Backyard Killer Strikes on UIUC Campus!

Written by: Nicholas Moy

The Eastern Cicada Killer (Sphecius speciosus) is a local wasp that doesn’t mess around.  Like any good mother, this Hymenoptera is just looking out for her young, however not many mom’s would go to such extreme measures.

A cicada killer. Photo by Lynette Schimming

A female cicada killer lives in a well-kept home, a burrow, that may extend multiple feet underground.  After conception the killer takes to the skies to stake out her first victim.  As the name implies, she is hunting for cicadas.  Once she has determined her target she quickly paralyzes it with its large stinger, and then grabs the cicada upside down using her legs.  Next is the hard part, taking care of the body; the long journey back to the burrow begins.  A cicada killer may drag the cicada by foot, fly the cicada, or even climb a tree and then fly in a gliding fashion toward the burrow if home is too far away.  Once home, the killer then drags the cicada into the depths of the burrow and stores the body in a pre-made cell. The soon-to-be mother lays her eggs on the secured cicada carcass, which will serve as the larvae’s food for the next two weeks.  The venom of the paralyzing sting keeps the cicada meal preserved for twice as long as normal, long enough for larvae to eat it and grow into prepupae for the winter.  This is another natural example of a mother that will do anything for her kin, even kill!

Assassins in the Insect World?

Author: Chirstina Silliman, Masters student, University of Illinois.

For their small size, there are many insects that can do humans quite a bit of harm or, at the very least, bug us. We know to steer clear of wasps, ants, mosquitos, ticks, and when they menacingly head our way.  What you may not know is that the insects themselves have quite a bit to watch out for as well! Not only are predators like spiders or frogs waiting to gobble up a passing fly, but there are other insects just waiting to grab up their own tasty meal. One of the most interesting (and overlooked) insects is the assassin bug.

An assassin bug drains it's prey

Cordyceps: The Mind Control Mushroom

Written by Rahul Naronha

You thought zombies and mind control existed only in science fiction? Guess what. You thought wrong. Here is your daily does of entomological nightmare fuel, courtesy of David Attenborough.

Cordyceps is a fungal genus that is perhaps the strangest of insect predators. Over the course of its evolution, it has adopted a very strange and unsettling method of reproduction. The process starts when a spore lands on an unsuspecting insect of the correct species (each cordyceps species preys on a single species of insect; we will focus on a species that preys on ants). The spore secretes enzymes that allow it to tunnel through the insect’s tough exoskeleton and enter the body, where it feeds on the soft innards. Once the fungus has obtained enough nutrients to reproduce, it initiates the most mind blowing part of its sinister plot.

In order to ensure that its fruiting body has the largest possible “blast radius” over which it can eject its spores, the fungus enters the ant’s brain and literally takes control over it. It directs the ant to climb higher and higher until it finally dies, at which point the fruiting body bursts from the back of the insect’s head and uses its high vantage point to spew out a deadly rain of fungal spores across the forest floor, infecting any unlucky ants that happen to be foraging below. To add insult to injury, some ant colonies have become aware of this gruesome fungal predator and if one of their members is determined to be infected, the poor guy is dragged from the nest and dumped far away to die alone.

Mind control is something which humans have only dreamt about, yet insects have been victims of it since long before science was invented. Damn, nature, you scary.

Somersaults Aren’t Just For People

Posted on behalf of Kristiya Kittiviriya:

The mother-of pearl moth caterpillar (Pleurotya ruralis) is a green, fleshy and pretty defenseless little thing. So what’s it to do when it’s in the presence of a predator or disturbance of some sort? Run away? Ha, caterpillars are so slow…except this one.

Original photo found here.

No Guts, No Glory

Posted on behalf of Kristiya Kittiviriya:

Of course we all know that insects (or basically living things for this matter) have to defend themselves in this cruel, cruel world. Releasing toxins to deter predators is nothing new, but the armored ground cricket (Acanthoplus discoidalis) has an intense way of becoming highly unpalatable. The defense mechanism? Bleeding and puking.

