Tag Archives: wasps

Tools used by multiple species of wasps

Posted on by
Reply

Although diverse animal sequences have evolved the ability to use tools (primates, parrots, octopus, crabs, hornets, etc.), the factors leading to evolutionary use that lead to tools are less understood. Fish can provide insight into these factors by comparing differences between tool-used and non-used species. The use of anvils is an example of the use of tools by fish. The fish holds the densely packed prey in its mouth, attacking it on an anvil to open it. Through the community science programmes we call Using fish toolsMarine biologists have collected 16 new observations of five anvil use in a group of WRASSES (colorful coral reef fish) called the New World Harikoeles. These new observations provide the first evidence of the use of ANVIL Halichoeres brasiliensis, Halichoeres poeyi and Halicoeres radiatusand first video evidence of anvil use Halichoeres Garnotti and Halichoeres bivittatus.

Tool-used genus within the family Labridae. Image credit: Taliel Adam et al. , doi: 10.1007/s00338-025-02633-w.

The use of tools was once considered human characteristics and a fundamental role in human evolution.

Evidence suggests that the use of tools is widespread among animals.

Animals use tools when using external objects to accomplish a particular task.

The tool allows animals to accomplish tasks and do them easier. The use of tools appears to be extremely beneficial for animals, and raises the question of why all animals do not use the tools.

Previous research into the evolution of tool use has been limited by morphology and ecology, which contrasts with the difficulty of finding closely related populations or species of varying degrees of use of tools.

Although it has not been well studied, the use of tools in fish may be an exception. Fish are the most distinctive vertebrate groups with high ecological and morphological diversity, even among closely related species.

The use of anvils is an example of tool use in fish. With anvil, the fish (i) grabs hard shell prey, such as sea urchins and bivalves, in their mouths, (ii) swims on hard surfaces such as rocks and coral heads, and (iii) opens the fierce surface quickly and repeatedly.

The use of anvils is described in 26 fish species, and all WRASSEs belonging to the family Labridae.

“The use of tools is usually related to humans, but this behavior proves that fish are far more clever than trust,” says Dr. Juliet Taliel Adam, a researcher at Macquarie University.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Videoiseries

Through the use of fish tools in the Citizen Science Initiative, Dr. Taliel Adam and her colleagues gathered 16 new observations in five species. Harikoeles WRASSES.

The findings present the first evidence of three anvil use and two other two video evidence, extending the known anvil use range into the Western Atlantic.

“With these newly discovered tool-used species, it becomes clear that many species of Huaras use tools they didn’t know before,” Dr. Taliel Adam said.

“This study adds to the study of fish intelligence,” added Callum Brown, a senior author at Macquarie University.

“They demonstrate the use of flexible and dexterous tools and are expanding their understanding of the evolution of tool use in the animal kingdom.”

Team’s result It will be displayed in the journal Coral reef.

____

J. Taliel Adam et al. Using tools by the New World Harikoeles WRASSES. Coral reefPublished online on March 26th, 2025. doi:10.1007/s00338-025-02633-w

Source: www.sci.news

Wasps have a unique ability to store alcohol that surpasses any other animal on the planet.

Posted on by
Reply

Oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) may drink you under the table

Vladimir Kazachikov/Shutterstock

One species of wasp, which often eats alcohol-containing foods, can retain alcohol at levels that other known animals cannot tolerate without causing side effects.

‘This is crazy,’ says study author Sofia Bucebuti at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, Israel.

Oriental wasp diet (vespa orientalis) consists of ripe fruit containing nectar and grapes. This fruit contains sugar, which is converted to ethanol through natural fermentation over time.

While ethanol is highly nutritious for animals, it is also highly intoxicating. Even animals that routinely eat fermented fruit, such as fruit flies and shrews, cannot have more than 4% ethanol in their diet, Bucebuti and his colleagues say.

But when Bucebuti’s team fed the hornets nothing for a week other than various sugar solutions containing varying amounts of ethanol from 1 to 80 percent, the hornets seemed unaffected. Neither their behavior nor their lifespans changed. What makes this particularly surprising is that a solution containing 80% ethanol contains four times the alcohol content of what occurs in nature.

“We initially experimented with only 20%. [ethanol] And we are already surprised,” say study authors Elan Levin At Tel Aviv University, Israel. The 80% ethanol figure is “even more incredible.”

Analysis of the genomes of several wasp species suggests that the insects have two to four copies of the gene that produces NADP+, which helps break down alcohol. Researchers think this may help explain why the oriental hornet, and perhaps other wasp species, can process such large amounts of alcohol.

These findings “remind us that we’re not the only ones who like alcohol.” james fry at the University of Rochester in New York. However, because data from other animal studies are difficult to compare, researchers are not convinced that wasps are the only organisms that can process such large amounts of alcohol.

Wasps’ love of alcohol may give them a competitive advantage when it comes to eating nutritious, highly fermented foods, researchers say. Irene Stefanini At the University of Turin, Italy. She believes that the wasp’s resistance is probably related to the mutualistic relationship between the animal and fermenting brewer’s yeast. budding yeastWhich her study They have been shown to live in the intestines of wasps, survive, and even mate. Perhaps the wasp helps the yeast move from fruit to fruit, and the yeast helps the wasp find energy-rich food.

topic:

  • insect/
  • drugs and alcohol

Source: www.newscientist.com

New research indicates that caterpillars are able to detect predatory wasps through the emission of static electricity.

