Choice of food helps hungry caterpillar
... researchers. The Heliothis subflexa caterpillar is a specialist herbivore that eats only the fruit...exa on a different food source and fed a different caterpillar on Physalis angulata. The Physalis-fed caterpillar did not produce the elicitor either, but H. subf...Signal chemical primes plants for pest attack
...a by studying corn seedlings and beet army worm, a caterpillar that eats corn leaves as well as cotton, tobacco a... Those mechanically damaged and then treated with caterpillar spit to simulate caterpillar feeding showed the enhanced response. "If you mechanically wound a plan......reating a silk tent that provides protection. The caterpillar Pseudotelphusa is often one of the first species to build leaf shelters on white oaks in the early summer, building its shelter by tying two leaves together. Once mature, the larvae drop onto the leaf litter below to pupate, the final stage of growt...Sometimes no result is good result for science
...utographa californica, a common moth species whose caterpillar feeds on alfalfa, sugar beets, tobacco and tomato crops. The insect has played an important role in research on viruses and their use as an environmentally friendly means of pest control, since the polyhedrosis virus was originally isolated from its ...Evolving slower gets you the bigger piece of the pie
...y little protection for a lot of food, or will the caterpillar benefit most by providing very little food for a lot of protection? Michael Lachmann from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig and Carl Bergstrom from the University of Washington examined this question by using mathem...Effects of global warming already being felt on plants and animals worldwide
...t in the southern portion of their ranges, and the caterpillar population is no longer kept in check?" She predicted that rapid climate change, coupled with the loss of habitat and other ecological stressors, could lead to the disappearance of species - a consequence that might be avoided by taking proactive ins......in the number of species of moths, including their caterpillar stage, in thinned stands compared to unthinned stands, but the hardwoods more prevalent in thinned stands contributed to a greater richness of moth populations. "Taken together, these studies suggest that thinning may have positive results for plant...Untangling the web of tropical biodiversity
...ed that there is indeed a predictable structure in caterpillar communities. This structure allows tropical insect communities to be measured and used in a variety of academic and applied studies. The scientists plan on implementing a New Guinea-wide sampling program under their new National Science Foundation g...A Magic Web: The Tropical Forest of Barro Colorado
...d a toucan nest or parasitoid wasps ovipositing in caterpillar pupae. Ziegler's biology background and perseverance enabled him to close the gap between photographer and subject, resulting in intimate natural images. "Taking advantage of the knowledge of generations of researchers, using modern camera techniques...Code-breaking insects steal plants' defensive signals, enabling counterattack
...nate and salicylate to fifth instars -- the oldest caterpillar stage that causes the largest amount of crop damage. Examining the midgut and fatbody, where detoxifying chemicals are produced, Li found almost eightfold increases of P450 compared with caterpillars fed a control diet. At least one of the induced ...Extreme climate variance sped extinction of local butterfly populations, researchers say
...biting flatlands have no way to spread the risk. A caterpillar in a favorable microclimate might grow up two weeks before one in an unfavorable microclimate, and that extra time may mean the difference between life and death. The future doesn't look good for the Bay Area's remaining checkerspots. The source popu...Caterpillar saliva beats plant defenses
...uced resistance in (tobacco)."Investigation of the caterpillar commonly known as corn earworm by a team of Penn S... entomologists aimed at isolating the substance in caterpillar saliva that suppressed expression of defensive mechanisms in leaves. These defensive mechanisms incl...Tent caterpillars and their parasites
...d has discovered a correlation between forest tent caterpillar infestations and the amount of forest left standin...s." Dr. Roland's work suggests that a forest tent caterpillar outbreak and the rate of collapse is a critical indicator of the overall health of Canada's aspen bo...Flower chemicals attract some insects but deter others with toxic warning
... biologists joined forces to see what would make a caterpillar sick. Adding to their suspicion that DIPs and similar compounds might have an anti-feedant function was the finding that the compounds were particularly prevalent in plant ovary walls -- making up as much as one fifth by dry weight -- as well as in ...Plants, insects play cat and mouse game
..."On initial inspection you may think that both the caterpillar and the plant are exceedingly static - the plant j...there and can't run away from the insect while the caterpillar is essentially stuck on that one plant as it feeds," says Agrawal. "There seems to be little flexibi...Caterpillars make noise to fend off intruders, researchers discover
... conducted 53 trials in which they placed a second caterpillar onto an already occupied leaf where a nest of silk...esident to protect it while it ate. The intruding caterpillar approached the resident, who stopped feeding, backed into its nest and began signaling by dragging o...Researchers say hormones are key to evolution of insect metamorphosis
... to the adults. What allows the changefrom, say, a caterpillar into a butterfly is the way a group of insect hormones,juvenile hormones (JH) and ecdysteroids, interact during embryonic, larval andpupal stages, the researchers said. Juvenile hormones suppress the development of adult structures. In insects withpa...Engineered Corn Can Kill Monarch Butterflies
... released into the insect's body. As a result, the caterpillar quickly sickens and dies. Bt -engineered corn is among the first major commercial successes foragricultural biotechnology. Last year, more than 7 million acres of the hybridcrop were planted by U.S. farmers primarily to control the European corn bo...Paper Wasp Queens Wait To Hijack Or Adopt
... "If you have a garden and you want to get rid of caterpillar pests, get somepaper wasps. That'll take care of them," Starks says. Starks' paper, "A novel 'sit-and-wait' reproductive strategy in socialwasps," was published in the Aug. 7 issue of the journal "The Proceedings of theRoyal Society."...... onto one leaf of each plant insuch a way that the caterpillar could feed on the leaf. He also grew two sets of c...ole and another groupwhose plants received neither caterpillar nor clipping damage. Naturally occurring plant-eating insects were plucked from the plants in allgro...