In the 18th year of L'Oréal-UNESCO's prestigious For Women in Science programme, the jury was most impressed by three female experts focusing on physics and microbial and systems ecology. Among them is Kateřina Sam from the Biology Centre of the CAS. The programme focuses on supporting talented women scientists at the start of their research careers and aims to recognise the work they do...
We produced a library of DNA barcodes for the butterfly fauna of the Czech Republic. We found out which intraspecific genetic lineages are inhabiting the area of the country and what is the role of individual species’ traits. The results were published in Journal of Biogeography.
Scientists of the Institute of Entomology, BC CAS, in collaboration with University of Liverpool have found the genetic mechanism which determines whether individuals of the butterfly species Bicyclus anynana become male or female. They also discovered that if individuals with the same variant of the sex-determining gene mate, the embryos will not survive. This can have critical consequences in...
The New Guinea region is known for being one of the most species-rich places in the world. Located north of Australia and south-east of Asia, New Guinea’s topographical complexity and geographic isolation has given rise to a huge diversity of life, much of it endemic. The island is home to at least 40 small mammal species found nowhere else on earth. However, small mammals in this region are...
Scientists found evidence that termites which lived millions of years ago engaged in the same mating behaviors described in their living relatives today. Approximately 40 million years ago two termites were in the middle of courtship behavior when they got entrapped by tree resin and preserved in fossilized amber. This so far oldest and only known fossil of an Electrotermes affinis termite pair...
Warming climate, eutrophication and species invasions are major threats to the biodiversity and stability of aquatic and terrestrial communities. Their importance is likely to increase as we continue to change the Earth’s environment. Most regions of the world are experiencing rapid climate change and an increasing trend of species invasions in response to global change. Many alien...
24 scientists from the Biology Centre CAS are ranked among the top 2 % of the world's most cited scientific authors. The list of the best scientific authors is published annually by Elsevier according to an analysis by Stanford University. The datasets are based on the Scopus database and include all scientific disciplines.
How did insect wings originate? This is a question that represents an unsolved mystery of insect evolution. Despite many years of research, it is still not entirely clear from which body structure insect wings actually evolved and what their original function was when they were not yet efficient enough to perform active flight. Scientists from the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences...
The decline of insect populations has attracted worldwide interest in times of global warming and changing environment, but we have only rudimentary knowledge about the biodiversity and abundance of insects in the high mountains in tropical regions. Even what nutrients limit insects in nature is still not well understood. This knowledge is important because of the increasingly frequent climatic...
Jiunn Luh Tan, a dedicated PhD student at the Institute of Entomology and Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, achieved a remarkable accolade at the 8th Meeting of the IOBC-WPRS Working Group on "Integrated Control of Plant-Feeding Mites" held in Belgrade, Serbia, from September 4th to 7th, 2023. Tan received the prestigious "Best PhD Student Oral Presentation Award" for his...
