Lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic are the most important heavy metals which may cause health risks following consumption of contaminated foods. Table salt is one the mostly used food additive with unique place in food consumption. Although purified table salt is expected to have lower level of contamination, some Iranians still prefer to use rock salt. Use of rock salt for food purposes has be...

Disparities in nutrient content (nitrogen and phosphorus) between herbivores and their plant resources have lately proven to have major consequences for herbivore success, consumer-driven nutrient cycling, and the fate of primary production in ecosystems. Here we extend these findings by examining patterns of nutrient content between animals at higher trophic levels, specifically between insect...

New distributional data on 33 species of the infraorder Leptopodomorpha (3 species of the family Leptopodidae and 30 species and subspecies of Saldidae) from the Palaearctic Region and Himalayas are provided. The following new or confirmed records are listed: Chartoscirta cocksii (Curtis, 1835) from Kosovo; Halosalda halophila (Jakovlev, 1876), Saldula amplicollis (Reuter, 1891) and Saldula xan...

Through laboratory choice tests involving 19 plant species, we assessed the host selection behavior of six grasshopper species: Stenacris vitreipennis (Marschall) (glassywinged toothpick grasshopper), Leptysma marginicollis (Serville) (cattail toothpick grasshopper), Gymnoscirtetes pusillus Scudder (little wingless grasshopper), Paroxya clavuliger (Serville) (olivegreen swamp grasshopper), Paro...

Bladder grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Pneumoridae) are a unique group of nocturnal, specialized herbivores, endemic to coastal regions of Southern Africa. Adult males are characterized by an inflated abdomen, which develops at the final molt, and a signaling system capable of producing high intensity calls detectable by conspecifics at distances of up to 2 km. Female response to male calls leads to...