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<H2>Hey Caterpillar, Buzz Off!</H2>
<P>By Sara Coelho<BR><EM>Science</EM>NOW Daily News<BR>22 December 2008</P>What
would we do without bees? They give us honey and pollinate hundreds of staple
food crops throughout the world. Now it seems that the insects may play yet
another role in keeping us well fed: Their buzz protects crops and other plants
from caterpillar damage.
<P>Caterpillars destroy plants by feeding on leaves, flowers, and fruits. But
they have a predator of their own: the wasp. To defend itself, the caterpillar
has developed sensory hairs that "feel" the air vibrations caused by the beating
of wasp wings. If a wasp approaches, the caterpillar stops moving or drops off
the plant for safety. Jürgen Tautz, a biologist at the University of Würzburg in
Germany, wondered whether bees, whose wings beat with a similar frequency to
those of wasps, would have a similar effect.
<P>Tautz and his Würzburg colleague Michael Rostás built two cube-shaped tents
in the botanical garden of their university, each enclosing 10 bell pepper
plants. They then placed about 10 beet armyworm caterpillars (<I>Spodoptera
exigua</I>), a notorious crop pest, on each plant. One tent had a window
connected to a beehive, and feeders filled with a sugar solution attracted bees
inside. The second tent was closed to the outside world. After about 2 weeks,
Tautz and Rostás collected the leaves from the bell pepper plants.
<P>Bees do indeed protect crops from caterpillars, according to findings
reported online today in <I>Current Biology</I>. Bell pepper leaves in the tent
frequented by bees experienced one-third of the leaf damage as those in the
control tent. Similar results were obtained from a second experiment with
soybean plants. When a caterpillar drops off a plant in response to a bee's
buzz, it's wasting precious feeding time, says Tautz. But ignoring a hovering
wasp can be deadly, so it pays to play it safe.
<P>The scientists say that the discovery highlights the need to protect honey
bees, which are disappearing in <A
href="http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/1102/2">record
numbers</A>. "While the study was small, the results were convincing," says
ecologist Thomas Ings of the University of London, Queen Mary, a specialist in
pollinator behavior. Tautz also sees a role for the bees in a more
environmentally friendly type of pest control: Seeding crop fields with a few
more flowers should attract more bees--and fewer caterpillars--to a field, he
says.
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<H6><SPAN>The editors suggest the following Related Resources on
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<H5>In ScienceNOW</H5>
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<DT><EM></EM><BR><LABEL title="Select this article"
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Gill Sans MT" size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Laurie Davies Adams<BR>Executive
Director<BR><B>Pollinator Partnership </B><BR>423 Washington Street, 5th
floor<BR>San Francisco, CA
94111<BR>415-362-1137<BR>LDA@pollinator.org</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial
color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
face="Gill Sans MT" color=#0000ff size=4 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="14"><B><A
href="http://www.pollinator.org/">www.pollinator.org</A></B></FONT><FONT lang=0
face="Gill Sans MT" color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"></B><BR><A
href="http://www.nappc.org/">www.nappc.org</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
face="Gill Sans MT" color=#000000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="12"><B><I>National Pollinator Week is June 22-28, 2009. <BR>Beecome
involved at <A
href="http://www.pollinator.org/">www.pollinator.org</A></I></FONT></B></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="ac4d0b7710687e0a8c582d3145afe281"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. <a href="http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025">Try it now</a>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>