The five immature stages of the planthopper Lacertinella australis (Remes Lenicov and Rossi Batiz) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae: Saccharosydnini) are described and illustrated. The main characters that allowed us to distinguish the various stages were body size, number of tarsomeres and metatibial spines, and number of teeth on the spur. New biological data based on laboratory rearing and field obse...

Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) has been produced in the laboratory for> 160 generations on the larvae of oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), the propagation hosts raised routinely on a semi-synthetic wheat diet formulation. Choice tests using modified stinging units were conducted in the laboratory to investigate whether insectary rearing had altered the host seeking and o...

Mechoris ursulus (Roelofs) (Coleoptera: Attelabidae) is a pest weevil of Fagaceae oak trees in eastern Asia. The female has a distinct branch-cutting behavior in conjunction with oviposition in the acorns of its host plant. This study analyzed the factors influencing oviposition preference by carrying out continuous field surveys over the course of 2009-2010 and through laboratory rearing. The ...

In this study, a 96-h laboratory reduction test was conducted with strain BDHSH06 (GenBank accession no. EF011103) as the test strain for Bdellovibrio and like organisms (BALOs) and 20 susceptible marine bacterial strains forming microcosms as the targets. The results showed that BDHSH06 reduced the levels of approximately 50% of prey bacterial strains within 96 h in the seawater microcosms. An...

BACKGROUND Environmental enrichment can enhance expression of species-specific behaviour. While foraging enrichment is encouraged in laboratory animals, its impact on novelty induced behaviour remain largely unknown. PURPOSE Here, we studied behavioural response of mice to acute and subchronic oral monosodium glutamate (MSG) in an open field with /without foraging enrichment. METHODS Adult ...

A mouth aspirator with a bent glass tip was designed for adult mosquito collection and transportation. This aspirator has been utilized for mosquito laboratory and operational research in New Jersey for >60 years. We provide schematics and instruction for construction of this inexpensive and simple mouth aspirator, which offers improved maneuverability of handling adult mosquitoes from rearing ...

Research on cutworms led us to explore the use of the McMorran diet to rear lepidopteran species, mainly Noctuidae, under laboratory conditions. We documented the development of 103 lepidopteran species, including 39 species not previously reported in the literature, to be reared on this diet. Given its low cost, ease of preparation, and wide species' acceptance, this diet provides a powerful t...

The western bean cutworm, Striacosta albicosta (Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a destructive insect pest of dry beans and corn within its native range of western Nebraska and eastern Colorado. However, since the initiation of an eastward range expansion of S. albicosta in the late 1990s, economic damage has been observed in the Midwest, and the species has now reached the Atlantic Coast an...

Fopius arisanus (Sonan) is an important parasitoid of Tephritid fruit flies for at least two reasons. First, it is the one of only three opiine parasitoids known to infect the host during the egg stage(1). Second, it has a wide range of potential fruit fly hosts. Perhaps due to its life history, F. arisanus has been a successfully used for biological control of fruit flies in multiple tropical ...