Because of their widespread agricultural impact and rapid range expansions, true fruit flies (Tephritidae) are the subject of quarantine and control efforts worldwide. Among these flies, the pumpkin fruit fly Bactrocera depressa, which infests squash and other cucurbitaceous plants in Korea, Japan and Taiwan, was recently isolated from produce shipments entering Japan and identified as a regula...

Hybridization between tetraploids and their related diploids is generally unsuccessful in Centaurea, hence natural formation of triploid hybrids is rare. In contrast, the diploid Centaurea aspera and the allotetraploid C. seridis coexist in several contact zones where a high frequency of triploid hybrids is found. We analyzed the floral biology of the three taxa to identify reproductive isolati...

This second part of the revision of the Argentine species of Ora Clark, 1865 provides detailed redescriptions, habitus photos, illustrations of male and female genitalia for eight species, an identification key and updated distributions for all the species. A lectotype is hereby designated for Ora bruchi Pic, 1928. Scirtes brevenotatus v. mediolineatus Pic, 1928 and S. brevenotatus wagneri Pic,...

Plants of Juniperus communis L. var. communis, J. c. var. depressa Pursh, J. c. var. hemispherica J. & C. Presl, J. communis var. megistocarpa Fern. & St. John, J. c. var. nipponica (Maxim.) Wils., J. c. var. oblonga hort. ex Loudon and J. c. var. saxatilis Pall. were sampled and DNA fingerprinting (RAPDs, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs) was performed. Based on 191 RAPD bands, there was litt...

The classical approach to predicting the geographical extent of species invasions consists of training models in the native range and projecting them in distinct, potentially invasible areas. However, recent studies have demonstrated that this approach could be hampered by a change of the realized climatic niche, allowing invasive species to spread into habitats in the invaded ranges that are c...

Short-fringed or tyrol knapweed, Centaurea dubia (Asteraceae) is an invasive plant of fields and roadsides in the eastern United States. Insects from the plant’s native Eurasian range have been introduced into North America in an attempt to control the spread of related Centaurea species. One of these biological control agents, Urophora quadrifasciata (Diptera: Tephritidae), a picture-winged se...

Five species of eriophyoid mites were identified during surveys of mite fauna associated with plant species of the family Compositae from Southwest of East Azerbaijan province during 2010 and 2011. Two of them, Aceria virgatae n. sp. from Centaurea virgata Lam. and Aceria xeranthenzis n. sp. from Xeranthemumn squarrosum Boiss., were found to be new to science. No damage symptoms were observed o...

the essential oils from compositae specie of iran: centaurea behen l. obtained by hydrodistillation was analyzed by gc and gc/ms.  β-caryooyllane (24.5%), β-selinene (13.9%) and valencene (11.7%) were the main components among the sixteen constituents characterized in the oil of centaurea behen representing  93.7% of the total components detected.