Posted on by
Reply

Predatory wasps are electrically charged and emit electric fields, and their larvae respond to these fields with defensive behaviour, according to a new study from the University of Bristol.

Sam J. England and Daniel Robert discovered that some terrestrial animals can sense the electric fields emitted by electrostatically charged predators and use this sensation to mount defensive actions. These photos show the four animal species examined in the study: (A) A Cinnabarga larva (Tilia jacobae) Taking a defensive posture. (B) The larva of a rare transpiration moth (Terrorcrus Rekens) in a defensive coiled position. (C) The larva of the European peacock butterfly (Aglais), (D) a predatory common hornet in the middle of a defensive maneuver (HornetImage credit: Sam J. England & Daniel Robert, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2322674121.

“Many animals naturally build up static electricity on their bodies as they move around in their environment, and we knew that static electricity can push or pull on other charged objects,” said researcher Sam England, from the University of Bristol.

“In particular, we knew that insect hairs can be moved by electric fields emitted by electrostatically charged objects, in the same way that an electrically charged balloon can move hair on the head.”

“This got us thinking: What if prey animals like caterpillars could detect predators by sensing the electric fields emitted by the predators?”

“Could the static electricity of a predator like a wasp be enough to alert the caterpillar to the approach of the wasp, by pushing and pulling on the caterpillar's sensory hairs?”

Dr England and his colleague, Professor Daniel Robert, from the University of Bristol, measured how much static electricity the wasps and caterpillars had picked up by passing them through a static sensor.

The researchers then fed these charge values ​​into a computational model to mathematically predict how strong the electric field would be as the wasp approached the larvae on the plant.

When the caterpillars reacted defensively to these conditions, they were able to determine whether it was sensory hairs that were detecting the electricity by using a laser to detect tiny vibrations and measuring how much the hairs moved in response to electric fields of different frequencies.

The results are concerning because they show that the caterpillars are also sensitive to the frequencies of electric fields emitted by power lines and other electronic devices.

This means that humans may be filling the environment with electrical “noise” that interferes with animals' ability to detect predators.

Dr England continued: “We now feel it is extremely urgent to assess whether introducing a new type of sensory pollution – electrical noise – is interfering with the ability of caterpillars, and other animals, to detect predators.”

Almost all terrestrial animals seem to accumulate static electricity, so this static sense may be widespread, and the discovery that static electricity plays a role in these ecological interactions would open up an entirely new dimension to our understanding of how animals sense each other, and more generally, how and why animals evolve in certain ways.

“Our study suggests that terrestrial animals may be able to use static electricity as a predator-detection cue,” Dr England said.

“This is likely an ability that is particularly widespread in insects and small animals such as spiders and scorpions.”

“This study provides the first example of an animal detecting predators by sensing static electricity emitted by the predator.”

“This reveals a new dimension of predator-prey interactions on land, but also suggests a previously unnoticed way in which we may be negatively impacting wildlife by introducing sources of electrosensory pollution.”

of study Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

_____

Sam J. England & Daniel Robert. 2024. Prey can detect predators via airborne electroreception. PNAS 121(23):e2322674121; doi:10.1073/pnas.2322674121

Source: www.sci.news

Paper wasps with earthworm-like characteristics produce a special milk for their young

Posted on by
Reply

Female American paper wasp and her offspring

carlos jared

These worm-like creatures secrete nutritious milk from their butts to nourish their hatchlings. This is the first known example of an amphibian feeding its young in this way.

American paper wasp (Siphonops anulatus) is a legless, egg-laying amphibian found on dark, moist forest floors throughout South America. It can reach up to 45 centimeters in length, with a deep blue cylindrical body surrounded by white grooves.

American paper wasps are born with spoon-shaped teeth. They use these to feed on their mother's skin, which is rich in lipids and proteins.

“But this skin nourishment only happens once a week,” he says carlos jared At the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. That's not enough food to maintain the young's growth rate, he says, with some cubs growing 150 percent larger within the first week of life.

To find out where their extra nutrition is coming from, Jared and his colleagues filmed 16 female ringed wasps and their hatchlings.

The researchers observed the newly hatched chicks wriggling around the edges of their mother's body several times a day, often nibbling or sticking their heads into the rear opening known as the vent.

Closer examination of the footage showed that droplets of a milk-like substance were frequently spilled into the vent openings, suggesting that the chicks were actively feeding on it.

Analysis of the milk revealed that it contained fat and carbohydrates. “These carbohydrates are very important,” say team members Pedro Maillo-Fontanathe Butantan Research Institute also provides hatchlings with the energy they need to grow.

The researchers also discovered that touch and sound signals from hatchlings stimulate milk production in the mother's oviducts, or glands within the fallopian tubes.

Some paper wasps that give birth to live offspring secrete nutritious fluids for the fetus inside the mother's body, while amphibians produce fluids to nourish their offspring outside the body, Mailho-Fontana said. This is the first time that this has been found to be the case.

“The paper wasp is a real surprise box,” says Jared. “They are very secretive and live in an underground world that is different from the one above. They adapt to a world that is completely different from the one we know and invent some new behaviors to survive. There was a need.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com