Adventure Ausrama Blog

Australians have a fear of termites that will destroy their assets, namely their houses. Your home is the most valuable thing you have. Termites creep up on you. You are not aware that they are there until the serious damage they do can be seen. Some houses have to be literally rebuilt. At the South Australian Museum, however, it is beetles who are doing the damage. Carpet beetles are attacking everything they come into contact with. The valuable insect collection is being destroyed very quickly. Something has to be done, so the state government is going to spend $2.7 per cent on cleaning up the roof space of the Science Centre where the infestation began. Unfortunately, there is no money designated to protect the insect collection. If the beetles cannot find anything to eat they consume each other. Dead insects in the museum's collection are the ideal food. Insects have been stored in wooden cases for 150 years. In world terms the large array of insects is very imp...

Hunting animals don't just eat what they "bump into". They select "who" they need to eat to maintain a healthy diet. This gives them a better chance of growing strong and big so they can reproduce and pass on their genes. A team from the University of Sydney, Oxford University, Aarhus University (Denmark) and Exeter University researched the ground beetle (Anchomenus dorsalis). Beetles were divided into three groups: one had a selection of bugs offered to them; the second group had high-protein food; and the third had high-fat offerings. The latter two groups did not fair very well. Those in the first group did very well. They chose ants, slugs, moths, aphids and beetle larvae as they wanted and produced more eggs than the other two. It was known that herbivore and omnivore insects ate varied diets. This study confirms the view that all animals select their food due to inner craving created by the body based on the body's immediate needs. The pr...