Industrial-scale agriculture creates a mosaic of large monocultures in the landscape, where seasonal cropping cycles generate discontinuous resource availability for insect predators both spatially and temporally. In this environment, selection will favor predator movement reproductive behaviors that optimize location effective utilization (prey) pulses are patchy ephemeral nature. Using model ...

The plasticity of performance traits can promote the success biological invasions and therefore, precisely estimating trait reaction norms help to predict establishment persistence introduced species in novel habitats. Most studies focus only on a reduced set rarely include variability that may be vital predicting success. Here, using split-brood full-sib design, we acclimated globally invasive...

In order to describe the developmental biology of the tick Argas neghmei Kohls & Hoogstraal under laboratory conditions, 40 females and 40 males were collected from chicken coops located in Calama (II Region, Chile). They were fed on chickens and maintained under two laboratory conditions: one group at 30 +/- 5 degrees C and 35 +/- 5 % RH and another at 27 +/- 5 degrees C and 80 +/- 5 % RH, bot...

Adult aphid predators disperse across the landscape seasonally in search of prey aggregations that are patchily distributed and temporally variable. However, flight is energetically costly consumes resources could be invested reproduction. Hippodamia convergens an important predator North American cereal crops other agricultural systems. Consumption floral can enhance adult survival during peri...

Sublethal infections by Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV) are common in field populations of the beet armyworm (S. exigua, Hübner) in the Almerian horticultural region of Spain. Inoculation of second, third, and fourth instars with occlusion bodies (OBs) of an isolate (VT-SeAl1) associated with vertically transmitted infections resulted in 15 to 100% of sublethal infectio...

J. Econ. Entomol. 91 (1): 34-40 (1998) ABSTRACT Effects of 3 conventional insecticides (methyl parathion, azinphos-methyl, cypermethrin) and 3 insect growth regulators (fenoxycarb, diflubenzuron, and tebufenozide) on life-table parameters of Micromus tasmaniae Walker were determined in adults derived from insecticide-treated larvae. The following parameters were compared with the control: sex r...

In southern Brazil, Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) uses diapause as survival strategy during the winter (May-August). In our study, we evaluated the effect of diapause on biological characteristics of the species for 4 months in laboratory. Newly hatched larvae of G. molesta were induced to diapause changing the photoperiod and temperature (T) (12 ± 1°C), relative humidit...

Among 28 isolates of Beauveria bassiana tested for virulence against F. occidentalis in laboratory bioassays, we found strain SZ-26 as the most potent, causing 96% mortality in adults at 1×10(7) mL(-1)conidia after 4 days. The effect of the strain SZ-26 on survival, longevity and fecundity of the predatory mite Neoseiulus (Amblyseius) barkeri Hughes were studied under laboratory conditions. The...

During the preoviposition and oviposition periods of ixodid ticks, the salivary glands degenerate. It is unclear whether this is a necrotic or a programmed cell death event. We used an in situ TUNEL technique to determine if salivary gland degeneration involves apoptosis. Salivary glands were dissected from replete females at days 3, 5, 8, 11, 13, and 33 post-detachment. There were no differenc...

The beet webworm, Loxostege sticticalis (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), uses both diapause and migration as life history strategies. To determine the role of diapause plays in the population dynamics of L. sticticalis, the reproductive and flight potentials of adults originating from diapause and nondiapause larvae were investigated under controlled laboratory conditions. Preoviposition period,...