Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of HC Singla Vs State of Punjab dated 31/10/2022. The matter is related to biological pollution by the Susri insect. This pollution is being caused due to decaying grains, due to negligence in storage arrangements of grains by Food Corporation of …
smog is not only suffocating human beings, but is also choking plants. Air pollution is indirectly responsible for the destruction of trees and, for the first time, researchers of Finland have found evidence supporting their argument. According to them, due to air pollution there has been a decline in the …
global warming has resulted in an early arrival of butterflies in Britain. Scientists say that butterflies can now be spotted much earlier than it used to be over two decades ago. Thirty five of the estimated 60 species of British butterflies have been kept under observation. Some, like the red …
THE EARTH DWELLERS - ADVENTURES IN THE LAND OF ANTS Author: Eric Hoyt A Touchstone Book Published by Simon and Schuster, 1996 Page: 319pp Price: US $13 this book has two kinds of heroes ants and ant watchers. It is a book about the fascinating lives of ants and about …
poplars in India, particularly exotic species, are highly susceptible to pest attacks, both in nurseries and plantations. A number of indigenous species, too, are soft targets to insect attacks. This has often led to serious economic losses, especially when more than half of the foliage is lost. So far, about …
Termites under attack from fungi send out an alarm signal warning the rest of the colony, says James Traniello, who studied the termites along with his colleagues at Boston University, USA. Traniello's team created an artificial nest with the central gallery divided by a wire mesh. The termites could escape …
An unknown tick species may be responsible for a variant of Lyme disease that has not been detected by standard tests so far. Michael Felz and his colleagues at the Medical College in Georgia in Augusta, USA, examined 23 patients suffering from eye rash that is characteristic of the disease. …
australia's Christmas Island is witness to a spectacular event every year. Millions of red crabs from this 134-sq km island's rainforest migrate to the sea to spawn, and then crawl back into their burrows. But now these crabs are being attacked by alien invaders. The threat is from supercolonies of …
a tree-dwelling African ant prunes branches of host trees to prevent stronger neighbours from invading their tree and ousting them. Crematogaster nigriceps is one of the four ant species that dwell in the Whistling Thorn Tree ( Acacia drepanolobium) in East Africa. However, competition for trees is fierce and Crematogaster …
Spiders probably use polarised light as a compass when they return home after foraging. Marie Dacke of the University of Lund in Sweden studied the spider Drassodes cupreus and found that two of its eight eyes have built-in filters that allow them to detect the polarisation of light. The animals …
A beetle can lift more than 900 times its weight. And you thought you were strong? Will genetically-modified beetles one day build skyscrapers for humans? Will breakfast cereal be made out of insect protein and lunch comprise synthetic beef or meat pie made out of grasshopper tissue? We are now …
this is the belief of Georges Brossard who is on a mission to make insects an integral part of our lives. In future, the human race will have to look for alternative sources of food, like insects, to sustain itself, he says. Brossard, who is the founder-director of Insectarium de …
Biologists in Germany have found that bumblebees repel creatures invading their nests with an ultrasonic hiss. Wolfgang Kirchner of the University of Konstanz and Jacqueline Roschard of the University of Wurzburg showed that the insects produce a conspicuous hissing sound when disturbed, with harmonics of up to 60 kilohertz. The …
H e came to town to talk about the bees and ants. In the process, he conquered the hearts of the children. Adults, however, were a little sceptical. Georges Brossard, a Canadian national of French origin, is a man on a mission. His message is simple: think small, and see …
"Among terrestrial ecosystems the most diverse are tropical rainforests and this is attributed to the abundance of insect species. But many consider coral reefs to be more diverse than rainforests as the diversity of coral reefs comprises organisms of almost all phyla,' says Rodrigues. One estimate suggests that coral reefs …
Those pesky flies that park themselves on food and cause diarrhoea have been blamed for causing blindness. A new study in Africa suggests that flies may be responsible for spreading trachoma, the leading cause of blindness in developing countries like India. Trachoma is a painful type of highly contagious conjunctivitis …
it takes anywhere from one-thirtieth to one-tenth of a second for a visual stimulus falling on the retina of the eye to evoke neural activity in the brain. This time is long enough for a rapidly moving object to cover a fair distance, implying that when we see such an …
it has long been assumed that while searching for nectar, the cabbage butterfly lights on random flowers. However, the butterfly is more selective than it would appear. It can remember the colour and shape of flowers that have provided an abundance of sweet liquid on previous landings, according to the …
