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Only cellulose is more abundant than chitin, which makes this compound a highly important renewable resource that can easily be found in arthropods, insects, arachnids, molluscs, fungus and algae. The fishing industry in Cuba generates great amounts of lobster waste, a pollutant rich in proteins and chitin , states Professor Carlos Andr;s Peniche Covas, head of the Biopolymers Research Group, from the Biomaterials Centre of the University of Havana. (Science Daily)
Natural Selection At Work In Dramatic Comeback Of Male Butterflies Jul 15, 2007
The researchers noted that bacteria that selectively kill male offspring are found among a range of arthropods, so what was seen in this study may not be unusual, despite the fact that it has never before been described in the scientific literature. Previous research has revealed some of the extraordinary ways in which insects adapt to the pressures inherent when nearly all its members are of one gender. (Science Daily)
It's a bot's life Jul 13, 2007
RHex and RiSE are small, six-legged robots inspired by cockroaches and other arthropods. They are capable of running, leaping over obstacles, climbing stairs and, with modifications, walking up walls and trees. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Sampling Daphnia's expressed genes: preservation, expansion and invention of crustacean genes with reference to insect genomes Jul 6, 2007
Finally, a substantial fraction of the sampled gene transcripts shares no sequence similarity with those from other arthropods. Genes functioning during development and reproduction are comparatively well conserved between crustaceans and insects. (BioMed Central)
Toad’s call can cause long nights Jul 5, 2007
Rather, during periods of humid weather following a rain, they will emerge from their burrows at dusk and feed on beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, ants, spiders, moths, caterpillars and other small arthropods during the night. Occasionally, sticky matter secreted from their skin is seen at the entrance. (Helena Independent Record)
• Glad You Asked Jun 28, 2007
Research has shown that more than 80 percent of suspected "spider bites" are caused by other arthropods, such as insects and ticks. Spiders are usually very timid and will only bite in self-defense if mishandled, cornered or injured. (Racine Journal Times, WI)
CR1 clade of non-LTR retrotransposons from Maculinea butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): evidence for recent horizontal transmission Jun 25, 2007
However, diversity of non-LTR retroelements in arthropods seems to be much richer. The present study extends the analysis of non-LTR retroelements to CR1 clade from four butterfly species of genus Maculinea (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). (BioMed Central)
Times are a-changing in the Arctic Jun 20, 2007
Dr Hoye said the movements in the season of six species of plants, 12 species of arthropods and three bird species must be tied to the earlier times of the year when the snow melts in the Zackenberg region of Northeast Greenland, where the study was carried out. "It's an indication that for the plants, arthropods and birds there's a change in their shared physical environment that results in a change in their behaviour. That must be when the snow melts," he said. (New Zealand Herald)
Blooms and buzz of spring are weeks early in the Arctic Jun 19, 2007
Spring is arriving in the Arctic more than two weeks earlier than it did just a decade ago, according to sightings of birds, insects and plants. Flowering, egg laying and the emergence of insects are taking place 14; days earlier in the year on average than they did a decade ago. (Times Online)
Flipping over horseshoe crabs: Volunteers join the count Jun 16, 2007
Gathering at Calf Pasture Beach near the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 72 station, they walked at dawn's low tide through eel grass and along a sand spit searching for the seafaring arthropods that had come to nest. Once Schnierlein and his team found the horseshoe crabs, they tagged and recorded each one, 64 in all, before returning them to the sand. (Stamford Advocate)
When Lava Flows And Glaciers Recede, Predicting How Species Take Over May 25, 2007
Whenever an event such as a fire, clear cut, or lava flow creates an empty habitat, species arrive, interact, and assemble to form a new ecological community--a process known as "succession." How quickly does succession proceed" Most ecologists might expect change to be rapid at first and then decline as the community ages, but there was no systematic analysis of this idea until recently. In a study published in the June issue of the American Naturalist, ecologist Kristina Anderson of the... (Science Daily)
