International trade imperils U.S. plants, animals and crops
...t on invasive plants. "Most harmful non-indigenous insect pests and plant pathogens arrive in the U.S. as stowaways on nursery stock, raw logs or cargo containers. And many invasive exotic plants are purposely introduced through the horticultural market." Alien invaders already cost the country $136 billi...How a hormonal henchman triggers death
...echnology (MIT), show how signals generated by the insect hormone ecdysone orchestrate programmed cell death, a process that takes place in all animals. The research group included HHMI investigator Carl Thummel and Changan Jiang at the University of Utah, and HHMI investigator Hermann Steller at MIT,...New science resources available from the ESA
...k of forest fires in certain areas, and preventing insect outbreaks. They recommend that sustainable management policies should make full use of current ecological knowledge....Beetle uses fecal defense against predators
...f its turtle-like shape, the iridescent blue adult insect chews trenches through palmetto leaves as it feeds...eemed never to move, and they did not resemble any insect larva known to science. Inside the Archbold laboratory and under the microscope, the defensive stra...Study finds children are exposed to pesticides
...a are sprayed to attack coddling moth, the primary insect pest for apples in the region. "Exposures may have been higher at this time of year, and were probably the result of both direct exposure to pesticides and to pesticide residues in food," Fenske said. The study by Fenske and colleagues will be publ...Blister beetles use sex and subterfuge to infiltrate bee's nests
..." adds Hafernik. "What's more, until now, no other insect has been known to use cooperative behavior to mimic other species." Blister beetles are named for their defensive mechanism of releasing a drop of bright-orange blood laced with the chemical cantharidin, which causes severe pain and blistering upon ...Chemical discovered that causes plant tumors
...part of the plant's defensive mechanism against an insect pest. The study, done by scientists from Oregon S...interaction of pea plants with pea weevils, a tiny insect that's smaller than a ladybug but is one of the worst insect pests of peas. In order to reproduce, t...Spiders get better web sites by rising early
...lligerently for big spaces in the colony. In some insect species, the social hierarchy is fixed: Bee colonies, for example, have queens, workers and soldiers. "But spider societies are very different, and they are very egalitarian," says Uetz, who has worked with these colon web-building spiders for over ...UC Berkeley study shows gecko foot hairs are amazing dry adhesives
...on vertical surfaces, while even the blood-sucking insect known as the kissing bug has apparently evolved foot hairs with a single spatula at the tip. Full and Autumn also have an association with IS Robotics, Inc., that has resulted in a mechanical gecko that adopts the peeling action of geckos to walk on ...Can a deadly spider replace chemical pesticides?
...r. These neurotoxins are lethal when injected into insect tissues, yet have no effect if eaten by insects or other animals (Nature Structural Biology, vol 7, p 505). King's team is now engineering the gene for one of these toxins into baculoviruses, common viruses that infect certain moths and butterflies,......the group, has been researching how much energy an insect uses to process different kinds of information. Since energy supply is critical to the brain, there is an evolutionary pressure on the brain to use energy efficiently. Professor Laughlin said: "Understanding the relationship between energy and infor...National Science Foundation awards research grant for $1.1 million to UA Museum
... the museum entomologist will develop an extensive insect collection, incorporatingimportant Arctic specimens from other collections, to help scientists better understand the physicalcharacteristics and factors that affect the changing climate of the Far North. "Insects are the most diverse land organisms a...Understanding of floral scents blossoms in Purdue laboratory
...lture. Almost three-fourths of all crops depend on insect pollinators attracted by floral scents. Honey bees alone are responsible for pollinating one third of U.S. crops. Boosting floral scents would not only make flower beds more aesthetically pleasing, it would also improve the yield and quality of many ...Canadian scientists find potent antifreeze protein that equips insects to brave winter
...inia Walker, an expert in the molecular biology of insect development, and Dr. Brian Sykes from the University of Alberta, an expert in structural biology and nuclear magnetic resonance. Antifreeze proteins are found in some fish, insects and plants. They bind to ice crystals and prevent them from growin...Pigs at sea reveal latest clues in homicide research
...sland, near Vancouver. Anderson's expertise on insect activity on homicide victims allows her to pinpoin...tional Congress of Entomology in Brazil, and teach insect collection techniques to investigators at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa....Soybean pest native to China detected in U.S. for first time
...Madison extension entomologist who has studied the insect problems of Wisconsin's corn and soybean crops sin...o apply insecticides that are registered for other insect species that attack soybeans. Growers and crop scouts can find detailed management recommendations f...Insect defenses point the way to defeating bacterial antibiotic resistance
...higher-order animals, including humans. Key to the insect immune system is an array of small antimicrobial p...eat-shock protein repair system. Importantly, this insect peptide does not bind to the human equivalent of the DnaK receptor, known as Hsp70, greatly enhancin...Insects caught in a nutrient-poor food web
...orus-rich environments like lakes. A fast-growing insect on land will be susceptible to unstable population fluctuations or even extinction, Elser says. As you grow faster, your nutrient requirements go up, but your environment may not be presenting those nutrients at levels that can sustain you. Such an o......C. Hall, distinguished professor of biology. "This insect feeds on the leaves and lays its eggs on them. When the eggs hatch, larvae grow and spend about a month chewing the roots." To protect rice plants from water weevils, Hall and his colleagues insert insect-killing genes in the seeds of rice plants. Id......tant crab populations in the Pacific and on forest insect pests, despite the fact that the patterns of population variation look quite complicated," said Stephen P. Ellner, the Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who was a professor of biomathematics at North Carolina State when the study...