The incidence of strepsipteran parasites in temperate Polistes wasps is recorded following the collection and dissection of adults from nests, foraging sites and hibernacula. The mean proportion of infected P. dominulus adults (i.e. parasite prevalence) on nests was around 7%, while wasps which were captured when hunting for prey or collecting water were rarely parasitized. Of the four Polistes...

Cacopsylla melanoneura (Foerster) is considered one of the most important vectors of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali’, the phytoplasma associated with apple proliferation disease. In the last years several studies concerning the biology, the infectivity and the transmission activity of this psyllid highlighted the crucial role of the overwintered adults in the epidemiology of the disease. However ...

Perpetuation, overwintering, and extinction of eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) in northern foci are poorly understood. We therefore sought to describe the molecular epidemiology of EEEV in New York State during current and past epizootics. To determine whether EEEV overwinters, is periodically reintroduced, or both, we sequenced the E2 and partial NSP3 coding regions of 42 EEEV isolate...

Field-collected gravid females were used to test a series of inter- and intraspecific hypotheses on egg size and number in 23 species of black flies. Qualitative differences between bird and mammal blood did not result in significant differences with respect to fecundity properties. The five species with overwintering larvae produced more eggs than did the 18 species with overwintering eggs. Co...

Migratory connectivity by birds may mutually affect different ecosystems over large distances. Populations of geese overwintering in southern areas while breeding in high-latitude ecosystems have increased strongly over the past decades. The increase is likely due to positive feedbacks caused by climate change at both wintering, stopover sites and breeding grounds, land-use practices at the ove...

The newly invasive soybean aphid,Aphis glycinesMatsumura, has seriously threatened soybean production in North America, after having spread to 20 states in the United States and several southernprovincesofCanada.Control ofA. glycineshas focusedonapplicationsof insecticides, which are not a long-term solution to soybean aphid pest management. In autumn, soybean aphids start producing alate femal...

Cretaceous polar dinosaur faunas were taxonomically diverse, which suggests varied strategies for coping with the climatic stress of high latitudes. Some polar dinosaurs, particularly larger taxa such as the duckbill Edmontosaurus Lambe, 1917, were biomechanically and energetically capable of migrating over long distances, up to 2600 km. However, current evidence strongly suggests many polar di...