Latest Entomology Stories
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Learning more about the behavior of bed bugs is one approach being used by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists to identify compounds to help control these pests. The resurgence of bed bugs over the last decade has caused problems in major U.S. cities where they infest homes, apartments, hotels, shelters and even places of work. The small, blood-feeding insects are not known to transmit diseases, but they can cause severe reactions in...
North Carolina State University Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that one of the most aggressive invasive ant species in the United States – the Argentine ant – appears to have met its match in the Asian needle ant. Specifically, the researchers have found that the Asian needle ant is successfully displacing Argentine ants in an urban environment, indicating that the Asian needle ant – with its venomous sting – may be the next invasive species to see a...
Cell Press For young ants at the pupal stage of life—caught between larva and adulthood—status is all about being heard. The findings, reported online on February 7 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, add to evidence that ants can communicate abstract information through sound in addition to chemical cues. "One of the truly fascinating characteristics of social insects is their power of self-organization, which allows their societies to achieve amazing feats way beyond the...
The new storefront offers an expanded product assortment and enhanced site functionality. Greensboro, NC & Seattle, WA (PRWEB) January 31, 2013 The new Insect Shield Workplace Safety & Health online store makes protective clothing and gear items available to workers in at-risk locations across the globe. The Insect Shield assortment consists of work wear, professional apparel and accessories—including clothing that also offers sun protection, flame resistance and high...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Back before technology emerged into everyone's pockets, sailors used the stars as their GPS system when navigating the seven seas. While that way of navigation is a little outdated for humans, it’s still a modern technology for dung beetles. Scientists wrote in the journal Current Biology about how dung beetles guide their way through even the darkest of nights by the soft glow of the Milky Way in the sky. Researchers say that...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Researchers wrote in the journal Nature that they discovered a social chromosome in fire ants that explain why some colonies allow for more than one queen ant. Red fire ants live in two different types of colonies, including some that strictly have a single queen, and others that contain hundreds of queens. Scientists discovered that this difference in social organization is determined by a chromosome that carries one of two...
After metamorphosis European forest cockchafers benefit from the same bacterial symbionts housed during their larval stage. Apart from the common European cockchafer (Melolontha melolontha), the European forest cockchafer (Melolontha hippocastani) is the most common species of the Melolontha genus. These insects can damage huge areas of broadleaf trees and conifers in woodlands and on heaths. Cockchafers house microbes in their guts that help them to digest their woody food, such as...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists have discovered a hearing system component previously thought to be unique to toothed whales – such as dolphins – in insects. The team, comprised of scientists from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland, with colleagues from Plant & Food Research in New Zealand, and engineers from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, is challenging ideas about how a large group of...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Until now, scientists have had a problem estimating the exact numbers of arthropods – a group that includes insects, arachnids, and crustaceans - on Earth, even though we know they comprise a majority of the multicellular species on the planet. Because of their small size, frequent movements, and inaccessible habitats, quantifying their abundance has been difficult despite the fact that they are the most numerous phylum on the planet....
Researchers find that gene related to germ cell formation is far older than first thought Harvard scientists have solved the long-standing mystery of how some insects form the germ cells – the cellular precursors to the eggs and sperm necessary for sexual reproduction – and the answer is shedding new light on the evolutionary origins of a gene that had long been thought to be critical to the process. As described in a November 1 paper published in Current Biology, a team of...
Latest Entomology Reference Libraries
The Argema mittrei, more commonly known as the Comet or Moon Moth, is an endangered species. It is a native of Madagascar and that is the only place where one can observe them in the wild. This large silk moth can be bred in captivity and is one of the world's largest moths. Males have an average wing span of nearly 8 inches and a tail span of almost 6 inches. The lifespan of an adult moth is only 4-5 days and they are capable of reproduction from day 1. Their cocoons are uniquely...
A caterpillar is the larval form of a lepidopteran (a member of the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). Caterpillars are characterized by their long segmented bodies and many sets of "legs". They eat voracious leaf eaters and grow rapidly, During growth the caterpillar will shed its skin four to five times before pupating into its adult form. Caterpillars have six true legs (being hexapods) on the thorax, up to four pairs of prolegs on the middle segments of the abdomen, and...
Caelifera, a herbivorous insect, is a suborder of the order Orthoptera. Commonly called grasshoppers in English, the sub-order includes short-horned grasshoppers, grasshoppers and locusts. Characteristics The Caelifera have antennae that are shorter than the body, and short ovipositors. Those species that make easily heard noises usually do so by rubbing the hind femurs against the forewings or abdomen, or by snapping the wings in flight. Tympana, if present, are on the sides of the...
The superfamily Papilionoidea contains all the butterflies except for the skippers, which are classified in superfamily Hesperioidea. Some authors treat this grouping as a series (Papilioniformes) within a single superfamily that also includes the skippers. However, all are agreed that, although all the butterflies constitute a single monophyletic clade, a distinction needs to be made between the skippers and the rest of the butterflies. Compared with the skippers, in the families that are...
Katydid is the common name of insects belonging to the grasshopper family Tettigoniidae, which contains over 6,800 species. Katydid are also known as "long horned grasshoppers" and "bush crickets." The term "katydid" is used mainly in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. The name "katydid" comes from the sound produced by species of the N. American genus Pterophylla (literally "winged leaf"). The males of katydids have sound-producing (stridulating) organs located on their front wings which in...
