Eight New Whip Spider Species Found in Brazil
Eight new whip spider species have been found in the Brazilian Amazon, almost doubling the number of known charinid whip spider species in Brazil, according to a study published in the journal PLOS ONE. Scientists have thought the Amazon may be home to diverse whip spider species, but few have been described. The authors of […]
Free Resources on Aedes aegypti and Zika Virus Research
In response to the recent outbreak of the Zika virus in the Americas, Oxford University Press has curated a collection of free articles on the virus and its carrier, the yellowfever mosquito (Aedes aegypti), which is also the primary vector of yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya. These articles are freely available to assist researchers, medical […]
Citrus Growers and Plant Breeders Should Pay Attention to Citrus Flush to Fight Citrus Greening Disease
By Ed Ricciuti Scientists have found a more efficient way to infect experimental trees with citrus greening disease, boosting efforts to find citrus varieties that are able to resist the bacterium which causes the disease. At the same time, their research has produced an unexpected bonus: a new strategy that growers can use to protect […]
An Opportunity to Study Bees and Pollination in Costa Rica
By Gerrit van de Klashorst The importance of bees and other pollinators for natural and agricultural ecosystems has been well documented. But during the past decades, pollinators have been in decline in North America and Europe. This decline is attributed to a number of factors, including pesticides, habitat loss caused by changing land use, and […]
Ant and Termite Fossils Indicate Advanced Sociality 100 Million Years Ago
Insects that are “eusocial” live in colonies with closely related nestmates and display social behavior, including a division of labor. The best-known examples are honey bees, termites, and ants. All eusocial insects display the following three traits: 1) They cooperate while caring for their young, 2) there is a division of labor among different castes […]
Extreme Temperatures During Shipping Can Affect Honey Bee Queens’ Reproductive Abilities
Many beekeepers order honey bee queens from breeders, who ship them to the beekeepers by mail. According to an article in the journal PLOS One, high temperatures during shipping and elevated pathogen levels may be contributing to honey bee queens failing faster today than they did in the past. “Either stress individually or in combination […]
JIPM Article on Masked Chafer Grubs in Turfgrass Explains Management Techniques
By Leslie Mertz Anyone who has tended a lawn is probably very familiar with white grubs. They are the fat, cream-colored, brown-headed larvae that can grow up to an inch long, and are usually discovered in the soil lying on their sides rather inertly and curled into a C-shape. Several species of scarab beetles have […]
Here’s How a Journal Article on Mosquito Repellents Went Viral
By Josh Lancette Stacy Rodriguez, a researcher in Dr. Immo Hansen’s lab at New Mexico State University, became somewhat famous in November 2015, at least for a few days. Stacy is the first author on a paper that was published in the Journal of Insect Science that tested the effectiveness of different mosquito repellents. The […]
Good News for the Western Bumble Bee, Bombus occidentalis
By Harvey Black Bombus occidentalis used to be the most common bumble bee species in the Pacific Northwest, but in the mid 1990s it became one of the rarest. The reason or reasons for the species decline remain unsolved, but one possibility points to a fungal pathogen known as Nosema bombi. Whatever the causes were […]
This Artificial Diet May Make Insect Rearing Easier
By Richard Levine If you want to do lab research on insects, you need to be able to keep them alive, sometimes for many generations. That means you need to know how and what to feed them, even if it means giving blood to bed bugs. Many moths in the family Noctuidae are subjects of […]