Which came first, social dominance or big brains? Wasps may tell
Theres new evidence supporting the idea that bigger brains are better. A study of a tropical wasp suggests that the brainpower required to be dominant drives brain capacity. University of Washington researchers have found that key processing regions in the brains of both males and females of ...AAAAI Offers Advice on Stinging Insect Allergies
...ts -- black with yellow markings, found in various climates Honeybees -- a round, fuzzy body covered with dark brown and yellow markings Paper wasps -- slender, elongated bodies that are black, brown or red and have yellow markings Hornets -- black or brown with white, orange or yellow markings...Encouraging a Lifetime of Healthy Skin Right from the Beginning
... by following a few practical suggestions aimed at reducing the risk for bug bites. The most common bug bites are those from fleas, mosquitoes, wasps or bees. While these bug bites can be annoying and seem fairly harmless, it is possible to have a bad reaction to a sting. Dr. Johnson recommends havi...Orkin Warns of Four Pests to Avoid this Fourth of July
... outdoors. Fire ants are very protective of their colonies. When threatened, they repeatedly sting, causing blisters or pustules. wasps , including yellow jackets and hornets, can sting, causing headaches, fever, vomiting and other symptoms. These insects can even be deadly to p...Versatility of 454 Sequencing(TM) Demonstrated in Three Publications in Science Last Week
...st of the structural variation in the human genome. The presence of worker wasps that forgo reproduction and care for their siblings is a defining feature o...researchers used 454 Sequencing to examine messenger RNA from the brains of wasps and correlate different expression patterns to different social behaviors. ...Diversity among parasitic wasps is even greater than suspected
A tiny wasp that lays its eggs under the skin of unwitting caterpillars belongs to one of the most diverse groups of insects on Earth. Now researchers report that its diversity is even higher than previously thought. (To see an audio slide show on the research, please go to: http://publicaffai...Taking a bite out of a fellow worker helps wasps recruit new foragers
If you think you've got a bad boss, one who loves to chew people out, or if you work with backstabbing co-workers, be thankful you are not a wasp. If you were, chances are your nestmates might bite you to communicate that it is time to leave the nest and forage for the colony, according to resear...Symbiotic bacteria protect hunting wasps from fungal infestation
Researchers have discovered a fascinating symbiotic relationship between a wasp species and a newly discovered bacterial species ?a relationship that potentially sheds light on how bacteria can be successfully utilized by higher organisms in defensive mechanisms against other microbes. In the new w...Sustainable agriculture at the ESA Annual Meeting
...st populations of pests' natural enemies. Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer of the University of California Berkeley surveyed the abundance of flies, ladybugs, wasps and other predators of a common agricultural pest, the cabbage aphid, in croplands ranging from 2 percent to about 80 percent natural vegetation. She ...Biodiversity itself begets a species cascade, researchers say
...SU entomologist James J. Smith and colleagues reported. As those flies became genetically different from the parent hawthorn fly, so did the parasitic wasps that prey on the flies' larvae. Apples have grown in the New World for just 250 years, demonstrating how quickly new niches can become occupied. Th...Host shift triggers cascading effect on ecosystem, research finds
... The scientists, led by Forbes, studied genetic differences, diapause length and fruit odor preferences for apple-associated populations of D. alloeum wasps collected from numerous Midwestern sites. They collected the same measurements for D. alloeum in hawthorn, blueberry and snowberry. Their work showe...Researchers observe evolution chain reaction
...m the flies attracted to hawthorns, and so did the wasps that live on the flies' larvae. The genetic dis...lloeum wasp that we studied is just one of several wasps that spend a significant portion of their lives at...We have preliminary evidence that one of the other wasps also may be forming specialized races on the flies...Honeybees as plant 'bodyguards'
...ching predatory wasp or honeybee. "These sensory hairs are not fine-tuned," Tautz said. "Therefore, caterpillars cannot distinguish between hunting wasps and harmless bees." If an "unidentified flying object" approaches, generating air vibrations in the proper range, caterpillars stop moving or drop fro...Wasps and bumble bees heat up, fly faster with protein-rich food
...s bees hot, biologists at UC San Diego have found. wasps warm up too when they find protein-rich meat, a se...yond its original physiological function. warm wasps Western yellowjackets ( Vespula pensylvanica )...t its prey. Eckles found four colonies of these wasps in Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Ha...Insects use plant like a telephone
...ate with a third party, namely the natural enemy of caterpillars. Parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside aboveground insects. The wasps also benefit from the volatile signals emitted by the leaves, as these reve...Digesting the termite digestome -- a way to make biofuels?
... yet." This kind of digestome analysis could also be applied to other insects that feed on woody material, such as wood-boring beetles, and certain wasps and flies, Scharf adds. ...