which, like humans, flies and sea anemones, have biradial or bilateral symmetry their body plan can be sliced into only two identical pieces.
Asteroid fly-by Marshalling everything from major radar facilities to backyard telescopes, astronomers geared up this week for a fantastic view of an asteroid called 2005 YU55.
A key factor in this progress has been improved control of mosquitoes, which transmit the Plasmodium parasite a potent killer that claimed an estimated 655,000 lives in 2010 alone.
But health officials fear that the spread of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes could bring about a resurgence of the disease.
WHOTHE WHO report says that insecticide-resistant mosquitoes already inhabit 64 Â malaria-ridden countries (see map.
where mosquitoes are frequently resistant to compounds known as pyrethroids and even to the organochloride DDT, venerable tools of mosquito control.
Because they are extremely safe for children, effective against mosquitoes and affordable, pyrethroids are the only insecticides used to treat bed nets,
and other insecticides favours resistant mosquitoes.""In 2004, there were pockets of resistance in Africa, and now there are pockets of susceptibility,
Their spending on mosquito control is already high in 2009,39%of the Global Fund s malaria expenditures went towards insecticide-treated bed nets and household spraying,
It is also one of several companies partnering with the IVCC to create innovative mosquito-control products.
for instance, mosquitoes regained susceptibility to pyrethroids after five years of treatment with an organophosphate. But some African countries lack the surveillance needed to spur such an approach.
Preemptive treatment of children living in regions where the mosquito-transmitted disease is prevalent only during the rainy season could avert 11 million cases and 50,000 deaths a year.
These bugs include specialized gall midges (in the Cecidomyiidae family) and a species that appears to be new to science,
Emissions profits Airlines that fly to and from Europe may have profited by up to  1. 36  billion (US$1. 83  billion) last year by raising air fares to cover costs
flies and humans. Comb jellies paddle through the sea with iridescent cilia and snare prey with sticky tentacles.
and others, ranging from synthetic biologist George Church of Harvard Medical school to environmental gadfly Steward Brand of the Long Now Foundation
Mutant mosquitoes lose lust for human scentmosquitoes that are modified genetically to lack some of their sense of smell cannot tell humans from other animals
Some mosquito species will feed on most animals that they encounter. Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries dengue and yellow fever,
and Anopheles gambiae, which hosts the malaria parasites, are choosier: they prefer humans.""They love everything about us,
says Leslie Vosshall, a neurobiologist at The Rockefeller University in New york, who led the latest study."
Mosquitoes have specialized sensing systems for detecting carbon dioxide and body heat, but body odour is the only one of these features that distinguishes humans from other warm-blooded animals.
Leslie Vosshall tells Ewen Callaway what makes humans so yummy for mosquitoes. Vosshall s team genetically engineered A. aegypti mosquitoes to lack the gene orco,
which makes a protein that helps build the receptor molecules that sense many smells. A series of experiments showed that without the Orco protein
the mosquitoes struggled to distinguish the smell of honey from that of glycerol (an odourless liquid of similar consistency),
"It s sort of like a game show where the mosquitoes are released into a box and we ask them to choose door number one,
The mutant mosquitoes that did pick the scent of the human arm, however, did not hesitate to approach it.
The engineered mosquitoes were also unable to smell the insect repellent DEET (N N-diethyl-meta-toluamide) from a distance.
A normal mosquito would avoid DEET, but the mutants were shown to land on a human arm slathered in the repellent.
suggesting that DEET can deter mosquitoes not just via its smell but also via direct contact.
which other sensations repel mosquitoes.""It s unbelievable to me that people have been spraying DEET on skin for upwards of 60 years.
because mosquitoes without the gene are attracted still to humans. A more probable scenario is that DEET jams a mosquito s sensory system
he says.""We all know being in a room with too much sensory stimulation is pretty aversive.
Male mosquitoes genetically engineered to produce unviable offspring have shown promise in field trials in reducing populations of A. aegypti.
