The beewolf offspring and the bees are constantly threatened by mold fungi, which quickly form in the moist soil of the brood cell and severely limit the storage life of the larva’s food source. From ...

Wasps have rather obvious defenses, such as venomous stingers. But their eggs—soft, oblong, and motionless—are vulnerable to foes like fungi. Enter the beewolf. New research shows that this wasp has ...

For a new twist on child care, consider the wasp called the European beewolf. The mom leaves a smear of bacteria near each of her eggs as protection against the perils of youth. This wasp carries an ...

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Food stored in warm and humid conditions gets moldy very quickly und thus becomes inedible or even toxic. To prevent this, we use refrigerators and freezers as well as various other methods of ...

Symbiotic associations are ubiquitous in nature and play a pivotal role for the ecology and evolution of most organisms on earth. This is exemplified by mykorrhizal fungi that are important ...

THIS is Graeco-Roman wrestling, insect-style. In a battle between a wasp and a bee, most would be on the bee’s side. But you at least have to admire the wasp on this occasion. The insect on the left ...

Beewolves, a genus of solitary digger wasps, harbor symbiotic bacteria in their antennae. These symbionts produce an antibiotic cocktail of up to 49 different substances that protect their larvae from ...

Scientists have discovered that the eggs of the European beewolf produce nitric oxide. The gas prevents the larvae's food from getting moldy in the warm and humid brood cells. Food stored in warm and ...

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, report in a new study in the journal PNAS that the symbiosis of beewolves with ...