In an earlier study, we showed that the ingestive responses of the generalist caterpillar Spodoptera littoralis to foods imbalanced in their protein:carbohydrate content is similar to generalist locusts, but differs from that of specialist-feeding locusts. Here we further pursued the comparison by repeating the experiments using a closely related specialist caterpillar, Spodoptera exempta. Firs...

In insects, developmental responses are organ- and tissue-specific. In previous studies of insect midgut cells in primary tissue cultures, growth-promoting and differentiation factors were identified from the growth media, hemolymph, and fat body. Recently, it was determined that the mitogenic effect of a Manduca sexta fat body extract on midgut stem cells of Heliothis virescens was due to the ...

Cyanobacteria associated with Anopheles albimanus Wiedemann larval habitats from southern Chiapas, Mexico, were isolated and identified from water samples and larval midguts using selective medium BG-11. Larval breeding sites were classified according to their hydrology and dominant vegetation. Cyanobacteria isolated in water samples were recorded and analyzed according to hydrological and vege...

Most northern insect species experience a period of developmental arrest, diapause, which enables them to survive over the winter and postpone reproduction until favorable conditions. We studied the timing of reproductive diapause and its long-term effects on the cold tolerance of Drosophila montana, D. littoralis and D. ezoana females in seasonally varying environmental conditions. At the same...

ML (MD2-related lipid recognition) proteins are known to enhance innate immune responses in mammals. This study reports the analysis of the putative ML gene family in Arabidopsis thaliana and suggests a role for the ML3 gene in herbivory-associated responses in plants. Feeding by larvae of the Lepidopteran generalist herbivore Spodoptera littoralis and larvae of the specialist herbivore Plutell...

The induction of plant defences and their subsequent suppression by insects is thought to be an important factor in the evolutionary arms race between plants and herbivores. Although insect oral secretions (OS) contain elicitors that trigger plant immunity, little is known about the suppressors of plant defences. The Arabidopsis thaliana transcriptome was analysed in response to wounding and OS...

BACKGROUND Pogonus littoralis and Pogonus chalceus are very close related species with quite different ecological preferences within salt marshes. We study the evolutionary processes in and between these presumably young species. Therefore, we compare the variation in ecologically relevant characters and the genetic variation within one of the species (intraspecific differentiation) with the va...

The pyrokinin/pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PK/PBAN) family plays a significant role in the regulation of reproductive and developmental processes in a variety of insects. A transPro, type I beta-turn has been previously identified as important for the activity of PK/PBAN peptides. A PK/PBAN analog (PPK-Jo) incorporating a novel dihydroimidazole transPro mimetic motif was eval...

The present study has been conducted to investigate the effect of insect growth regulator BAY SIR 8514 on chitin and chitinase enzymes of 2 in star of Spodoptera littoralis larvae, the effect of sublethal doses, LC 25, LC 50 and LC90 shows a significant effect on antifeedant index, on the other hand larval treatment with the tested IGR doses revealed, certain histo-pathological symptoms such as...