Gustatory stimuli, such as sugar, induce a behavioral response in Drosophila that involves extension of the proboscis and consumption of the sugar-containing solution. Addition of salt to the sugar solution inhibits this behavioral response. However, the mechanisms and gene products involved in the salt aversion response have not been described. Here, we report the identification of a locus, de...

We examined the effects of sublethal doses (0.1, 1, and 10 ng per animal) of a new neonicotinoid insecticide, Imidacloprid, on habituation of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) in honeybees (Apis mellifera) reared under laboratory conditions. In untreated honeybees, the habituation of the proboscis extension reflex is agedependent and there is a significant increase in the number of trials re...

Primates spend at least half their lives sleeping; hence, sleeping site selection can have important effects on behavior and fitness. As proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus) often sleep along rivers and form bands (aggregations of one male groups) at their sleeping sites, understanding sleeping site selection may shed light on two unusual aspects of this species' socioecology: their close assoc...

Gymnorhadinorhynchus gen. n. is proposed to accommodate its type species, G. decapteri sp. n., a parasite of the marine fish Decapterus punctatus (Cuvier), caught from the coastal waters of Brazil. Gymnorhadinorhynchus decapteri sp. n. was morphologically most similar to species of two echinorhynchid families, the Rhadinorhynchidae and the Cavisomidae, particularly in the structure of the probo...

Sir, Acanthocephalan (“spiny-headed”) worms are enteroparasites of birds characterised by a retractile proboscis armed with rows of thorns (Lacina & Bird, 2000). They penetrate the intestinal mucosa with the proboscis causing inflammation and nodules (Heidenreich, 1997). An arthropod (insect or mollusk) becomes the first intermediate host ingesting acanthocephalan eggs that contain the larvae (...