Sometimes the spider and insect news sounds the same year after year. Tips for dealing with [fill in the blank] insect infestations, beneficial insects for the garden and similar stories seem to roll off the presses on a daily basis. Sometimes in the insect world, tis true, what's old is new.



Then again, tis true in the insect world that what's new is new. Consider the following two stories.



First, a brand new arachnid has been discovered. All one need do is expand the general conception of arachnid to include scorpions and you're set with a hot story.



Recent fieldwork by some California researchers reveals the existence of a new scorpion, similar to other Pseudouroctonus species. While not an earth shaking discovery, four scorpion species have been discovered in twenty years, it provides incentive for all entomologists to continue the search for something new and unusual. After all, what's new can only be new if someone finds it.



Further on in the insect world, we're taught at an early age that flowers are an insects best friend. Or so everyone seemed to think. With all the news about how different pesticides and practices might be harmful to insect populations, scientists from the University of California at Riverside might get the title of Doctor Downers.



They have been examining the relationship between insects and flowers and some of the news is not good. A healthy flower growing garden might be the locus for a parasite invasion,



"The researchers found four common honey bee and bumblebee parasites dispersed via flowers: Nosema apis (causes a honey bee disease), Nosema ceranae (causes an emergent disease in honey bees and bumblebees), Crithidia bombi (causes a bumblebee disease) and Apicystis bombi (mostly found in bumblebees). These parasites are known to cause, lethargy, dysentery, colony collapse, and queen death in heavily infected bees."



So, while an attack of killer flowers might now be in the immediate future for anyone's garden, insects, especially the bees that forage throughout gardens everywhere need to have safer gardens in order to survive.
http://greennature.com/article1899.html

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