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
and larval colouration is shared with other Picea-feeding insects. This phenomenon is worth further investigation in the aspect of convergent evolution of crypsis
This is the first nationwide published economic valuation survey of the general public for an insect.
Unfortunately many plants purchased by gardeners have been treated with systemic insecticides that can kill both pollinators that consume the nectar
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
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.
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.
and workers with this gene kill all queens that don't have it. Genes like this one are called greenbeards
#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.
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.
#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.
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
This phylogeny or evolutionary tree provides a new framework for understanding the evolution of nesting feeding and social behavior in Hymenoptera.
and/or behavioral traits evolved in these groups of insects and even examine the genetic basis of these phenotypic changes Chiu said.
Of particular interest was the finding that ants are a sister group to the Apoidea a major group within Hymenoptera that includes bees
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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
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.
In past work his lab identified compounds that mask the host from insects as well as compounds that serve as lures.
and mosquitoes but also in many other insects that are human and plant pests Ray explained.
The pollen's structure suggests that the plants were pollinated by insects: most likely beetles as bees would not evolve for another 100 million years.
and the bacteria are resistant to being grown in the laboratory the only option for halting transmission of citrus greening has been to apply chemical pesticides to control the insect that spreads the bacteria Dandekar said.
These bacteria are carried from tree to tree by two species of the citrus psyllid a winged insect that is about one-eighth inch long
The fibers are so small in diameter that prey insects easily become entangled in them without any glue needed.
when a genetically modified trait passes from a crop plant to a closely related weed the weed gains the crop s engineered benefit#resistance to pests for example#only in the presence of the offending insects.
either selectively neutral in wild plants or if they have a benefit it depends on environmental factors like insects diseases
When wood is injured such as by an insect or is being dried like we do dried with kiln lumber the torus
Perfect#Except when insect populations develop resistance to the toxin! To date management strategies implemented to delay the evolution of resistance have been successful.
This result recently published in the journal PLOS ONE suggests that insect resistance management should be tuned more finely to local pests
However sooner or later insect species may be able to develop a mechanism of resistance against any pesticides.
the aim being to maintain pockets of insects that remain susceptible to the toxin. In line with other known cases of Bt-resistance resistance in Busseola fusca was expected to involve modification of the cells in the gut wall
Since the probability of resistant individuals arising in the field is low any resistant insects surviving on Bt maize will mate with one of the many Bt-susceptible individuals originating from the refuge area
and more importantly these resistant insects seemed to reproduce and spread rapidly. To explain this phenomenon scientists in South africa together with IRD researchers crossed resistant South african moths with susceptible moths imported from Kenya where Bt maize is commercialized not yet.
In the long term new Insect Resistance Management strategies likely more complex should be developed against Busseola fusca.
#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.
Researchers using the cutting-edge X-ray technology at the U s. Department of energy's Advanced Photon Source (APS) were able to take an inside look at several insects gathering results that go beyond learning about insect physiology and biology.
What they found could provide a blueprint for a material used for artificial ligaments a chemical-free way to protect crops from insects and a new insight on how human muscles function.
which an insect sheds its skin in order to mature to its next life stage a grasshoppers insides become essentially too large for its outer shell.
Storing grains or crops at low oxygen levels would limit the oxygen the insects get
and reduce the overall lifespan of the insect Kirkton said. The key to discovering the connection between oxygen
and quantify the functioning respiratory system of an intact living insect in real time. Kirkton published recently in the Journal of Comparative Physiology his look at the respiratory system of the American grasshopper during periods right before molting.
While Kirkton says that more research needs to be done he thinks that this finding is applicable to a wide-range of insects
and experience hooking up insects to gizmos--that helped Daniel pull together this experiment. What they found was that
and no insect would be able to maintain that kind of energy output. However this study uncovers a new mechanism for this elastic energy storage one based on temperature differences.
and shirts to prevent skin irritation while keeping allergy-causing stinging insects away. Choose Wisely--The worst allergy offenders might be in your own yard.
and mammals with uses that include home insect control insect-repellant clothing dog and cat flea shampoos mosquito control and agriculture.
but a new protein discovered in the venom of Australian tarantulas can also kill prey insects that consume the venom orally.
The small protein named orally active insecticidal peptide-1 (OAIP-1) was found to be highly toxic to insects that consumed it with potency similar to that of the synthetic insecticide imidacloprid.
