Flour beetle
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Flour beetles are members of the Tribolium or Tenebrio genera (all are examples of darkling beetles). They are pests of cereal silos and are widely used as laboratory animals, since they are easy to keep. The flour beetles enjoy wheat and other grains and are adapted to survive in very dry environments. They are a major pest in the agricultural industry but are highly resistant to insecticides.
An experiment carried out by MythBusters revealed that they are able to survive 100,000 RAD, 100 times the immediate lethal dose of radiation for humans, in 10% of the cases.
[edit] Species
- Tribolium destructor
- Tribolium castaneum
- Tribolium confusum
- Tenebrio molitor
[edit] Research
In 2008 the Tribolium Castaneum genome was sequenced by the Tribolium Genome sequencing Consortium, the results of which were published in Nature Magazine.
[edit] Links
Beetlebase genome information [1]
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