Entomology news in mass media

They work tirelessly in the hot desert of Arizona evil reaper ants, under the scorching sun, looking for the last seeds to feed their grumpy mothers-in-law. They grind their teeth all night, falling into an uneasy sleep to the screams of their neighbors from above and the clatter of dishes.
In the same desert live kind, nocturnal ants. Their soft paws are covered with soft fur, accustomed to the starry coolness, moonlight serenades and beaches of Malibu. But here's the bad luck, all the food has already been collected during the day by the evil reapers, what to do? That's right, drive three KAMAZ trucks of construction debris and block the entrance to the reaper's ghetto, to have something to do the next morning, and maybe the night hostess will have something to do by the evening! ( from the book "Ants at work" by Deborah Gordon).</p>

This post was edited by CosMosk - 23.03.2013 05: 39

The bees were able to use an electric field to communicate

German biologists have discovered that social insects can use their static electric field to communicate and transmit information. Scientists ' work published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, and its summary leads to ScienceNow.

The researchers ' conclusions are based on observations of domestic bees. Scientists have found that their head-mounted antennas are sensitive to an electric field and will deflect when exposed to it. In this case, mechanoreceptors are activated at the base of the antennas, which transmit information about the deviation to the central nervous system.

The authors of the study showed that in this way bees can use a static charge during a dance in order to transmit information to their relatives: the movements of a "charged" bee affect the antennae of other insects.

Insects acquire a static electric charge as a result of rapid wing movements during flight. Scientists have long known that the charge helps bees accumulate pollen on their bodies, but it was believed that they are not able to feel an electric field.

Recently, a group of researchers from the UK found that insects are sensitive to static electricity and are able to use it to distinguish flowers that have already been visited by other pollinators. The work was carried out on bumblebees, which the researchers taught to find nectar only in charged artificial flowers.


http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=69720

this Megalara-or-Dalara garuda wasp was described around 2011 (announcement here: http://www.sott.net/article/233900-Entomol...w-Wasp-Species),
and Bokhart with her))

And here's a joke: In 2012 There was an announcement made by the American Museum of Natural History that eleven new bee species have been found, including four from the city of New York & surrounding suburbs.
- We found 11 new bee species (not forid canids!), of which 4 - in New York City itself- York and its immediate surroundings.

An April Fools ' Day joke? If it's true, please provide a link.

http://www.gismeteo.ru/news/sobytiya/v-ssh...humnye-tsikady/

Residents of the eastern United States of America have again, as 17 years ago, witnessed a rare natural phenomenon-the mass appearance of cicadas.

According to the journal Nature, an army of cicadas is born continuously every 17 years, during which the insects live all the time underground and feed on roots. Over the next few weeks, locust-like insects will infest vast areas affecting Washington State, the District of Columbia, and Baltimore, as well as most of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana.

According to rough estimates, their number will be estimated in the billions. In some areas, more than 300 insects will be found on 1 square meter of land.

Cicadas, while safe on their own, have a huge impact on the human community, not least because it is too urbanized.

Witnesses of the cicadas ' release in 1987 say that they continuously heard the crunch of cicadas on the ground and under the wheels of cars. Cicadas “got " everyone by buzzing and periodically getting into clothes and even into plates with food.

Therefore, for fastidious and picky Americans, the next four to six weeks will be a real nightmare in reality.

“For researchers, this will be a valuable new chance to learn more about these insects, whose lifestyle does not allow them to be easily observed. The fact that they spend so many years underground makes it impossible to keep and grow them in the lab,” says Mike Claridge, an expert on cicadas at the British Royal Entomological Society.

There are more than a dozen distinct groups or subspecies of cicadas (Magicicada) found throughout the eastern United States. Each of them has a different hatching cycle and therefore they appear every 13 or 17 years. After mating, the females lay their eggs in the basal bark of a nearby tree. Hatched larvae begin their lives by going underground to the roots.

Until now, science does not know exactly why the cycles of cicadas are so accurately observed.

The most significant version is that such long and excellent time intervals in cicadas allow them to reproduce exclusively with their own subspecies. Hybrids of different subspecies rarely survive to reproduce when they reappear. Even if the offspring turn out to be viable, then when they are born out of the cycle, such hybrids will have no one to mate with.

