Insects Archives - The Sciku Project

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024

Dusty Shoulders by Jonathan Aylett

little honeybee
carrying all our futures
on dusty shoulders
by Jonathan Aylett

This haiku about the ecological importance of bees was displayed at COP 28 in Dubai.

Further reading:

‘Why are bees important? And how you can help them’, Charlotte Varela, 2023, Woodland Trust.

Author bio:

Jonathan has been writing and publishing poetry for several years. His work has featured in journals dedicated to haiku, and broader literary journals, and won competitions across both disciplines. His collection ‘Goldfish’ – a mix of haiku and long form poetry, will be published by Stairwell books in spring 2024. You can follow Jonathan on Instagram here: @jonathanaylettpoetry

Read other sciku by Jonathan here: ‘Light’, ‘String Theory’ and ‘Moss’.

December 9, 2022January 13, 2023

Climate Change by R. Suresh Babu

climatic changes
a swarm of bombay locusts
raid the butterfly garden
by R. Suresh Babu

My haiku are centered on my experiences as a teacher where I observe children’s behaviour in the classroom situations, science labs and school campus.

Our school is planning to create a butterfly garden. I had a small discussion in the class on the effects of global warming or climatic changes on butterflies, as butterflies are indicators of climate changes. This sciku was created after the discussion on the topic ‘The effect of climatic changes on the butterfly garden’.

Further reading:

Butterfly Gardening (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_gardening

How Climate Change Affects Butterflies by Astrid Caldas https://wisconsinpollinators.com/Articles/ClimateChange_7.aspx

Author bio:

R. Suresh Babu is a graduate teacher of English and a teacher counsellor in a Government Residential School in India. He is an alumnus of the Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru in India. His works have been published in Cattails, Failed Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal, Akitsu, Presence, Under the Basho, Poetry Pea Journal and Podcast, The Asahi Shimbun, World Haiku Series, The Mamba, Kontinuum, Haikuniverse, Cold Moon Journal, Chrysanthemum, tsuri-dōrō and The Mainichi. He is a contributing writer to the anthology, We Will Not Be Silenced of the Indie Blu(e) Publishing. He has done the art works for the Haiku anthology Bull-Headed, edited by Corine Timmer. You can follow him on Twitter @sureshniranam

Read more sciku by R. Suresh Babu: ‘Moonwalk’ and ‘Language’.

November 11, 2022November 16, 2022

Ant-y-insulin

Long live queens! But why?
Ovaries might change growth cues
to extend lifespan!
By Dr Nathan Woodling

A queen takes the throne.
Insulin surges, eggs grow.
A switch extends life.
By Dr Andrew Holmes

Reproduction is linked to reduced lifespan in many animals, yet ant queens have a far greater longevity compared to workers in their colony – black garden ant queens can live up to 30 times longer than the 1-year lifespan of their workers. Ant queens have the same genome as their workers, and in some species of ant they aren’t reared differently but switch caste following the death of the current queen.

The Indian jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator) exhibits this switching behaviour. When a queen dies, workers duel each other, with the winners transitioning into pseudo-queens known as gamergates. These gamergates begin laying fertile eggs and their lifespan is substantially increased – from 7 months to 4 years. Gamergates can even transition back into the worker caste if replaced by another queen, their lifespan reverting back to 7 months.

How is ant lifespan so mutable?

New research by Yan et al. (2022) points to an insulin-suppressing protein as a possible answer.

The researchers compared gene expression during caste switching and found that ants that switch from worker to gamergate produce more insulin. The increased insulin results in a change in the balance of activity between the two main insulin signalling pathways, MAPK (which controls metabolism and egg formation) and AKT (which controls ageing).

On transitioning to a gamergate, the MAPK insulin signalling pathway’s activity increases, inducing ovary development and the production of eggs. But this also results in the production of an insulin-suppressing protein (Imp-L2) which blocks the AKT insulin signalling pathway, increasing longevity.

IMP-L2 essentially acts as a switch between a worker being short-lived and sterile compared to a queen being long-lived and fertile.

Original research:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abm8767

A note about the sciku:

Nathan and Andrew independently wrote their sciku about this research and discovered the coincidence when Nathen posted his poem on Twitter. The two different approaches to writing about the same subject demonstrate why sciku are such a consistently interesting medium for exploring and sharing research.

Author bios:

Dr Nathan Woodling is a lecturer in molecular biosciences at the University of Glasgow. You can follow him on Twitter here: @NathanWoodling.

