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 …
Though captivating with their bright, vivid metallic bodies, cuckoo wasps are fairly difficult to classify due to similarities among species, and they are known for curious habits that are the basis for their bird-like name. However, using DNA evidence, researchers confirm the discovery of a new, individual northern species. Wild …
The government should launch a field trial of genetically modified insects, according to a House of Lords report. The Lords Science and Technology Committee says GM could make insects unable to transmit diseases such as dengue and malaria. It could also be used to control agricultural pests in the UK. …
Over the past decade, technological advances in experimental and animal tracking techniques have motivated a renewed theoretical interest in animal collective motion and, in particular, locust swarming. This review offers a comprehensive biological background followed by comparative analysis of recent models of locust collective motion, in particular locust marching, their …
Spatial synchrony, the tendency of distant populations to fluctuate similarly, is a major concern in ecology. Except in special circumstances, researchers historically had difficulty identifying drivers of synchrony in field systems. Perhaps for this reason, the possibility that changes in large-scale climatic drivers may modify synchrony, thereby impacting ecosystems and …
Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Impact of electromagnetic waves on insects and birds, 30/11/2015. The Ministry has issued an advisory on use of Mobile Towers to minimize their impact on wildlife including birds and bees vide Office Memorandum dated 9th August 2012. The contents of the advisory are given …
A tiny beetle could wipe out Britain’s ash trees much faster than the established ash dieback disease which is expected to eventually kill millions of the trees, according to the government’s leading authority on pests and pathogens threatening UK forests. “The emerald ash borer is moving uncontrolled through Russia. It …
At a time when whitefly attack has sparked farmer suicides in Punjab and Haryana, nearly 250 farmers of Jind district expect bumper cotton crop and that, too, without using pesticides. Like previous years, an insects education campaign, “Know insects before killing them”, launched in 2008, helped farmers this year as …
Australian National University scientists have discovered a possible new species of funnel-web spider dwelling near Jervis Bay. Biologists uncovered the unusually large specimen of the spider's tree-dwelling genus Hadronyche while canvassing Booderee National Park. Further genetic and morphological analysis will be needed to determine whether it is a new species, …
André Mugemangango's eucalyptus shamba of about one hectare has been infested with strange insects for the past few years. The resident of Ruli Sector in Gakenke District worries that his source of income (firewood and construction poles) could be at risk. Xavier Minani, another resident of Coko Sector in Gakenke, …
Honey bees around the world could soon be wearing small, electronic transmitter devices as part of an Australia-led study into the sharp rise in the insect's mortality rate. Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) are leading the Global Initiative for Honey bee Health, a multi-national effort …
After surveying 2,000 species of plants, birds, beetles, ants and bees across more than 300 diverse sites in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers say that deforestation has, without a doubt, caused a strong loss of biodiversity. They also say that setting aside a network of preserved forest may make it possible …
If all the birds, bugs, bees and other creatures that pollinate our food crops were to disappear from the planet, humans could face a sharp increase in malnutrition, disease and death in many parts of the world, scientists estimate. Researchers analyzed supplies of 224 types of food in 156 countries, …
It's not exactly an uncommon sentiment to believe that pesticides are causing a lot more environmental harm than big chemical lets on. After all, some of the most popular pesticides in agriculture, neonicotinoids, have turned out to be a driving force behind pollinator decline around the world. Now new research …
Insecticides that are sprayed in orchards and fields across North America may be more toxic to spiders than scientists previously believed. A McGill research team reached this conclusion after looking at changes in the behaviour of individual Bronze Jumping Spiders both before and after exposure to Phosmet, a widely used …
The world’s first ever ant map showing the distribution of the tiny industrious creatures around the globe was launched on Thursday by the University of Hong Kong in a bid to shed more light on the insect world. The colourful interactive online map which took four years to complete, displays …
A fly that is thought to have been extinct for almost 150 years has been found alive in Devon. The last known recording of the Rhaphium pectinatum fly was on 19 July 1868 when the renowned Victorian entomologist George Verrall caught a male and female in Richmond, Surrey. In the …
Thirteen new species of spider – including a brush-footed trapdoor spider – have been discovered on Queensland's Cape York peninsula, on the Indigenous Olkola people's traditional lands. Some 18,000 new species a year are discovered around the world - an average of nearly 50 a day. The discoveries were made …
Icipe taxonomists in collaboration with colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution, USA, have discovered a new, enigmatic wasp genus and species in Muhaka forest on the south coast of Kenya. In a paper published in the recent issue of the Journal of Natural History, the unusual wasp has been named Muhaka …
Many suggest we are approaching a sixth mass extinction event, and yet estimates of how many species exist, and thus how many might become extinct, vary by as much as an order of magnitude. There are few statistically robust methods to estimate global species richness, and here we introduce several …
Quarantine measures to prevent insect invasions tend to focus on well-known pests but a large proportion of the recent invaders were not known to cause significant damage in their native range, or were not even known to science before their introduction. A novel method is proposed to detect new potential …