These and other insect pests reduce global crop yields by 10-14%annually and damage 9-20%of stored food crops
Alternately the authors suggest the genes encoding these peptides could be used to engineer insect-resistant plants
or enhance the efficacy of microbes that attack insect pests. King elaborates The breakthrough discovery that spider toxins can have oral activity has implications not only for their use as bioinsecticides
and aroma could give insect pests the bootthe citrus flavor and aroma of grapefruit--already used in fruit juices citrus-flavored beverages
and kills insects and should not have the toxicity concerns that exist for DEET. Burlingame who is with Allylix Inc. a renewable-chemical firm in Lexington Ky. spoke at a symposium entitled Biopesticides:
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.
Allylix is now working with scientists at CDC to develop nootkatone for commercial use as an insect-control agent.
Nookatone also works in a new way so it can be used against insects that develop resistance
The next step involves getting approval from the U s. Environmental protection agency to sell nootkatone for insect control.
and not because of the risk of a nasty sting an expert on the health of those beneficial insects said in Indianapolis today at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
This is the unique adaption that has not been discovered in cockroaches termites ants or other insects.
and red colors derived from insects explained Stephen T. Talcott Ph d. who spoke at the session.
Ecological theory suggests that these simplified landscapes should have more insect pest problems due to the lack of natural enemies and the increased size and connectivity of crop-food resources.
The insect burrows into the beans and eats its way out ruining the beans. It originated in Africa
It's the only insect that competes with us for coffee beans Karp said. It's the most damaging insect pest by far causing some $500 million in damage per year.
Stanford biologists have been studying the intersection of nature and agriculture in Costa rica since the 1990s in part because of the vast amounts of land in that country dedicated to coffee production.
and thus a greater biodiversity of insect-eating birds fared better under attack from the insects.
Crop pests include fungi bacteria viruses insects nematodes viroids and oomycetes. The diversity of crop pests continues to expand
For example warming generally stimulates insect herbivory at higher latitudes as seen in outbreaks of the Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) that has destroyed large areas of pine forest in the US Pacific Northwest.
and wedding veil material as insect netting. Anemaet and Middleton were inspired to create an easier method by their field research on baldcypress tree swamps.
and policy makers ensure the countryside is suited better to the needs of these vital but declining pollinators.
All workers in a bumblebee colony are daughters of a singly-mated queen which means they are related highly in genetic terms.
By using the secrets hidden within the DNA of bumblebees we can start to understand how queens
and other pollinators is less than 0. 1%of the total managed area. Bumblebees are among the most important pollinators of many food crops and wild plants.
The next stage of the research is to use mathematical models to produce a bees'eye view of the landscape.
The research is funded by the national Insect Pollinators Initiative. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by British Ecological Society (BES.
The insecticide reduces the life-span of the insect by half preventing it from living long enough for the parasite to become capable of transmission.
The researchers also discovered that the bed nets caused the insects to alter their biting behavior.
or female and rely completely on host specific insect pollinators--so a lone cycad that dispersed a long way from others of its kind would probably be disadvantaged rather than advantaged in terms of reproduction.
and recover from EAB invasion with research on the insect ash trees'resistance to EAB and biological control.
These areas included sites approximately 50-100 km from the EAB epicenter where the insect had caused some tree mortality but considerably less than
because the timing of their food--insect hatches greening plants for example--no longer coincides with their travel this can have serious consequences for their continued survival.
and establishment of these insects virtually all of the fruit-fly species targeted by eradication projects have been reappearing in the same locations--several of them annually
Regulatory policies as well as pest management and agricultural practices need to be revised to reflect the reality that these insects are here to stay.
and in any region worldwide said insect population biologist George Roderick the William Muriece Hoskins professor
#Temperature alters population dynamics of common plant peststemperature-driven changes alter outbreak patterns of tea tortrix--an insect pest
whether insects emerge as cohesive cohorts or continuously according to an international team of researchers. These findings have implications for both pest control
and the timing of the various insect life stages which is critical for scheduling pest control.
The researchers who also include William A. Nelson associate professor of biology Queens University Canada currently on sabbatical at Penn State and Takehiko Yamanaka senior researcher National Institute for Agro-Environmental sciences Tsukuba
This type of insect remains dormant during the winter and emerges once the temperature reaches a certain level in the spring.