Dr Andrew Holmes is a former researcher in animal welfare and the founder and editor of The Sciku Project. You can follow him on Twitter here: @AndrewMHolmes.

August 29, 2019August 29, 2019

Spreading

Tiger mosquito,
spreading northwards, adapting.
Deadly time capsules.

Many mosquito species struggle to survive at low temperatures, preventing their spread into cooler climates and thus limiting the spread of diseases carried by the mosquitoes. Yet new research by Medley et al (2019) suggests that some mosquito species may be able to adapt part of their reproductive cycle to survive cold winters.

The Asian tiger mosquito is a vector for a number of pathogens, including Zika and dengue viruses. The species first arrived in the USA in Texas in 1985 and today the current range extends as far north New Jersey.

How has this tropical and sub-tropical species managed to survive the temperate conditions?

The secret lies with a process called diapause – a type of animal dormancy where development is delayed in response to unsuitable environmental conditions such as cold winters.

In the Asian tiger mosquito, the length of day or night (photoperiodism) can induce egg diapause – as the days get shorter with the approach of winter eggs become dormant and only start developing again once the days start to lengthen and temperatures are likely to be more suitable for the species.

In the new study the researchers found that northern diapause eggs survive northern winters a lot better than southern diapause eggs, but both northern and southern diapause eggs survive southern winters the same as each other. The research demonstrates the species adapting to colder conditions as it expands northwards over a period of around 30 years. Not only have northern populations adapted to northern climes by producing more eggs but those eggs are adapted to survive the northern winters better too.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13480

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019

Armyworms

Armyworms. Crop pests.
Inflict losses with our help.
Where will you strike next?

Crop pests cause vast economic losses worldwide, having a huge impact on the livelihoods of some of the most vulnerable populations. Originally from the Americas, the fall armyworm recently spread to sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in estimates of 20 to 50% maize yield losses. The armyworm appears to have arrived in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of passenger flights from America and has spread widely across the continent in only a couple of years.

Research by Early et al (2018) has considered where the pest might spread to next. By considering the armyworm’s life-history, current trade and transportation routes and the climates of countries that currently have populations of armyworms, the researchers were able to forecast the most likely next steps for this spreading species. In particular, the researchers highlight that the climactic conditions of South and Southeast Asia and Australia make these regions susceptible to invasion, with Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand the most vulnerable.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.40.28165

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018

Ensnared

Poor social spider.

Ensnared, building its own tomb.

Parasitoid wasp.

Parasitoid wasps are known to lay eggs on their victims which are then consumed by the hatching larvae. Some species will even paralyse their victim and place them in a nest to be eaten alive by their offspring. Yet behaviour observed by Fernandez-Fournier et al (2018) has revealed a wasp species that behaves even more disturbingly.

Adult Zatypota sp. wasps were found to target a species of social spider that lives in a colony web and rarely leaves it. The wasps lay their eggs on the abdomen of the spider and when the larvae hatches it attaches to the spider. The larvae influences the spider to then leave its colony and spin a cocoon web in which the spider then waits until the larvae finally kills it. Its meal consumed, the larvae then spins a pupal cocoon within the protection of the outer cocoon web and a few days later emerges as an adult.

The results reveal that the spider is manipulated into performing unusual behaviours, since such social spiders rarely leave their colony and the cocoon web is a complete different form of web. The infected spider makes its own tomb before being eaten alive within it.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/een.12698

October 11, 2018October 11, 2018

Absentee parents

Absentee parents.

Selection pressure leads to

self-sufficiency.

Parents invest in the survival of their offspring to differing amounts across the animal kingdom. Some parents provide for their young until they reach independence, whilst in other species the parents are absent from birth onwards.

The burying beetle shows a mix of these tendencies. The parents use small dead mammals and other vertebrates as edible nests for their young. The larvae hatch and enter the carcass, while the parents may help the larvae enter the nest by biting small incisions in the carcass and may even feed them. Yet the larvae can also survive without parental care, using their mandibles to enter the edible nest and feed themselves.

By experimentally manipulating the levels of parental care across 13 generations, Jarrett et al (2018) found that both parental behaviour and offspring anatomy changed. Parents removed before larval hatching began to make the incisions earlier to provide support for the offspring before they hatched. The larvae of such absent parents also evolved larger mandibles to help enter the carcass and feed themselves.