But Vosshall and Zwiebel dismiss the idea of releasing mosquitoes that cannot discriminate between humans and other animals.
) At Louisiana State university in Baton rouge, researchers will assess the long-term risks to bees from chemicals used in large-scale mosquito-abatement programmes.
three could fly above 8, 000 metres; and two got to above 9, 000 metres.
bees are dropping like flies continuing to die at unprecedented rates and the reason why is still a bit of a mystery.
#Spain Considers Release Of Genetically Modified Olive Fruit Fliesa company involved in creating genetically modified mosquitos has another project nearing outdoor testing.
The U k.-based Oxitec has applied to release genetically modified olive fruit flies under netted olive trees in Spain the BBC reports.
The flies are a major pest to olive crops. The idea is that the flies all male will mate with wild olive fruit flies.
Any female flies produced from such a union will die as maggots while any male offspring will carry the deadly gene
just as their fathers did. Over time this should bring down local olive fruit fly population dramatically. In a study done in cages weekly releases of the Oxitec flies crashed the fly population.
The added genes are similar to the ones that appear in Oxitec's mosquitos which the company has tested in Brazil bringing down one town's dengue-fever-carrying mosquito population by 96 percent.
The new program is less about'does this work?''and more about the first operational roll out of this technology Oxitec cofounder Luke Alphey told the New Scientist in September.
Allowing genetically engineered insects to fly free is controversial. So far insects are the only genetically modified animals that companies have released into the wild.
The modified olive fruit flies may have other unwanted genetic traits such as pesticide resistance that they'll spread among wild flies Wallace said.
Oxitec officials say genetically modified olive fruit flies would reduce the need for pesticides which is good for the environment.
The deadly genes should only work in flies unlike pesticides which affect many insect species including ones people may be interested in protecting such as pollinators o
Their wings mimic those of a fly flapping when pulled by a special ceramic that contracts
I see a host of new posters that got sucked into this dumb shit like mosquitoes who saw a light in the far off distance.
D49now who's the mosquito? If drilling to the center of the Earth were as easy is putting 5 tons in the space of the area of a teaspoon...
The protein is very selective generally not harming insects in other orders (such as beetles flies bees and wasps.
It would indeed take 8 minutes for the Earth to leave its orbit and fly away into space.
With Many of us that fly in them. Father like son both Archimedes and his Father Phidias the Astronomer were well know to all wise men of their day that studied the Heavens Above.
Black soldier flies produce pretty great larvae. They're sold commercially as Phoenix Worms. Chickens love'em!
They also ward off houseflies for reasons I don't quite understand and they look like black wasps
Their potential usefulness particularly their ability to pinpoint hot spots and fly in thick smoke that would ground other aircraft was shown in an Alaskan fire nearly four years ago.
and has the radar signature of a mosquito. Even the Romulans were detectable with a tacheon particle beam.
and fruit flies have found that the animals are able to sense nutrition independently of taste.
Our bodies therefore reflect a continuously jury-rigged system with echoes of fish of fruit fly of lizard and mouse.
I've been seeing articles about micro robots the size of flies great invention. How about manufacturing them by the zillions
and bean leaves similar trichomes on other plants are known to capture ants aphids bees flies
While the four and a half page paper is obviously short on specifics it initially describes expanded studies of the brains of the worm C. elegans the fruit fly Drosophila
and streams to keep mosquitoes from breeding. Such practices would be frowned upon today but apparently these methods saved thousands of lives in the early 1900s.
