ScienceDaily: A York University doctoral student who discovered a new species of bee on his way to the lab one morning has completed a study that examines 84 species of sweat bees in Canada. Nineteen of these species -- including the one Jason Gibbs found in downtown Toronto − are new to science because they have never been identified or described before.

Gibbs' expansive study will help scientists track bee diversity, understand pollination biology and study the evolution of social behaviour in insects. It is also much anticipated by bee taxonomists who, like Gibbs, painstakingly examine the anatomy (morphology) of bees to distinguish one type of bee from another.

Bees are responsible for pollinating many wildflowers and a large proportion of agricultural crops. As much as one of every three bites of food that humans eat, including some meat products, depends on the pollination services of bees. Sweat bees are common visitors to a wide range of plants, including fruit and vegetable flowers in Toronto gardens. Sweat bees − named for their attraction to perspiration − can be smaller than 4 mm in length, often have metallic markings, and make up one-third to one-half of bees collected in biodiversity surveys in North America. Complete species descriptions of 84 metallic sweat bees in Canada are included in Gibbs' study, "Revision of the metallic species of Lasioglossum (Dialictus) in Canada." It was published August 31 by the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa as a single issue.

ThePoultrySite : ZIMBABWE-Farmers are struggling to repay bank loans since the ban was lifted on poultry meat imports last month.

Poultry producers in Zimbabwe are heading for a showdown with banks as they battle to repay loans following the lifting of the Government ban on imports, reports The Herald of Zimbabwe.

A senior banking executive this week said Government's decision to lift the ban on poultry product imports had disastrous consequences.

"Instead of allowing poultry products into Zimbabwe, Government should be promoting imports of hatching eggs and parent chickens. Flooding of poultry into Zimbabwe is dangerous for chicken farmers who had received hefty loans for the industry.

"Banking institutions forwarded loans to several farmers for the development of the industry, but Government has allowed cheaper imports to flood the market to the detriment of the local producers," he said.

The official said the farmers were not making money as they could not compete with cheap imports and they were left "high and dry" with banks recalling their loans.

"There is need for Government to reflect on the decision to lift the ban," the official said.

ScienceDaily :When given a choice, organisms will choose a diet that maintains a nutritional balance in tune with their needs. That choice, studied in fruit flies for the first time, is regulated by activity in a molecular pathway involved in aging, cancer and diabetes. The research undertaken in fruit flies at the Buck Institute for Age Research has implications for humans, who share the same molecular pathway. The study, the first to be done in a genetically tractable lab animal, provides a way to begin the development of treatments that could "reboot" metabolic pathways in individuals who are obese or suffer from diabetes.

The study appears in the May 13, 2010 online edition of the journal Current Biology.

"How an organism balances its intake of nutrients has a great impact on its health and survival," said Buck faculty member Pankaj Kapahi, PhD, the lead author on the study, who said that an imbalance of protein and carbohydrates has been implicated as a cause for both diabetes and obesity and influences the aging process, "In this study we've established a model using the fruit fly to address the question of how an organism chooses between protein and carbohydrate."

ScienceDaily : While the nation as a whole gained freshwater wetlands from 1998 to 2004, a new report by NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents a continuing loss of coastal wetlands in the eastern United States.

“This report shows the nation’s need to expand the effort to conserve and rebuild valuable coastal wetlands,” said Jim Balsiger, acting NOAA assistant administrator for NOAA’s Fisheries Service. “Coastal wetlands are nurseries for important commercial and recreational fish and are vital to many threatened and endangered species. They also provide natural protection to coastal communities from the most damaging effects of hurricanes and storm surges.”

One reason wetland loss is concentrated in coastal watersheds is that with large numbers of people living here – more than half of the nation’s population lives in coastal counties in densities five times greater than inland counties – the building of roads, homes and businesses have accelerated wetlands loss, particularly along the Gulf of Mexico. Wetland restoration is also more difficult in coastal areas where land values are high and factors such as storms and large expanses of soft muddy ground hamper restoration efforts.