Preserving ecosystem services, such as natural enemies that can provide pest control, positively impact crops without compromising agricultural yield. Even though controlling pests by has been suggested to reduce in agriculture, growers continue using conventional pesticides kill beneficial predators. Here we studied whether the predation of avian and insect-beneficial predators varies an apple...

Abstract Background Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), as biological control agents, have been isolated from many regions throughout the world. Local isolates of EPNs are usually more effective for controlling indigenous insect pests they adapted to local environmental conditions and pest species. Results In present work, EPN were searched in soil under citrus guava trees, Egyptian clover at No...

ozone is a powerful oxidant capable of killing insects and microorganisms and has been used in the food processing industry in the gaseous and aqueous states. in a laboratory study, the susceptibility of immature stages of an important stored-product pest, the indian meal moth, plodia interpunctella hubner to ozonated water was investigated. ozone was applied in aqueous form at four concentrati...

Simulium (Gomphostilbia) piroonae sp. nov. is described on the basis of females, males, pupae, and mature larvae collected in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand. This new species is placed in the chumpornense subgroup of the varicorne species-group in the subgenus Gomphostilbia by having the antenna with eight flagellomeres, the pleural membrane bare, the female subcosta lacking hairs, and the pup...

Mitochondrial fractions isolated from thoracic muscles of the tobacco horn worm larvae and moths, free of bacterial contaminations, incorporate amino acids into proteins. Optimum activity requires the presence of ATP, an ATPgenerating system, and an amino acid mixture. The pH optimum is around 7.2. The system is not affected by cycloheximide, ribonuclease, or actinomycin D. Puromycin completely...

The sex-limited "alba" genetic polymorphism in wing color of Colias butterflies has been studied with respect to potential selective pressures on this locus. Alba female pupae, carrying at least one dominant A allele, redirect resources, used by aa pupae for pigmentation, to other metabolic ends. Associated with this reallocation, alba, A-, female adults eclose earlier, retain more larva-derive...

Pupal diapause in the cecropia silkmoth is terminated by activation of the prothoracic glands. Implantation of adult male cecropia corpora allata or injection of juvenile hormone-I (JH-I) or juvenile hormone-I acid (JH-I acid) causes initiation of development in debrained, allatectomized diapausing pupae. The subsequent development results in formation of second pupae or pupal-adult intermediat...

Ecological studies of larval mosquitoes usuallv require collecting numerous samples. Mani, samples containing mosquito larvae contain substantial quantities of debris which must be separated from the larvae. This can be a tedious and time consuming task. Water claritv mav also make separation of larvae and pupae from the sample difficult. We developed a simple and inexpensive apparatus that can...

There are four species of Gymnetron in China recorded to date including Gymnetron miyoshii Miyoshi, 1922, Gymnetron villosipenne Roelofs, 1875, Gymnetron auliense Reitter, 1907 and Gymnetron vittipenne Marseul, 1876, of which the last two are new country records. The pre-imaginal stages including eggs, mature larvae and pupae of Gymnetron miyoshii, Gymnetron auliense and Gymnetron vittipenne ar...

First, second, third, early and late fourth-instar larvae, and pupae of Aedes aegypti were infected with Romanomerrais culicivorax and reared at 20, 25, and 30 C. An increase in the ratio of male to female nematodes was observed with increase in host age at the time of infection at each temperature. The number of pupal and late fourth-instar infections was low, but R. culicivorax continued to d...