Aphids harbour both an obligate bacterial symbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, and a wide range of facultative ones. Facultative symbionts can modify morphological, developmental and physiological host traits that favour their spread within aphid populations. We experimentally investigated the idea that symbionts may also modify aphid behavioural traits to enhance their transmission. Aphids exhibit m...

Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) have been the focus of several studies with respect to their interactions with inherited symbionts, but bacterial communities of most aphid species are still poorly characterized. In this research, we used bar-coded pyrosequencing to characterize bacterial communities in aphids. Specifically, we examined the diversity of bacteria in two obligately parthenogenetic a...

We classify, in a non-trivial amenable collection of functors, all 2-chains up to the relation of having the same 1-shell boundary. In particular, we prove that in a rosy theory, every 1-shell of a Lascar strong type is the boundary of some 2-chain, hence making the 1st homology group trivial. We also show that, unlike in simple theories, in rosy theories there is no upper bound on the minimal ...

Aphids are phloem feeders that cause large damage globally as pest insects. They induce a variety of responses in the host plant, but not much is known about which responses are promoting or inhibiting aphid performance. Here, we investigated whether one of the responses induced in barley by the cereal aphid, bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) affects aphid performance in the model p...

To achieve a thorough understanding of plant-aphid interactions, it is necessary to investigate in detail both the plant and insect side of the interaction. The pea aphid (PA; Acyrthosiphon pisum) has been selected by an international consortium as the model species for genetics and genomics studies, and the model legume Medicago truncatula is a host of this aphid. In this study, we identified ...

To the Editors: In their recent publication, Swati S. Sathe and Peter J. Harte (Mech. Dev. 52,77-87, 1995) claim to have "reisolated' the extra sex combs (esc) gene of Drosophila from our published transgenic stock (Frei et aI., EMBO J. 4,979-987, 1985) by inverse PCR, using P element and rosy primers. This description is wrong because our published transgenic stock carried the esc trans gene w...

The seasonal abundance of woolly apple aphid (Eriosoma lanigerum Hausmann) was studied from 2005 to 2008 in commercial orchards in central Washington State. There was a single period of crawler migration on the tree trunks each year lasting from 7 to 16 wk. The peak period of crawler activity ranged from early June to late July, although peaks in June were more common. In one orchard, peak dens...

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) in Louisiana is colonized by two aphid species, the sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner), and the yellow sugarcane aphid, Sipha flava (Forbes) (Hemiptera: Aphididae). The main problem associated with M. sacchari is transmission of sugarcane yellow leaf virus, a casual agent of yellow leaf disease whose absence has been added to certification standards for m...

The mutualistic relationships that occur between myrmecophilous aphids and ants are based on the rich food supply that honeydew represents for ants and on the protection they provide against aphid natural enemies. While aphid predators and parasitoids actively forage for oviposition sites by using aphid semiochemicals, scouts of aphid-tending ant species would also benefit from locating honeyde...