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"Insect behavior"
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How do insects work together?
\"Many insects work together to survive. Engaging text and exciting images help give readers a close-up look at bees, wasps, termites, and ants. They will discover how these insects organize their groups into a social order. Each insect plays a particular role within their group and cooperates in order to complete daily tasks and increase the group's chances of survival.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Inoculation of Tomato With Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria Affects the Tomato—Potato Psyllid—Candidatus Liberibacter Solanacearum Interactions
The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in southern Texas is well-suited for vegetable production due to its relatively mild/warm weather conditions in the fall and winter. Consequently, insects inflict year-round, persistent damage to crops in the RGV and regions with similar climate. Bactericera cockerelli (Šulc) (Hemiptera: Triozidae), commonly known as the potato psyllid, is a known vector of Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (CLso) (Hyphomicrobiales: Rhizobiaceae), a fastidious phloem-limited bacterium associated to vein-greening in tomatoes and Zebra Chip in potatoes. Vector control is the primary approach of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies that aim to prevent plant diseases in commercial agricultural systems. However, resistance-selective pressures that decrease the effectiveness of chemical control (insecticide) applications over time are of increasing concern. Therefore, we explore an ecological approach to devising alternative IPM methodologies to manage the psyllid-transmitted CLso pathogen to supplement existing chemical products and application schedules without increasing resistance. In this study, our objective was to examine the effects of plant-growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on host-vector-pathogen interactions. Soil-drench applications of PGPRs to Solanum lycopersicum (Solanales: Solanaceae) seedlings revealed structural and possible physiological changes to the plant host and indirect changes on psyllid behavior: host plants had increased length and biomass of roots and exhibited delayed colonization by CLso, while psyllids displayed changes in parental (F0) psyllid behavior (orientation and oviposition) in response to treated hosts and in the sex ratio of their progeny (F1). Based on our results, we suggest that PGPR may have practical use in commercial tomato production.
Journal Article
A look into the invisible: ultraviolet-B sensitivity in an insect (Caliothrips phaseoli) revealed through a behavioural action spectrum
Caliothrips phaseoli, a phytophagous insect, detects and responds to solar ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B; λ ≤ 315 nm) under field conditions. A highly specific mechanism must be present in the thrips visual system in order to detect this narrow band of solar radiation, which is at least 30 times less abundant than the UV-A (315-400 nm), to which many insects are sensitive. We constructed an action spectrum of thrips responses to light by studying their behavioural reactions to monochromatic irradiation under confinement conditions. Thrips were maximally sensitive to wavelengths between 290 and 330 nm; human-visible wavelengths (λ ≥ 400 nm) failed to elicit any response. All but six ommatidia of the thrips compound eye were highly fluorescent when exposed to UV-A of wavelengths longer than 330 nm. We hypothesized that the fluorescent compound acts as an internal filter, preventing radiation with λ > 330 nm from reaching the photoreceptor cells. Calculations based on the putative filter transmittance and a visual pigment template of λmax = 360 nm produced a sensitivity spectrum that was strikingly similar to the action spectrum of UV-induced behavioural response. These results suggest that specific UV-B vision in thrips is achieved by a standard UV-A photoreceptor and a sharp cut-off internal filter that blocks longer UV wavelengths in the majority of the ommatidia.
Journal Article
A matter of taste: the adverse effect of pollen compounds on the pre-ingestive gustatory experience of sugar solutions for honeybees
In addition to sugars, nectar contains multiple nutrient compounds in varying concentrations, yet little is known of their effect on the reward properties of nectar and the resulting implications for insect behaviour. We examined the pre-ingestive responses of honeybees to sucrose solutions containing a mix of pollen compounds, the amino acids proline or phenylalanine, or known distasteful substances, quinine and salt. We predicted that in taste and learning assays, bees would respond positively to the presence of nutrient compounds in a sucrose solution. However, bees’ proboscis extension responses decreased when their antennae were stimulated with pollen- or amino acid-supplemented sucrose solutions. Compared to pure sucrose, bees exhibited worse acquisition when conditioned to an odour with pollen-supplemented sucrose as the unconditioned stimulus. Such learning impairment was also observed with quinine-containing sucrose solutions. Our results suggest that bees can use their antennae to detect pollen compounds in floral nectars. Depending on the type and concentrations of compounds present, this may result in nectar being perceived as distasteful by bees, making it less effective in reinforcing the learning of floral cues. Such reward devaluation might be adaptive in cases where plants benefit from regulating the frequency of bee visitation.
