Insects combat infection by mounting powerful immune responses that are mediated by
hemocytes, the fat body, the midgut, the salivary glands and other tissues. Foreign …

Pesticide exposure, infectious disease, and nutritional stress contribute to honey bee
mortality and a high rate of colony loss. This realization has fueled a decades-long …

Background The shift from solitary to social behavior is one of the major evolutionary
transitions. Primitively eusocial bumblebees are uniquely placed to illuminate the evolution …

The bed bug, Cimex lectularius, has re-established itself as a ubiquitous human
ectoparasite throughout much of the world during the past two decades. This global …

Bumblebees are a diverse group of globally important pollinators in natural ecosystems and
for agricultural food production. With both eusocial and solitary life-cycle phases, and some …

Like humans, animals use plants and other materials as medication against parasites.
Recent decades have shown that the study of insects can greatly advance our …

Just over 20 years since the RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism was unraveled in the
nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the first RNAi-based pest control applications are close …

Insects provide crucial ecosystem services for human food security and maintenance of
biodiversity. It is therefore not surprising that major declines in wild insects, combined with …

Entomopathogenic fungus as well as their toxins is a natural threat surrounding social insect
colonies. To defend against them, social insects have evolved a series of unique disease …

Nowadays, honey bees are stressed by a number of biotic and abiotic factors which may
compromise to some extent the pollination service and the hive productivity. The EU ban of …