Insects, Pest & Beneficial

CALS Entomologist, Dr. Clyde Sorenson, tells WUNC radio about the life cycle and emergence of Brood II of red-eyed 17-year magicicadas, who will shortly emerge from the soil for a mating frenzy. They sound, he says, eerie, like a weird cross between a fire engine and a space ship. There's a sound clip in the story, too! | Read more | http://tinyurl.com/clp2ve6

Combining new tools, such as marker-assisted selection (MAS) with time-honored methods, Dr. Dilip Panthee carries on NCSU’s strong tradition in plant breeding, developing hardier, higher-yielding plants for NC's $30B/year tomato industry.

NCSU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) has the nation’s largest university plant breeding program; and Pantheeproudly follows in the footsteps of Dr. Randy Gardner, a retired breeder credited with developing the cultivars used on some 60-75% of the vine-ripe tomatoes grown in the Eastern US.

Working at the Mt. Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center in Mills River, Panthee focuses on developing tomato breeding lines and cultivars with three traits: disease resistance, fruit quality and stress tolerance. That’s because, in a survey he conducted, these three traits were the ones NC  growers reported needing the most.

Read more about our tomato breeding program:

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agcomm/news-center/?p=21430

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/tomato/

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/achievement/tomato_breeding.htm

Some of our releases:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/tomato/publications.html

"When Hurricane Sandy whipped through the Mid-Atlantic in October, the superstorm not only damaged hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced thousands of residents and shut down Wall Street, it swept right through the middle of an NC State research project collecting data on insects in New York City. Researchers will return to the storm-ravaged region next month to continue their work.

"The project got off to a smooth start last summer when ecologists Amy Savage and Elsa Youngsteadt, researchers in the Departments of Entomology and Biology, deposited sticky card traps, data loggers and other measuring devices in trees throughout New York City parks. This was part of Youngsteadt’s research on how urban warming impacts arthropods (such as scale insects, leaf hoppers and caterpillars.) Savage was studying the ecology of Manhattan’s ants."

Note: Both researchers are members of the team of Your Wild Life, a fascinating, rich group of studies, including Citizen Science, from the lab of Rob R. Dunn in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, NCSU.

You can see their profiles here:

http://www.yourwildlife.org/about-us/

Dr. Yasmin Cardoza and grad student, Amos Little, studied how compost helps plants resist insect pests such as corn earworm, cabbage worm, green peach aphid and cabbage aphid. The research was funded by the Southern SARE program.

CALS researchers find that one of the most aggressive invasive ant species in the US, the Argentine ant, appears to have met its match in the Asian needle ant. Former NC State PhD student Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice & Dr. Jules Silverman, Entomology, published their findings in PLoS One:

http://scienceblog.com/59643/asian-needle-ants-displacing-other-aggressive-invaders/ ;

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056281

Like a self-absorbed teenager, insects spend a lot of time grooming.

In a study that delves into the mechanisms behind this common function, North Carolina State University researchers show that insect grooming – specifically, antennal cleaning – removes both environmental pollutants and chemicals produced by the insects themselves.

The findings, published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that grooming helps insects maintain acute olfactory senses that are responsible for a host of functions, including finding food, sensing danger and even locating a suitable mate.

The findings could also explain why certain types of insecticides work more effectively than others, leading to new pesticides.

Read the paper in PNAS here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/01/29/1212466110.abstract

"When Sandy whipped through the Mid-Atlantic, also swept through an NCSU research project collecting data on NYC insects. Researchers return to the storm-ravaged region shortly. Ecologists Amy Savage & Elsa Youngsteadt placed sticky card traps, data loggers & other measuring devices in NYC park trees. Youngsteadt was studying how urban warming affects arthropods (scale insects, leaf hoppers, caterpillars). Savage was studying the ecology of Manhattan’s ants."

Both researchers are members of the team of Your Wild Life, from the lab of Dr. Rob R. Dunn in the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NCSU. You'll find their profiles here:

http://www.yourwildlife.org/about-us/

Read the story at:

http://bulletin.ncsu.edu/2013/02/insects/

The video draws on the research of wheat breeder, Dr. Paul Murphy, small grains specialist, Dr. Randy Weisz and entomologist, Dr. Dominic Reisig to demonstrate how to control this insect pest of wheat in the southeast. The video is produced through a collaboration of the NC Small Grain Growers Association and the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences at NC State University.