• chevron_right

      Lizard peninsula recovery project aims to save ‘microhabitats’

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Yesterday - 06:00

    Natural England-backed scheme at most southerly tip of UK will nurture lichens, liverworts and wildflowers

    The landscape at the most southerly tip of mainland Britain is expansive and grand: rolling heath and grasslands, spectacular cliffs, crashing waves.

    But a recovery project funded by Natural England is focusing on unique and vital “microhabitats” found in sometimes overlooked spots on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      Asian hornet may have become established in UK, sighting suggests

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · 3 days ago - 15:54

    Predatory species, which poses huge danger to bee populations, spotted on 11 March, indicating winter stay

    Asian hornets may have become established in the UK after the earliest-ever sighting of the predatory insect was recorded by the government this month.

    This is a dangerous development for Britain’s bee population and could have a knock-on effect on agriculture that needs the pollinators, because once hornets are established it is almost impossible to eliminate them.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      Empire of the ants: what insect supercolonies can teach us

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 19 March - 05:00

    People have long drawn comparisons between ant societies and human ones – but in fact they are a reminder of how limited our influence on the world really is

    It is a familiar story: a small group of animals living in a wooded grassland begin, against all odds, to populate Earth. At first, they occupy a specific ecological place in the landscape, kept in check by other species. Then something changes. The animals find a way to travel to new places. They learn to cope with unpredictability. They adapt to new kinds of food and shelter. They are clever. And they are aggressive .

    In the new places, the old limits are missing. As their population grows and their reach expands, the animals lay claim to more territories, reshaping the relationships in each new landscape by eliminating some species and nurturing others. Over time, they create the largest animal societies, in terms of numbers of individuals, that the planet has ever known. And at the borders of those societies, they fight the most destructive within-species conflicts, in terms of individual fatalities, that the planet has ever known.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      Bees move out while National Trust house in Wales gets new roof

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 19 March - 05:00

    Exclusive: Former owners of Plas yn Rhiw stipulated insects be protected so given temporary home while work takes place

    When the 17th-century manor house in the far north-west of Wales was bequeathed to the National Trust, it came with a clear condition: the bees in the roof, which sometimes produce so much honey that it oozes through cracks in the walls, should be left alone.

    However, the ravages of the wind and rain mean the slate roof of the house, Plas yn Rhiw, on the Llŷn peninsula, needs to be replaced and so about 50,000 rare Welsh black bees have been given a temporary home while the work is done.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      Brazil to release millions of anti-dengue mosquitoes as death toll from outbreak mounts

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 15 March - 10:00

    Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria that inhibit spread of disease to be introduced in six cities after successful pilot scheme

    A dengue-fighting strategy that involves releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes will be rolled out to six Brazilian cities in the coming months as the country battles a severe outbreak of dengue fever, a viral disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

    Factors such as hotter and wetter weather caused by the climate crisis and the circulation of previously absent subtypes of the virus are fuelling an explosion of dengue in Brazil, which has recorded 1.6m probable cases since January – the same number reported for all of last year – and 491 deaths, with a further 889 deaths under investigation, as of 14 March.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      Study: Cicadas pee in jets, not droplets. Here’s why that’s kinda weird.

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 12 March - 18:36 · 1 minute

    Cicadas' unique urination unlocks new understanding of fluid dynamics. Credit: Georgia Tech (Saad Bhamla/Elio Challita).

    Cicadas might be a mere inch or so long, but they eat so much that they have to pee frequently, emitting jets of urine, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This is unusual, since similar insects are known to form more energy-efficient droplets of urine instead of jets. Adult cicadas have even been known to spray intruders with their anal jets—a thought that will certainly be with us when "double brood" cicada season begins in earnest this spring.

    The science community has shown a lot of interest in the fluid dynamics of sucking insects but not as much in how they eliminate waste, according to Georgia Tech's Saad Bhamla (although Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by jet behavior and the role of fluid cohesion in drop formation). Yet this is a critical function for any organism's ecological and metabolic regulation. So Bhamla's research has focused on addressing that shortcoming and challenging what he believes are outdated mammal-centric paradigms that supposedly govern waste elimination in various creatures.

    For instance, last year, his team studied urination in the glassy-winged sharpshooter . The sharpshooter drinks huge amounts of water, piercing a plant's xylem (which transports water from the roots to stems and leaves) to suck out the sap. So sharpshooters pee frequently, expelling as much as 300 times their own body weight in urine every day. Rather than producing a steady stream of urine, sharpshooters form drops of urine at the anus and then catapult those drops away from their bodies at remarkable speeds, boasting accelerations 10 times faster than a Lamborghini.

    Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

    • chevron_right

      Labour to end UK exemptions for bee-killing pesticides outlawed by EU

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Tuesday, 5 March - 13:49

    Exclusive: Wildlife groups welcome promise to ban pesticides approved by government against scientists’ advice

    Labour will end exemptions for bee-killing pesticides that have already been outlawed in the EU but which the UK government has approved for four years in a row, the shadow environment minister has said.

    This week, the government authorised the use of thiamethoxam, also known as Cruiser SB, on sugar beet crops – against the advice of its scientists, who said it would pose a threat to bees.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      Weatherwatch: how solar farms benefit bees and butterflies

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Friday, 1 March - 06:00

    Research shows pollinating insects thrive in solar parks, particularly where a variety of plants are flourishing

    After the cloudy and wet winter, it may seem surprising that solar farms are becoming an increasing fixture in the British landscape. The low cost of solar electricity production, coupled with battery storage, is clearly commercially viable. But it is also controversial, with some objecting to the loss of potential food production and alleging damage to the character of the countryside.

    One unlooked-for benefit is for bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies, all species that are otherwise rapidly disappearing from our countryside. Field data from 15 sites in 2021 showed that pollinating insects thrived in solar parks, particularly where a variety of plants have been allowed to flourish or been planted underneath and around the panels.

    Continue reading...
    • chevron_right

      From the archive: How maverick rewilders are trying to turn back the tide of extinction – podcast

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian · Wednesday, 28 February - 05:00


    We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.

    From 2020: A handful of radical nature lovers are secretly breeding endangered species and releasing them into the wild. Many are prepared to break the law and risk the fury of the scientific establishment to save the animals they love. By Patrick Barkham

    Continue reading...