In contrast, when parents were present the larvae had smaller mandibles, as the production of large mandibles is costly and unnecessary when parental support is provided. The research is nice evidence of evolutionary changes to different partners in the parent-offspring dynamic.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06513-6

September 18, 2018September 18, 2018

These membrane proteins by Chris Gillen

These membrane proteins

might reclaim salt from urine

or suck it from ponds.

Mosquitoes face extraordinary challenges to their salt and water balance during their complex life-cycles. Larva of most species live in freshwater environments in which they lose salt by diffusion and gain water by osmosis. In contrast, adults live in terrestrial environments where water loss is a problem. Finally, female mosquitoes ingest large amounts of salt and water when they take a blood meal.

In vertebrates, the sodium-potassium-chloride cotransporters (NKCCs) participate in both salt secretion and absorption. Whereas secretory roles for this group of transporters are well-described in insects, their roles in salt absorption are less well studied. Piermarini et al (2017) recently identified yellow fever mosquito transport proteins that have sequence similarity to the vertebrate NKCCs. Two of these transporters apparently resulted from gene duplications early in the insect and mosquito lineages, suggesting that they have diverged into roles related to mosquito osmoregulation. The transporters may contribute to salt absorption, because the researchers found them in adult hindgut and larval anal papillae, both tissues that transport salt into the body.

Original research: Piermarini, P. M., Akuma, D. C., Crow, J. C., Jamil, T. L., Kerkhoff, W. G., Viel, K. C. M. F., and Gillen, C. M. (2017) Differential expression of putative sodium-dependent cation-chloride cotransporters in Aedes aegypti. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A 214, 40-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2017.09.007

Chris Gillen teaches animal physiology and science writing at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He is author of The Hidden Mechanics of Exercise (Harvard, 2014) and Reading Primary Literature (Pearson, 2007).

August 31, 2018January 29, 2021

Fluttering by at dusk by Roy McGhie

Fluttering by at dusk,

dawn, and in between.

Crop diversity!

Recent research by Olimpi & Philpott (2018) concludes that crop diversity as a management practice drives bat activity, and that crop diversity and less frequent pesticide use increase bats’ insect prey populations. The study notes that this could be a useful management tool where other options, such as hedgerow or tree management, are not available.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.06.008

Roy McGhie works for Natural England as an Uplands Advisor. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here. If you enjoyed his sciku, check out his previous poems Ghost Ponds, A Heady Mixture and Hedgerow Snuffling.

July 3, 2018July 12, 2018

Chestnut menace

Invading clonal

wasps. Chestnut menace spreading

yet no males required.

The Chestnut gall wasp arrived in Europe in 2006, imported accidentally from China. Since then it has begun to spread and devastate European Chestnut trees.

Bonal et al (2018) have now revealed that the European population has very low genetic diversity due to 1) the founding of the population by a small number of individuals, 2) an endosymbiont bacterial infection present within the population that is known to have male-killing tendencies and 3) it’s parthenogenetic reproduction strategy. This is where females are able to reproduce and produce female offspring without the need to be fertilised by males. No males have been observed in the European population and the females and their offspring are effectively clones of one another.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-23754-z

May 25, 2018May 25, 2018

The year’s best species

Mystery protist.

Apes, snailfish and amphipods.

The year’s best species.

Every year since 2008 the College of Environmental Science and Forestry has released a Top 10 New Species list. 2018’s selection include single celled organisms, plants and animals (including two species of beetle) as well as a prehistoric marsupial lion identified from fossils. All 10 species are fascinating but those highlighted in the sciku are:

Protist – Ancoracysta twista, a single celled predatory Eukaryote with harpoon-like organelles that it uses to immobilise its prey. Intriguingly its evolutionary origins are unclear and it doesn’t fit neatly within any known groups.

Ape – Orangutans now come in three flavours: Bornean, Sumatran and now a newly identified Southern Sumatran species of orangutans. It is the most endangered great ape in the world.

Snailfish – Whilst snailfish are found at all depths, 2018’s species is the deepest fish in the sea, found in the Mariana Trench at 7,966 meters below the surface. It appears to be the top predator in its benthic community and is tadpole-like and around 4 inches long.

Amphipod – Epimeria quasimodo is found in the Antarctic Ocean. The 2 inch long crustacean takes its name from the hunchback of Notre Dame and has beautiful vivid colours.

April 17, 2018April 20, 2018

Cuckoo bee

No longer extinct,

cuckoo bee, nest parasite,

found further afield.

