An important variable in the amplification and escape from the enzootic cycle of the arboviral encephalitides is the degree of contact between avian hosts and mosquito vectors. To analyze this interaction in detail, blood-fed mosquitoes that were confirmed vectors of eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus were collected in 2002 from an enzootic site in central Alabama during the time this...

BACKGROUND Mounting evidence indicates that the indigenous gut microbiota exerts long-lasting programming effects on brain function and behaviour. OBJECTIVE In this study, we used the germ-free (GF) mouse model, devoid of any microbiota throughout development, to assess the influence of the indigenous microbiota on social preference and repetitive behaviours (e.g. self-grooming). METHODS AN...

The chinch bug, Blissus occiduus Barber (Hemiptera: Blissidae), is an important pest of buffalograss, Buchloë dactyloides (Nutall) Engelmann and potentially other turfgrass, crop, and non-crop hosts. Choice studies documented the number of B. occiduus present on selected turfgrasses, crops and weeds, and provided important insights into the host preferences of this chinch bug. Grasses with the ...

The ability of a few Afro-tropical Anopheles species to target humans as a source of blood and shelter, a feature generally defined as anthropophily, represents a key factor in the recent evolutionary success of these species and in their capacity to transmit malaria. Anthropophily presumably results from specific and coordinated behavioural repertoires, but these have been only superficially d...

A learning capacity for feeding is described in many insect species including vectors of diseases, but has never been reported in tsetse flies (Diptera, Glossinidae), the cyclic vectors of human (sleeping sickness) and animal trypanosomoses in Africa. Repeated feeding on the same host species by a disease vector is likely to increase the within-species disease-transmission risk, but to decrease...