background: there are unorganized, published documents about the ecology of mosquitoes (diptera: culicidae) in northeastern part of iran. the purpose of this study was to determine the distribution and characteristics of larval habitats of culicidae in kalaleh county. methods: larvae were collected using dipping method and adults by human landing catch technique during april–october, 2012. larv...

Background: In the light of various applications of UV laser in biological system, we have investigated the effect of picosecond UV laser radiation on silkworm Bombyx mori. Materials and Methods: The eggs of NB4D2 of different stages were exposed to pico second pulse laser at 355 nm from Nd:YAG laser for different durations. Results: Due to irradiation alterations in crescent larval body...

We used literature data to compare the relative influences of body size, water temperature, food density and experimental method on laboratory derived estimates of the ingestion rates of marine fish larvae. We subsequently used these results to evaluate whether larval feeding rates in nature are likely to be food-limited. Larval dry weight, temperature and food density explained 85 % of the var...

  Background: Maggot therapy has recently attracted considerable attention as an emerging debridement technique for wound healing. This study aimed to review the safety, effectiveness and economic evaluations of Maggot Debridement Therapy for wound healing.   Methods: To retrieve the relevant evidences, the Cochrane Library (until September 2014) was searched by appropriate ke...

This study investigates the effects of dietary lipid sources on the growth and reproductive performance of Nile tilapia over three consecutive spawnings. Fish were reared using three experimental diets, with the goal of replacing dietary fish oil with palm oil. Three experimental diets and a commercial   trout diet was used as the control. The effect of dietary lipid on the growth performance, ...

The role of development in the evolution of postponed senescence is poorly understood despite the existence of a major gerontological theory connecting developmental rate to aging. We investigate the role of developmental rate in the laboratory evolution of aging using 24 distinct populations of Drosophila melanogaster. We have found a significant difference between the larval developmental rat...

Invasive fishes, via competition and predation, may be an important factor in endangering populations of amphibians and other aquatic fauna. The mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, commonly stocked into amphibian breeding sites for mosquito control worldwide, has recently been found in some breeding sites of the endangered fire salamander Salamandra infraimmaculata in northern Israel. A comparison ...

Fitness costs of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops occur in the absence of Bt toxins, when individuals with resistance alleles are less fit than individuals without resistance alleles. As costs of Bt resistance are common, refuges of non-Bt host plants can delay resistance not only by providing susceptible individuals to mate with resistant individuals, but also by selecting again...

—Larval food-limitation may be an important factor influencing growth of lepidopteran populations. We tested effects of food-limitation on larval growth of Vanessa cardui Linnaeus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), the painted lady butterfly. Vanessa cardui is a major pest of corn and soybeans in Iowa, making it a species of special interest. Larvae of V. cardui were reared on a commercial diet apport...

The red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferruginous (Olivier) was fully developed and reared on a meridic diet consisting of agar, distilled water, commercial yeast as well as laboratory produced amino and fatty acid rich brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), wheat meal, corn flour, benzoic acid, ascorbic acid, sorbic acid, vitamin mix and tetracycline hydrochloride. A group of weevils rea...