Tag Archives: lepidopteran

Stowaways in potted plants

Posted on April 18, 2014 by argylesock

Potted plants can seem so benign. Beautiful, fascinating, good to grow and give, but they may carry invasive species which are not benign. Tom Bawden at The Independent tells us about invasive species reaching Europe, including the New Guinea flatworm … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, horticulture, money and trade | Tagged alien species, America, Argentine ant, arthropod, Asia, Asian hornet, beetle, biosecurity, coleopteran, Europe, flatworm, garden, harlequin ladybird, herbivore, hymenopteran, insect, invasive species, invertebrate, ladybird, landscape, lepidopteran, light brown apple moth, lily beetle, mollusc, moth, native species, New Guinea flatworm, New Zealand flatworm, oak processionary moth, pest, plant_dicot, plant_gymnosperm, plant_monocot, predator, rosemary leaf beetle, slug, snail, Spanish slug | 5 Comments

Pesticide makers have found a new way to kill bees

Posted on December 18, 2013 by argylesock

argylesock says… Only a few days ago here in Europe, a temporary ban came into place on three neonics. Clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Now another neonic called sulfoxaflor, made by the chemical and biotech giant Dow AgroSciences, has been approved … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, ecology, money and trade | Tagged arthropod, bumblebee, butterfly, clothianidin, conservation, honeybee, hymenopteran, imidacloprid, insect, insecticide, law, lepidopteran, neonicotinoid, pesticide, pollination, sulfoxaflor, thiamethoxam, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, wild bee, wild pollinator | 2 Comments

Butterflies in Britain, summer 2013

Posted on December 9, 2013 by argylesock

Lewis at woodlands.co.uk announced the results of the Big Butterfly Count for summer 2013. Here’s his blog post about it. It’s good news on the whole. This confirms a report of conservation successes for some kinds of insect and some … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology | Tagged arthropod, butterfly, conservation, data, indicator species, insect, lepidopteran | 4 Comments

Would you like flies with that?

Posted on December 3, 2013 by argylesock

Are you eating insects (entomophagy) yet? If not, perhaps you soon will be. In August this year, Trevor Baker in the Guardian told us about farming insects (entomoculture) for food in continental Europe. He told us about a London entomophagy … Continue reading →

Posted in food, knowledge transfer | Tagged arthropod, entomoculture, entomophagy, food, grocery, insect, knowledge, larva, lepidopteran, orthopteran | 1 Comment

Insects could be the future of food

Posted on November 23, 2013 by argylesock

In many cultures, insects are delicacies. Mostly people are eating beetles (Coleoptera) and caterpillars (Lepidoptera). People also eat bees, wasps and ants (Hymenoptera), cicadas (Hemiptera), locusts and crickets (Orthoptera), dragonflies (Odonata) and flies (Diptera). Eating insects is called entomophagy. Those … Continue reading →

Posted in food, knowledge transfer, miniculture | Tagged coleopteran, dipteran, entomoculture, entomophagy, food, foraging, harvest, hemipteran, hunting, hymenopteran, lepidopteran, odonatan, orthopteran, wild food | 6 Comments

Another GM maize may soon be grown in Europe

Posted on November 6, 2013 by argylesock

European farmers can grow two GM (genetically modified, genetically engineered, GE) crops. Soon, they may get the choice of growing another. One of the GM crops approved for European cultivation is an insect-resistant maize (corn, Zea mays) called MON810. Its … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, money and trade | Tagged arthropod, BASF, beetle, biotechnology, Bt crop, Bt toxin, butterfly, coleopteran, corn, Dow, DuPont, farmer, genetic modification, glufosinate, grain, herbicide, herbicide resistance, insect, law, lepidopteran, maize, maize 1507, maize MON810, Monsanto, moth, pest, pesticide, plant_monocot, politics, pollination, potato, potato Amflora, trade, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, vegetable | 4 Comments

Nature conservation succeeds in parts of Europe

Posted on October 8, 2013 by argylesock

The State of Nature Report was sobering news for us in Britain in May 2013. I told you about it at the time. But a few weeks later, evidence came in Ecology Letters that conservation efforts may be paying off … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, knowledge transfer, money and trade | Tagged arthropod, beetle, biodiversity, butterfly, coleopteran, conservation, data, dipteran, ecosystem, finance, habitat loss, history, hymenopteran, insect, intensive, knowledge, land use, lepidopteran, moth, pollination, pollution, research, wild pollinator, wildlife | 3 Comments

New strategy required for delaying insect resistance to Bt crops

Posted on September 29, 2013 by argylesock

arglesock says… We knew that pests would evolve resistance to Bt toxin. I wrote recently about the African maize stalk borer (Busseola fusca) evolving resistance that’s inherited as a dominant trait, making it harder for farmers to control. If I … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture | Tagged arthropod, biotechnology, Bt crop, Bt toxin, corn, crop, DNA, evolution, genetic modification, insect, insecticide, insecticide resistance, integrated pest management, lepidopteran, maize, Monsanto, moth, pest, pesticide, pesticide resistance, plant_monocot, stalk borer | Leave a comment

Paving the Way For Invasive Species

Posted on September 29, 2013 by argylesock

Originally posted on Living With Insects Blog:
Horticulturalists help bring beauty to our gardens and landscapes by introducing plants from other parts of the world and breeding them for aesthetic characteristics. In the past, not enough attention was paid to…

Posted in ecology, horticulture | Tagged alder buckthorn, alien species, aphid, arthropod, brimstone butterfly, ecosystem, garden, hemipteran, insect, invasive species, landscape, lepidopteran, native species, pest, plant_dicot, shrub, soybean aphid, tiger moth | Leave a comment

Pest evolves better resistance to insecticidal GM crops

Posted on September 21, 2013 by argylesock

A few days ago I reblogged a post about genetically modified (GM, also called genetically engineered, GE) crops. I said that in my opinion, my fellow blogger Nasir Butt at Agriculture Information Bank sounds a little bit naïve in that … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, knowledge transfer | Tagged arthropod, biotechnology, Bt crop, Bt toxin, corn, DNA, evolution, gene, genetic modification, grain, insect, insecticide, insecticide resistance, knowledge, lepidopteran, maize, millet, Monsanto, moth, pearl millet, pest, pesticide, pesticide resistance, plant_monocot, research, sorghum, stalk borer, staple food | 3 Comments