Buergeria japonica is one of a few frogs that breed in coastal areas. To understand why this species can breed in coastal areas, I tested the salinity tolerance of eggs of B. japonica collected from a coastal area of Okinawa Island, Japan. All eggs hatched within four days after oviposition. At 0%. salinity (control), over 94% of eggs hatched normally, and even at 1 per thousand salinity over 8...

Evaluating ecological safety and conducting pest risk analysis for transgenic crops are vitally important before their commercial planting. The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua, a long-distance migratory insect pest, is not a direct target of transgenic Cry1Ac-expressing cotton in China, but nevertheless it has recently become an important pest. Migrants leaving their natal field arrive in othe...

In the rhinotermitid termite Reticulitermes speratus (Kolbe) (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), facultative parthenogenesis is known to occur occasionally and females cooperate with other females to found the colony. To elucidate the ovarian development in these two females, incipient female-female colonies were established under laboratory conditions, and the process of colony development was observ...

BACKGROUND: Botanicals insecticides has remained the major weapons amongst tropical zones farmers to combat hexapods infestation of stored cowpea seeds in lieu of expensive synthetic chemical insecticides that have toxic effects on our environment. OBJECTIVES: Deterrence of cowpea bruchid oviposition and emergence on seeds treated with Cheese wood, Alstoni...

J. Entomol. Sci. 43(1): 86-94 (January 2008) Abstract Addition of 3 DNA-gyrase inhibitors (i.e., novobiocin, nalidixic acid and oxolinic acid) individually to the NI (New and Improved) oligidic diet for plant bugs was investigated to assess their effect on the biological fitness of Lygus hesperus Knight (Heteroptera: Miridae). Biological fitness was measured by the number, biomass, sex ratio, d...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Mosquito control is facing a threat due to the emergence of resistance to synthetic insecticides. Insecticides of plant origin may serve as suitable alternative biocontrol techniques in the future. The purpose of the present study was to assess the ethyl acetate, acetone and methanol extracts of Andrographis paniculata, Eclipta prostrata and Tagetes erecta leaves tested ...

For insects, choosing a favorable oviposition site is a type of parental care, as far as it increases the fitness of its offspring. Niche theory predicts that crickets should show a bell-shaped oviposition response to substrate moisture. However, lab experiments with mole crickets showed a linear oviposition response to substrate moisture. Studies with the house cricket Acheta domesticus also s...

The selection of an appropriate oviposition site is crucial to the maternal fitness of eggraft producing mosquitoes. Females in this group of mosquitoes produce a single egg-raft during their lifetimes. All egg-raft producing mosquitoes are members of the subfamily Culicinae and include the medically important genera Culex and Culiseta. Egg-raft producing mosquitoes use several physical and che...