Grasshoppers and their relatives that pollinates plants

Here is a surprise. Grasshoppers and crickets like most members of the insect order Orthoptera are notorious for eating plants rather than helping them. Scientists have discovered that Grasshoppers and their relatives can pollinate plants like bees. The finding has come from the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, where a cricket was observed pollinating an orchid. Till now the process of pollinating was the preserve of honey bees, ants, beetles, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, birds and bats.

The pollination by cricket was recorded on a camera trap set up by orchid researcher Claire Micheneau in a Réunion forest. The species involved was an orchid called Angraecum cadetii.

Dr Micheneau's discovery has been published in the latest issue of journal Annals of Botany.

Safe and Ecologically Sound Pesticide from Scorpion Venom

Here is yet another reason for conserving biodiversity. Scorpion venom is coming to the succor of agricultural industry.

Scorpions deliver a complex cocktail of poisonous peptides which has the power to immobilize animal prey on the spot. However, some of the toxins in this cocktail damages only insects. Prof. MichaelGurevitz from Tel Aviv University has harnessed this property to create a safe and ecologically sound pesticide.

Prof. Gurevitz developed genetic methods for producing and manipulating the desired toxins in bacteria. He then investigated how they act against insects and mammals. Some neurotoxins in the scorpion are highly active against some insects like leaf-eating moths, locusts, flies and beetles ― but have no effect on beneficial insects like honeybees or on mammals like humans. This has great potential for the agriculture industry.

The agriculture industry already uses mostly pyrethroids that can penetrate into insects and attack their nervous systems, leading to paralysis and death. The main drawback of this method is that, they lack specificity and the danger these compounds pose to the environment, livestock and humans.

The new research thus brings in a very safe alternative to dangerous traditionally used chemicals.

Details of the research appears in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution

Heroic behaviour among animals is far more common than previously thought

The mysteries of nature are a constant source of wonder for me. Here is something that seems improbable.

Research by Dr Elise Nowbahari, from the University of Paris has come up with fascinating evidence of heroic behaviour among animals.

Dolphins endanger themselves to rescue trapped dolphins, lifting an injured dolphin to the water's surface so that the trapped dolphin can breathe

Monkeys will drive away an attacker from a vulnerable female or infants.

Female fruit bats help other fruit bats in labour for easier birth.

Ants frequently help other ants from the same colony if they are caught in traps or by a predator

Dr Nowbahari has drawn up a four-point model that could be applied to the behaviour of any creature, including humans, to identify heroic acts.

Details of the work is published in the latest issue of Communicative and Integrative Biology.

Evidence of Culture in Wild Chimpanzees

Researchers Thibaud Gruber, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK, Budongo Conservation Field Station, Masindi, Uganda; Martin N. Muller, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, Kibale Chimpanzee Project, Fort Portal, Uganda; Pontus Strimling, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK; Richard Wrangham, Kibale Chimpanzee Project, Fort Portal, Uganda, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; and Klaus Zuberbuhler, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK, Budongo Conservation Field Station, Masindi, Uganda have come up with fascinating evidence of culture in Wild Chimpanzees. The word "Culture" here refers to a population-specific set of behaviors acquired through social learning, such as imitation. 15 years were spent in the field to come up with these fascinating observations.

The study clearly showed that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda used different tools to solve a problem like extracting honey trapped within a fallen log. Kibale Forest chimpanzees use sticks to get at the honey, whereas Budongo Forest chimpanzees rely on leaf sponges that they make out of chewed leaves. The researchers say the difference in tool use was that chimpanzees resorted to preexisting cultural knowledge in trying to solve the novel task .This is in contrast to an animal or human learning something on his or her own through trial and error.

Details of the research appears in Current Biology