Articles written by Albert Burchsted

Lady slipper orchids are sensitive to loss of habitat from human activities and increasing overshadowing as forests mature.

Oct 8, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

A female garden orb weaver spider often eats the male after or during mating. This seems irrational, but eating the male helps produce more and larger eggs.

Oct 2, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

By emitting quiet hunting chirps, the barbastelle bat can locate and capture moths that normally evade bats hunting with loud sonar.

Sep 24, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Nontoxic moths have no chemical defenses against bats, but produce clicks that jam bat sonar instead of mimicking toxic moths.

Sep 22, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Tree swallows use reed beds in the northeastern U.S. for sleeping and protection from predators. Locations are permanent and taught to young birds.

Sep 11, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Dengue fever reappeared in Key West in 2009, and has affected Floridians since then, continuing into 2011. Mosquitoes transmit this potential killer.

Sep 2, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Venomous spider bites can cause severe damage. But there are gentle methods to reduce both the pain and length of time to be endured.

Jul 25, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Home remedies can reduce swellings and pain by neutralizing or drawing venom from the bites and stings of insects and spiders.

Jul 23, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Protective coloration protects some animals allowing them to blend with their environment, look like inedible objects, or break up their outline.

Jul 18, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

For a species to survive, individuals must live long enough to reproduce. This means they have to avoid being eaten. Spiders and insects share some methods.

May 30, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Flashing by fireflies attracts mates, but some researchers feel this behavior originally developed as a bat deterrent because bats avoid firefly flashes.

Feb 5, 2011 - Albert Burchsted

Cicada killers control cicadas by paralyzing many to feed their young in subterranean chambers, but pose little threat to humans

Dec 29, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

A female cicada killer wasp carries dozens of cicadas into her nest burrow - even though each cicada weighs more than the wasp itself.

Dec 29, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Sandhills hornets strip bark from bushes and trees and cause them to ooze sap. The sap is eaten by the hornets, bees, butterflies, and some birds.

Nov 3, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Although tiny, aphids feed dragonflies preparing to migrate or reproduce. These tiny prey provide rich supplies of nutrients for these predators.

Oct 22, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Dengue fever sickened several people in Key West in 2009 and 2010, and spread to Miami in 2010. Concern is that it has the potential to spread further.

Jul 19, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

A new DNA diagnostic test uses highly specific PCR polymerase chain reaction to identify Lyme disease bacteria in the blood of infected patients.

Jul 19, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Metamorphosis is not just changing skin and body morph. It involves a complex of changes that begin in the egg and culminate after the adult matures.

Jul 15, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Caterpillars of tiger moths eat poisonous plants. As adults, they make sounds that inform bats they are poisonous and not to eat them.

May 27, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

When a noctuid moth hears bat sonar, depending on how close the bat is, the moth either flies away from the bat or drops to the ground.

Apr 12, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Praying mantids that detect bat sonar often fold their wings and drop to the ground to escape being eaten. Even if the bat catches them, they are often dropped.

Mar 2, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Mantids escape bats by diving to the ground. How the detection is transferred from the receptors through neurons to result in the dive is described here.

Mar 2, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Though bats use sonar to find prey, some insects can hear them, take evasive action, and escape to live for another day.

Mar 1, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Bumblebees are the best and sometimes only pollinators for some flowers. Bumblebee anatomy and behaviors are necessary to pollinate red clover and lady slippers.

Feb 15, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Downy feathers, underfur, countercurrent heat transfer, and behavioral modifications are some of the impressive mechanisms helping keep animals warm during the winter.

Feb 15, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Because of an ability to burn sugars without producing ATP, the thermogenic cycle of plants can keep flowers warm to attract pollinators.

Jan 4, 2010 - Albert Burchsted

Invasive plants may be alien or native, but all have the ability to become superabundant at the expense of neighboring plants.

Dec 29, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Bola spiders release sex pheromones of moths to lure males. When one arrives, the spider swings a silk strand with a sticky ball on the end to capture the moth.

Dec 2, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Some spider brains are hard wired to kill and eat prey when it is captured. Replacing sticky threads with non-sticky ones prevents overindulgence.

Oct 31, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Some baby spiders eat their mothers and second mates kill eggs of former mates. These behaviors carry severe penalties for the female while the babies and males benefit.

Oct 30, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Having lost their poison glands, uloborid spiders wrap their living prey in a silk cocoon that smothers and sometimes crushes the prey to death.

Oct 29, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Genetically wired into insect brains are seasonal clocks, innate compasses, and maps that help these tiny long-distance migrants travel.

Oct 24, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Migrating insects return to the same wintering locations while they fuel, rest, and use routes and flight patterns that are similar to those used by birds.

Oct 17, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Dragonflies leave India, fly across the Indian Ocean to Africa with the assistance of storms, and their great grandchildren may make the return journey to India.

Oct 3, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Long, snowy winters and cool, rainy springs allow ticks to survive in high numbers. Thus, defensive prevention and tick checks are a must.

Sep 11, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Wasps and bees have stingers to fight off rivals, defend nests, and deter predators. The insects vary in willingness to sting and the venom varies in the pain produced.

Aug 22, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Both larval and adult dragonflies are preyed on. Unwary odonates are fair game as aquatic and flying predators enjoy dragonfly protein in their diets.

Aug 12, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Dragonflies and damselflies display unusual courtship. Eggs may be deposited underwater, drilled into mud, carved into stems, or dropped while in flight.

Aug 10, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Dragonflies are ancient amphibious insects in the order Odonata. Their aquatic predatory larvae metamorphose into aerial predators with better agility than bats have.

Aug 10, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Dragonflies and damselflies are counted all over the world. Distribution is uneven and depends on the presence of proper habitat and environmental factors.

Aug 9, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Whether carnivorous or herbivorous, many beetle larvae live invisibly inside plants or underground, sometime in numbers large enough to cause severe damage.

Jul 28, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

A once tropical mosquito is now well established in the US with the potential to initiate a devastating epidemic of viral, bacterial, or protozoan tropical diseases.

Jul 11, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Not being able to raise their own offspring, cowbirds are dependent on other birds to nurture their young. This poses problems for both hosts and cowbirds.

Jul 11, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Removing feces from the nest helps keep the area clean and also reduces visibility of the nest to predators. Which of these is more important is discussed here.

Jul 8, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Most insects cannot fly until their body temperature approaches 100oF (38oC). Various behavioral and physiological methods of increasing temperature are used.

Jul 7, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Scientists are busy identifying the myriad of molecules that regulate social, reproductive, and emergency interactions of aphids and associated animals.

Jun 25, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Although ants and aphids are known to share a mutually positive relationship, the ants keep their "cows" in line through behavioral and chemical constraints.

Jun 20, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Viral diseases that aphids transmit to plants are either persistent or last only a few days. The viruses of persistent infections permeate the entire body of the aphid.

May 18, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Dangers and restrictions of gall living affect the dwellers. The ways in which aphids attempt to overcome these are highly evolved, yet are sometimes insurmountable.

May 13, 2009 - Albert Burchsted

Although most are aerial, many aphids cause plants to produce galls, produce external camouflage, or even go underground and spend the winter in ant burrows.

May 10, 2009 - Albert Burchsted