Wednesday 28 March 2018

Drug that kills mosquitoes could be used to fight malaria

Researchers have shown the large potential impact of a completely new type of antimalarial drug that...
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Monday 26 March 2018

Insect toxin detected in the world's longest animal

The longest animal in the world, the bootlace worm, which can be up to 55 meters long, produces...
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Buckfast Bees

I’ve always been fascinated with Brother Adam, who spent much of his beekeeping life...
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Sunday 25 March 2018

More SPARK errors

I tell people with pride that I write on this blog about all the mistakes I make because I think it...
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Earwigs and the art of origami

Researchers have developed multifunctional origami structures, which they then fabricated into 4-D...
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Friday 23 March 2018

Rival competition makes ant sperm better swimmers

Ant sperm recognize rival sperm and become more mobile, faster and straighter swimmers as a result,...
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Thursday 22 March 2018

Breakthrough could aid development of bee-friendly pesticides

Efforts to create pesticides that are not toxic to bees have been boosted by a scientific...
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Physical disability boosts parenting effort, beetles study shows

Animals that carry a physical impediment can work harder to rear their young as a result, an insect...
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Wednesday 21 March 2018

Insects could help us find new yeasts for big business

Yeasts are tiny fungi – but they play key roles in producing everything from beer and cheese...
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Tuesday 20 March 2018

Discovered mode of drinking in mosquitoes carries biomedical implications

Mosquitoes may have a reputation for being one of the world’s most intractable pests, but...
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Termite queen, king recognition pheromone identified

Forget the bows and curtsies. Worker termites shake in the presence of their queens and kings. New...
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Friday 16 March 2018

When natural disaster strikes, can insects and other invertebrates recover?

After a 100-year flood struck south central Oklahoma in 2015, a study of the insects, arthropods,...
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Climate change promotes the spread of mosquito and tick-borne viruses

Scientists find that global warming has allowed disease-bearing insects to proliferate, increasing...
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Thursday 15 March 2018

Is it Veromessor pergandei or Messor pergandei?

I mentioned in recent post that the black harvester ants Messor pergandei are also reported in the...
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Fussy eating prevents mongoose family feuds

Mongooses living in large groups develop ‘specialist’ diets so they don’t have to...
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Wednesday 14 March 2018

'Cold-blooded' pythons make for caring moms

The female Southern African python is the first ever egg-laying snake species shown to care for...
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'Lazy lawn mowers' can help support suburban bee populations and diversity

Homeowners concerned about the decline of bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects need look...
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It's not only size, but scales that matter in some male moth antennae

Male moths have evolved intricate scale arrangements on their antennae to enhance detection of...
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Tuesday 13 March 2018

Infected 'zombie ants' face no discrimination from nest mates

Carpenter ants infected with a specialized parasitic fungus are not subjected to aggression or...
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Ultra-white coating modelled on beetle scales

Researchers have developed a super-thin, non-toxic, lightweight, edible ultra-white coating that...
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Lack of water is key stressor for urban trees

A recent study finds that urban trees can survive increased heat and insect pests fairly well...
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Forty years of data quantifies benefits of Bt corn adoption across multiple crops for the first time

Researchers have pulled together forty years of data to quantify the effects of Bt field corn, a...
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Friday 9 March 2018

Heat shock system helps bug come back to life after drying up

The larva of the sleeping chironomid, Polypedilum vanderplanki – a mosquito-like insect that...
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Thursday 8 March 2018

Gene knockout using new CRISPR tool makes mosquitoes highly resistant to malaria parasite

Deleting a single gene from mosquitoes can make them highly resistant to the malaria parasite and...
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Wednesday 7 March 2018

GBA sponsoring a honey bee license plate

This gorgeous license plate is moving through the Georgia legislature for passage this year. It...
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Mosquito brain atlas aims to reveal neural circuitry of behavior

Researchers have built mosquitobrains.org, the first map of the female mosquito brain. The new...
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Ant raids: It’s all in the genes

Certain ants attack and enslave other species, and integrate their offspring into their own colonies...
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Tuesday 6 March 2018

Mosquito gut may hold the key to preventing Dengue and Zika

A mosquito’s ability to replicate and transmit a virus depends on the metabolic environment of...
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Without 46 million year-old bacteria, turtle ants would need more bite and less armor

Socially transmitted, nitrogen-providing microbes have opened a new ecological frontier for...
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Monday 5 March 2018

For flour beetles, it's better to be a woman in a man's world

Researchers have shown that female red flour beetles reproduce better in male-dominated groups than...
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Saturday 3 March 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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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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Thursday 1 March 2018

New insights into how a virus-blocking bacterium operates in mosquitoes

New research reveals details of the mechanism by which the bacterium Wolbachia blocks viruses in...
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