But the superposition of cycles of some subspecies of cicadas on others, such as 13-and 17-year-olds, leads to the appearance of many hybrids, which in principle can switch to a certain average cycle of 15 years and form a new subspecies.

This post has been edited by Penzyak: 10.04.2013 14:19

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This post was edited by Penzyak - 23.04.2013 10: 46

Pictures:

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Is everything all right with the term "subspecies" there, or is this again an incorrect translation? Something tells me it's the latter.

I read an interesting article today:

The secret of washing insects-revealed

Scientists have long noticed that insects, like mammals, clean their bodies from time to time, to be more precise, they clean their antennae. After many studies, it was found that cleaning the antennas is done in order to remove wax from them. If they stop following the rules of hygiene, they risk losing their sense of smell, as well as their orientation in space.

This fact was established by a group of scientists led by Marianna Zhukovskaya. The group included not only Russian scientists, but also American scientists from North Carolina State University.

It is worth noting that on this occasion there are many hypotheses that explain the strange behavior of insects. But all of them remained just hypotheses, since they could not be proved experimentally.

To find out this fact, the authors of the study conducted their own experiments. As experimental insects, the scientists chose American cockroaches Periplaneta americana. During the experiments, entomologists glued their mandibles together. This was done so that cockroaches could not clean their antennae, after which they studied the situation under a scanning microscope.

Observation showed that after a day, about 3-4 times more wax is collected on the antennae of insects than in those cockroaches that are systematically "washed". This led to a loss of sense of smell, as the wax clogs the pores of the sensilla.

In addition, as a result of the study, it was found that "dirty" insects, in order to feel sexual pheromones, need six times their concentration, compared to cockroaches, which have clean antennae.

It is worth noting that the scientists decided to test their findings on other insects. The results did not surprise them, because they were similar to the first experiment with cockroaches.

It was also found that the wax is produced in order to prevent the skin from drying out. In turn, it is known that it is wax that protects the insect body from the penetration of harmful substances. What remains unknown is how wax secretion is regulated.

http://sbio.info/page.php?al=tajna_umyvanija_nasekomy

An April Fools ' Day joke? If it's true, please provide a link.

I open google, put there for example "eleven new bee species have been found,"
and for example: http://www.amnh.org/our-research/science-n...n-united-states
Published, write, in zootaxa http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2011/1/zt03073p216.pdf, access is closed.

This post was edited by CosMosk - 26.04.2013 21: 45

I read an interesting article today:

The secret of washing insects-revealed
http://sbio.info/page.php?al=tajna_umyvanija_nasekomy

something here is strange, on the scale of how to clean the computer boards with a kitchen broom... I know a hypothesis about electrostatics..

The wings of fly-membranes are cleaned with equal zeal as their hands and feet - well, yes, there are mechanoreceptors there too... (Cleaning" along " probably strips off the wax from the articulations of the sensillae,and pulls out the submerged kolokolovidnyyh and so on.))) And some butterflies-not that they often have fun like that,here are scoops and fire pits-more often, perhaps.

This post was edited by CosMosk - 26.04.2013 20: 51

Plastic can't be compared to the antennae of living insects. Completely different electrical conductivity and, accordingly, electrostatic voltage. Wax also removes it additionally. It has the same effect as paraffin wax when the skis are rubbed with it. Electrostatics immediately goes to zero.
As for cleaning the antennae with daytime butterflies, this is not uncommon. I saw it especially often in the Parnassius family. Hot biotopes. The wax on the antennae softens, more often any "dirt" sticks to it... But this is already-in theory. We should check it out sometime.

From observations of Saturn: the antennae are more often cleaned by males. I guess, for better functioning of olfactory receptors. Less wax means a better chance of smelling your friend.

The Unexpected about Insect mating: http://elementy.ru/news/432002.

http://elementy.ru/news/432002: "In insects, polymorphic proteins–immunoglobulins-can take part in testing on the" friend-foe " principle."

I understand that immunoglobulins in insects are something new. I've heard about lectins, yes. But the presence of exactly immunoglobulins-here I would like to clarify.

Immunoglobulins in insects:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BC%...%BC%D1%8B%D1%85.
Really new. I just found out.

Interesting... only, after all, DSCAM in insects is an analogue of B - or T-cell receptors rather than antibodies. Now, if insects still found some elements of humoral specific immunity-it would be more interesting.

