally produced by two species of moths.
The research recently appeared in the journal Nature Communications A plant factory for moth pheromone production.
The study focused on the bird-cherry ermine moth and the orchard ermine moth--two insects that feed on the leaves of orchard trees
and as caterpillars can strip trees of their bark. Durrett helped the Swedish researchers use enzymes from plants
and moths to create a biological pathway that made it possible for plants to produce the moths'sex pheromones.
He contributed an enzyme from the burning bush plant that performed the final step in the synthesis process essentially turning plants into pheromone production factories.
The result was plants that produced pheromones that mimicked the sex pheromones of both moth species. The Swedish researchers baited moth traps with the plant-produced pheromone.
They found that each trap attracted an average of 130 male moths--half the number of catches possible with synthetic pheromones
and butterflies can pick up fungal bacterial or viral infections that might be as benign as the sniffles
however they additionally recorded wild bees hoverflies and butterflies. So if honey bee numbers were to decrease as they might in climatically unfavorable years this could reduce the harvest in the sun plantations.
and Orius insidiosus researchers used caterpillars that were known to be resistant to Bt proteins and fed them Bt maize and Bt cotton.
They then fed the caterpillars to two common beneficial predatory insects--insidious flower bugs (Orius insidiosus)
and big-eyed bugs (Geocoris punctipes)--for two generations and compared them to another group of predators that consumed caterpillars fed on non-Bt plants.
and fertility of the insect predators in both groups were similar regardless of whether they consumed caterpillars that fed on Bt plants or non-Bt plants.
By using caterpillars resistant to the Bt proteins in this study we were able to remove any'host quality effects'that might have led to spurious misinterpretation of the results.
This work demonstrated that the caterpillars consumed the Bt proteins and the predators consumed the Bt proteins
when they fed on the caterpillars but they did not suffer any harm even over multiple generations.
For this study resistant caterpillars were fed Bt broccoli and then exposed to Heterorhabditis bacteriophora a beneficial nematode that preys on insects.
and time of emergence of the nematodes that consumed Bt-fed caterpillars were affected not significantly compared to nematodes that did not ingest the Bt protein.
Among the fur fauna are small pyralid moths with a particular attachment to the sloth's near-weekly trip to poop on the ground.
When the sloth squats to do its business some female pyralid moths will emerge from the sloth fur to lay their eggs in the sloth's dung.
The moth larvae then eat their way out of the sloth waste emerging as moths that flutter back up into the tree overhead.
The moth is strictly dependent on the sloth in each step of its life. That made us wonder
if the sloth was making this dangerous trip for the moth because the moth provides something relatively important to the sloth.
In fact Pauli's research shows that the moths may give their all to the sloth in return for nursery for larvae and shelter and mating grounds for adults.
Sloths live on the nutritional red line Pauli says. Judging from their diet--which is all leaves from the tree they live in--they shouldn't be able to maintain even the slow lifestyle that makes them
and nitrogen released by fungi breaking down dead pyralid moths. More moths more nitrogen more algae (which may also provide camouflage to the treed sloths protecting them from flying predators.
And the broad team of researchers--Pauli tapped entomologists limnologists and bacteriologists--found the algae in samples taken from the stomachs of three-toed sloths.
so slow at it that the moths can stay ahead of the claws. So it's not grooming.
Probably to lend the moths a three-toed leg up. And that according to Pauli is another lesson in the complex and unusual way organisms as different as a tiny moth
and a seemingly oversized tree-confined mammal need each other to get along. There's some grandeur in these systems of mutualism he says.
#The Moth versus the Crowd: Tracking an alien invader of conker trees using people poweran army of citizen scientists has helped the professionals understand how a tiny'alien'moth is attacking the UK's conker (horse-chestnut trees
and showed that naturally-occurring pest controlling wasps are not able to restrict the moth's impact.
The study's conclusions are published this week in the open access scientific journal PLOS ONE.
No bigger than a grain of rice the horse-chestnut leaf-mining moth has spread rapidly through England and Wales since its arrival in London in 2002.
The caterpillars of the moth'tunnel'through the leaves of conker trees causing them to turn brown and autumnal in appearance even in the height of summer.
'The results show that over the last decade the moth has spread from London to reach almost all of England and Wales.
Investigating the data further the scientific team concluded that it takes just three years from the first sighting of the moth in a particular location to maximum levels of damage to the horse-chestnut trees being recorded.
In a follow-up experiment many of the citizen scientists including hundreds of school children followed instructions to MJOP1 rear the moth by sealing the infested leaves in plastic bags
The results reveal that the tiny pest controllers('parasitiod'wasps) that prey upon the caterpillars are not present in high enough numbers to control the moths.
and then see insects--the adult moths or their pest controllers--emerge but making these discoveries was a valuable contribution to understanding why some animals become so invasive.
and elsewhere in Massachusetts including flowering dates butterfly flight times and migratory bird arrivals. Founded in 1839 Boston University is recognized an internationally institution of higher education and research.
But now Thomas Peacock an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT has teamed with researchers from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon
These are the most powerful internal waves discovered thus far in the ocean Peacock says. These are skyscraper-scale waves.
They are the lumbering giants of the ocean Peacock says. The team's large-scale laboratory experiments on the generation of such waves used a detailed topographic model of the Luzon Strait's seafloor mounted in a 50-foot-diameter rotating tank in Grenoble France
It's an important missing piece of the puzzle in climate modeling Peacock says. Right now global climate models are not able to capture these processes he says
These waves are potentially the key mechanism for transferring heat from the upper ocean to the depths Peacock says so the focus of the research was to determine exactly how the largest of these waves as revealed through satellite imagery of the Luzon Strait region are generated.
The existence of internal waves in oceans has been known for well over a century Peacock says but they have remained poorly understood because of the difficulty of observations Among the new techniques that have helped to propel the field forward is the use of satellite data:
From 15 years of data you can filter out the noise Peacock explains: Many locations such as the Luzon Strait generate these waves in a steady predictable way as tides flow over submerged ridges and through narrow channels.
Internal waves can bring nutrients up from ocean depths Peacock says. Matthew Alford an associate professor of oceanography at the University of Washington who was involved in the related field studies for this project says The strong forcing
The research carried out by Peacock and a team of eight other researchers was funded by the ONR the Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France and the MIT-France Program.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011