Bloodfed female Aedes aegypti were exposed to a surface treated with pyriproxyfen at 1.0 g m2 for 30 min and then allowed to lay eggs in cups of water containing 4th-instar larvae. Adult emergence from the immatures was highly inhibited, and transmission of pyriproxyfen from the females to the water was revealed. The transfer of the chemical to the water decreased with time before the blood mea...

Egg maturation and oosorption in Gonatocerus ashmeadi were investigated in the laboratory and the relationship between hind tibia length (HTL) and <12 h egg load, and wing wear and parasitoid age were determined. G. ashmeadi given access to honey-water and hosts, on average, matured 77 eggs in excess of those they were born with. The number of mature eggs in female G. ashmeadi provided honey-wa...

The influence of protein in the adult diet on first cycle gonotrophic development was examined in newly colonized screwworm flies, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel), reared on an artificial larval diet and bred in subsequent generations from females stimulated to oviposit only after all individuals in a colony were expected to have matured their eggs. This latter criterion was established with...

Oocyte-specific linker histone H1foo is localized in the oocyte nucleus, either diffusely or bound to chromatin, during the processes of meiotic maturation and fertilization. This expression pattern suggests that H1foo plays a key role in the control of gene expression and chromatin modification during oogenesis and early embryogenesis. To reveal the function of H1foo, we microinjected antisens...

Xenopus laevis has been used for many decades to study oocyte development and maturation. The Xenopus oocytes' large size, relative abundance, and clearly defined progression of physical characteristics from oogonia to eggs make them ideal for studying oogenesis. In addition, the ability of steroids to trigger Xenopus oocyte maturation in vitro has resulted in their extensive use for the study ...

Undernourished mice infected (UI) submitted to low and long-lasting infections by Schistosoma mansoni are unable to develop the hepatic periportal fibrosis that is equivalent to Symmers' fibrosis in humans. In this report, the effects of the host's nutritional status on parasite (worm load, egg viability and maturation) and host (growth curves, biology, collagen synthesis and characteristics of...

Fecundity is a fundamental determinant of fitness, yet the proximate developmental and physiological mechanisms that enable its often rapid evolution in natural populations are poorly understood. Here, we investigated two populations of the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus that were established in exotic ranges in the early 1970s. These populations are subject to drastically different levels of r...