Lacewings are an important group of insect biological control agents. Protocols for rearing lacewings often require rearing of an additional insect species to be used as a diet, and this can be costly. Prepupae of alfalfa leafcutting bee, Megachile rotundata (F.), which are commercially available, inexpensive and can be stored, were evaluated as a larval diet of the lacewings, Chrysoperla carne...

Determination of microalgaes' fatty acid content is often done with chloroform and methanol according to the Bligh and Dyer extraction, though faster methods exist. A number of comparisons between the Bligh and Dyer and faster methods have resulted in contradicting data, possibly due to differences in algae used and the different versions of the Bligh and Dyer method applied. Here, various form...

Biodiesel is an environmental friendly liquid fuel similar to conventional diesel in combustion properties. It has received international attention in recent times, as that biodiesel is renewable, non-toxic and safe to store. In this study, high grade biodiesel was produced from microalgae (Nannochloropsis oculata) derived lipids via transesterification reaction with methanol in the presence of...

Deep-water ecosystems are characterized by relatively low carbonate concentration values and, due to ocean acidification (OA), these habitats might be among the first to be exposed to undersaturated conditions in the forthcoming years. However, until now, very few studies have been conducted to test how cold-water coral (CWC) species react to such changes in the seawater chemistry. The present ...

Among the methods used to screen transgenic microalgae, antibiotics selection has raised environmental and food safety concerns, while the observation of fluorescence proteins could be influenced by the endogenous fluorescence of host chloroplasts. As an alternative, this study isolated the purple chromoprotein (CP) from Stichodacyla haddoni (shCP). A plasmid in which shCP cDNA is driven by a h...

We evaluated five herbivore-induced plant volatiles plus a male-produced pheromone as attractants for adult green lacewings in Washington apple orchards in 2008. We found at least five attractants or combinations of attractants were attractive to the three most abundant green lacewing species in our trials. Chrysopa nigricornis and Chrysopa oculata were attracted to the combination of methyl sa...

Instead of sole nutrient starvation to boost algal lipid production, we addressed nutrient limitation at two different seasons (autumn and spring) during outdoor cultivation in flat panel photobioreactors. Lipid accumulation, biomass and lipid productivity and changes in fatty acid composition of Nannochloropsis oculata were investigated under nitrogen (N) limitation (nitrate:phosphate N:P 5, N...

Little is known about the basic biology of deep-water coral species. In this study, we experimentally assessed the rates of ingestion of Artemia salina adults and nauplii by the 4 Mediterranean cold water coral species Dendrophyllia cornigera, Desmophyllum cristagalli, Madrepora oculata, and Lophelia pertusa. All species ingested A. salina in adult and nauplii forms. L. pertusa showed the highe...

The Manx gene is required for the development of the tail and other chordate features in the ascidian tadpole larva. To determine the structure of the Manx gene, we isolated and sequenced genomic clones from the tailed ascidian Molgula oculata. The Manx gene contains 9 exons and encodes both major and minor Manx mRNAs, which differ in the length of their 5' untranslated regions. The coding regi...