Malaria, a febrile disease caused by the Plasmodium parasites and transmitted by mosquitoes, is a leading cause of mortality in children under 5 in endemic countries. The widespread deployment of insecticide‐treated bed nets (ITNs) has significantly reduced malaria transmission, but rising levels of insecticide resistance threaten to halt the progress. Monitoring insecticide resistance is vital for effective vector control, pa...

Plant genetic engineering goes back to over 40 years ago with the first genetically modified tobacco expressing the nopaline synthase gene. Since then, genetic engineering has emerged as an important technology as various sectors have included it in their strategic plans with potential impact on healthcare, agriculture and industry. One important aspect is the engineering of plants as bioreactors for production of vaccines, mo...

Aim Many studies demonstrate that climate limits invertebrates along tropical elevational gradients, but we have only a rudimentary understanding of the role of nutrient limitation and climatic seasonality. Here we examined the relationships between ant community structure, nutrient use and season along three undisturbed elevational gradients, each from a different continent. Location Ecuador (South America), Papua New Guinea...

The relationship between levels of dominance and species richness is highly contentious, especially in ant communities. The dominance‐impoverishment rule states that high levels of dominance only occur in species‐poor communities, but there appear to be many cases of high levels of dominance in highly diverse communities. The extent to which dominant species limit local richness through competitive exclusion remains unclear, b...

What forces structure ecological assemblages? A key limitation to general insights about assemblage structure is the availability of data that are collected at a small spatial grain (local assemblages) and a large spatial extent (global coverage). Here, we present published and unpublished data from 51 ,388 ant abundance and occurrence records of more than 2,693 species and 7,953 morphospecies from local assemblages collected...

We introduce a novel framework for conceptualising, quantifying and unifying discordant patterns of species richness along geographical gradients. While not itself explicitly mechanistic, this approach offers a path towards understanding mechanisms. In this study, we focused on the diverse patterns of species richness on mountainsides. We conjectured that elevational range midpoints of species may be drawn towards a single mid...