Archive for the ‘Entomology’ Category
Bad eating habits are a lot of people more than the human being is unique, although in this case is worse. Now the results of a new study of a predator illustrate that even carnivores seeking a balanced diet.
An international team of scientists from the universities of Exeter and Oxford in the United Kingdom, Sydney in Australia, Aarhus in Denmark and in Massey in New Zealand, investigated the dietary preferences of the beetle Anchomenus dorsalis, an insect garden well known, that feeds on slugs, aphids, moths, ants and even larvae of other beetles.
The team of Kim Jensen, University of Exeter, female beetles collected wild and divided into two groups in the laboratory. Half of the beetles were offered a set of different foods, some protein-rich and some are high in fat, so you chose to your liking. Read the rest of this entry »
The work of U.S. scientists has revealed that the paper wasp has the ability to distinguish the faces of their co-species, which has only been observed so far in mammals. This skill helps maintain peace in the colony.
Specifically, have shown that paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus, is able to learn to recognize the facial features of their fellow colony. The study is published in the latest issue of science.
“Being able to distinguish faces efficiently is an advantage for this type of wasps because it regulates social interactions within the nest. In addition, to recognize other wasps individually reduce aggression in the colony, thus helping to maintain peace”, said Michael J. Sheehan, a researcher at the University of Michigan (USA) and author of the work. Read the rest of this entry »
The aroma of the fruit not only guides the Drosophila melanogaster to food, but that also makes its libido increased.
A team led by researchers at the CNRS in France, has identified and analyzed an unexpected mechanism of olfactory perception by which an odor present in the fruit eaten by the male sexual appetite-stimulating them.
Yael Grosjean’s team has shown that phenylacetic acid, a substance associated with odors from foods (found in flowers, fruits, honey, etc.), has a specific olfactory molecular receptor (IR84a) located on the antennae of the flies male. Read the rest of this entry »
A female mosquito can not tell if the male has mated which is fertile or otherwise is unable to fertilize their eggs, according to results of recent research.
A precise knowledge of this limitation may help scientists in their mission to prevent the spread of malaria. This knowledge can be the basis for developing strategies to interfere with the reproductive success of mosquitoes. The strategies would induce sterility in high enough numbers of male mosquitoes, and take advantage of the ignorance of the females in this regard.
Malaria is a severe disease that affects more than 300 million people every year, killing nearly 800,000 annually. In Africa a child dies of malaria every 45 seconds. Read the rest of this entry »
When humans are depressed or anxious, they tend to see the half empty glass rather than half full. And new research has shown that this phenomenon can be observed in bees.
It is possible to detect evidence of a pessimistic attitude in various animals such as dogs, rats and birds, when they go through difficult times. Now a team of researchers from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom has found through behavioral experiments that bees also share the same behavioral characteristics that indicate a pessimistic attitude.
Researchers Melissa Bateson, Suzanne Desire, Sarah E. Gartside and Geraldine A. Wright has shown that emotional responses of bees to a negative event are more similar than previously thought to those of humans. Bees distressed by the simulated attack by predator pessimism would experience a person in distress in a difficult situation, and present the same basic symptoms in their behavior. In other words, the bees also feel overwhelmed that the bottle is half empty rather than half full. Read the rest of this entry »