Plastic can't be compared to the antennae of living insects. Completely different electrical conductivity and, accordingly, electrostatic voltage. Wax also removes it additionally. It has the same effect as paraffin wax when the skis are rubbed with it. Electrostatics immediately goes to zero.

As far as I know, bees, for example, gain a charge in flight, so that pollen is "magnetized" to them, and there is a behavioral element.Buzz-for a characteristic buzz,when bumblebees, for example, "shake" a flower for this purpose. And the point is not in the electrostatics itself, but in the adhering dust (although there are not some doubts, but that the microfilm of wax can be stripped off with paws-brushes-there are big doubts-I have already written, most likely surfactants would be isolated, though...spittle... - learn!))). In the heat, as you write - the wax softens, the more nano-dust could stick - "melt". Thank you for what I said above about electrostatics.

something also about the antennae of butterflies-the impression that they are like women - rather fix their hair than wipe every hair))

Caterpillars [struggling] to help rodents make hay

Caterpillar Gynaephora groenlandica (photo by subarcticmike).

Alaskan pikes, before starting to store hay for the winter, look closely at the caterpillars of the local butterfly Gynaephora groenlandica. This butterfly is remarkable because it has found shelter in the Arctic Circle, in Greenland, Canada and Alaska, and its caterpillars live for fourteen years and during wintering they do not care about 70-degree frosts.

The caterpillars of Gynaephora groenlandica emerge from their winter cocoons in June, when the snow disappears. A few weeks later, the local pika birds begin to make supplies for the winter: to collect hay in winter shelters. It is clear that both caterpillars and small animals share the same resource — grass.

Researchers from the University of Alberta (Canada) tried to change the number of caterpillars in the plots surrounding the pishchukhin warehouses. One would expect rodents to look for places that the caterpillars didn't touch. However, everything turned out to be the opposite: as Isabel Barrio and her colleagues write in the journal Biology Letters (http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/9/3/20130090), pika birds first of all rushed to the place where the caterpillars were feeding.

Researchers believe that the caterpillars serve as a guarantee of grass quality for the pika-where the first feed, the grass will be better. The authors also add that this is a very unusual collaboration: that between two herbivores, and even such distant species, and even when one of the species is present here in larval form!

Perhaps it's all about the local harsh climate, which will make everyone make friends. However, it is not known whether the caterpillars have any benefit from pika.
http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=70526
---
here are 2 comments:
1) that ginephora can be the same circumpolar species-ow, specialists?
2) phytophage damage changes the chemistry of plants. Tastier apparently))

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill introducing criminal liability with a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison for the production and trafficking of Red Book animals, including Amur tigers.

Some hobbit scientists analyzing the species composition of the catch in the forests of Costa Rica, found an extremely unusual "wasp", whose size was by eye comparable to the current record holder-wasps Kikiki huna from Hawaii. [Mymaridae, ochevidno]
Its record-breaking size, about 100-200 micrometers, allegedly allowed them to name it Tinkerbella nana, in honor of the fairy from the play and fairy tale "Peter Pan" by the American writer James Barry, according to an article published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research (http://www.pensoft.net/journals/jhr/).
ecoportal.su/news.php?id=70486

This post was edited by CosMosk - 06/21/2013 04: 52

The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill introducing criminal liability with a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison for the production and trafficking of Red Book animals, including Amur tigers.

The tightening of the law, of course, pleases, but! Will there be a differentiation of punishments for tiger or insect prey?

A catastrophic decline in the number of many butterflies was noted in Florida. It is very likely that in the near future several of their species and subspecies will be recognized as completely extinct. The reasons are not exactly established.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2013/04...-species-vanish

The population in Florida has grown 13-fold over the past 80 years, reaching 20 million, or almost 100 people per square kilometer. That's the reason. Built-up areas, encroachment of roads, warehouses, plantations, etc. Trampling, pesticides, killing butterflies by cars on highways... Their living space shrank. Baseball bat of an urbanisation. Only the Americans don't seem to want to "discover" this fact. The last sentence of the article about the lack of funding for research on the causes of the extinction of Florida butterflies from state and other funds says a lot. Suddenly, the fault of urbanization will be recognized, and then what? Stop populating Florida and all that?! This will be a "systemic conflict" in their entire worldview as a superpower.

