For the first time, a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, has demonstrated that insects can mimic floral scents to manipulate pollinators. The parasitic larvae of the European oil beetle (Meloe proscarabaeus) attract wild bees with volatile compounds closely resembling the scent of flowers. The researchers analyzed the scent of the larvae and found that it consists of a complex mixture of monoterpenoids, which are fragrances emitted by a wide variety of flowers. Behavioral experiments revealed that bees respond to the odor even when no larvae are visible. The researchers also demonstrated that the beetle larvae synthesize the volatile compounds themselves rather than sequester them from their surroundings. Through genetic analyses, the researchers identified two cytochrome P450 enzymes involved in forming the flower-like compounds. This is the first documented example of an animal mimicking flower odors to manipulate an ecological interaction.

Female sweat bees need to make a pivotal life decision: remain in the nest to help their mother raise more offspring or leave to establish nests of their own. New research from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) found that queen pheromones help influence that choice, offering new insight into how cooperation evolved in insect societies.

Researchers have developed a low-cost, semi-automated, AI-driven method that uses remote cameras to survey bumblebees and potentially other insects.

The latests assessment of South Africa’s marine biodiversity has added more than 1,000 marine benthic invertebrate species to the country’s known fauna since 2010, bringing the total known marine diversity to more than 14,000 species. The study highlights the critical role of taxonomy, museum collections, and DNA-based approaches in uncovering hidden biodiversity, while revealing significant gaps in our understanding of South Africa’s marine life.

Significance: Empirical evaluations of thermal tolerance for tropical species are sparse, and this reduces our capacity to anticipate the impact of the climate crisis on the undescribed morass of wild biodiversity. While theory predicts that heat tolerances ought to decrease and cold tolerances increase with elevation in the tropics, recent meta-analyses concluded that heat tolerance does not change with elevation. We used more than 100 species of rove beetle from a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and found that heat tolerances decrease and cold tolerances increase with elevation, highlighting the vulnerability of tropical mountain species to increased temperature. Furthermore, our work reinforces the knowledge gaps that exist for diverse tropical species as they experience the complicated impacts of the climate crisis.

Insect wings are fantastically sensitive, feeling the wind, touch and even tasting. Now researchers from Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany, reveal in Journal of Experimental Biology that tobacco hawkmoth wings also have a sense of smell to help them sniff out the plants that they lay their eggs on.

As cities grow, artificial water bodies are slowly replacing natural ones. Among the most numerous but least studied are the garden ponds, which can be found by the millions in private gardens. A new study from researchers at the HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research provides the first systematic look at zooplankton communities living in these garden ponds and finds that even the smallest of them contribute to urban freshwater biodiversity, adding to what the larger public urban ponds already provide.

Zooplankton (rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods that drift in the water column) are “ecological workhorses” and play a key link in the aquatic food web. Zooplankton transfer energy from primary producers to fish and invertebrate predators, and their grazing can regulate algal blooms. Yet while public urban ponds have drawn growing scientific attention, the life inside privately managed garden ponds has remained poorly studied.

To close that gap, the team sampled 90 ponds in and around Budapest, including 38 private garden ponds and 52 public urban ponds during spring 2022, through the MyPond citizen science project. They identified and documented every zooplankton species present, compared the density and species richness between the two pond types, and tested how communities responded to urban cover and fish presence.