Caterpillars that munch on corn leaves have developed a clever way to get the most nutrients from their meals: They use their poop to trick the plants into lowering their defenses. Scientists at ...

Plants aren’t mere passive growers, waiting to be picked or eaten; they have complex arrays of sensors that can identify when the plant is in trouble and send out various defenses in response.

A research project begins well before the experiment starts. That was the case of the recently completed collaborative effort at the University of Kentucky that associated the Eastern tent caterpillar ...

In a deception that likely has evolved over thousands of years, a caterpillar that feeds on corn leaves induces the plant to turn off its defenses against insect predators, allowing the caterpillar to ...

In a deception that likely has evolved over thousands of years, a caterpillar that feeds on corn leaves induces the plant to turn off its defenses against insect predators, allowing the caterpillar to ...

Using its poo, a caterpillar that feeds on young corn leaves tricks the plant into thinking that a fungus is attacking it. That way, the plant mounts a defense against the (possibly non-existent) ...

Researchers from Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences have been studying the dozens of chemical signals that pass between insects and plants. In doing so they have stumbled across a unique ...

The gypsy moth infestation has been going on for weeks, wreaking havoc on thousands of acres of trees throughout the state. In neighborhoods affected by the defoliation plague, the crunch of ...

Caterpillar frass is composed of molecules derived from the host plant, the insect itself and associated microbes, and hence it provides abundant cues that may alter plant defense responses, explained ...