Entomology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mosquitoes use olfactory cues to locate their host. Here, Riabinina et al. use genetic labelling of olfactory receptor neurons in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiaeto show that these neurons project to the antennal lobe, a known insect olfactory centre, and the subesophageal zone, a region previously linked to gustatory processing.

    • Olena Riabinina
    • , Darya Task
    •  & Christopher J. Potter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In honeybees, pheromones produced by the queen inhibit reproduction by workers and enforce a eusocial division of labour. Here, Duncan, Hyink and Dearden show that this inhibition is mediated by the Notch signalling pathway in the workers' ovaries.

    • Elizabeth J. Duncan
    • , Otto Hyink
    •  & Peter K. Dearden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Wolbachia bacteria infect insects and could potentially be used to control populations of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes. Here, the authors provide evidence that natural Wolbachia infections affect the rate of egg laying and are associated with reduced presence of malaria parasites in Anophelesmosquitoes.

    • W. Robert Shaw
    • , Perrine Marcenac
    •  & Flaminia Catteruccia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Circadian rhythms synchronize important biological processes, and are thought to primarily be entrained by environmental cycles in light and temperature, with little or no role for social interactions. Here, Fuchikawa et al. show that social cues among honeybees can entrain these rhythms even in the presence of conflicting light-dark cycles.

    • Taro Fuchikawa
    • , Ada Eban-Rothschild
    •  & Guy Bloch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Foraging is energetically demanding for animals like hawkmoths that feed while flying. Here, Haverkamp et al. show that Manduca sexta has an innate preference for feeding on species of Nicotianawhose flower corolla length best matches the length of their proboscis, which allowed more efficient foraging and yielded the highest caloric gain.

    • Alexander Haverkamp
    • , Julia Bing
    •  & Markus Knaden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Parents are faced with the dilemma whether to invest in their current offspring, or potential future young. Here, Engel et al. show that nutritionally-dependent young induce temporary infertility in female burying beetles, which in turn is signalled to the male partner via a hormone-related anti-aphrodisiac.

    • Katharina C. Engel
    • , Johannes Stökl
    •  & Sandra Steiger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insect wings are under multiple competing selection pressures, but which are important in natural populations is not clear. Using RNAi to modify wing shape, Ray et al. show that aerial agility can be significantly enhanced in Drosophila, suggesting that natural variation does not reflect an optimization solely for flight agility.

    • Robert P. Ray
    • , Toshiyuki Nakata
    •  & Richard J. Bomphrey

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The common bedbug is a pest for humans, yet its molecular biology is poorly understood. Here, the authors sequence the common bedbug genome and profile gene expression across all life stages to show major changes in gene expression after feeding on human blood.

    • Jeffrey A. Rosenfeld
    • , Darryl Reeves
    •  & Christopher E. Mason

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The burying beetle shows flexible parenting behaviour. Here, the authors show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present and find similar gene expression profiles in uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males, which suggests no specialization in parenting.

    • Darren J. Parker
    • , Christopher B. Cunningham
    •  & Allen J. Moore

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Insects include most living species, yet the causes of this remarkable diversity remain unclear. Here, the authors show a positive relationship between herbivory and diversification among insect orders, which suggests that herbivory helps explain insect diversity.

    • John J. Wiens
    • , Richard T. Lapoint
    •  & Noah K. Whiteman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the mechanism underlying the evolution of ecologically relevant traits is challenging. Here the authors show that changes in the Hox protein Ultrabithorax and its target genegiltcontribute to the evolution of long-mid-legs in water striders, a critical trait to escape predators.

    • David Armisén
    • , Peter Nagui Refki
    •  & Abderrahman Khila

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The coffee berry borer, the main insect pest of coffee, feeds and lives on the caffeine-rich beans despite caffeine’s toxic effects. Here Ceja-Navarro et al. show that certain microbes, including Pseudomonasspecies, mediate caffeine detoxification in the insect’s gut.

    • Javier A. Ceja-Navarro
    • , Fernando E. Vega
    •  & Eoin L. Brodie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of neuropeptide signalling in insects is poorly understood. Here the authors map renal tissue architecture in the major insect Orders, and show that while the ancient neuropeptide families are involved in signalling in nearly all species, there is functional variation in the cell types that mediate the signal.

    • Kenneth A. Halberg
    • , Selim Terhzaz
    •  & Julian A. T. Dow

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Post-translational mRNA editing has the potential to enhance the diversity of gene products and alter the functional properties of proteins. Here, Li et al. provide evidence that RNA editing is involved in generating caste-specific contrasting phenotypes in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior.

    • Qiye Li
    • , Zongji Wang
    •  & Guojie Zhang

  • Article |

    Certain bacterial metabolites can affect insect behaviour, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here, the authors show that 2-aminoacetophenone, produced by the opportunistic human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, attracts flies and facilitates microbial dissemination and colonization of the fly gut.

