Sweet cherries, Prunus avium L., from the United States must be fumigated to control codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), before exporting them to Japan. However, the status of sweet cherry as a true host for codling moth has been debated because of the limited survival of the pest. Previously, laboratory methods have been developed to rear the codling moth on sweet ch...

Laboratory, greenhouse and field studies were conducted on Oomyzus sokolowskii Kurdjumov, a parasite of diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.), to judge its suitability for introduction in the field to control the plutellid. Oomyzus sokolowskii preferred the third and fourth instar diamondback moth larvae over fresh pupae for parasitization. It is thus a larval parasite. Within the range of...

Many genes of large double-stranded DNA viruses have a cellular origin, suggesting that host-to-virus horizontal transfer (HT) of DNA is recurrent. Yet, the frequency of these transfers has never been assessed in viral populations. Here we used ultra-deep DNA sequencing of 21 baculovirus populations extracted from two moth species to show that a large diversity of moth DNA sequences (n = 86) ca...

Results After 80% ammonium sulphate precipitation, most of the proteins were recovered in 80% precitable fraction, 58.4% in moth and 71.2% in rice weevil. However, the recovery in supernatant was low 6.1% in rice weevil and 14.4 in moth extract. In ELISA inhibition of both the insect WBEs, most of the allergenic activity was recovered in 80% ammonium sulphate precipitate fraction (80% ppt). No ...

Gypsy moth defoliation of oak trees has been shown to lead to increased tannin levels, which, in turn, lead to reduced gypsy moth growth and fecundity. In laboratory experiments, increased tannin levels can interfere with the transmission of a virus that is consumed by larvae on oak foliage, and high mortality rates of larvae in the field are sometimes associated with low levels of defoliation....

Winter moth, Operophtera brumata, originally from Europe, has invaded eastern Massachusetts causing widespread defoliation and damage to many deciduous tree species and a variety of crop plants in the infested area. We identified O. brumata nucleopolyhedrovirus (OpbuNPV) in winter moth larvae collected from field sites in Massachusetts by using PCR to amplify a 482 bp region of the baculovirus ...

The tiger moth Bertholdia trigona is the only animal in nature known to defend itself by jamming the sonar of its predators - bats. In this study we analyzed the three-dimensional flight paths and echolocation behavior of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) attacking B. trigona in a flight room over seven consecutive nights to determine the acoustic mechanism of the sonar-jamming defense. Three m...