For years, chemical ecologist Dawn Luthe and her students wondered why fall armyworm caterpillars (Spodoptera frugiperda) let piles of feces, known as frass, accumulate on corn, trapped in the plant's cuplike whorls where the leaves join the stalk. (sciencemag.org)
In a paper published today (July 10) in Nature Ecology & Evolution, researchers have shown that a tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plant's protections can encourage beet armyworm caterpillars (Spodoptera exigua) to cannibalize other caterpillars. (the-scientist.com)
For the experiment, researchers used bell pepper and soybean plants, beet armyworm caterpillars, and honeybees. (fieryfoodscentral.com)