Latest Pollinators Stories
Most people are not aware of the fact that 84% of the European crops are partially or entirely dependent on insect pollination. While managed honeybees pollinate certain crops, wild bees, flies and wasps cover a very broad spectrum of plants, and thus are considered the most important pollinators in Europe. The serious decline in the number of managed honeybees and wild bees reported in Europe over the last few decades has the potential to cause yield decreases with threats to the...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Every fall, millions of Monarch butterflies make the 3,000-mile journey from Canada along the California coastline to central Mexico. Clouds of black, orange and white butterflies descend upon the oyamel fir trees in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The Reserve is 200 square miles in the state of Michoacan, Mexico. One of the biggest obstacles that has faced the butterflies who winter in Mexico was deforestation by illegal...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Exposure to radioactive material released into the environment has caused mutations in butterflies found in Japan, according to a new study out of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa. An increase in leg, antennae and wing shape mutations among butterflies collected following the 2011 Fukushima accident were found by the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports. Laboratory experiments exposed the link between these...
RESCUE! ® W•H•Y® Trap is the safe, effective and environmentally friendly solution to lure and trap wasps, hornets and yellowjackets Spokane, WA (PRWEB) August 07, 2012 The unusually hot and dry weather throughout the nation is creating a bumper crop of stinging wasps, hornets and yellowjackets. These aggressive insects are busy building colonies, searching for sugary sodas and bombarding backyard barbecues. Experts say now is the time to capture the workers before their...
[ Watch The Video ] Moths are iconic examples of camouflage. Their wing coloration and patterns are shaped by natural selection to match the patterns of natural substrates, such as a tree bark or leaves, on which the moths rest. But, according to recent findings, the match in the appearance was not all in their invisibility. Despite a long history of research on these iconic insects, whether moths behave in a way to increase their invisibility has not been determined. A research team...
Test of captive butterflies shows association between pigment level and flight distance For monarch butterflies, redder wings are correlated with better flight performance, according to research published July 25 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. Previous work has shown that monarch coloring is intended to warn their predators about their bitter taste and toxicity, and that migratory butterflies are darker colored than non-migratory ones, suggesting an association between darker...
Duncraft is always looking for exciting products for their customers and Pop’s Hummingbird Swing is definitely different. Hummingbirds readily use the swing and customers can place it anywhere they want to get the best view of these tiny birds. Concord, NH (PRWEB) July 24, 2012 Duncraft is always looking for exciting products for their customers and Pop’s Hummingbird Swing is definitely different. Hummingbirds readily use the swing and customers can place it anywhere they want to get...
[ Watch The Video ] redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online According to a study in the July 24th issue of Current Biology, bats eavesdrop on the sounds of fly sex to earn themselves a super-sized dinner deal: two flies for the price of one. For flies living with bats in a cowshed, sex really could be the death of you. The study is the first to show that increased conspicuousness to hungry predators is a huge downside of sex, the researchers say. "When mating,...
Scientists have discovered a way to make worker bees produce an enhanced version of royal jelly (RJ) – the super-nutritious substance that dictates whether larvae become workers or queens, and that is also renowned as a health supplement for people. Their study, which found that the super RJ that makes queen bee larvae grow 2-3 times larger than normal, appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Chia-Nan Chen and colleagues explain that royal jelly is a thick liquid made...
Derek Walter for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Climate change is causing flowers in high elevations to bloom nearly two weeks faster than they did decades ago, according to a recent study. Drummond’s rockcress and glacier lily are among a number of flowers that are blooming much earlier than they did in the past. According to the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London - Biological Series study, such changes are most likely to be the result of the Earth’s warmer...
Latest Pollinators Reference Libraries
Apiology is the scientific study of honey bees, a subdiscipline of melittology (the study of all bees), which is a subdiscipline of entomology. Melittology comprises of more than 17,000 species other than the honey bee. Apiology includes apicology, which is the study of honey bee ecology. Honey bees are often chosen as a study group to answer questions on the evolution of social systems. People who study honey bees are called apiologists. There have been a number of notable apiologists...
California Leaf-nosed Bat, Macrotus californicus The California leaf-nosed bat (Macrotus californicus) is common to the United States and Mexico. The range of this leafed nose bat includes New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and in the scrub habitats located in the Mohave and Sonoran deserts in California. They can also be found in western Mexico. The California leaf-nosed bat is brown in color. It can weigh up to .7 ounces and has a wing span of over eleven inches. The long ears can be up to...
The Mexican long-tongued bat can be found in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the United States. The range of this bat extends as far south as Venezuela and in the United States, they can be found in New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California. Baby Mexican long-tongued bats are born with dense fur to keep them warm in their natural habitats located in chilly mountain canyons. With a tongue that can extend up to a third of the entire body length, the long-tongued bat can easily...
Three species in the Acherontia genus make up the group commonly referred to as the Death's-head Hawkmoth. One species is native to Europe, while the other two are found in Asia. These moths are named for their unique skull shaped markings on their thorax and vividly colored abdomens. They are also capable to making loud noises if frightened. These moths will invade beehives for honey and will come and go unharmed because they imitated the scent of the bees. Females will lay green or...
The Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) is a species of hummingbird, and the smallest of all birds, being only 2 inches long and weighing 1.8 grams (0.06 oz). It is found in Cuba where it is called the Zunzuncito. It is also found on the Isle of Youth. The male has a fiery green throat, iridescent gorget with elongated lateral plumes, bluish upper-parts, and the rest of the underparts mostly grayish white. The female is green above, whitish below with white tips to the outer tail...