Insects Are the New Mice

Posted on behalf of Julia Gens:

It was recently discovered by scientists that insects, such as some moths and fruit flies, react to microbial infections in the same manner as mammals (reported here).  So what’s the big deal?  This means that insects can be used instead of animals to test the efficacy of new antimicrobial drugs.  They can also be used in determining how virulent fungal pathogens are.

Not only would this reduce the usage of mice for testing by up to 90% but getting results would be quicker as well.  It takes an average of 4-6 weeks to get results when testing with mice, whereas using insects for testing yields results in as little as 48 hours.  And remember: time is money!

Dr Kavanagh presented his research on September 8^th, stating: “we have shown that immune cells in insects and mammals are structurally and functionally similar despite being separated by over 400 million years of evolution.”

 

Empire of the ants

These ants are the topic of tomorrow’s lab.  You’re being given the rare opportunity to observe your own little colony of leaf cutter ants, Atta texana.  Fungus and all.

Ant control without the Rid-Ex

On behalf of Nick Stone.

Researchers at UC Berkeley have been able to find and synthesize a chemical compound used to regulate aggression in all Argentine ant species.  Argentine ants are a known pest throughout the world are  affecting Australia, Japan and the United States.  They are a native species of South America that usually reside in colonies ranging anywhere from a couple meters wide to 100’s of meters wide.  Naturally these ants are very aggressive even attacking colony members to compete for resources so the colony doesn’t get too big.  Each native colony has its own “scent” that each ant can pick up, and if an ant picks up the scent of a different ant that it doesn’t agree with,  it will attack and try to kill it.  But, now that these ants have invaded the west coast of the United States they have lost this behavior, essentially California has one giant Argentine ant colony hundreds of miles long.  Since these ants are not displaying this aggressive behavior anymore, they are starting to drive out  native ant species to California, as well as affecting Horned lizards and agricultural yield.

Asian longhorn beetle

Posted on behalf of Julia Gens.

The Asian longhorn beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) has been nominated as among 100 of the “world’s worst” invasive species.  The beetle is native to China and Taiwan, but has invaded three countries: USA, Canada, and Austria.  In the United States, there are three known infestations: New York (1996), Chicago (1998), and most recently an infestation was discovered 45 miles south of the Vermont border in Worcester, Massachusetts.
But what makes this invasive insect so bad?  The Asian longhorn beetle attacks and kills many species of hard wood trees – including maple, elm, willow, and birch trees among a long list of potential hosts.  Over a wide range, the beetle could severely disrupt the forest ecosystem and cost the US economy billions of dollars by damaging the lumber, wood products, maple syrup, and tourist divisions.  Currently the USDA is testing the effectiveness of some insecticides in an effort to curb the spread of the beetle, as there are no known chemical or biological control methods.

Original image found here.

Tiger beetle larva

To continue on from Zach’s post about the extreme nature of tiger beetles, below is an image of a Tetracha larva.  This creature was photographed by Ted MacRae over at Beetles in the Bush – go here to read the full post…

How many eyes does this thing actually need?

Here is Ted’s description of the beast:

For those of you who have never seen a tiger beetle larva, they are among the most other-wordly creatures one can imagine.  The large, heavily sclerotized head bears two long, sickle-shaped, upward-pointing mandibles and up to three pair of highly-acute eyes whose arrangement on each side conveys the image of a “face” with congenital birth defects.  The top of the head is flattened to lie flush with the surrounding soil as the larva sits at the top of its burrow, and huge, powerful mandibular muscles fill the cranial cavity.  The remainder of the body – long, narrow, and cylindrical – hangs from the head at a 90° angle down into the burrow and is unremarkably grub-like, save for a curious hump on the dorsal side of the 5th abdominal segment.  Close examination of the hump reveals an intricate pattern of forward-facing hooks and spines that function in anchoring the larva against the side of its burrow to prevent struggling prey from dislodging it.