Cicadas as Food: Summer's Low-Fat Snack? May 23, 2007
Crayfish, lobsters, crabs, and shrimp are part of the same biological phylum arthropods as insects, Jadin notes in the brochure. "So popping a big juicy beetle, cricket, or cicada into your mouth is only a step away," Jadin writes. (National Geographic)
UCR to Fete Renowned Entomologist's 50 Years of Service UCR, May. 18 May 19, 2007
During his 50-year affiliation with the Department of Entomology, Mulla used his expertise and knowledge of insects and related arthropods to find solutions for vector-associated problems in California, in the United States, and around the world ... The center's researchers collaborate across disciplines to find new approaches to control the spread of plant and animal diseases vectored by arthropods. (University of California Newswire, CA)
Pests in a Desert Vegetable Garden May 6, 2007
Beneficial arthropods. Lady beetles (lady bugs, lady birds) consume great numbers of aphids. (Suite101.com)
Bugged by your closet? Well, check this May 1, 2007
The UCF Collection of Arthropods is one of the school's most curious assets, respected by scientists and researchers worldwide but little-known on campus. Ask a UCF student what the Bug Closet is and you'll likely get a blank stare or a shrug. (Orlando Sentinel)
Giant moss that towered above the trees Apr 24, 2007
Huge mosses soaring more than 130ft into the air dwarfed everything else in a rainforest that was swallowed by the sea 300 million years ago. Palaeontologists have found the fossilised remains of gigantic club mosses alongside thousands of other plants in an extraordinary frozen forest. (Times Online)
Mammoth skeleton sold at auction Apr 17, 2007
Christie's auctioned 87 rare objects, including the three skeletons - the third that of a cave bear - owned by a private collector, as well as a collection of trilobites, or fossils of arthropods, dating from 400 million years ago. Among them was the fossil of an angel fish dating back 50 million years, one of only five known examples of the species in the world. (Aljazeera.Net)
* Skeletons and more to go under the hammer jej Apr 8, 2007
Also from Russia at the Christie's auction will be a private collection of trilobites, or fossils of arthropods, dating from 400 million years ago ... arthropod n. ` (jie2 zhi1 dong4 wu4) : Arthropods are invertebrates which have a segmented body and jointed legs. (Taipei Times, Taiwan -- World)
More of this story Apr 7, 2007
When crops are not available, the insects feed on broadleaf plants known as forbs, grasses, seeds, fungi or arthropods, especially relishing the succulent seed pods of grasses or forbs. While not actually crickets, the wingless katydids are incapable of flying. (Burley South Idaho Press, ID)
Natural Anti-freeze: How Arthropods Survive The Cold Apr 4, 2007 Bicknells Thrush Mar 28, 2007 New Study Rewrites Evolutionary History Of Vespid Wasps Mar 9, 2007 Discovery Of New Cave Millipedes Casts Light On Arizona Cave Ecology Mar 5, 2007 SV gardening conference draws visitors from afar Feb 16, 2007 Prepare to pay $100 for a plate of prawns Feb 15, 2007 The Desert Is Dying Feb 15, 2007 Bats might eat birds, study finds Feb 15, 2007 How does one sex grow larger than the other? Jan 30, 2007 Alpine Bird Numbers On The Slide Due To High-altitude Ski Runs Jan 18, 2007 Bee winner spellbound Jan 16, 2007 The hole truth Jan 12, 2007 What Crawls Beneath: Ground Spider Diversity Linked To Healthy Habitats Jan 1, 2007
Arthropods face much the same dilemma, as they cannot migrate long distances to avoid low winter temperatures -- so why are they not killed off by the cold ... However, by looking for differences in gene expression levels between the two populations, scientists think that there could be a link to moulting (this is the process by which arthropods shed their exoskelton). (Science Daily)
Malaria Resistant Mosquitoes Mar 29, 2007
Mosquitoes are the most important insect vectors of human disease and the most common bloodsucking arthropods (Schmidt and Roberts, 2000, p. 572). No wonder scientists are busily trying to develop malaria resistant mosquitoes, dengue resistant mosquitoes, mosquitoes with shorter life spans, and mosquito eradication schemes. (Suite101.com)