The land of the jungle where the mosquito sang her weird song of death unmolested for four hundred years vying with the germs of dysentery typhoid fever and pneumonia in the destruction of human life;
In comparison with similar expenditures in American cities it should not be forgotten that practically nine-tenths of the cost of sanitation in the Zone is in mosquito fighting and quarantine.
and malarial mosquitos thrive in countless millions; the perpetual moisture warmth and rich soil lead to extravagant growth of hundreds of varieties of tropical grasses plants flowers vines and trees furnishing favorable harbor for the insects;
Decaying animal matter leads to the generation of innumerable flies ever ready to convey disease
the cisterns puddles and lakes furnished convenient breeding places for mosquitos; the streets and sidewalks were in horrible condition
and flies literally swarmed over the food. The conditions were little better in Panama city and in the intermediate towns.
Gorgas himself says that the Americans could have done no better than The french without the knowledge of the mosquito as a disease carrier.
so that the operatives might be protected from mosquitoes during sleeping hours. Colon and Panama city are in the Zone
and marshes so that mosquitoes could not breed. Each little station or town was furnished a pure water supply brought down from the distant hills in some instances and provided with an efficient system of sewers or in some rare instances well arranged cesspools.
so that the mosquito could find no resting place. Plague-carrying rats and other vermin were destroyed.
This proposition was demonstrated beyond all question in a great educational campaign on the mosquito in the San antonio public schools several years ago in
which the mosquito was exterminated completely. It is an inspiring sight to witness this unseemly death-ridden tropical country changed into a place of beauty
At one point an ornery curious scarlet macaw flies onto Reeves's shoulder and begins gnawing at the tooth of a Spinosaurus aegyptiacus (a type of dinosaur) on his necklace.
T heir claims that the science-driven action that s protected families for generations would somehow harm us flies in the face of history and shows a lack of faith in American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
The sweltering mosquito-assaulted set of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a minor marvel of engineering a three-story habitat with interlacing tree trunks recessed rooms
of fruit flies. Researchers have used also radiation to increase random mutations. But the difference between these lab-grown mutants and their Hollywood counterparts comes down to luck.
and Vaneck watched as a fly appeared to slam into a window. Instead of breaking apart on contact as their drones did bounced the insect off the glass and recovered.
But until recently inventors lacked the aerodynamics expertise to turn diagrams into mechanical versions of something as quotidian as a fly or a bee.
At the University of California at Berkeley neurobiologist Michael Dickinson built a robotic fruit-fly wing that likewise mimicked a fly s natural motion
Dickinson and electrical engineer Ron Fearing won a $2. 5-million DARPA grant in 1998 to apply these principles to a fly-size robot.
Flies have really complex wing trajectories. There are a whole bunch of subtle things that happen Wood says.
On the workbench sat a 60-milligram robot with a three-centimeter wingspan and a thorax roughly the size of a housefly.
After observing the fly at the bar the two engineers searched for someone with experience replicating insect flight.
By closely observing the positions of the flies body parts they could measure the exact flip and twist of wings and legs.
I thought the fly would tumble a bit and lose a lot of altitude Vaneck says. But the fly recovery was elegant.
Just before the moment of impact the fly flew at an angle that ensured its legs touched the glass first.
Every time the fly slammed into the window it reflexively surrendered to the crash momentum and fell.
Fifteen years ago the flies looked like little fuzzy UFOS he says. Now the biologists use cameras that can run at 7500 frames per second significantly higher than what was once available to researchers and that work in infrared light.
#Preference for oranges protects fruit flies from parasitesthe fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is pickier than previously thought when it comes to choosing the best site for egg-laying.
because parasitoid wasps feeding on the larvae of Drosophila avoid citrus fruits. The same smell that is attractive to the flies also repels the wasps.
The scientists used imaging techniques to visualize the activity in certain areas of the flies brains
while these were stimulated with different odours and they were able to localize and identify the receptor for citrus.
Flies in which this receptor was silenced were no longer able to distinguish oranges from other fruits.
Once the eggs have been deposited the maternal care of the female flies ends: eggs and larvae are henceforth at the mercy of their environment;
First Marcus Stensmyr Bill Hansson and their colleagues in the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology tested the preferred egg-laying substrates of fruit flies by letting insects select among different ripe fruits.