The Macropis Cuckoo Bee was thought to be extinct until the early 2000s when a specimen was found in Nova Scotia. The bee is one of the rarest bees in North America, with only a handful found during the past decades. A new specimen found in Alberta and reported by Sheffield and Heron (2018) has now pushed the known geographical range of the Macropis Cuckoo Bee further west and gives hope to the continued survival of this species.

The Macropis Cuckoo Bee lays its eggs in the nests of Macropis bees and therefore requires the presence of its hosts in order to reproduce, yet cuckoo bees are not always found where their hosts are. In turn Macropis bees are entirely dependent on plants of the primrose genus meaning that the there is a chain of co-dependence between the plants, bees and cuckoo bees.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e22837

November 24, 2017December 11, 2017

Dark moths by Prof Matthew J. James

Industrial soot

Biston betularia

Quo vadis dark moths?

The Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) is a classic example of evolution in action, yet in recent years Darwin’s Finches seem to have eclipsed the Peppered Moth as the textbook example of natural selection.

This sciku, written by Professor Matthew J. James, celebrates the Peppered Moth as an example of rapid natural selection and asks where the dark moths are going, Quo vadis in Latin meaning “Where are you going?”. The question refers to both the population change in moth colouration from dark to light and also implies a nostalgic deeper meaning asking where the Peppered Moth explanation of natural selection has gone in light of the present-day dominance of Darwin’s Finches.

The wild-type Peppered Moth has light wing patterns that act as effective camouflage against its common environmental background. Industrial smog from 19th century coal burning in the United Kingdom resulted in the trees upon which they rested becoming blackened by soot, making the moths stand out. As a result the population of light-winged moths plummeted due to increased predation, however numbers of the melanic mutant form (black in colour) of the species rose – this process has been termed Industrial Melanism. As the Industrial Revolution waned and levels of pollution decreased, numbers of the light-winged form of the moth rose once again. Cook & Saccheri (2013) present an interesting review of the Peppered Moth as a natural selection case study.

Original research: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fhdy.2012.92

Professor Matthew J. James is Chair in the Department of Geology at Sonoma State University, California. His recent book, Collecting Evolution, examines a scientific collecting expedition to the Galapagos Islands in 1905-06 that resulted in the concept of Darwin’s Finches being developed by David Lack in his 1947 book by that same name.

November 20, 2017November 20, 2017

Food or family?

Learning to distinguish kin

is hard with prey near.

The benefits of recognising your relatives are many and in cannibalistic species can include avoiding eating members of your own family. Learning kin cues frequently occurs early in life when a number of other cues need to also be learnt, including food cues.

Christiansen and Schausberger (2017) found that predatory mites raised with only their relatives were able to distinguish between related and unrelated larvae. This distinction was not made by mites reared in the presence of relatives and food cues.

The presence of food cues interfered with the learning of kin cues, yet the presence of kin cues did not disrupt the learning of food cues. This suggests that if food is present the mites will learn to identify it, however if there is no food and the mites may need to resort to cannibalism then they learn to avoid eating their own relatives.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.09.005

October 30, 2017October 30, 2017

Declining monarchs

Declining monarchs:

Habitat not climate is

your Achilles’ heel.

Understanding why a species is declining is a large part of establishing a suitable conservation approach. In North America the monarch butterfly population has sharply declined in recent decades, yet the reasons for this were unclear until now.

Thogmartin et al (2017) investigated monarch butterfly populations and found that the decline is largely down to habitat loss from herbicide use and the loss of overwinter forest, as well as insecticides. Whilst climate impacts on yearly population size, this is not enough to explain the decreases in monarch butterfly population recorded over recent decades.

Original Research : https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170760

September 22, 2017December 11, 2017

Do creepy-crawlies suffer?

Do creepy-crawlies

suffer as live food? Is this

a welfare concern?

Invertebrates are often used as live food for other animals in captivity (for example geckos are often fed live crickets). Increasingly there are suggestions that some invertebrate species may be able to experience a sensation of pain and may have higher cognitive functions such as emotions and learning. As a result, should we be considering the ethical and welfare issues associated with using invertebrates as live prey?

Keller (2017) has published a review of the latest research into invertebrates and how institutes using live prey might consider and act on any welfare implications. Since there is mounting evidence that some invertebrate species can suffer, perhaps it would be best to stop all live prey feeding? But this response has its own problems: live prey feeding provides enrichment to captive species and many captive species will not feed if the food item is dead.