During the breeding season, Bicknell s Thrush eats primarily insects and other arthropods; fruit is added to the diet in the winter months. Threats to Bicknell s Thrush. (Suite101.com)
Eusociality occurs in only a few species of insects, rodents, crustaceans and other arthropods. The evolution of eusociality in wasps has long been a source of debate, said U. of I. entomology graduate student Heather Hines and entomology professor Sydney Cameron, who is the principal investigator of the study. (Science Daily)
Neil Cobb, curator of the Colorado Plateau Museum of Arthropod Biodiversity in the Department of Biological Sciences at NAU, said, "Caves are extreme habitats that have received far too little attention. The arthropods that can survive these dark and resource-poor environments can tell us a lot about what makes them so successful as a group.". While conducting ecological inventories of 30 caves on the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona, research by Wynne and Voyles has resulted in the... (Science Daily)
The conference, designed to showcase the enormous potential that can be achieved through high desert landscapes, features a wide range of topics, with sessions that focus on food production, landscaping with native plants, composting, the importance of arthropods and insects in desert ecosystems, and water harvesting, to name a few. Dave Barry, president of Arizona Cochise County Master Gardeners Association, said this year s event is the best attended yet, with nothing but positive comments... (Sierra Vista Herald, AZ)
At the fish market they are tipping price rises for these ambrosial arthropods from around $30 to $35 a kilo to at least $70, and possibly more than $100, when the added supply constraint of the import ban takes effect. Prawn fishers and local aquaculturists, who will benefit from the tougher import rules and higher prices, dispute the more extreme predictions. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
-- Centipedes (Class Chilopoda) are fast-moving venomous, predatory, terrestrial arthropods that have long bodies and many jointed legs. Chiefly nocturnal, centipedes are found primarily in tropical. (Science Daily)
In the course of a few million years, bats colonized most ecological niches and learnt to exploit a wide array of food sources including arthropods, pollen, fruit, small terrestrial vertebrates and even blood, Ana Popa-Lisseanu and Carlos Ibanez of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in Seville, Spain, and colleagues wrote. Researchers on the team had earlier reported finding bird feathers in the feces of the bats, creating a storm of controversy, with some biologists saying... (MSNBC -- Technology)
A group of 13 researchers from 10 countries investigated the latter questions using comparative data on 155 species of insects and spiders (arthropods) from 7 major groups. The results, published in the February issue of The American Naturalist, suggest that, generally, growth rate differences between the sexes are more important than growth period differences in mediating size dimorphism in arthropods ... Three potential explanations for why female arthropods can grow faster than males are... (EurekAlert!)
They found fewer arthropods on the ski pistes, suggesting that a shortage of food may be responsible for so few birds occurring on these sites. "More than one-quarter of the 26 bird species in this study - including the rock partridge, the red-billed chough and the wheatear - are classified as species of European conservation concern," Professor Rolando says. (Science Daily)
Tardigrade: Any of a phylum (Tardigradia) of tiny water animals with segmented bodies and four pairs of unsegmented legs, often regarded as primitive arthropods. Tincture: A dye; a light color, tint, tinge; a slight admixture or infusion of some substance or quality, trace, smattering. (Pensacola News Journal)
Small holes in bark or in the ground may be home to many small animals, such as insects and other arthropods. When you see birds poking about in these places they are looking for insects, spiders and larvae of all sorts. (Cape Cod Times, MA)
Spiders "help maintain the balance of nature," said Dr. John Jackman, Texas Cooperative Extension entomologist in College Station, "They help keep a lid on the population of arthropods. They keep us from being covered up with everything else.". The spider inventory at Lick Creek will give researchers a baseline for further studies on biodiversity and the impact of humans on the environment, Henderson said. (Science Daily)
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