Insects are increasingly being recognized not only as a source of food to feed the ever growing world population but also as potential sources of new products and therapeutic agents, among which are sterols. In this study, we sought to profile sterols and their derivatives present in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, focusing on those with potential importance as dietary and therapeutic components for humans.

Original Source

The potential for infectious pathogens to spillover and emerge from managed populations to wildlife communities is poorly understood, but ecological, evolutionary and anthropogenic factors are all likely to influence the initial exposure and subsequent infection, spread and impact of disease. Fast-evolving RNA viruses, known to cause severe colony losses in managed honeybee populations, deserve particular attention for their propensity to jump between host species and thus threaten ecologically and economically important wild pollinator communities.

Past land use can create altered soil conditions and plant communities that persist for decades, although the effects of these altered conditions on consumers are rarely investigated. Using a large-scale field study at 36 sites in longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) woodlands, the researchers examined whether historic agricultural land use leads to differences in the abundance and community composition of insect herbivores (grasshoppers, families Acrididae and Tettigoniidae).

Global wind speeds have decreased 5–15% over the last 30 years and are expected to continue decreasing in the future. However, little is known about how wind affects species and their interactions within communities. The researcher experimentally tested the effects of wind on predator–prey interactions using soybean aphids and predatory multicolored Asian ladybeetles.