August 25, 2017August 25, 2017

Hijacked ant

Little hijacked ant,

blade held in jagged pincers,

awaits her demise.

The lancet liver fluke is a parasite of devious means. As an adult it lives in the livers of ruminant animals, often cattle, but it has an ingenious method of getting from one liver to another. First, its eggs are excreted in its host’s faeces, which is then consumed by a snail. The larvae develop into juveniles in the snail’s digestive tract and are eventually themselves excreted.

This is where the ants come in. Ants use snail slime for moisture and so consume the juveniles. Once inside an ant the parasites cause it to climb a blade of grass and clamp its mandibles to the top. The ant will remain attached all night and then return to its normal behaviour during the day. The aim of the parasite is for the ant (and attached blade of grass) to be eaten by a grazing animal – the parasite is then back in its main host and the cycle starts again. Summarised in Tarry, 1969.

July 27, 2017July 27, 2017

Bumblebees bumble

Towards one third extinction

One bee, Two bee, Oh!

There are 260 known species of bumblebees globally many of which are important pollinators, particularly in agriculture. A phylogenetic study of ~43% of these species has revealed that approximately one third of the species are declining. The Thoracobombus subgenus which accounts for 64% of species tested is particularly vulnerable, as are species of bumblebee with small geographic ranges. Arbetman et al, 2017.

Interested in bumblebees? Check out this sciku on bumblebee cognition: Bumblebee football.

July 25, 2017August 30, 2017

Tiny passengers

What will satisfy

these cravings? I should ask my

tiny passengers.

Choosing what and how much to eat is crucial as even those nutrients that are normally beneficial can be harmful if consumed excessively. But the mechanism for how animals regulate the amount they eat isn’t always clear.

The common fruit fly develops a strong appetite for amino acid-rich food if fed a diet lacking in certain essential amino acids, and the fly’s reproductive effort will also decrease. However, this change in appetite and reproduction is suppressed if the fly has certain species of gut bacteria. Interestingly, when given the choice fruit flies will eat more food that contains these bacteria than food that doesn’t suggesting an ability of the flies to direct their own gut bacterial microbiome.

How the bacteria influence fruit fly behaviour and physiology is uncertain but results suggest that it is not down to the bacteria producing the missing amino acids for the flies or that the flies are consuming the bacteria themselves. Possible explanations are that the bacteria secrete metabolites that help the flies use their remaining amino acids more effectively or that the bacteria directly modulate the flies own nutrient sensing pathways so that the flies don’t recognise a decrease in amino acids. Leitão-Gonçalves et al, 2017.

July 5, 2017August 30, 2017

Bumblebee football

Bumblebee football:

Learning to score for sugar,

self-improvement – Goal!

Tool use is an indication of cognitive complexity and has been demonstrated in a number of species, including among primates, marine mammals and birds. Bumblebees trained to manipulate a ball to gain a reward were able to improve on their performance by taking shorter routes and moving the closest ball when presented with multiple balls. The bees were also able to learn socially by watching other bees solving the task. Together this shows a degree of cognitive flexibility that has not previously been recognised in an insect. Loukola et al, 2017.

June 26, 2017June 26, 2017

Foundress

Paper foundress queens

Influence their colony

In character and size.

We often look for similarities between ourselves and our parents/children, in the way we look or behave. In paper wasps the personality of the queen influences the size and aggressiveness of the colony they found: Bolder queens tend to produce more workers that as a colony are less likely to attack a simulated agonistic stimulus, however whilst shyer queens tend to produce a more aggressive colony with fewer workers. Wright et al, 2017.

June 1, 2017June 14, 2017

The drink of the gods

curbs oxidative stress through

clever conversions

The energetic demands of flying causes muscular oxidative damage. Whilst some foods have antioxidants, nectar doesn’t – a potential issue for flying nectar-feeding animals. To get around this issue hawkmoths appear to be able to “generate antioxidant potential by shunting nectar glucose to the pentose phosphate pathway”. Levin et al, 2017.

April 29, 2017November 1, 2017

Lugging worker

Lugging worker ants

use a celestial compass.

Is this a moonwalk?

Ants often need to walk backwards when dragging heavy food items to their nests, but how do they navigate when moving in reverse? Rather than relying on visual memories of terrestrial cues, ants instead use their celestial compass – this can be disrupted by presenting ants with a mirror image of the sun’s position in the sky. Schwarz et al, 2017.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.019