The population in Florida has grown 13-fold over the past 80 years, reaching 20 million, or almost 100 people per square kilometer. That's the reason. Built-up areas, encroachment of roads, warehouses, plantations, etc. Trampling, pesticides, killing butterflies by cars on highways... Their living space shrank. Baseball bat of an urbanisation. Only the Americans don't seem to want to "discover" this fact. The last sentence of the article about the lack of funding for research on the causes of the extinction of Florida butterflies from state and other funds says a lot. Suddenly, the fault of urbanization will be recognized, and then what? Stop populating Florida and all that?! This will be a "systemic conflict" in their entire worldview as a superpower.

The development of civilization is the destruction of the environment. No other way has been found yet.

Computer-eating ants conquer the US

http://news.rambler.ru/19171043/

12.12.12 / Evolution, Entomology, And Ethology
by Varvara Vedenin | http://elementy.ru/news/431952
Cricket Gryllus rubens and the fly Ormia ochracea sitting on it. Image from the site nelson.beckman.illinois.edu

It is known that at dusk, male crickets begin to sing, sitting near their mink, and their females find their chosen ones exclusively by song. But it turns out that in North America, these signals attract not only female crickets — they also attract parasitic flies from the genus Ormia to provide food for their offspring. Infected crickets die in 7-10 days. Crickets face a dilemma: to attract more females, you need to sing louder and more often, but this increases the risk of getting a deadly parasite. Different types of crickets solve this dilemma in completely different ways.

Many animal species use acoustic signals to attract a sexual partner. Females of many species are known to prefer the loudest singers. But it is also known that loud singers are more likely to be captured by potential predators than quiet performers. Thus, there is a conflict between natural and sexual selection, which was already described in the Elements (see Sexual selection contributes to the evolution of the hydrocarbon composition of the cuticle in drosophila, 15.11.2012). To a certain extent, one of the concepts of sexual selection, the handicap theory, is based on this conflict. According to this theory, females choose males with such traits that are harmful to survival, because only a very fit male can survive with these traits until the moment of reproduction (see How to choose the right partner (useful tips for girls), "Elements", 01.11.2006).

Animals often try to reach a compromise in resolving this conflict. If we talk again about acoustic signals, it was shown that in some cases the pressure of predators leads to a decrease in acoustic activity, in others — to a diurnal or seasonal shift of this activity to a time when there is less chance of getting caught by a predator. There are even examples where animals change the signal modality to one that predators are less susceptible to; for example, they switch from acoustic to vibrational or visual communication. And there are absolutely amazing cases when some males stop generating any signal and selfishly use their singing counterparts.

The parasitic fly Ormia ochracea from the family Tachinidae preys exclusively on crickets from two genera-Gryllus and Teleogryllus. This fly is amazing because it has hearing organs that are completely different from the hearing organs of other flies. They are located near the bases of the front legs and slightly resemble the tympanic organs of the same crickets. When a fly finds a singing cricket by the sound, it produces a larva and places it either directly on the cricket or next to it. The larva immediately burrows into the host and begins its dirty work. Infected crickets die in 7-10 days. This fly lives in North America, and in the south it is also found on the Hawaiian Islands.

It so happened that one species of cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus, common in Australia and Oceania, was introduced to the Hawaiian Islands. In 1991, American researcher Marlene Zuk of the University of Michigan began conducting regular research on several Hawaiian Islands. On one of the islands, Kauai, there was a fairly high percentage of T. oceanicus males infected with the O. ochracea fly (about 30%). However, after about 10 years, a strong decline in the number of singing crickets was found on this island. It turned out that in many males, the sound apparatus was reduced in such a way that they lost the ability to produce sound (Figure 1). Their wings became similar to those of females. Of the 133 males collected in 2004, only 12 males had a normally developed sound apparatus. And the percentage of crickets infected with parasitic fly plummeted — less than 1% of males were infected (Zuk et al., 2006. Silent night: adaptive disappearance of a sexual signal in a parasitized population of field crickets).

Computer-eating ants conquer the US

http://news.rambler.ru/19171043/

there is no campaign at all solenopsis invicta, business times. and how much do such portals store the address?
I have a weak browser page loaded( spam. That's why I'm all for quoting.



This post was edited by CosMosk - 06/21/2013 04: 44

Pirate-Like Flies Connect Symbiosis to Diversity
symbiosis of gallitz with a mushroom

Feb. 6, 2013 — After a year of studying up close the symbiotic relationship between a mosquito-sized bug and a fungus, a Simon Fraser University biologist has advanced the scientific understanding of biological diversity.


