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Chanel, UCSB's corpse flower, blooms and causes a big stink

Chanel, UC Santa Barbara's corpse flower, has finally spread her odiferous wings, broadcasting a stench that smells like a cross between rotting flesh and Limburger cheese. "It's disgusting," said UCSB...

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Using different scents to attract or repel insects

Flowering plants attract pollinating insects with scent from their flowers and bright colours. If they have become infested with herbivores like caterpillars, they attract beneficial insects like...

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Digitized collection data to give scientists new tools for research

From bumblebees to blister beetles, the world-class University of Kansas entomology collection numbers 5 million insects pinned in drawers, each one with a tiny printed or handwritten label.

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Researchers develop system for assessing how effective species are at...

From tomatoes to pumpkins, most fruit and vegetable crops rely on pollination by bees and other insect species – and the future of many of those species is uncertain. Now researchers from North...

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Researchers are piecing together causes of decline in honey bees

Last spring, when Mary Harris started looking for particular pesticides in the pollen carried by honey bees in northwest Iowa, she didn't find any. But that changed the week tractors hit the fields to...

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Flowers' polarization patterns help bees find food

Like many other insect pollinators, bees find their way around by using a polarization sensitive area in their eyes to 'see' skylight polarization patterns. However, while other insects are known to...

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Pesticides threaten birds and bees alike, study says

Neurotoxic pesticides blamed for the world's bee collapse are also harming butterflies, worms, fish and birds, said a scientific review that called Tuesday for tighter regulation to curb their use.

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Bloodsucking mite threatens UK honeybees

Scientists have discovered how a bloodsucking parasite has transformed Deformed Wing Virus (DWV) into one of the biggest threats facing UK honeybees.

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Organic mulch lets insect pollinators do their job

As interest in organic agricultural and horticultural practices continues to grow, so does the need to identify alternative weed control practices. Mulching, a common practice used to control weeds and...

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Extinction of 23 pollinators in Britain since 1850

New research to be published today in the prestigious journal Science will challenge ideas about the historical causes of pollinator decline in the UK.

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How trap-flowers attract and deceive pollinating food thieves

Researchers have discovered a new pollination system that involves food-thieving flies as pollinators. These flies feed on insect secretions, available when a spider, a praying mantis, or other...

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Researchers confirm that neonicotinoid insecticides impair bee's brains

Research at the Universities of St Andrews and Dundee has confirmed that levels of neonicotinoid insecticides accepted to exist in agriculture cause both impairment of bumblebees' brain cells and...

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Fighting decline of pollinators in Europe

Pollination is crucial to providing food security with 84% of European crops benefitting, at least in part, from insect pollination and 78% of temperate wildflowers needing biotic pollination. An...

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Tenth of wild bee species risk extinction in Europe

Nearly 10 percent of some 2,000 species of European wild bees are threatened with extinction, according to a study published Thursday.

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Biologist Berry Brosi on Obama's 'plan bee'

President Obama recently launched perhaps the most ambitious national plan ever aimed at protecting insects. The National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honeybees and Other Pollinators calls for an...

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Which insects are the best pollinators?

Bees top the charts for pollination success according to one of the first studies of insect functionality within pollination networks, published today by researchers at the University of Bristol and...

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Study explores what we know about how neonicotinoids affect bees

An international group of pollination experts - including a University of Guelph professor - has published a second summary in as many years on the scientific evidence about the effects of...

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Study suggests bees aren't the be all and end all for crop pollination

Farmers who used pesticides that spared bees but sacrificed killed other insects might be ignoring important sources of crop pollination, according to an Australian-led international scientific study.

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Loss of wild flowers across Britain matches pollinator decline

The first ever Britain-wide assessment of the value of wild flowers as food for pollinators, led by the University of Bristol, shows that decreasing resources mirror the decline of pollinating insects,...

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Surveys of corn and soybean fields reveal implications for pollinator...

Although corn and soybeans do not need insects for pollination, they do offer floral resources that are used by insect pollinators. So what kind of insects are commonly found in corn and soybean...

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Scientists show cities can serve as a refuge for insect pollinators

Residents living in towns and cities can play a major role in ensuring insect pollinators survive and thrive around them, a team of international scientists has said.

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Production of seedless fruits an underestimated tool for improving food security

Production of seedless fruits an under-estimated tool for improving food security, research shows

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How the world can save bees and pollinating insects

An international research team has released a top-10 list of ways countries can protect pollinating insects such as bees, which are vital for food production, following worrying declines in pollinating...

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Biologists unlock 51.7-million-year-old genetic secret to landmark Darwin theory

Scientists have identified the cluster of genes responsible for reproductive traits in the Primula flower, first noted as important by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.

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Mid-Mesozoic beetle in amber stirs questions on rise of flowering plants and...

Named for Charles Darwin, the only known specimen of a newly discovered beetle, Darwinylus marcosi, died in a sticky gob of tree sap some 105 million years ago in what is now northern Spain. As it...

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Planting native vegetation for productive crops

The University of Adelaide, working with South Australian industry groups, is helping farmers and growers design and implement native plantings to support bee and other insect populations needed to...

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Bumble bees make a beeline for larger flowers

Bumble bees create foraging routes by using their experience to select nectar-rich, high-rewarding flowers. A study by Shohei Tsujimoto and Hiroshi Ishii of the University of Toyama in Japan now...

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Plants combine color and fragrance to procure pollinators

Who knew that it's possible to predict the fragrance of a flower by looking at its color?

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Five reasons not to spray the bugs in your garden

The weather is getting warmer, and gardens are coming alive with bees, flies, butterflies, dragonflies, praying mantises, beetles, millipedes, centipedes, and spiders.

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Bees use invisible heat patterns to choose flowers

A new study, led by scientists from the University of Bristol, has found that a wide range of flowers produce not just signals that we can see and smell, but also ones that are invisible such as heat.

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