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Tag: "insect" at biology news

Bats prey on nocturnally migrating songbirds

...mination of targets (therefore a confusion between insect prey and feathers); also, the costs of swallowing ... autumn. In parallel, isotopic signatures of whole insect bodies and passerine muscular tissues were tracked throughout the year, serving as a control. The re...

New bird, bat species revealed by extensive DNA barcode studies

..., and described the mechanisms by which control of insect pests by X-irradiation is achieved. From there, he accepted a position as chair of the University of Alberta’s Genetics Department. While there, he received NSERC grants over a 25-year period after the Council was formed. Von Borstel’s principal r...

Cancer that colonizes our bodies

..., and described the mechanisms by which control of insect pests by X-irradiation is achieved. From there, he accepted a position as chair of the University of Alberta’s Genetics Department. While there, he received NSERC grants over a 25-year period after the Council was formed. Von Borstel’s principal r...

How to manage forests in hurricane impact zones

... years to detect delayed mortality or the onset of insect infestations or diseases," says Stanturf. "Beyond the initial flurry of cleanup and salvage logging, the recovery process will take many years, and require the investment of time and resources. The recovery period is a good time to look at how to red...

Whitefly spreads emerging plant viruses

...efly, Bemisia tabaci (B. tabaci), is the exclusive insect vector (transmitter) for a large group of emerging plant viruses that infect several hundred plant species worldwide. "Once considered an obscure whitefly, B. tabaci is now among the most invasive and economically damaging insects to agriculture, spa...

Honeydew honeys are better antioxidants than nectar honeys

...er the plants have been visited by a plant-sucking insect and this generates honeydew honeys. “Honey is a natural source of antioxidants, and among honeys, honeydew honey is the best,?says researcher Rosa Ana Pérez, who works at the Instituto Madrileño de Investigación y Desarrollo Rural, Agrario y Alime...

Breathing easy: When it comes to oxygen, a bug's life is full of it

...t of oxygen, can survive for days without it. The insect respiratory system is so efficient that resting in.... The same tubes that transport oxygen into the insect body usher out carbon dioxide. Insects use different methods to release carbon dioxide, including op...

One-of-a-kind imaging probe reveals secrets useful for drug discovery

...of walking stick venom. He was pleased to know the insect was being studied in Florida. "We used not dozens but thousands of walking sticks to get enough secretions to do analyses and, no, it's not easy to do," Meinwald said. "When we started you could hardly work with natural materials in terms of milligr...

Unique gene regulation gives chilly bugs survival advantage at bottom of the world

...heir time in the water. The midge is also the only insect known to inhabit Antarctica. He and his colleagues collected adult and larval midges during field study tours to Antarctica in early 2005 and 2006. They gathered insects from penguin colonies, where the midges feed on algae and waste material. Pe...

Evolution of Old World fruit flies on three continents mirrors climate change

...ons was correlated with the latitude where a given insect was found. Inversions that were common in the north were uncommon in the south, and vice versa. The fruit flies were accidentally introduced to the Pacific Coast of Chile in the late 1970s and to the North American West Coast in the early 1980s, p...

Why do some queen bees eat their worker bee's eggs?

...the theory has revolutionized our understanding of insect societies." ...

Discovery of the first resistance gene to rice yellow mottle virus

...t harvest. Transmission of RYMV occurs by way of insect vectors or by straightforward contact between plants. Prevention measures, like direct sowing or the burying of straw, have been implemented in order to limit the spread of the disease, but the real potential for reducing the impact of RYMV is to be ...

Giant insects might reign if only there was more oxygen in the air

...of their bodies and removes carbon dioxide. As the insect grows, tracheal tubes get longer to reach central ...g the Paleozoic period, but Kaiser's team used the insect because they are much easier to maintain in the laboratory than dragonflies, which are quite difficu...

Caterpillars tell us how bacteria cause disease

...ld and his team are using the similarities between insect immune systems and animal immune systems to their ...tigate the genetic basis of 'virulence' factors in insect pathogens. Instead of looking at the whole genome ?which codes for the entire bacteria, Dr Waterfiel...

How ants find their way

...iments that will reveal new levels of detail about insect visuo-motor behaviour and allow the construction of models of memory retrieval. Professor Julia Goodfellow, Chief Executive of BBSRC, said: "Cognitive systems research gives us the opportunity to learn more about the ways that animals, including hu...

Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity

...tion. James Marden, professor of biology and an insect physiologist at Penn State, and Ruud Schilder, who...." __IMAGE_3 Marden's lab, which studies how insect muscles work and affect the animal's survival and reproductive capabilities, can mechanically isolat...

To elude bats, a moth keeps its hearing in tune

..., the bat. Moth ears are among the simplest in the insect world—they have only two or four vibration-sensitive neurons attached to a small eardrum. Previously, it was thought that these ears were only partially sensitive to the sound frequencies commonly used by bats, and it would seem likely that by using ...

Contrary to common wisdom, scientist discovers some mammals can smell objects under water

...ttom of the tank ?pieces of earthworm, small fish, insect cuticle and blobs of wax and silicon ?and observed the moles' behavior. He saw that, when the moles approached one of these targets, they would blow bubbles that came into contact with the target's surface and then were sucked back into the nostrils....

Hard-wiring the fruit fly's visual system

...nputs." "The most obvious difference between the insect and vertebrate brain is their size and the number of neurons and connections that need to be made. A possible explanation for the findings is that the fruit fly has many fewer neurons than vertebrates, and the system can therefore just rely on the g...

Most widely used organic pesticide requires help to kill

... the help of the native bacteria that colonize the insect gut, Bt is unable to perform its lethal work. Th...ally friendly weapons in the human arsenal against insect pests has significant implications not only for the control of insects in agriculture, forestry and ...

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