Jeffrey Joy has discovered that symbiosis -- a relationship between two or more organisms that can be parasitic or mutualistic -- is as much the mother of biological diversity as predation and competition.

The Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B has just published the post-doctoral researcher's findings online. They advance Joy's previous doctoral work under SFU biologist Bernard Crespi that led to a paper, in the same journal, about the remarkable diversity of plant feeding insects.

Joy's latest paper is "Symbiosis catalyzes niche expansion and diversification."

After comparing the niche and species diversification of two categories of gall-inducing flies, Joy has concluded that prolific diversity can be a hallmark of symbiotic relationships. No bigger than a speck of dust on your fingertip, these flies ( Diptera: Cecidomyiidae ) are ubiquitous worldwide, with more than 6100 species.

Joy found one group (617 spp) of these flies was in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus called Botryosphaeria . Another, much larger control group (2809 spp) had no such relationship with the fungus.

Scientists are not yet certain how the fly and fungus came together in the first place. But Joy has discovered that their relationship has evolved at least four different times, since the two first saw symbiosis -- as opposed to love -- at first sight.

Flies involved with the fungi have developed the ability to pick up the fungi, store them in biological pockets and deposit them on plants. There, the flies use the fungi to turn plant tissue into food inside a gall, a tumour-like structure that the flies cause on the plant.

"The flies are like pirates," explains Joy. "They use the fungi as boats to float across a genomic sea and board a plant that is genetically far removed from what they would otherwise be able to feed on."

The fungus, which is a broad-feeding plant pathogen, allows the flies to feed on a greater variety of plants compared to their non-symbiotic brethren.

"Symbiotic lineages of these flies have undergone a more than seven-fold expansion in the range of plants they can feed on relative to the lineages without such fungal symbionts. Also, one genus of gall-inducing flies utilizing fungal symbionts is 50 per cent more diverse than its brethren without the symbiotic relationship."

Joy is as excited about discovering how symbiosis between flies and fungi advances evolutionary theories as he is about discovering the relationship itself.

"The goal of this work was to test predictions of evolutionary theories of diversification and symbiosis," explains Joy. "The theory I observed in action is that the evolution of symbiosis catalyzes niche expansion -- an organism's use of more resources -- and diversification -- increased species in lineages.

"These findings expand our understanding of how biological diversity is generated and how processes, such as symbiosis, lead to some remarkable examples of biology, such as the symbiotic mutualism between clownfish and sea anemone."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/...30206094712.htm

The web was an active electrical trap
Drawing a web to a fly view from the end of a plane Photo: Victor Manuel Ortega-Jimenez & Robert Dudley, Scientific Reports, 2013

Scientists have found that the web of some spiders carries a static electric charge and thus itself "pounces" on insects. The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports, and ScienceNOW writes briefly about it.

The work was carried out on the nets of the Crusader spider Araneus diadematus, using bees, aphids and several fly species as potential prey.

Fast-motion camera surveys have shown that the web's attraction to charged insects causes threads to rapidly eject from the central part of the web. The speed of such movement reaches two meters per second, while the threads deviate by an average of two millimeters. The approach of electrically neutral insects does not affect the web in any way.

The fact that many flying insects have a static charge has been known for a relatively long time — they acquire it during flight due to the friction of their wings against the air. Recently, however, biologists have found out that such a charge can help pollinators remotely determine the presence of nectar in a flower: those flowers that competitors have already descended on have a weaker static charge. In addition, it has been shown that bees can use their electrical charge during communication.
http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=72056

About 12 tons of beetles were collected from the coast of the Curonian Spit
http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=72057

About 12 tons of May beetles were collected from the 49-kilometer sea coast of the Curonian Spit near Kaliningrad by residents of the region as part of the five-day campaign " Beetles in exchange for a pass!", organized by the Curonian Spit National Park; during this time, 1.5 thousand one-time passes were issued to enter the national park, a representative of the institution Olga told RIA Novosti. Barboff.

The coast of the Baltic Sea was completely strewn with May beetles, which were washed up on the beach by a wave, since the beginning of June. Vacationers began to complain of an unpleasant smell caused by the decomposition of insect corpses. First of all, they tried to remove beetles within the city beaches of Kaliningrad resorts. And on the Curonian Spit, they resorted, among other things, to the help of vacationers and volunteers.

