SHIMAMURA, R., N. KACHI (Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji 192-0397, Japan), H. KUDOH (Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan), AND D. F. WHIGHAM (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD 21037). Visitation of a specialist pollen feeder Althaeus hibisci Olivier (Coleop...

Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) is widespread in the major soybean-growing areas in the southern and southeastern United States. A severe outbreak of BPMV in the north central and northern Great Plains states is currently causing serious concern to soybean growers and to the soybean industry in this region (30). BPMV is efficiently transmitted in nature, within and between soybean fields, by sever...

Here, we show how the mechanical properties of a thick-shelled tropical seed are adapted to permit them to germinate while preventing their predation. The seed has evolved a complex heterogeneous microstructure resulting in hardness, stiffness and fracture toughness values that place the structure at the intersection of these competing selective constraints. Analyses of different damage mechani...

Breeding by several of the spore-feeding species in the genus Phaulothrips is shown to be associated with abandoned tun-nels of bees and scolytid beetles, as well as with the dead seed capsules of Eucalyptus species. The breeding sites for other species in the genus remain unknown, but 16 species are here recognised from Australia, of which the following six are newly described: P. daguilaris, ...

Body size of many animals varies with latitude: body size is either larger at higher latitudes (Bergmann's rule) or smaller at higher latitudes (converse Bergmann's rule). However, the causes underlying these patterns are poorly understood. Also, studies rarely explore how sexual size dimorphism varies with latitude. Here we investigate geographic variation in body size and sexual size dimorphi...

Blubaugh, Carmen K. Ph.D., Purdue University, May 2015. Undercover Predators: Vegetation Mediates Foraging, Trophic Cascades, and Biological Control by Omnivorous Weed Seed Predators. Major Professor: Ian Kaplan. Weed pressure is the most costly challenge that vegetable growers face, requiring more labor investment than other production inputs. Vertebrate and invertebrate seed predators destroy...