The Tobacco Hornworm�s Genome
Scientists have finally sequenced the genome of the tobacco hornworm
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Scientists have finally sequenced the genome of the tobacco hornworm
You would think that insects, being as miniscule in size as they are compared to humans, wouldn't pose much of a threat to us. True, mosquitos, ticks, and fleas spread pretty awful diseases, but for the most part insects can't usually kill us directly. It's the disease that kills people, and the insect just happens to carry it. However, deaths do in fact occur where the insect murderer is directly responsible for ending a person's life
We have all heard about the black widow spider before, but what about its lesser known cousin the brown widow? Probably not, because this spider has always been found in tropical areas, until recently that is. Lately residents of the Southeastern United States have been reporting brown widow sightings, and they are only increasing. Entomologists located in this area have also been documenting its increased prevalence in the USA
Bed bugs originated in the tropics and have been annoying people for a very long time. They were first documented during the first century, and they are noted for their ability to hitchhike on people's clothes or other sources of fabric. Bed bugs have likely been a problem for humans since day one, but there are several reasons as to why they are becoming a big problem now.
Mosquitoes are the most dangerous creatures on the earth. They kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, which is more than any other animal on the planet, although I am sure that they are rivaled by humans. With the advent of Zika, there are many people shrugging and asking about what would happen if we humans simply killed all of the mosquitoes in the world.
An insect enthusiast vacationing in Thailand lifted a rock with the hopes that maybe he would stumble upon an undiscovered type of bug. He did indeed find a creature that he had never seen before, but a colleague of his had just discovered it in the same country. That is a bummer for the guy vacationing, but at least he got to study it before anyone else. The centipede has been named Scolopendra Cataracta,
It is commonly believed that over the course of our lives we will consume a whole lot of spiders by inadvertently eating them in our sleep. And not only that, but there are several common stories that talk about bugs laying eggs inside different body cavities in humans. These stories are believed to be myths, but the fact is doctors do see emergency room visits involving bugs in body cavities
The diving bell spider lives a seemingly difficult, and probably frustrating life. This type of spider is the only spider to call the water its habitat. However, this spider does not have gills, so it is forced to build small submersibles that allow for underwater travel.
Up till recently the only mosquitos known to be capable of transmitting the Zika virus were species that prefer warmer, tropical climates. However, scientists just discovered that a much more prevalent mosquito species in the U.S. called Culex tarsalis