"Kaliningrad residents went to the spit to collect beetles by whole families, companies and labor collectives. And what is pleasant, many participants of the action worked for free. In five days, 1,500 bags were delivered, and about 12 tons of beetles were collected. Order on the coast is restored by 70%, the unpleasant smell is eliminated, " said Barboff.

According to the National park administration, the final cleaning of the coastal strip from beetles will be carried out within a week by park employees and volunteers.

Hawks are protected from bats by ultrasound genitalia
Hawk moth Theretra nessus, one of the owners of the ultrasonic causal place. (Photo by P.S. SIVAPRASAD.)

The evolutionary "arms race" between bats and moths has been going on for 65 million years, and all this time insects are trying to find a way to deceive the bats ' ultrasonic sonar. One of the most successful inventions belongs to the bear butterflies: they have learned to imitate the ultrasonic signals of their enemies, confusing them.

Until now, the bears were considered the only owners of such ultrasonic disguise. But it turned out that the same gift is given to some tropical hawkmoth. Jessie Barber of Boise State University (USA) and Akito Kawahara of the University of Florida (USA) found this out. The researchers went to Borneo, captured some hawkmoth and made the insects listen to the ultrasonic signals of bats.

In an article published in the journal Biology Letters [http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/con...130161.abstractzoologists report that three species of butterflies (Cechenena lineosa, Theretra boisduvalii, and Theretra nessus) responded with their own ultrasound signal! Moreover, the males made sounds using an organ that is usually designed to hold the female during mating: they rubbed this member against the abdomen, and its scales grated at the appropriate frequency. The females also connected their genitals to this task, but they worked like an eardrum: the protrusions and protrusions of the sexual organ again caused friction of the scales that produce BONDS.

The authors admit that they do not know exactly what effect hawk moth ultrasound has on bats: whether it directly scares off predators, or creates multiple interference, preventing them from navigating. However, the researchers do not doubt that these sounds are necessary for protection from bats.

It is also worth noting that the ultrasonic abilities of the two groups of butterflies developed independently. Female bears hear bat signals using special organs located on their chests, where they also have organs for producing their own ultrasonic noise. And hawks hear ultrasound through the organs located on the head. As for their own ultrasonic generator, the hawk moth, as we can see, did more economically, although it is difficult to think of a more strange organ for singing with ultrasound...

http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=72062

Biologists found an animal with the most sensitive hearing
Butterflies of the Galleria mellonella species can perceive sound with a frequency of up to 300 kHz, which is much higher than the abilities of any other animal (photo by Sarefo/Wikimedia Commons).

Biologists call the real winners in the arms race butterflies of the Galleria mellonella species, also known as the Big Wax Moth. Scientists have shown that these insects, which are nutritious from the point of view of bats, have unprecedented abilities to perceive sound, thus breaking the parity of weapons between predator and prey.

Ash-red butterflies of the G. mellonella species, which grow up to 2-4 centimeters in length, can hardly be considered a human friend. Their voracious caterpillars ravage bee hives, devouring honey, wax and parchment. However, the enzyme produced by insects has a destructive effect on tuberculosis bacteria, which means that it helps people fight the dangerous disease.

To test the wax moth's hearing acuity, the researchers played sounds with a frequency of 50 to 300 kilohertz, while measuring the vibration of the insects ' auditory membranes using a laser, and also recording the activity of the auditory nerve using implanted electrodes.

According to the results published in the journal Biology Letters [http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/9/4/20130241For example, butterflies perceived sounds at all frequencies of the range under consideration, which makes them the most sensitive animals to sounds.

For comparison: the human ear perceives sounds with a frequency of up to 23 kHz, the cat's ear-up to 64 kHz. The most sensitive among insects was previously considered to be an unpaired silkworm (Lymantria dispar), capable of hearing within 150 kHz, and among animals in general – bats, among which there are species that catch sound vibrations with a frequency of up to 212 kHz.

"Previous studies have shown that bats have the ability to recognize very high frequency sounds," says James Windmill of the University of Strathclyde. – However, we now see that at least one insect species is virtually invulnerable to these nocturnal hunters."

