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 …
Increases in thermal variability elevate metabolic rate due to Jensen's inequality, and increased metabolic rate decreases the fitness of dormant ectotherms by increasing consumption of stored energy reserves. Theory predicts that ectotherms should respond to increased thermal variability by lowering the thermal sensitivity of metabolism, which will reduce the impact …
Cinnamon bug or seed bug, Ochrophora (= Udonga) montana (Distant) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is a serious pest of bamboo, feeds on developing seeds and is able to destroy all available seeds during massive outbreaks. Nevertheless, its outbreaks are occasional and were recently (2011) witnessed in Karanataka. Interestingly, periodic outbreaks of O. …
The technology for biodegradation of pig manure by using houseflies in a pilot plant capable of processing 500–700 kg of pig manure per week is described. A single adult cage loaded with 25,000 pupae produced 177.7±32.0 ml of eggs in a 15-day egg-collection period. With an inoculation ratio of 0.4–1.0 …
Insect behavior is largely decided by farming practices. Both plants and insects are mutually dependant. While plants provide food to insects, insects provide the necessary ecological services to the plant. Farmers therefore need to manage cropping as a part of a larger ecosystem management. This requires deeper understanding of the …
One of the ways in which farmers can protect their soils is through the use of mulch. When the soil is covered with a thick layer of organic matter, it is protected from extreme rainfall, winds or drought. Mulch also serves as a home for insects, helping attract many species …
Nature is kind enough to create human beings after all its other creation so that we can enjoy and live happily and easily. But owing to our memory and thinking capacities, we became selfish and lazy and wanted to have everything for ourselves. Due to our excessive greed, we have …
Pollination is a concern for cardamom farmers as it is difficult to maintain pollinator populations in plantations between years. The innovative solution that is gaining popularity for ensuring quality pollination services to cardamom in South West India, is the use of managed forestry to create "sequential blooms" in mixed coffee …
Insects are the pre-eminent form of metazoan life on land, with as many as 1018 individuals alive at any one instant and over three-quarters of a million species described. Although it is estimated that there are as many as 14,000 species that are blood feeders, only three to 400 species …
Experimental releases of genetically modified (GM) insects are reportedly being evaluated in various countries, including Brazil, the Cayman Islands (United Kingdom), France, Guatemala, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United States of America, and Vietnam. GM mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) have already been released for field trials into inhabited …
After many years of open discussion and development, the first genetically modified (GM) insect strains are entering field trials. A key engineered trait renders the insects “genetically sterile”, such that some or all of their offspring die; the insects additionally carry a fluorescent marker gene for easy identification. Such “genetic …
Questions have been raised about the transparency and scientific quality of regulatory processes applied in the first open field releases of genetically modified (GM) insects, and there is concern that inappropriate precedents have been set, particularly through generic risk assessments covering multiple species and technologies. The GM insects tested in …
Current paradigms generally assume that increased plant nitrogen (N) should enhance herbivore performance by relieving protein limitation, increasing herbivorous insect populations. We show, in contrast to this scenario, that host plant N enrichment and high-protein artificial diets decreased the size and viability of Oedaleus asiaticus, a dominant locust of north …
The brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) is the most serious pest of rice across the world, especially in tropical climates. N. lugens nymphs and adults were exposed to high temperatures to determine their critical thermal maximum (CTmax), heat coma temperature (HCT) and upper lethal temperature (ULT). Thermal tolerance values differed …
The brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) is the most serious pest of rice across the world, especially in tropical climates. N. lugens nymphs and adults were exposed to high temperatures to determine their critical thermal maximum (CTmax), heat coma temperature (HCT) and upper lethal temperature (ULT). Thermal tolerance values differed …
London: The Spider-Man web, which helps him snare bad guys and swing among the city’s skyscrapers, is closer to reality, say scientists who have created genetically modified silkworms which can spin much stronger silk. A team at University of Wyoming says that its eventual aim is to produce silk from …
The hydel project will cause loss of biodiversity and significant environmental impact The Gundia Hydro Electric Project (GHEP) proposed by the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) should not be executed “as the loss of biodiversity and environmental impact would be significant,” says a report by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert …
Student researchers and Mumbai residents, Rajesh Sanap and Zeeshan Mirza — both aged 23, have discovered two new species of a genus of trapdoor spiders from the southern Western Ghats. The species, rutilofronis and nilgiriensis, were discovered by the duo in Tamil Nadu, from Maruthamalai in Coimbatore district and Kotagiri …
Thirty years ago, if you were walking along the coast of the Netherlands and picked a two-spot ladybug off the leaf of a European lime tree, chances were that the bug would be red with black spots. If you were farther inland, you'd have had a good chance of finding …
Parasitoid disturbance populations in agroecosystems can be maintained through the provision of habitat refuges with host resources. However, specialized herbivores that feed on different host plants have been shown to form host-specialized races. Parasitoids may subsequently specialize on these herbivore host races and therefore prefer parasitizing insects from the refuge, …
Establishing a direct link between climate change and fluctuations in animal populations through long-term monitoring is difficult given the paucity of baseline data. We hypothesized that social wasps are sensitive to climatic variations, and thus studied the impact of ENSO events on social wasp populations in French Guiana. We noted …
