The very venomous caterpillar
The venom of a caterpillar, native to South East Queensland, shows promise for use in medicines and pest control, Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers say.
The venom of a caterpillar, native to South East Queensland, shows promise for use in medicines and pest control, Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers say.
Plants & Animals
Jun 22, 2021
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While there's a famous horror-movie spoof about killer tomatoes, no one seems to have made one about caterpillars—the insect pests that eat the juicy red fruits of summer.
Plants & Animals
Feb 25, 2021
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Although amber looks like a somewhat unusual inorganic mineral, it is actually derived from an organic source—tree resins. Millions of years ago, when this aromatic and sticky substance was slowly oozing from coniferous ...
Evolution
Feb 19, 2021
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For a caterpillar that lives surrounded by ants, there are two ways of avoiding attack: going unnoticed or offering the ants a sugary treat in exchange for protection. This is the main conclusion of a study funded by FAPESP ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 9, 2020
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Inspired by his own butterfly garden at home, a Florida Atlantic University neuroscientist got a unique look at how monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) caterpillars behave when food is scarce. The results look something ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 19, 2020
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103
The spectacular leaps of gazelles, group living in deer and monkeys, and fast flight in many insects are all linked by a common phenomenon—predation. In its various forms, predation has driven the evolution of a plethora ...
Evolution
Jul 7, 2020
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What if I told you that right in your backyard there lives a creature that eats five times its weight every day and grows a thousandfold in weeks. Instinctively, you'd probably want to stay away from the gluttonous beast! ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 9, 2020
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Black poplar leaves infected by fungi are especially susceptible to attack by gypsy moth caterpillars. A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, has now further investigated this observation. ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 20, 2020
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The yearly count of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico, released today, shows a decrease of 53% from last year's count and is well below the threshold at which government scientists predict the migration could collapse.
Plants & Animals
Mar 20, 2020
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86
A team of researchers at Brandon University has found that greater wax moth caterpillar larvae are "plastivores" that are able to consume and metabolize polyethylene. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society ...