According to the researchers, this ability allows individuals of the large wax moth not only to escape from predators, but also to easily find representatives of their species during the mating season. Experts note that the discovery forces biologists to reconsider the ability to perceive sound in other animals.

"The question is: how well can other species hear? - says Dr. Fernando Montealegre-Z, a biologist at the University of Lincoln. "For example, crickets, praying mantises, and golden-eyes are also sensitive to ultrasound, but they have never been tested at frequencies above 150 kHz."

http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=70735

Scientists from Croatia have bred bees that are able to smell a mine from a distance of five kilometers, even if it is underground.

The project to create "antimine" bees started in 2007. Genetic engineering was not used. The researchers decided to simply train the insects.

In order for the bees to form a clear "explosive-treat" connection, their colonies were located in a large fenced field. The territory belongs to the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Zagreb (Sveučilište u Zagreb). There were beehives at one end, and several feeding points at the other. Near the latter, scientists soaked the soil with explosive chemicals.

"Eventually, insects learn to associate the smell of any explosive with easy prey and find the shortest path to it," says Professor Mateja Janeš of the University of Zagreb. For several years, scientists have been improving and honing the teaching technique. Now researchers are proud to claim that their bees are faster and safer than specially trained dogs. "It's nice that when they're not working, they also produce delicious honey," Janes adds half-jokingly.

Matei's team plans to prove the effectiveness of this approach to finding unexploded mines in the coming months. Scientists and their wards will go to the town of Benkovac, which was in the firing line from 1991 to 1995.

Croatian scientists have put so much effort into creating "anti-mine" bees, since during the Balkan Wars of Independence in the 90s of the last century, about 1.5 million such land mines were used in the country by all parties to the conflict. The fields covered by these munitions cover an area of about 700 square kilometers. According to some sources, the earth stores about 90 thousand unexploded mines.

We add that the Agency for Advanced Defense Research and Development of the United States DARPA trains bees for explosives. In addition, the Americans tried to connect plants to the search for unexploded ordnance. It is also known that land mines were forced to learn to feel elephants.
http://ecoportal.su/news.php?id=70578

This post was edited by CosMosk-12.07.2013 23: 17

Such is the news: http://radiovesti.ru/article/show/article_id/101152. What kind of beetles are they, who knows? And won't they devour the caterpillars of pavonias, endromis and other butterflies we love, including the Red Book species?

Such is the news: http://radiovesti.ru/article/show/article_id/101152.

This is nonsense!

What's the big deal? Information from a leading employee of the MSU biofactory Department. The correspondent described it "inadequately" in some places, and the photo is for the "Wrong and funny ..." section, but is the story itself really a fiction? What kind of bug? Why such laughter?

What's the big deal? Information from a leading employee of the MSU biofactory Department. The correspondent described it "inadequately" in some places, and the photo is for the "Wrong and funny ..." section, but is the story itself really a fiction? What kind of bug? Why such laughter?

In my opinion, the nonsense is that the introduced species will self-destruct by eating a nun and can easily change its food supply. Any introduction is definitely harmful. There is also an example of Sosnovsky's Hogweed . Journalists don't know what to write anymore...
At least a photo was provided: Lucanus cervus is this the same beetle???

This post was edited by vasiliy-feoktistov - 12.08.2013 07: 09

What's the big deal?

"Butterflies fly far to the north in warmer years, then they become a scourge. Because it affects not only mulberry trees, but also many other trees. Which are covered entirely with cobwebs" - and this is not nonsense in relation to Lymantria monacha?

This post was edited by Dmitrich - 12.08.2013 09: 33

"Butterflies fly far to the north in warmer years, then they become a scourge. Because it affects not only mulberry trees, but also many other trees. Which are covered entirely with cobwebs" - and this is not nonsense in relation to Lymantria monacha?

+ 100%
Journalists and their consultants are strongly recommended to read at least the relevant literature.
Quote:
Vladimir Novak "Atlas of forest pest insects"
State Agricultural Publishing House, Prague 1974

Pictures:

IMG.jpg — (84.48к)

First of all, Vladimir Murashov is the head of the Laboratory of Plant Development Biology.
He can be seen in the school curriculum still remembered that the silkworm-so mulberry eats
But what kind of eulophytes I had to sweat to find at least something suitable )))
Suitable here :
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eulophidae
that is, eulophids.

In this case, the journals could have messed up)))