When plant cry for help, predator bugs answer.

When plants cry for help, predator bugs answer.

26-Aug-2010

Science Press Package 

http://www.eurekalert.org/features/kids/2010-08/aaft-wpc082010.php

This article is about how some animals and plants behave in there climate. All plants have a different way to protect them self for other animals/ life forms. For example, the Venus fly trap it has sharp teeth so it can kill predators that try to harm it, or the cactus it has over a thousand thorns so that animals cant eat it or stuff like that. When plants are being eaten by Caterpillars or something the saliva makes the plant have a "help me" signal so that other insects can come to rescue it.

When plants have taken damage they have a thing called "green leaf volatiles," or known as "GLV." GLV is when plants have been cut a send out an oder. Two scientist, Silke Allmann who works at the Swammerdam Institute for Life Science in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jene, Germany and Ian Baldwin of the Max Plank Institute for Chemical Ecology, Have figured out that GLVs can spread a very signals, especially when it related to tobacco plants, Nico attenuate.

The scientist have found out that when the tobacco horn worm caterpillars, Manduca sexta, the Caterpillar saliva makes a change in the plants system. But when this happens a different insect comes and eats the horn worms eggs and larvae and when it does that it is protecting the plant. 

But the scientist say that they need more time to find out my does the Caterpillar saliva make other insects come to the scene. 

I found this article really interesting in sense of telling a lot about the insects and what they do when people aren't staring at the animals. I learned a lot from this article for example i never knew that a animals Silva can make other animals come to help or rescue the animals/ insect.