Journal Article
Specialization, speciation, and radiation
The intimate associations between plants and the insects that eat them have helped define and shape both groups for millions of years. This pioneering volume is a comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of the evolutionary biology of herbivorous insects, including their relationships with host plants and natural enemies. Chapters focus on the dynamic relationships between insects and plants from the standpoint of evolutionary change at different levels of biological organization—individuals, populations, species, and clades. Written by prominent evolutionary biologists, entomologists, and ecologists, the chapters are organized into three sections: Evolution of Populations and Species; Co- and Macroevolutionary Radiation; and Evolutionary Aspects of Pests, Invasive Species, and the Environment. The volume is unified by the idea that understanding the ecological framework of the interactions between herbivorous insects and their host plants is fundamental to understanding their evolution.
eBook
Genomic Comparison of the Ants Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator
The organized societies of ants include short-lived worker castes displaying specialized behavior and morphology and long-lived queens dedicated to reproduction. We sequenced and compared the genomes of two socially divergent ant species: Camponotus floridanus and Harpegnathos saltator. Both genomes contained high amounts of CpG, despite the presence of DNA methylation, which in non-Hymenoptera correlates with CpG depletion. Comparison of gene expression in different castes identified up-regulation of telomerase and sirtuin deacetylases in longer-lived H. saltator reproductives, caste-specific expression of microRNAs and SMYD histone methyltransferases, and differential regulation of genes implicated in neuronal function and chemical communication. Our findings provide clues on the molecular differences between castes in these two ants and establish a new experimental model to study epigenetics in aging and behavior.
Journal Article
From division of labor to the collective behavior of social insects
âDivision of laborâ is a misleading way to describe the organization of tasks in social insect colonies, because there is little evidence for persistent individual specialization in task. Instead, task allocation in social insects occurs through distributed processes whose advantages, such as resilience, differ from those of division of labor, which are mostly based on learning. The use of the phrase âdivision of laborâ persists for historical reasons, and tends to focus attention on differences among individuals in internal attributes. This focus distracts from the main questions of interest in current research, which require an understanding of how individuals interact with each other and their environments. These questions include how colony behavior is regulated, how the regulation of colony behavior develops over the lifetime of a colony, what are the sources of variation among colonies in the regulation of behavior, and how the collective regulation of colony behavior evolves.
Journal Article
Mortality of bats at wind turbines links to nocturnal insect migration
This note is based on a literature search and a recent review of bat mortality data from wind farms in Europe (published elsewhere). We suggest that mortality of bats at wind turbines may be linked to high-altitude feeding on migrating insects that accumulate at the turbine towers. Modern wind turbines seem to reach high enough into the airspace to interfere with the migratory movements of insects. The hypothesis is consistent with recent observations of bats at wind turbines. It is supported by the observation that mortality of bats at wind turbines is highly seasonal (August-September) and typically peaks during nights with weather conditions known to trigger large-scale migratory movements of insects (and songbirds). We also discuss other current hypotheses concerning the mortality of bats at wind turbines.
Journal Article
Active phloem sap collection by Trigona spinipes (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in Artemisia annua Linn (Asteraceae)
Trigona spinipes Fabricius (Apidae: Meliponini), is a common stingless bee widely seen in urban and rural areas in Brazil, popularly known as irapuá, arapuá or bee-dog. Although these bees are considered pollinators of some cultivated plants, they are better known for the damage they cause in different crops. During experimental agroecological cultivation of Artemisia (Artemisia annua Linn, Asteraceae), in Jaguariúna (SP, Brazil), stingless bees Trigona spinipes (Fabricius) were observed sucking phloem sap directly from the plant, a phenomenon not yet described in scientific literature. This study aimed to register and describe the phloem sap-sucking behavior performed by T. spinipes for the first time, as well as to assess the potential impact of this behavior on A. annua cultivation. The behavior and the material collected by bees and the severity of attack were also analyzed. The aging and premature death of observed A. annua specimens occurred because of extensive lesions caused by T. spinipes, confirming the negative consequence of sap-sucking attacks of T. spinipes bees on the plants. Factors that could induce this unusual behavior were presented, pointing out the need for future studies on the development of strategies to protect plants, without causing damage to the T. spinipes bee populations, which are elements of Brazilian bee fauna and, therefore, protected by law
Journal Article