Category Archives: Entomology
Making the act of sucking blood it them deadly to mosquitoes
Prevent mosquitoes in a molecular process that cells use to direct proteins toward their appropriate destinies in the body makes more than 90 percent of these insects die within 48 hours after ingestion of blood.
The method could be used as an additional strategy in the global war being waged to curb mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and malaria.
How mosquitoes handle the heat of a hot blood
The pattern of feeding mosquitoes is inherently dangerous; blood meal involves finding a victim, avoid detection by the animal, piercing the tough skin, and support possible immune responses of the victim, not to mention the slap inflicted by a hand human or spraying with insecticide.
However, it has been overlooked until now all the side effects caused by the temperature of the blood meal.
Body armor made of spider silk – a vision of the future?
The best armor could be made of spider silk, is elastic and extremely tear-proof at the same time very, quoted the newspaper “New York Times”, U.S. scientists from the University of California on Wednesday.
This wonder material, the secret to researchers trying to uncover for centuries, is so tight that it made cable quality would surpass cable from precious metals. The spin silk fiber can withstand an elongation up to four times the length.
Flies Rely Feature to Control their Horizontal Altitude of Flight
The flies are horizontal edges to regulate their flight altitude. This has been proven by a team of researchers from California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The results of this study contradict an earlier model, which postulated that insects adjust their height by measuring visually apparent speed of movement below them while flying.
This newly discovered mechanism for controlling its flight altitude, using their eyes to track horizontal edges of their environment, is very similar to the strategy that insects use to maneuver to the right or left.
Genetic Engineering for mosquitoes is unable to transmit malaria
For years, researchers from many parts of the world have attempted to genetically alter mosquitoes so they can not infect humans with malaria. These efforts achieved only partial success because they were still capable of transmitting the pathogen causing the disease, although to a lesser extent.
For the first time, a team of entomologists at the University of Arizona has been genetically altering a mosquito so as to be completely useless as a vector of malaria. Researchers hope to one day replace wild mosquitoes emerged from a population of individuals handled and reared in the laboratory, which can not act as a vector, i.e., it is unable to transmit the parasite that causes malaria, one-celled organism Plasmodium.