How Insects Live

Passalidae, Insects Which Live in Decaying Logs

Did the first insects live in water or in air?

We evaluate the arguments and evidence for a terrestrial vs an aquatic origin for the Insecta. The evidence falls into three categories: ( I ) evidence that does not support one view more than the other; (2) speculative evidence, which should carry little weight; and (3) evidence that does support one view more than the other. Category I includes evidence from locomotory and osmoregulatory syst...

How and why do insects migrate?

Countless numbers of insects migrate within and between continents every year, and yet we know very little about the ultimate reasons and proximate mechanisms that would explain these mass movements. Here we suggest that perhaps the most important reason for insects to migrate is to hedge their reproductive bets. By spreading their breeding efforts in space and time, insects distribute their of...

How are insects responding to global warming?

Global average surface temperature has increased by around 0.6 oC during the past century, with the 1990s being the warmest decade. Temperature changes vary geographically, greater at higher latitudes; and within the year, greater during the coldest months (Houghton et al. 2001). There is now a consensus that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are ultimately responsible f...

How to live without BRCA1

C ancer cells are resourceful survivors with plenty of tricks for staying alive. Grotsky et al. uncover one of these stratagems, showing how cells lacking the tumor suppressor BRCA1 resume one form of DNA repair, sparing themselves from stagnation or death (1). BRCA1 helps to mend double-strand DNA breaks by promoting homologous recombination (2). Loss of the BRCA1 protein appears to boost abno...