Saving the Bumblebee (film)

‘Saving the Bumblebee‘ – A 30 minute film about their plight by Jamie-Lee Loughlin. Thoroughly recommended!

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Sir David Attenborough: ‘Wildlife disaster heralds silent summer’

AFTER Silent Spring, Britain now faces the silent summer. Fifty years after Rachel Carson’s seminal book about humanity’s impact on nature, Sir David Attenborough has warned that Britain’s wildlife could be on the edge of the next great environmental disaster. He has written the foreword to a new book, Silent Summer, in which 40 leading [...]

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Beewolves protect their offspring with antibiotics

Digger wasp larvae use bacteria against infections Digger wasps of the genus Philanthus, so-called beewolves, house beneficial bacteria on their cocoons that guarantee protection against harmful microorganisms. Scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena teamed up with researchers at the University of Regensburg and the Jena Leibniz Institute for Natural Product [...]

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Temporary infidelity may contribute to the stability of ancient relationships

Fungus-farming ants have cultivated the same fungal crops for 50 million years. Each young ant queen carries a bit of fungus garden with her when she flies away to mate and establish a new nest. Short breaks in the ants’ relationship with the fungus during nest establishment may contribute to the stability of this long-term [...]

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