Because the first generation is triggered by this temperature increase the insects emerge all at once. We found the tea tortrix data very interesting said Bjã¸rnstad.
and other insect populations the researchers developed a mathematical population model that is based on the insect life cycle
The model is developed to represent the biology of the insect said Nelson. It is developed realistic fully and parameterized independently of the field data.
This is the first clear demonstration that temperature has the ability to alter those dynamics causing large cycles in the insect.
Heat enables the smell to go farther attracting more pollinating insects and increasing the chance of pollination.
The data provided by this series of photographs will help us understand how the Titan arum uses thermal energy to attract pollinators said Taber.
#Mini-monsters of the forest floora University of Utah biologist has identified 33 new species of predatory ants in Central america and the Caribbean and named about a third of the tiny but monstrous-looking insects
No one knows how they find their prey presumed to be bodied soft insects spiders millipedes and centipedes.
Some act as predators and influence the population sizes of other insects by eating them. They gather a lot of dead insects
and eat them so they are like vultures at a microscale. They move seeds around
The world has known some 700000 insect species but that number likely will climb much higher as more are discovered.
Longino says 70 percent to 80 percent of all known species are insects. The 33 new species bring the number of ant species Longino has discovered during his career to 131.
Sifting for Antslongino collected about 90 percent of the ants in his new studies during the past 30 years working on a series of projects to inventory insects spiders
To collect insects Longino and his students use sifting devices that look somewhat like a pair of tennis rackets with canvas bags beneath them.
The berry bushes also produce flowers of value to pollinators like butterflies insects and hummingbirds; food for other small and large mammals;
which make use of so-called entomopathogenic viruses that are harmful to insects in particular the baculovirus.
Moreover each viral strain attacks a very limited number of insect species. This host specificity means that the Guatemalan potato moth can be targeted
while preserving the ecosystem in particular useful insects like pollinators. Lastly unlike the molecules in chemical plant-protection products viruses are able to mutate which limits the development of resistance in their host.
molecular analyses to describe the genetic structure of the pests a study of the impact of temperatures on their ecology by means of drones with thermal cameras#The aim is to get a better understanding of the insects'population dynamics
because they're not designed to kill insects vanengelsdorp said. Federal regulations restrict the use of insecticides
while pollinating insects are said foraging he but there are no such restrictions on fungicides so you'll often see fungicide applications going on
whether an oil palm plantlet is a high-yielding palm Even with selective breeding 10 to 15 percent of plants are the low-yielding dura form due to uncontrollable wind and insect pollination particularly in plantations
because these butterflies are considered to be representative indicators of trends observed for most other terrestrial insects
and other insects--the pollination they carry out is essential for both natural ecosystems and agriculture.
when pollinator species declineremove even one bumblebee species from an ecosystem and the impact is swift and clear:
The results show how reduced competition among pollinators disrupts floral fidelity or specialization among the remaining bees in the system leading to less successful plant reproduction.
That's alarming and suggests that global declines in pollinators could have a bigger impact on flowering plants
The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the study co-authored by ecologist Heather Briggs of the University of California-Santa cruz. About 90 percent of plants need animals mostly insects to transfer pollen between them
Bees are by far the most important pollinators worldwide and have evolved co with the floral resources they need for nutrition.
Some studies have indicated that plants can tolerate losing most pollinator species in an ecosystem as long as other pollinators remain to take up the slack.
Those studies however were based on theoretical computer modeling. Brosi and Briggs were curious whether this theoretical resilience would hold up in real-life scenarios.
Their team conducted field experiments to learn how the removal of a single pollinator species would affect the plant-pollinator relationship.
Most pollinators visit several plant species over their lifetime but often they will display what we call floral fidelity over shorter time periods Brosi explains.
because a pollinator visit will only lead to plant reproduction when the pollinator is carrying pollen from the same plant species
. When bees are promiscuous visiting plants of more than one species during a single foraging session they are much less effective as pollinators Briggs says.
The researchers conducted their experiments at the Rocky mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte Colorado. Located at 9500 feet the facility's subalpine meadows are too high for honeybees
The experiments focused on the interactions of the insects with larkspurs dark-purple wildflowers that are visited by 10 of the of the 11 bumblebee species there.
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