They excluded damaged fruits to make sure that the smell of yeast would not influence the flies choices (yeast is the flies main food source.
An analysis of the behavioural assays showed that female flies preferred to lay their eggs on oranges.
Further selection experiments helped to identify the odour that was the crucial factor for the flies choice:
Flies were attracted not to limonene-deficient oranges. On the other hand they were drawn immediately to fruits that had been spiked with synthetic limonene.
Although citrus is not an attractant for the flies it elicits egg laying. Interestingly evolution has split the perception of odours into two channels:
By performing electrophysiological measurements the scientists were able to quantify the flies'responses to limonene
Subsequently they tested the flies responses to 450 different odours. Apart from limonene valencene another component of citrus fruit also triggered a strong response.
lemons are favoured less by flies because of their acidity. Compounds that activated these particular sensory neurons induced oviposition.
In vivo calcium imaging of the flies brains stimulated with citrus enabled the researchers to identify the corresponding odorant receptor.
#oewe were surprised quite that by silencing just this single odorant receptor flies could no longer localize their preferred egg-laying substrate.#
#In nature a considerable proportion of Drosophila larvae are killed by enemies mainly parasitoid wasps that lay their eggs inside the larvae.
Drosophila larvae. The parasitoid wasp Leptopilina boulardii which specializes in Drosophila melanogaster is repelled by valencene. In a further choice experiment the wasps had to choose larvae from two substrates one with valencene
and one without and they clearly preferred the larvae on the valencene-free substrate. It is still unknown why the wasps avoid citrus.
However it is certain that female fruit flies have learned to let their offspring grow on citrus fruits
#Fruit pest targeted by genomic researchthe spotted wing drosophila a major pest that targets berries and cherries and other fruits in the United states Canada and Europe is itself being targeted thanks to groundbreaking genome sequencing at the University of California Davis
To enable basic and applied research of this important pest Drosophila suzukii we sequenced the genome to obtain a high-quality reference sequence said molecular geneticist Joanna Chiu of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
The spotted wing drosophila a native of Asia that was detected first in the United states in 2008 is wreaking economic havoc on crops such as blueberries cherries blackberries and raspberries.
This fly lays its eggs inside the ripe or ripening fruit and the developing larvae feed on the soft fruit crippling crop yields.
The spotted wing drosophila is a vinegar fly about 1/16 to 1/8 inch long with red eyes pale brown thorax and a black-striped abdomen.
and the American Museum of Natural history as part of a $5. 8 million project on the biology and management of spotted wing drosophila funded by a U s. Department of agriculture Specialty Crops Research Initiative grant
Zalom recently inducted as president of the nearly 7000-member Entomological Society of America said that the G3 article presents a high-quality reference sequence of Drosophila suzukii examination of the basic properties of its genome
Given this impressive response and the worldwide importance of Drosophila suzukii I expect that the G3 article will become very highly cited
and cast Joanna Chiu as a central figure in future Drosophila suzukii genomic studies related to topics such as insecticide detoxification odorant reception and regulatory entomology Zalom
Scientists from all over the world are interested in knowledge locked inside the fly's genetic material.
By finding the fly's unique genetic signature scientists hope that DNA testing will quickly determine
if ready-to-be shipped fruit contains spotted wing drosophila larvae. The UC Davis team included the Joanna Chiu lab
and the Frank Zalom lab both in Department of Entomology and Nematology and David Begun's drosophila evolutionary genetics lab in the Department of Evolution and Ecology.
They collaborated with Walton and spotted wing drosophila project leader Linda Brewer of OSU; Ernest Lee from the American Museum of Natural history;
and research technician Perot Saelao of the Begun lab. The Spottedwingflybase is dedicated a online resource for Drosophila suzukii genomics
but also includes comparative genomic analysis of Drosophila suzukii with other closely related Drosophila species. Story Source:
The finding was a surprise as flies are thought to be the main pollinator in many mountain regions
Rather than relying on a human operator the drones fly autonomously using global positioning data compass coordinates and onboard stabilization systems.