    • Stefania-Elisavet Kapsetaki
    • , Ilias Tzelepis
    •  & Yiorgos Apidianakis

  • Article |

    Determining how pesticides found in nectar and pollen impair pollinator behaviour in the field requires setting standards for measuring effects in free-ranging insects. Here, Henry et al.show that sublethal effects of a neonicotinoid pesticide in bees depends on the landscape and time of exposure.

    • Mickaël Henry
    • , Colette Bertrand
    •  & Axel Decourtye

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pheromones can be used as an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional pesticides. Here, the authors produce moth sex pheromones in Nicotiana benthamianaby transient expression and demonstrate that these pheromones are able to trap male moths as efficiently as their synthetic counterparts.

    • Bao-Jian Ding
    • , Per Hofvander
    •  & Christer Löfstedt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Locusts are destructive agricultural pests and serve as a model organism for studies of insects. Here, the authors report a draft genome sequence of the migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, and provide insight into genes associated with key survival traits such as phase-change, long-distance migration and feeding.

    • Xianhui Wang
    • , Xiaodong Fang
    •  & Le Kang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exposure to pesticides can disrupt foraging and navigation behaviour in bees. Palmer et al. use electrophysiology to show that two neonicotinoids and an organophosphate miticide cause neuronal dysfunction in the honeybee brain at environmentally relevant concentrations.

    • Mary J. Palmer
    • , Christopher Moffat
    •  & Christopher N. Connolly

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some social aphids have evolved to live inside completely closed galls, which presents a waste disposal problem of the honeydew that collects inside the gall. Here, Kutsukake et al.show that the gall inner surface is specialized for absorbing water, removing honeydew via the plant vascular system.

    • Mayako Kutsukake
    • , Xian-Ying Meng
    •  & Takema Fukatsu

  • Article |

    Sex pheromones are used by adult members of a species to attract a mate. This study proposes that the larvae of the cotton leafwormSpodoptera littoralisare attracted to sex pheromones and prefer a food source containing it, suggesting an alternative use of the sex pheromone to trigger food search in caterpillars.

    • Erwan Poivet
    • , Kacem Rharrabe
    •  & Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hemimetabolous insects comprise many pests but introducing targeted mutations into these species has been difficult. This paper reports efficient targeted mutagenesis, and the generation of homozygous knockouts, in crickets based on zinc finger nucleases or transcription activator-like effector nucleases.

    • Takahito Watanabe
    • , Hiroshi Ochiai
    •  & Taro Mito

  • Article |

    Resilin is a polymeric elastic protein that is important for the flight and jumping of insects. Here, the structure-function relationships ofDrosophilaresilin are investigated, and a mechanical model is proposed to account for its elasticity.

    • Guokui Qin
    • , Xiao Hu
    •  & David L. Kaplan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) use their antennae for orientation during their autumnal migration. Guerra and colleagues differentially disrupt clock gene expression in each antenna and find that the individual outputs are integrated and processed to allow precise control of orientation behaviour.

    • Patrick A. Guerra
    • , Christine Merlin
    •  & Steven M. Reppert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In several Hymenoptera species - ants, bees and wasps - sexual fate is determined by the allelic composition at the complementary sex - determiner locus. This study identifies the honeybeecomplementary sex - determinerin bumble bee and ant orthologues, previously thought to be unique to the honeybee lineage.

    • Sandra Schmieder
    • , Dominique Colinet
    •  & Marylène Poirié

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The loss of flight in some insect lineages may promote allopatric differentiation and result in a high speciation rate. Here, using the carrion beetle, loss of flight is shown to accelerate allopatric speciation with higher genetic differentiation than for flight-capable species.

    • Hiroshi Ikeda
    • , Masaaki Nishikawa
    •  & Teiji Sota

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Female Swallowtail butterflies will only lay their eggs on a small number of plants, which they choose by detecting specific chemicals on the leaf surface. Here, a gustatory receptor,PxutGr1, is identified in Papilio xuthus, which is used by the butterfly to detect synephrine when selecting a host plant.

    • Katsuhisa Ozaki
    • , Masasuke Ryuda
    •  & Hiroshi Yoshikawa

  • Article |

    The cryptic Wood White butterflies,Leptidea sinapis and Leptidea reali, represent a model for the study of speciation. Dincă et al. use DNA and chromosome data to show that this group, in fact, consists of a triplet of species, a result that provides a new perspective on cryptic biodiversity.

    • Vlad Dincă
    • , Vladimir A. Lukhtanov
    •  & Roger Vila

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The presence of earthworms is known to enhance the quality and moisture of soil in cool and wet climates. Evanset al. show that termites and ants can improve soil quality in warmer and drier climates—their presence results in elevated water infiltration and nitrogen content, leading to increased wheat yields.

    • Theodore A. Evans
    • , Tracy Z. Dawes
    •  & Nathan Lo

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