In a previous publication (Fraenkel & Blewett, 1943) it has been shown that a number of insects which normally live on wholemeal flour or other cereal products grow badly or not at all on flour thoroughly extracted with chloroform unless a sterol, e.g. cholesterol, is added to the diet. For several beetle larvae the diet becomes optimal upon addition of a pure sterol, but for the caterpillars o...

Use of insecticides can have disruptive effects on the environment. Replacing the chemical compounds in these insecticides with plant materials, however, can be a safe method with low environmental risk. In the current study, chemical composition and insecticidal activities of the essential oil from cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum L. (Maton) (Zingiberales: Zingiberaceae) on the adults of three s...

The fiber properties of lepidopteran silk depend on the amino acid repeats that interact during H-fibroin polymerization. The aim of our research was to relate repeat composition to insect biology and fiber strength. Representative regions of the H-fibroin genes were sequenced and analyzed in three pyralid species: wax moth (Galleria mellonella), European flour moth (Ephestia kuehniella), and I...

introduction: parasitoid wasp, trichogramma brassicae (bezdenko) (hym.: trichogrammatidae) has excellent position in mass production technology, scope of application, wide geographical distribution and unmatched talent to adapt to different climatic conditions that can be easily reared on mediterranean flour moth (mfm), ephestia kuehniella zeller (lep.: pyralidae). the parasitoid use is in orde...

The use of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) endotoxins to control insect vectors of human diseases and agricultural pests is threatened by the possible evolution of resistance in major pest species. In addition to high levels of resistance produced by receptor insensitivity (5, 16, 17), several cases of tolerance to low to medium levels of toxin have been reported in laboratory colonies of lepidopte...

Hard red winter wheat was treated with pirimiphos-methyl at 4, 6 and 8 mg kg(-1), synergized pyrethrins at 0.38, 0.75, 1.13 and 1.5 mg kg(-1), and combinations of the two insecticides, to conduct laboratory bioassays against four beetle pests of stored grain, red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), rusty grain beetle Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), lesser grain borer Rhyzopertha dom...

The Getty Conservation Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum have been studying the use of low oxygen atmospheres using nitrogen for pest eradication. Earlier work by Nieves Valentin and Frank Preusser found that a 30-hour exposure to an atmosphere of 0.5% oxygen and 99.5% nitrogen killed all life stages of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) [1]. In a collaborative project at the Universi...

Effects of microhabitat complexity on host foraging by three species of Trichogramma (T. deion, T. ostriniae, and T. pretiosum) were evaluated under simulated stored product conditions. All three species have been considered as potential biological control agents for the Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella, in retail stores and warehouses. Trials were conducted with single naı̈ve female paras...