Euscorpius scorpions are relatively harmless with poison that has effects similar to a mosquito bite.
and mosquitoes before it was banned in 1987 in the U s. Its use in the Midwest agricultural belt was pronounced particularly.
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.
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.
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.
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
The disease is caused by a parasite that enters the animals'blood as a result of the bite of the Tsetse fly.
#X-ray science taps bug biology to design better materials and reduce pollutionbug spray citronella candles mosquito netting--most people will do anything they can to stay away from insects during the warmer months.
and mammals with uses that include home insect control insect-repellant clothing dog and cat flea shampoos mosquito control and agriculture.
and prestige perfumes and colognes--may be heading for a new use in battling mosquitoes ticks head lice
A new product based on nootkatone would have multiple advantages over existing mosquito repellants based on DEET said Richard Burlingame Ph d. who presented the report.
Nootkatone is a broad-spectrum ingredient that has been shown to be effective as a control agent for mosquitoes ticks and bedbugs.
The need for a more economical source of nootkatone intensified after scientists at the U s. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered nootkatone's effectiveness in controlling ticks mosquitoes and other insects.
#Targeting mosquito breeding sites could boost malaria control efforts in Africa and Asiaa malaria control method that targets mosquito larvae and pupae as they mature in standing water could be an important supplementary measure in the fight against the disease according to a new report.
The Cochrane review--led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in collaboration with Durham University and other researchers in the UK and US--is the first systematic review looking at using larval source management (LSM) to control malaria
LSM is a method that targets immature mosquitoes found in standing water before the females develop into flying adults that are capable of transmitting malaria.
making temporary changes to mosquito habitats to disrupt breeding for example by clearing drains to make the water flow;
However this success is threatened now by factors such as a growing resistance to insecticides among mosquitoes.
Complementary methods of mosquito control such as LSM may become increasingly necessary in helping tackle the disease
and rice paddies where mosquitoes breed and building dams flushing streams and removing water containers from around people's homes.
and rural areas of Africa and Asia--wherever it is possible to target a sufficient proportion of mosquito breeding sites.
The tremendous progress made in malaria control in the last decade is threatened now by mosquito resistance to the insecticides available for long-lasting insecticide treated nets and indoor residual spraying.
Thus additional methods are needed to target malaria-transmitting mosquitoes. Our research shows that larval source management could be an effective supplementary intervention in some places.
One study included in the review was from The gambia where mosquitoes were breeding in large swamps and rice paddies;
or disabled by the disease a parasitic-worm infection spread by mosquitoes. Our study quantifies the effect of the most widely implemented vector control measure--insecticide-treated bed nets
but did not stop its transmission by mosquitoes. The success of a strategy utilizing medication requires at least 80 percent of the population to receive treatment annually for at least five years.
Testing showed that parasite levels remained high in mosquitoes around the villages as much as decade later.
they could find no mosquitoes harboring parasites capable of transmitting the disease. Insecticide-treated bed nets already are used widely in areas where lymphatic filariasis
They block female mosquitoes from securing blood a process that is essential for them to lay eggs and produce offspring.
and 2: 00 a m. When the mosquitoes bite earlier in the day they ingest fewer parasites
In these dry fragile ecosystems where increase in water availability from rainfall is the limiting factor for malaria transmission irrigation infrastructure can drastically alter mosquito population abundance to levels above the threshold needed to maintain malaria transmission said lead
when irrigation is introduced due to increased amounts of standing water that serve as mosquito breeding sites.
and characterized by an enhanced environmental malaria risk despite intensive mosquito control efforts said Pascual the Rosemary Grant Collegiate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U-M and a Howard
which is transmitted via the bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. In the human body the parasites multiply in the liver
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