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Turns out ecologists and entomologists around the world have been warning about declining insect numbers for years. The culprits are climate change, habitat loss, light pollution, intensive farming, pesticide and fertiliser use. But it’s a struggle to get people to act.
It’s not just about bees and butterflies, the poster children of the pollinator world. Other, less photogenic pollinators such as hoverflies, moths, wasps, soldier beetles and earwigs are also showing declines. Several of these species don’t just pollinate. They also eat the pest insects that ruin crops.
Already, in the apple and pear orchards of south-west China, depleted populations of pollinators have forced farmers to hand-pollinate their trees, carrying pots of pollen and paintbrushes with which to individually pollinate every flower. If it sounds labour-intensive and time-consuming, that’s because it is.
#green #ukpolitics #uspol #ukpol #climate #environment #insects #agriculture #farming
https://archive.ph/tvnld#selection-1659.0-1668.2
The amazing value of the eLife Assessment, demonstrated:
"The fascinating role of neuropeptide Bursicon and its receptor in shaping insect seasonal polyphenism", by Zhang et al. 2024
https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/97298
"This *important* study shows that low temperature activates the bursicon signaling pathway during the transition from the summer to the winter form and that it affects cuticle pigment and chitin content, and cuticle thickness."
"The study's *solid* set of experiments and results reveal a role of bursicon signaling in regulating features of polyphenism related to the exoskeleton. Nevertheless, they only *incompletely* substantiate the authors' claims about the regulation of polyphenism itself."
In which other journal would a reader get such a valuable reviewer comment like this, right away? Only at @eLife ! ELife's Assessment for the win.
I'm back from a week along Colombia's Caribbean coast! It wasn't a photography trip per se but I did manage a few sessions, and I'll be posting buggy highlights over the next weeks.
Here's a teaser, a little stingless bee pollinating Mexican sunflower:
#NativeBees #Bees #Insects #Color
Surprise observation this afternoon: Homotropus sp. An ichneumonid wasp, about 5-6 mm long.
There are only 8 observations world wide.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/216551306
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #entomology #insects #wasplove
Genus Homotropus observed by Albert Cardona
Homotropus in May 2024 by Albert Cardona. Sitting on top of an aphid.iNaturalist
Ant biologists thought the small, strangely-shaped Manica parasitica from the Sierra Nevada was a social parasite of another ant species, but the truth is even stranger.
#Ants #Insects #Manica #Parasites
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0399
hey you! Leave me alone!
Ladybug on a rosemary leaf.
Edited with #darktable
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
#photography #naturephotography #macrophotography
#insects
#ladybug
#rosemary
An Acromyrmex octospinosus leafcutter ant, photographed at the famous La Selva biological station in the lowland rainforests of Costa Rica.
#Ants #Acromyrmex #Insects #Spines
The Venezuelan poodle moth is a beautiful animal. There was an article back in 2012 in #TheAtlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2012/08/venezuelan-poodle-moth-internets-favorite-real-life-pokemon-tk/324111/ that traced the story and found out that it was real and not an internet fake.
The source of the photo for the Venezuelan poodle moth: https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/4207478815/in/album-72157603542118616/
That album by Arthur Anker contains many more photos of extraordinary neotropical moths https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/albums/72157603542118616/with/3947813697/ plus a few other insects.
The photos are simply out of this world. Here are a couple of my favourites:
Amastus epicostosia - aposematic tiger moth https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/257883479/in/album-72157603542118616/
"Bolognese caterpillar" of a moth (Megalopyge sp.) from Ecuador https://www.flickr.com/photos/artour_a/504052852/in/album-72157603542118616/
Photos by Arthur Anker.
#moths #Lepidoptera #insects #entomology #PoodleMoth #ArthurAnker #caterpillar
"Bolognese caterpillar" of a moth (Megalopyge sp) from Ecuador
a caterpillar of a megalopygid moth, Megalopyge spFlickr
The enigmatic Acanthoponera minor, an ant that is occasionally seen patrolling the low vegatation of wet neotropical forests, about which little is known. I photographed this one in Ecuador.
The life cycle of an ant (Camponotus festinatus) laid out in a single photograph: eggs, larvae of various ages, a silk-covered pupa, and an adult worker. At #UTAustin's Brackenridge Field Laboratory, in Texas.
#Ants #Metamorphosis #Insects #Camponotus #LifeCycles
Entomology never fails to surprise. We found this metallic Phanolinus rove beetle in an Ecuadorian cloud forest.
#Beetles #Insects #Staphylinidae
An Anoplius blue/black spider wasp carries away a spider she has paralyzed. Tennessee.
New study in Ecology Letters shows how moths are crucial yet underappreciated nocturnal pollinators; check out short summary at popsci.com:
https://www.popsci.com/environment/moth-pollination-resilience/
Moths need protections too, just like bees | Popular Science
Better understanding how crucial moths are to pollinating plants has implications for urban planning, policy, and wildlife.Laura Baisas (Popular Science)
Incoming!
A male beautiful demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) landing on his perch.
#photography #photo #nature #naturephotography #mft #microfourthirds #darktable #macrophotography #macro #nature #naturephotography #animals #wildlife #insects #odonata #calopterygidae #calopteryx #calopteryxvirgo #libellen #blauflügelprachtlibelle
Quite specific, but a very interesting article about #ants and their early evolution. The authors propose a 3 step scenario based on fossils and their interpretation. Really fascinating !
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.20.480183v1
#insects #nature #ecology #fossil #paleontology #entomology
Evolution and systematics of the Aculeata and kin (Hymenoptera), with emphasis on the ants (Formicoidea: †@@@idae fam. nov., Formicidae)
Fossils provide unique opportunity to understand the tempo and mode of evolution and are essential for modeling the history of lineage diversification.bioRxiv
I'm an ecologist based in Berlin and I currently work on #lightpollution & its effects on #insects. I have also worked on a range of other topics in #ecology like #foodwebs & #invasivespecies
I'm also an editorial board member at the journal Oikos & a working group speaker for science communication at the Leibniz Postdoc Network
Looking forward to expand my #Mastodon community in 2023
Title: The #circadian calling activity of a lebinthine cricket with high-frequency calls is unaffected by cicada choruses in the day
Link: https://peerj.com/articles/14641/
The circadian calling activity of a lebinthine cricket with high-frequency calls is unaffected by cicada choruses in the day
Background Many factors can influence circadian rhythms in animals. For acoustically communicating species, both abiotic cues (such as light and temperature) and biotic cues (such as the activity of other animals), can influence the timing of signall…PeerJ
@jobsecoevo #ScienceJobs #PostdocJob #EcoEvo #CellBiology #Genetics #Symbiosis #Bacteria #Insects #Wolbachia #Drosophila
Postdoctoral Scholar of Host-Microbe Interactions
The Shropshire Lab (Lehigh University, Pennsylvania) is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral researcher to study host-microbe interactions.https://shropshirelab.com/author/j-dylan-shropshireprotonmail-com/#author (My WordPress)
