From pollen to putrid: Comparative metagenomics reveals how microbiomes support dietary specialization in vulture bees.

For most animals, the microbiome is key for nutrition and pathogen defence, and is often shaped by diet. Corbiculate bees, including honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees, share a core microbiome that has been shaped, at least in part, by the challenges associated with pollen digestion. However, three species of stingless bees deviate from the general rule of bees obtaining their protein exclusively from pollen (obligate pollinivores) and instead consume carrion as their sole protein source (obligate necrophages) or consume both pollen and carrion (facultative necrophages).

Winter Cover Crops Reduce Spring Emergence and Egg Deposition of Overwintering Navel Orangeworm (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in Almonds.

Habitat diversification has been shown to positively influence a variety of ecosystem services to agriculture, including biological control of arthropod pests. The impact of increased biodiversity tends to be species specific though, and practices therefore need to be developed on a case-by-case basis for each cropping system. In perennial systems, numerous studies have demonstrated that cover crops can have positive impacts on soil quality and other ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest management.

Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome.

Diet and gut microbiomes are intricately linked on both short and long timescales. Changes in diet can alter the microbiome, while microbes in turn allow hosts to access novel diets. Bees are wasps that switched to a vegetarian lifestyle, and the vast majority of bees feed on pollen and nectar.

The Ant Who Cried Wolf? Short-Term Repeated Exposure to Alarm Pheromone Reduces Behavioral Response in Argentine Ants.

In this study we test whether Argentine ants () progressively reduce their response to a salient stimulus (alarm pheromone) with increased exposure over time. First, we used a two-chamber olfactometer to demonstrate three focal behaviors of Argentine ants that indicate an alarmed state in response to conspecific alarm pheromone and pure synthetic iridomyrmecin (a dominant component of alarm pheromone). We then measured how these behaviors changed after repeated exposure to conspecific alarm pheromone from live ants.

Optimizing Trap Characteristics to Monitor the Leaffooted Bug (Heteroptera: Coreidae) in Orchards.

The leaffooted bug, (Heteroptera: Coreidae), has become a key pest of almonds, pistachios, and pomegranates in California. Adults and nymphs directly feed on nuts and fruits, which reduces crop yield and quality and can facilitate pathogen infections. Current monitoring strategies require growers to actively sample the tree canopy, with no economic thresholds being developed for this pest.