The latest news about entomology, brought to you by the Entomological Society of America
We know the moon can do it, but what about a swarm of locusts? On Monday, August 21, 2017, denizens of North America will look skyward to witness a solar eclipse—the first in which the path of totality will cross the contiguous United States since 1979. Those who have witnessed a full solar eclipse say […]
By Edward Ricciuti Cornell University scientists are tuning up the entomological version of psych war tactics that, instead of killing insect pests outright, manipulate their behavior so they avoid crops they might otherwise damage. Repellents that modify the behavior of insects might not stand alone as deterrents, but they could be deployed more extensively in […]
Imagine, for a moment, having 3,000 twin sisters. You all live inside a caterpillar, but it’s home, and your numbers serve as a veritable army against any trespassers. Such is the life of the parasitoid wasp Copidosoma floridanum, one of the insect world’s most fascinating examples of polyembryony, in which multiple embryos form from a […]
By Andrew Porterfield For more than 50 years, the light trap—an incandescent light source attached to an insect collector—has been the standard for sampling potentially disease-carrying mosquitos. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other insect control agencies and organizations worldwide have used the light-bulb trap apparatus to attract and count a wide […]
By Meredith Swett Walker Parents often worry about what they feed their kids and how it might affect their future. But, barring genuine malnutrition, no diet or food is likely to radically change your kid’s life—unless you are an alfalfa leafcutting bee. For such bees, diet early in life can be truly life-altering. Alfalfa leafcutting […]
