Breeding area of the Large-billed reed warbler, the world's least known bird species, discovered in Afghanistan

Amidst the grim scenario in Afghanistan here comes something to cheer about. Researchers of the Wildlife Conservation Society have discovered for the first time the breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler in the remote Wakhan Corridor of the Pamir Mountains of north-eastern Afghanistan. Large-billed reed warbler was rated in 2007 by ‘BirdLife International’ as "the world's least known bird species”. Practically nothing is known about this species. The first specimen was discovered in India in 1867. It was more than a century later that a second discovery of a single bird was made in Thailand in 2006.

Ornithologists around the world are excited about the discovery. Details appear in the latest issue of BirdingASIA. The authors include: Robert Timmins, Naqeebullah Mostafawi, Ali Madad Rajabi, Hafizullah Noori, Stephane Ostrowski and Colin Poole, of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Urban Olsson of Göteborg University, Sweden; and Lars Svensson.

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.