Since the break-up of Gondwana, Australia's biodiversity has evolved mostly in isolation from the rest of the world. Many of our species are unique to Australia.
Ecology
Aug 11, 2023
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77
It has long been suspected that spiders are one of the most important groups of predators of insects. Zoologists at the University of Basel and Lund University in Sweden have now shown just how true this is - spiders kill ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 14, 2017
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3873
For the first time, researchers in Australia have documented insecticide resistance in field-collected populations of bluegreen aphids, Acyrthosiphon kondoi—a worldwide pest of pulses and other legume crops.
Evolution
Jan 17, 2024
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103
Insectivorous birds, represented by more than 6,000 species, are found across the world in all major land ecosystems. The fact that they are extremely useful as natural enemies of herbivorous insects had been known for some ...
Ecology
Jul 9, 2018
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9
A study reported in the journal acta ethologica has recorded the use of ultrasound by amphibians for the first time in South America. It also describes the first documented case of the use of ultrasound for defense against ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 4, 2024
1
391
Mercenary soldiers are notoriously unreliable because their loyalty is as thin as the banknotes they get paid, and they may turn against their employers before moving on to the next dirty job. Not so in fungus-farming ants, ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 9, 2013
1
0
Scientists have long struggled to explain how tropical forests can maintain their staggering diversity of trees without having a handful of species take over—or having many other species die out.
Environment
Dec 24, 2018
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297
When herbivores such as caterpillars feed, plants may "call for help" by emitting volatiles, which can indirectly help defend the plants. The volatiles recruit parasitoids that infect, consume and kill the herbivores, to ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 27, 2012
3
72
Over the past 20 years a steady trickle of scientific papers has reported that there are fewer insects than there used to be. Both the combined weight (what scientists call biomass) and diversity of insect species have declined. ...
Ecology
Feb 15, 2023
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59
Their home ranges lie on opposite ends of the world, yet they share a common trait: The North American raccoon (Procyon lotor) and the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), originally a native of Asia, were both brought ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 15, 2021
1
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