This paper reports a study of the task partitioning observed in the ponerine ant Ectatomma ruidum, where prey-foraging behaviour can be subdivided into two categories: stinging and transporting. Stingers kill live prey and transporters carry prey corpses back to the nest. Stinging and transporting behaviours are released by certain stimuli through response thresholds; the respective stimuli for...

Stinging events involving honey bees and wasps are rare; most deaths or clinically important incidents involve very few stings (< 10) and anaphylactic shock. However, mass stinging events can prove life-threatening via the toxic action of the venom when injected in large amounts. With the advent of the Africanized honey bee in the southwestern United States and its potential for further spread,...

When brushed against, needles on the leaves of nettles inject a noxious toxin into the skin. However, grasping the nettle firmly bends the needles away from the skin, rendering it is less painful. The expression “to grasp the nettle” is to boldly confront an issue in order to seek its resolution. The advice warns us against half measures and is timely as we gather scientific evidence to assess ...

Choline acetyltransferase was demonstrated in nettles (Urtica dioica), peas (Pisum sativum), spinach (Spinacia oleracea), sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and blue--green algae by using a Sepharose--CoASH affinity column. The column effected a 1500-fold purification of the enzyme from nettle homogenates and was required for demonstrating activity in the other higher plants. Demonstration of the en...

This study was conducted to test for the effect of three stinging behaviors QTLs (sting-1, sting-2 and sting-3) on the expression of guarding and stinging behavior of individual honey bees, and to determine if results of defensive behavior QTLs found in studies with Africanized honey bees could be extended to other populations of bees. Samples of guards, stingers, foragers and nurse bees were t...

The parasitoid jewel wasp uses cockroaches as live food supply for its developing larva. To this end, the adult wasp stings a cockroach and injects venom directly inside its brain, turning the prey into a submissive 'zombie'. Here, we characterize the sensory arsenal on the wasp's stinger that enables the wasp to identify the brain target inside the cockroach's head. An electron microscopy stud...

Stinging Nettle Cream for Osteoarthritis Keith Rayburn, MD, is a physician in the Department of Medicine, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, California. Eric Fleischbein, PharmD, is a pharmacist in the Department of Pharmacy Services, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Jessica Song, PharmD, is a pharmacist in the Department of Pharmacy Services, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and ...

The stinging and guarding components of the defensive behavior of European, Africanized, hybrid, and backcross honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) were compared and analyzed at both colony and individual levels. Hybrid and Africanized backcross colonies stung as many times as Africanized ones. European backcross colonies stung more than European bees but not as many times as Africanized or Africanize...

Predators have played a significant role in the evolution of herbivorous insects, and we can observe a wide variety of larval defense mechanisms in nature, especially among members of the Lepidoptera. Slug caterpillars (Limacodidae) are known for their unusual morphologies, including various types of protuberances and stinging spines on their dorsal surfaces, which suggest that their evolution ...

The gene encoding the precursor to stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L. ) isolectin I was introduced into tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). In transgenic plants this precursor was processed to mature-sized lectin. The mature isolectin is deposited intracellularly, most likely in the vacuoles. A gene construct lacking the C-terminal 25 amino acids was also introduced in tobacco to study the role of the ...