Parasitic Wasps Protect Offspring By Avoiding The Smelly Feet Of Ladybirds:
Scientists at Rothamsted Research have identified how aphid parasitic wasps prevent their offspring being eaten by ladybirds. The tiny wasps implant their offspring parasitically into aphid pests, but should the aphid get eaten by a ladybird, the growing wasp would be consumed as well. The researchers, supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), have found that to protect their offspring, adult wasps have evolved to avoid the smell of a short-lived blend of chemicals that ladybirds deposit with each footprint they make. The scientists have identified the particular cocktail of chemicals.
Mosquitoes' Sweet Tooth Could Be Answer To Eliminating Malaria:
Mosquitoes' thirst for sugar could prove to be the answer for eliminating malaria and other mosquito-transmitted diseases, says Hebrew University researcher Prof. Yosef Schlein in a study published in the American Science magazine and the International Journal for Parasitology.
Crickets On Hawaiian Island Develop Silent Wings In Response To Parasitic Attack:
In only a few generations, the male cricket on Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, underwent a mutation -- a sudden heritable change in its genetic material -- that rendered it incapable of using song, its sexual signal, to attract female crickets, according to a new study by UC Riverside evolutionary biologists.
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