A Culture Method for Darkling Beetles, Blapstinus spp. (Coleoptera:Tenebrionidae)

Survival of Campylobacter spp. in darkling beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus) and their larvae in Australia.

Campylobacter infection is the most frequently reported notifiable food-borne disease in humans in Australia. Our studies investigated the persistence of Campylobacter spp. in or on darkling beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus) and their larvae. Our results in analyses with chickens confirm that, unless very short turnaround times are used (<72 h), beetles colonized in one production cycle (i.e., o...

New taxa of Baltic amber false darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Melandryidae)

The extinct representatives of family are known from the Upper Cretaceous (the Turonian: Pseudocuphosis tristis Nikitsky, 2002 and Archaeserropalpus cretaceus Nikitsky, 2002; the Cognac-Santonian: Archaeoxylita zherichini Nikitsky, 1977). Melandryid beetles are also known from Eocene ambers of Europe. One species was described from Ukrainian amber (Orchesia rasnitzyni Nikitsky, 2011). At least ...

Diets of Darkling Beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) Within a Shrub-Steppe Ecosystem

Relationship of Campylobacter isolated from poultry and from darkling beetles in New Zealand.

Campylobacter, a foodborne pathogen closely associated with poultry, is considered to be an important agent of human gastroenteritis in New Zealand. The pathways involved in the contamination of poultry flocks remain unclear; however, many vectors, such as insects, rodents, and wild birds, have been implicated. Infestation of poultry houses by insects, particularly darkling beetles (Alphitobius...

Cytogenetics of the darkling beetles Zophobas aff. confusus and Nyctobates gigas (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae).

Males of Zophobas aff. confusus and Nyctobates gigas (Tenebrionidae) collected in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, were studied through conventional staining, C-banding, silver nitrate impregnation (AgNO₃), and the base specific fluorochromes CMA₃ and DAPI. Z. aff. confusus was found to have 2n = 20 (9+Xyp) while N. gigas exhibited 2n = 18 (8+neoXY). Large pericentromeric blocks of constitutive...