The three most common and most successful methods for controlling fruit-fly pest species (particularly Ceratitis capitata) are the sterile-insect technique, insecticide use, and biological control. Yet while innovative research in the first two have meant significant improvement in the efficiency of these techniques over the past two decades, by comparison, improvements in the efficiency of bio...

Effective biological control of destructive heliothine larvae via application of microbial entomopathogens or parasitoids is limited by a robust immune response against infection and parasitization. To better understand the immune response of budworms against microbial entomopathogens, several orthologs of antibacterial response proteins were identified and extracted from a tobacco budworm, Hel...

REID, V. E., AKD FRIEDKIN, M. 1973. Plasnzodizlfn bcrghci: Folic Acid Levels in Mouse Erythrocytes. Expcri~~cntal Purasifology 33, 424-428 (1973). Folate levels of parasitized whole blood increased over fourfold above noninfected controls based on microbiological assays with Lactobacillus casei. Most of this increase is attributed to oxidized forms of folate (mono, di, and triglutamates) and/or...

In temperate climates, honey bees (Apis mellifera) survive the winter by entering a distinct physiological and behavioral state. In recent years, beekeepers are reporting unsustainably high colony losses during the winter, which have been linked to parasitization by Varroa mites, virus infections, geographic location, and variation across honey bee genotypes. Here, we review literature on envir...

Background: Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) is a common polyphagous pest on corn cob. H. that controllable through Trichogrammatoidea (Nagaraja) parasitoid release. Successful inundated release of parasitoids depends parasitization and dispersal. Methods: The experiment consisted 2 plots 1 no plot. T. was released twice, at 45 DAP 52 (Day after planting) in the middle experimental dose during gen...

Ant and homopteran mutualisms are complex because they depend on the behavior, abundance, and predation levels of both insect species. Because homopteran populations are critically impacted by these seasonally varying factors, it is important to measure the population dynamics of ant-tended homopterans outside of the laboratory. In this study, we develop a new method for documenting the populat...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cover crops on pest/beneficial dynamics and to test the potential of living mulch on enhancing biological control against insect pests. The research, carried out in the frame of the InterVeg (Core Organic II) project, involved four European countries: Germany, Slovenia, Denmark and Italy. Three crops were tested: cauliflower, leek and artichok...

Does the mating status or body size of a female parasitoid wasp affect her host size choice or propensity to burrow? In Spalangia endius, using smaller hosts appears to reduce a female’s cost of parasitization but not her son’s fitness. However, virgin females, which produce only sons, did not preferentially parasitize smaller hosts. Mated females also showed no host size preference. Mated fema...

Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) has been produced in the laboratory for> 160 generations on the larvae of oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), the propagation hosts raised routinely on a semi-synthetic wheat diet formulation. Choice tests using modified stinging units were conducted in the laboratory to investigate whether insectary rearing had altered the host seeking and o...