Wednesday 28 February 2018

Rover Ants Always Around

It rained last night and it was about 40° F this morning, so I had trouble finding insects to...
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Biologists document the secondary extinction of a disease-carrying mosquito following rat eradication on Palmyra Atoll

The Asian tiger mosquito – carrier of such diseases as dengue, yellow fever, Rift Valley...
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Number of people killed by animals each year in the US remains unchanged

Bites, kicks, and stings from farm animals, bees, wasps, hornets, and dogs continue to represent the...
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Tuesday 27 February 2018

Scientists identify specialized brain areas for feeding and egg-laying in hawkmoths

The search for food is linked to other areas in the olfactory center of female tobacco hawkmoths...
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Why are some mushrooms 'magic?'

Psychedelic mushrooms likely developed their “magical” properties to trip up...
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Monday 26 February 2018

The Ant Course in 2018

In addition to the Ants of the Southwest Class, the Ant Course is another great way to learn about...
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Plants evolve away from obsolete defenses when attacked by immune herbivores, study shows

A new study shows that plants can evolve out of their obsolete defense mechanisms when facing an...
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Sunday 25 February 2018

Disease-bearing mosquitoes gain from shrinkage of green spaces

A study conducted in São Paulo, Southern Hemisphere’s biggest city, shows that mosquitoes...
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Digestive ability of ancient insects could boost biofuel development

A study of the unusual digestive system of an ancient group of insects has provided new insights...
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Invasion of the body-snatching fungus

Researchers recently documented a gory and fascinating relationship between periodical cicadas and a...
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Thursday 22 February 2018

Honey-filled SPARK bee hives

Today Sarah, my daughter, and I went to SPARK to check on the state of the hives. We were hoping to...
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Ants of the Southwest Class 2018

It’s time again to start thinking which ant classes you’re going to take this...
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Wednesday 21 February 2018

Computer models allow farmers to diversify pest management methods

A technology developed by Brazilian researchers can help fighting highly resistant agricultural...
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Helping in spite of risk: Ants perform risk-averse sanitary care of infectious nest mates

Ants care for their sick nest mates in different ways, depending on their own immune status. When...
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Tuesday 20 February 2018

As climate changes, so could the genes of the Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly

Researchers warn climate change can not only influence the geographic distribution of a species in...
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Monday 19 February 2018

Biodiversity loss raises risk of 'extinction cascades'

New research shows that the loss of biodiversity can increase the risk of ‘extinction...
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Spatial perception of odorants in cockroaches

A recent study has described the first neural architecture capable of encoding the spatial location...
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Sunday 18 February 2018

Why bees soared and slime flopped as inspirations for systems engineering

Honeybees gathering nectar inspired an algorithm that eased the burden of host servers handling...
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Thursday 15 February 2018

At last, butterflies get a bigger, better evolutionary tree

Butterflies offer key insights into community ecology, how species originate and evolve, climate...
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Biochemical networks mapped in midgut of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Scientists have mapped for the first time the midgut metabolites of the Aedes aegypti, the mosquito...
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Comes naturally? Using stick insects, scientists explore natural selection, predictability

Predicting evolution remains difficult. Scientists have studied evolution of cryptic body coloration...
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Australian fire beetle avoids the heat: Its infrared organs warn the insect of hot surfaces

The Australian jewel beetle Merimna atrata has several heat sensors. Originally it was thought that...
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Hunting is changing forests, but not as expected

In many tropical forests, over-hunting is diminishing the populations of animals who are vital for...
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Wednesday 14 February 2018

Beewolves have been successfully using the same antibiotics for 68 million years

Scientists have now found that beewolves, unlike humans, do not face the problem of antibiotic...
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Diet or regular? Decoding behavioral variation in ant clones

Clonal ants appear to be diverse in responding to sweetened water, suggesting epigenetic regulation...
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Medical care for wounded ants

Ants dress the wounds their mates have suffered in battle. Such behavior is believed to be unique...
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Tuesday 13 February 2018

Understanding a fly's body temperature may help people sleep better

In findings that one day may help people sleep better, scientists have uncovered the first molecular...
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Can a cockroach teach a robot how to scurry across rugged terrain?

Researchers build a robot that moves more like a cockroach. from Nature’s Incredible!...
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Monday 12 February 2018

Bed bug histamines are substantial, persistent in infested homes

Nuisance pest to medically important threat? New research findings show that bed bugs emit...
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Sunday 11 February 2018

First report in decades of a forgotten crop pathogen calls for critical close monitoring

Scientists, breeders, farmers and conservation groups must continue to work in close collaboration...
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Friday 9 February 2018

Cockroach ancient geographic and genomic history traced back to last supercontinent

Armed with a vast amount of genomic information, a team of researchers has performed the first...
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Biologists decipher a key piece of the odor-detection puzzle in flies, mosquitoes

Biologists have discovered surprisingly that the complex odor-detecting machinery of the fruit fly...
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Thursday 8 February 2018

The social evolution of termites

How did huge, complex insect societies evolve from solitary ancestors? This was the case with...
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Sniffing out a mate with precision

Male cockroaches can ‘see’ the spatial distribution of female pheromones to locate a...
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3-D vision discovered in praying mantis

Miniature glasses have revealed a new form of 3-D vision in praying mantises that could lead to...
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New approach to stop transmission of malaria from humans to mosquitoes

Some people develop an immune response following a malaria infection that stops them from infecting...
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Double trouble: Invasive insect species overlooked as a result of a shared name

An invasive leaf-mining moth, feeding on cornelian cherry, has been gradually expanding into...
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Sick bees eat healthier

Scientists have shown that sick bees try to look after themselves by eating healthy food. from...
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Wednesday 7 February 2018

Mind-controlling molecules from wasp venom could someday help Parkinson's patients

After being stung by a parasitic wasp, the American cockroach loses control of its behavior,...
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New light shed on antibiotics produced by ants

Ants, like humans, deal with disease. To deal with the bacteria that cause some of these diseases,...
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Tuesday 6 February 2018

Venus flytraps don't eat the insects that pollinate them

While most people are familiar with Venus flytraps and their snapping jaws, there is still a lot...
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Ants: Master manipulators for biodiversity, or sweet treats

Symbiotic ants manipulate aphid reproduction rates to achieve a specific mix of green and red...
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Monday 5 February 2018

Controlling fire ants with natural compounds

New research has identified natural, plant-derived that repel fire ants. These compounds, including...
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Saturday 3 February 2018

GBA Meeting is Coming Up

For the last year I have served as President of the Georgia Beekeepers Association. I was reelected...
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SPARK bees Make it Through the Winter Despite a Major Beekeeper Error

So all of you know that I don’t use queen excluders. I like to give the queen free rein and...
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Friday 2 February 2018

Even small changes within an ecosystem can have detrimental effects

A mutualistic relationship between species in an ecosystem allows for the ecosystem to thrive, but...
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Thursday 1 February 2018

The disappearance of common species

Scientists were able to show that currently widespread insects are threatened with a serious decline...
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Warmer climate can give Europe dengue fever

Large parts of Europe can suffer from the dreaded dengue fever unless climate change is attenuated....
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