Arthropods in Astronomy

Geotropic Orientation in Arthropods

The creeping of the beetle Tetraopes tetraopthalmus during negatively geotropic orientation shows the angles of orientation (theta) on a surface inclined at alpha degrees to the horizontal to be proportional to sin alpha. The direction of orientation easily suffers temporary reversal to positive as result of handling. Mechanical stability during upward progression should be just possible when K...

Invasive arthropods.

Many arthropod species have been transported around the globe and successfully invaded new regions. Invasive arthropods can have severe impacts on animal and human health, agriculture and forestry, and the biodiversity of natural habitats as well as those modified by humans. The economic and environmental effects of invasion can be both direct, through feeding and competition, and indirect, suc...

Cognitive Arthropods

Insects are nature’s engineering marvels. They can perform marvellous feats such as jumping many times their own body length, lifting many times their own body weight, moving around even with multiple missing limbs and doing all this with amazing efficiency. It is little wonder then that roboticists have been attempting to replicate nature’s design feat in robots. The primary thrust in the area...

Methane production in terrestrial arthropods.

We have screened more than 110 representatives of the different taxa of terrestrial arthropods for methane production in order to obtain additional information about the origins of biogenic methane. Methanogenic bacteria occur in the hindguts of nearly all tropical representatives of millipedes (Diplopoda), cockroaches (Blattaria), termites (Isoptera), and scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae), while s...

RNAi in Agriculturally-Important Arthropods