Latest Hymenoptera Stories
Four species of tiny flies that lay eggs in fire ants have been imported into Texas in an effort to reduce the numbers of the stinging invaders. The phorid flies effectively turn fire ants into zombies, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported Tuesday. The egg that hatches in a fire ant produces a maggot that eats the ant's brain, researchers at Texas A&M and the University of Texas say. It's a tool -- they're not going to completely wipe out the fire ant, but it's a way to control...
U.S. entomologists say they have discovered how ants know when a nestmate has died and its time to remove the body from the colony. University of California-Riverside scientists say when an ant dies its body is quickly picked up by living ants and removed, thus limiting the risk of colony infection by pathogens from the corpse. Up to now most entomologists theorized dead ants release chemicals created by decomposition, thereby signaling their death. But in the new study, scientists working...
UC Riverside entomologists offer evidence for a mechanism: decrease in chemical signals produced by living antsWhen an ant dies in an ant nest or near one, its body is quickly picked up by living ants and removed from the colony, thus limiting the risk of colony infection by pathogens from the corpse.The predominant understanding among entomologists "“ scientists who study insects "“ was that dead ants release chemicals created by decomposition (such as fatty acids) that signal their...
Nature is full of mutually beneficial arrangements between organisms"”like the relationship between flowering plants and their bee pollinators. But sometimes these blissful relationships have a dark side, as Harvard biologist Megan Frederickson describes in an article for the May issue of The American Naturalist.Generally, the relationship between ants and plants is a great example of biological mutualism. Myrmecophyte plants"”otherwise known as ant-plants"” often provide home for...
British scientists fitted rock ants with tiny radio-frequency ID tags to determine the process by which ants select a new home. University of Bristol researcher Elva Robinson and colleagues gave the ants the choice of a nearby poor nest or a good nest located farther away. The researchers found the colonies selected the superior site although it was nine times farther away than the alternative. And, the scientists said, the best nest was chosen despite the fact that very few individual ants...
Dr Elva Robinson and colleagues in the University's School of Biological Sciences fitted rock ants with tiny radio-frequency identification tags, each measuring 1 / 2,000 (one two-thousandth) the size of a postage stamp, then observed as they chose between a poor nest nearby and a good nest further away.The ant colonies showed sophisticated nest-site choice, selecting the superior site even though it was nine times further away than the alternative. The best nest was chosen, despite the fact...
MURRIETA, Calif., April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Copan Diagnostics, Inc. is proud to announce the first installation of WASP(R): Walk-Away Specimen Processor in Canada at Vancouver General Hospital. Copan WASP(R): Walk-Away Specimen Processor is a revolutionary system for automatic planting and streaking microbiology samples. The breakthrough technology behind the WASP, coupled with Copan ESwab, the only liquid transport swab system for automation, make the WASP the first instrument of its kind to...
Ant trails fascinate children and scientists alike. With so many ants traveling in both directions, meeting and contacting one another, carrying their loads and giving the impression that they have a sense of urgency and duty, they pose the following question: how do they organize themselves? A new study published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE may have some answers.Pedro Leite Ribeiro and his colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, believe they have found...
Ant and bee colonies have long fascinated biologists because of their hierarchical social structure and the apparently altruistic behavior of female workers in rearing the queen's young rather than reproducing themselves. In colonies headed by a single queen, this makes evolutionary sense in that the workers are as closely related to the princesses and princes they nurture as they would be to their own children. Thus the genes underlying this behavior would be successfully transmitted through...
Some creatures seek safety in numbers for selfish purposes, but researchers say such egocentric activity is not the case for true team players like bees and ants, BBC News reported. Mathematical models to observe "swarm behavior," were used by scientists from Edinburgh and Oxford Universities to learn more about the activity of individual species in relation to its group. Bison and fish, they discovered, desire to be center of large groups to protect themselves from predators. Ants and...
Latest Hymenoptera Reference Libraries
A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is not a bee, sawfly, or an ant. The less familiar suborder Symphyta includes the sawflies and wood wasps, which differ from the Apocrita by having a broad connection between the thorax and abdomen. Also, Symphyta larvae are mostly herbivorous and "caterpillarlike", whereas those of Apocrita are largely predatory or parasitic. Most familiar wasps belong to the Aculeata, a division of the Apocrita whose ovipositors are...
The Bombyliids are a large family of flies with hundreds of genera. Their life cycles are not well known. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of flowers. They superficially resemble bees, thus are commonly called bee flies, and this may offer the adults some protection from predators. The larval stage are predators or parasitoids of other insect eggs and larvae. The adult females usually deposit eggs in the vicinity of possible hosts, quite often in the burrows...
The bumblebee is a flying insect of the genus Bombus in the family Apidae and a relative of the common honeybee. The bumblebee feeds on nectar and gathers pollen to feed its young. They are beneficial to humans and the plant world alike, and tend to be larger than other members of the bee family. Most bumblebee species are gentle. From this comes their original name: "Humblebee". Bumblebees are social insects that are known for their black and yellow striped bodies, a commonality among the...
PHOTO CAPTION: Eriothrix rufomaculata (Photo taken by Keith Edkins) The tachinid flies (family Tachinidae) are by far the largest and most important group of insect parasitic flies, with over 1300 species in North America. It is a diverse group with some resembling drab houseflies and others brilliantly colored. All species are parasitic in the larval stage, and many are important natural enemies of major pests. Many species of tachinids have been introduced into North America from...
Yellowjackets are typically black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula (though some can be black-and-white, the most notable of these being the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata). They are characterized mostly by their distinctive combination of black-and-yellow color, small size (slightly larger than a bee), and entirely black antennae. They live in colonies and build globular paper nests. Workers are around 12-20 mm in length, depending on species, and feed on...
