Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart) (Diptera: Tephritidae), the West Indian fruit fly, is a frugivorous pest that occasionally finds its way to commercial growing areas outside its native distribution. It inhabits areas in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean with occasional infestations having occurred in the southern tier states (California, Florida, and Texas) of the United States....

Hedgehogs are small, nocturnal mammals that become popular in the world and have significant role in transmission of zoonotic agents. Some of the agents are transmitted by ticks and fleas such as rickettsial agents. For these reason, a survey on ectoparasites in European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) carried out between April 2006 and December 2007 from different parts of Urmia city, west Azer...

Global climate change is altering the breeding phenology of many organisms, and one reported consequence of warmer average temperatures is earlier breeding times in migratory songbirds of north temperate latitudes. Less studied are the potential interactions between earlier breeding and social behavior in colonial species. We investigated how breeding time, as measured by colony initiation date...

poultry products are considered as one of the most important sources of food for humans, worldwide. indigenous poultry production has grown in popularity among villagers and some urbanites due to simple maintenance conditions, adequate adaption of poultry to different climatic conditions, and acceptable product yield. parasites are among the main pathogenic agents, threatening the health of pou...

We used the "morphology-performance-fitness" paradigm (Arnold, 1983) as our framework to investigate endocrine control of performance and fitness in Sceloporus undulatus (Eastern Fence Lizard). Focusing on males, we used the "natural experiments" of seasonal, sexual, and developmental variation in growth and in exercise endurance to identify testosterone and corticosterone as potential modulato...

Planktothrix rubescens belongs to the most ubiquitous cyanobacterial species in mesotrophic and oligotrophic lakes in the pre-alpine regions. In most of these lakes, coregonids are among the dominant species of the ichthyofauna with great importance for the professional fishery. A possible link between the occurrence of toxic Planktothrix blooms and the recurrent slumps in coregonid yields has ...

A portable, low-frequency acoustic system was used to detect termite infestations in urban trees. The likelihood of infestation was rated independently by a computer program and an experienced listener that distinguished insect sounds from background noises. Because soil is a good insulator, termite sounds could be detected easily underneath infested trees, despite the presence of high urban ba...

Fitness consequences of ectoparasitism are expressed over the lifetime of their hosts in relation to variation in composition and abundance of the entire ectoparasite community and across all host life history stages. However, most empirical studies have focused on parasite species-specific effects and only during some life history stages. We conducted a systematic, year-long survey of an ectop...

Blowflies (Calliphoridae) are characterised by the ability of their larvae to develop in animal flesh. Where the host is a living vertebrate, such parasitism by dipterous larvae is known as myiasis. However, the evolutionary origins of the myiasis habit in the Calliphoridae, a family which includes the blowflies and screwworm flies, remain unclear. Species associated with an ectoparasitic lifes...

Parasites and infectious diseases are major determinants of population dynamics and adaptive processes, imposing fitness costs to their hosts and promoting genetic variation in natural populations. In the present study, we evaluate the role of individual genetic diversity on risk of parasitism by feather lice Degeeriella rufa in a wild lesser kestrel population (Falco naumanni). Genetic diversi...