Chemical screening using Drosophila melanogaster (the fruit fly) is vital in drug discovery, agricultural, and toxicological applications. Oviposition (egg laying) on chemically-doped agar plates is an important read-out metric used to quantitatively assess the biological fitness and behavioral responses of Drosophila. Current oviposition-based chemical screening studies are inaccurate, labor-i...

An ovitrap (BR-OVT) based on physical and chemical stimuli for attracting gravid Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae) females was developed and evaluated under laboratory and field conditions. Attractants were assayed using alternative chamber bioassays prior to being used in the BR-OVT oviposition trap. A significant preference of gravid females for sites containing conspecific egg raft...

For insects, choosing a favorable oviposition site is a type of parental care, as far as it increases the fitness of its offspring. Niche theory predicts that crickets should show a bell-shaped oviposition response to substrate moisture. However, lab experiments with mole crickets showed a linear oviposition response to substrate moisture. Studies with the house cricket Acheta domesticus also s...

Mating and oviposition behaviour of brinjal shoot fruit borer (BSFB), Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae) were carried out in the laboratory on plants maintaining temperature (20-250C) relative humidity (80-85%). The moths found active at night for mating oviposition. usually occurred late but a few to continue up 8.0 hour day. Maximum completed between 4.00 6.00 period ranged f...

Food choice and preference relies on multiple sensory systems that are under the control of genes and sensory experience. Exposure to specific nutrients and nutrient-related molecules can change food preference in vertebrates and invertebrates. For example, larval exposure of several holometabolous insects to menthol can change their adult response to this molecule. However, studies involving D...

Mosquitoes such as Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) are important vectors of organisms that cause disease in humans. Research into the development of effective standardized odour baits for blood-fed females (oviposition attractants), to enable entomological monitoring of vector populations, is hampered by complex protocols for extraction of physiologically active volatile chemica...

The antler fly Protopiophila litigata Bonduriansky (Diptera Piophilidae) forms large mating/oviposition aggregations on discarded moose (Alces alces) antlers, where the strikingly aggressive males engage in frequent combat. According to theory, costly fighting behaviour will be maintained by selection only if winners sire more progeny than losers. Through a field study of individually marked fl...