A group of biologists has studied Nasonia parasitic wasps, which are about the size of a sesame seed, and they serve as one of the best models to dissect and characterize the evolution of insect ...

While most animals reproduce sexually, some species rely solely on females for parthenogenetic reproduction. Even in these species, rare males occasionally appear. Whether these males retain ...

Grape phylloxera -- the insect that nearly wiped out wine production at the end of the 19th century in France -- hijacks a grape vine's reproductive programs to create a leaf gall, which it uses as a ...

SMBE Journals (Molecular Biology and Evolution and Genome Biology and Evolution) Further analysis of PifA and PifB revealed that they exhibit many of the characteristics of eukaryotic host-associated ...

Insect immune priming refers to the phenomenon whereby an initial exposure to a pathogen enhances the innate immune response upon subsequent encounters. Unlike the adaptive immunity of vertebrates, ...