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 …
it is an experience most of us would have had many times. How come mosquitoes and other winged creatures are partial in their biting habits? They seem to have distinct favourites, whose blood is selectively devoured. While scientists always suspected that it is something to do with one's skin or, …
Ants are known to relay information to one another through chemicals called pheromones which diffuse through air. But Robert Hickling of the University of Mississippi in US suggests that ant hotline for distress or danger may be acoustic and not chemical, as sound travels faster than air-borne pheromone molecules. When …
after the Jurassic park, it is now the turn of a Triassic insect park. Unlike the make-belief Jurassic park which re-created the age of the dinosaurs, the Triassic insect park is real and original in that it existed millions of years ago. What remains of the park now is an …
in the case of most ants, a single fertile queen monopolises reproduction while the workers build the nest, nurse the offspring and forage for food. In some cases the nests built are quite elaborate and offer good protection from various environmental factors such as heat and floods. Sometimes, the nest …
experiments conducted on the fruitfly 15 years ago have done much to advance our understanding of the development of an embryo into an adult. There were two main insights that followed these researches: firstly, that varying levels of protein molecules act as guideposts
farmers in the district of Salem, Tamil Nadu, have shown that it is possible to farm without using pesticides and have thus proven that eco-farming is a possibility even in water-starved regions like this district. Cotton is a lucrative cash crop for Salem farmers but it also attracts its fair …
Ants, who else! Fire ants were believed to communicate mainly through pheromones -chemical signalling messages. Researchers also knew that the insects made sounds, whose function they were unclear about, by moving the abdomen up and down. Robert Hickling and colleagues from the University of Mississippi, US, have now recorded the …
William Foster of the Universityof Cambridge in Massachusetts, US, Witnessed a duel between horned aphids (Astegopteryx minuta), which is the first case of a fight over territory to be observed among insects. The difficulry in finding good feeding sites led to the strife. Their weapons were their horns - protrusions …
A SMALL group of proteins, collectively known as heat shock proteins (HSP), have been the cause for considerable excitement lately. These proteins had initially attracted attention because they seemed to be generated in an extraordinarily large variety of organisms - ranging from bacteria to humans -in response to an increase …
SCIENTISTS are calling attention to a grave threat that faces plant breeding - the declining number of pollinators like insects, bees, moths, bats, flies and birds. These organisms do a world of good to most plants in land-based eco- systems, by helping ,them reproduce by means of pollination. And when …
A SEEMINGLY nonsensical trait displayed by the moth is that it spends a few hours of its short lifespan guzzling down enormous quantities of water from the one end and throwing it out of the other with great force. According to scientists, this activity - puddling - is a life-saving …
A team of British scientists claim to have found a solution to the locust menace- A solitary locust is inactive, while a gregarious one in the company of thousands of others can mean mass destruction. Stephen Simpson and his colleagues at Oxford University discovered that the foam on which locust …
A rare sudden spell of snow - nearly 12 inches - in central Mexico, has driven millions of Monarch butterflies, which have their winter sojourn in Mexico, to a cold death. The distinct orange and black insects fly every year from their summer haunts in Canada across the expanse of …
Butterfly and moth wings do seem to reflect the motto inspiring beauty pageants: 'beauty with a purpose'. The attractively coloured and designed wings make these cold blooded creatures not just beautiful but warm too. Chitin, the material constituting butterfly scales acts as a thermoregulatory mechanism. The air gaps present in …
On the state of natural and lepidopteran science in India: This is a crucial issue because there is a serious lack of interest in this field here. I feel Indian culture has never really been interested in nature. During the Vedic period, nature served only medicinal and ritualistic purposes and …
THE phenomenon of senescence or aging is one of those problems that - as Mark Twain said about the weather - everyone talks about but no one does anything to solve. A number of experiments carried out on animals suggest that we may age because we burn ourselves up. As …
Harish Gaonkar, a Danish International" Development Agency march scientist, has recently come up with unportant observations on P famall diversity of butterfly-ecol Vilm haillia. His research shows that ps, is mat a single butterfly 'host W Mw plant on which it feeds) a Is am used for medicinal pur w …
INSECTS, today make up the vast majority of living organisms. Although insects appeared almost 350 million years ago, they really began to diversify only after flowering plants came on the scene about 150 million years ago. The catalytic role played by flowering plants in the diversification of insects stems from …
In the animal kingdom, males ofte try to mate with more females an produce more offspring. In man insects, however, the testes weaken by the time the male reaches sexuamaturity resulting in a low sperm count. But, in ant species such a Cardiocondyla nuda, there are two kinds of males …
The Indian Gypsy Moth is slowly but surely munching its way through Bhutan's treasure of oaks. A study conducted by the Forestry Research Institute, based in Taba, reveals that the swarm has since April devoured the leaves of oak trees spread over 300 acres in the forests of Tashiyangtsi. Villagers …
