Functional Response Of Lace Wing

The gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) is a highly disruptive species that can, and has played a distinctive role in the lives of many organisms. Included in these organisms are various deciduous trees and shrubs, wildlife species that share the same environment, and even humans. The gypsy moth destroys the beauty of woodlands via defoliation, alters ecosystems and wildlife habitats, and disrupts our own lives. It should therefore come as no surprise that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and many other agencies have taken huge steps to help diminish populations of this small, yet persistent species. In an effort to control these overwhelming populations, five chemical control agents have

In this experiment, we tested three different environments, soil, sand, and a leafy mixture to see which one a pill bug would prefer the most. Originally, we believed that the pill bug would find the leafy substance to be most favorable. Five pill bugs and then a single pill bug was placed in the center so that it could select one of the substrates. The data collected at the end of the experiment opposed our original hypothesis as we discovered that the most favored environment was the soil. This finding could correlate with the dark color of the soil closely matching the color of the pill bug or the moisture in the soil.

In this chapter the author stresses the importance of creatures that pollinate such as insects, birds,

When consumer goods are brought from abroad and land on American soil, they often bring with them insect species devastating to our native vegetation. Just like how the Native Americans didn’t have immunity against smallpox when the Europeans settled, our trees don’t have immunity against the various bugs that trees in Asia, Africa, or South America have adapted to fight.

According to Silent Spring, the United States Office of Plant Introduction has introduced about 200,000 species of plants from around the world, and almost half of the 180 major insect enemies of plants are accidental imports. According to Campbell’s Biology Textbook, these imported animals are known as invasive species, organisms that become established outside their native range. Carson states that often when a species is brought to an area they are not native to, the lack of natural enemies causes the species to become dominant and extremely abundant. These invasions are likely to be permanent, however as a way to “buy time” humans have turned to quarantine and massive chemical campaigns, instead of trying to prevent new invasions. As Carson continuously stresses chemical use can have unwanted consequences and she urges people to use the basic knowledge of animal populations and their relations to their surroundings and other species to prevent them from becoming overly dominate. For example, according to Campbell’s textbook, higher diversity communities are more often resistant to invasive species because the species is less likely to dominate over the native species. This was proven by scientists working in Long Island Sounds off the Coast of Connecticut created communities of different diversity consisting of sessile marine invertebrates, and examined how vulnerable the experimental communities were to an invasive species: the exontic tunicate. They found the tunicate was four times more likely to survive in lower diversity communities than higher diversity communities. It was concluded the diverse communities captured more of the resources available, leaving fewer resources for the invader. It is firmly believed by Carson that people should do much more simple research before transferring a foreign species to a new habitat to not only prevent a

“As biological novelties to the ecosystems, GM crops may potentially affect the fitness of other species, population dynamics, ecological roles, and interactions, promoting local extinctions, population explosions, and changes in community structure and function inside and outside agro-ecosystems” (Gertsberg, 2011).

In the early 1940’s, a new technology emerged that was able to successfully combat crop-damaging and disease-carrying insects. A new age of synthetic chemical pesticides use arose. After their impressive success in fighting deadly insect-borne diseases during World War II, pesticides were used widely to combat insect pests for agriculture and public health. Few people challenged the benefits of the new scientific and technological products and many embraced pesticide use with enthusiasm. Despite its success, doubts about pesticide use began to appear a decade later in the 1950’s, when the government began a vigorous pesticide campaign across the country against insect pests. Scientists began reporting heavy losses of avian and

The European honey bee interacts with a wide diversity of flora (over 200) and native Australian fauna, especially through the sharing of floral resources. These interactions can be harmful to threatened species if the resources are limited, and due to the degree of how much the honey bee consumes, relative to the other species.

In areas like Southwest Queensland, it is quite difficult for farmers to undertake effective control of locusts. Therefore the Australian Plague Locust Commission (APLC) organises the aerial application of pesticides onto effected areas, refer to Figure 5. It is not certain that there will be a response from the APLC so ground control is recommended to all landholders in infested areas, this includes them applying pesticides onto their private land. Refer to Figure

What is the first picture that comes to your mind when you hear people talking about invasive species? For me, it was some type of exotic looking animal. Although, the truth is that in reality these invasive species essentially look like they belong in the habitat that they are taking over. By definition, “an invasive species is defined as an organism (plant, animal, fungus, or bacterium) that is not native and has negative effects on our economy, our environment, or our health” ("Invasive Species"). After my research, I believe that the Africanized Honey Bee is certainly a threat to the economy, but there are many ways to avoid them so it is not necessary to

Genetically modified crops are being developed to produce their own pesticide. This will bring the rapid appearance of resistant insects. Even worse, these pesticide producing plants have killed some beneficial insects and pests that many farmers use in their crops. For example, inserting a gene from a snowdrop, a perennial herb found in Europe and Asia into a potato, made the potato resistant to the green fly, but killed lady bugs that feed on green flies.

Goodall exemplifies,“[T]hey have been attacked by farmers, gardeners, and governments. Unfortunately the weapons of choice have been chemical pesticides…”(62). The prominent expression here is “attacked”. By this it shows that most people’s perspective on beetles are in a negative connotation. Beetles are being attacked and Goodall finds this unpleasant because of how the organisms are being killed. The chemical pesticides are being used to perish these organisms and is mostly used in an unnecessary manner which means that these beetles are being killed because of others’ judgemental

Invasive species have a variety of impacts, many of which are unpredictable. The Africanized honey bee (also known as the “killer bee” in the media community or apis mellifera scutellata among scientists) provides an excellent case study of how even an intentionally introduced invasive species can become uncontrollable and problematic.

Capinera, J 2010. Insects and Wildlife: Arthropods and their relationships with wild vertebrate animals, pp. 55. Wiley Blackwell, Gainesville, Fl. Foster, S and Harris, M. 1997. Behavioral manipulation methods for insect pest- management.

Other services nature provides are more easily taken for granted. We depend on plant life to replenish the oxygen in the atmosphere, and on insects to replace nutrients in the soil. (31) These insects are especially vital, as they are part of the foundation of nearly all ecosystems. Without insects, plant species that rely on them for pollination would quickly become extinct, including many of the species we rely on for food. Following them would be species that feed on insects, as well as species which rely on vegetation as part of their habitats. Finally, as insects make the prime contribution to soil renewal, even non-insect pollinated plant life would begin to decline. (34) The result, according to Wilson, would