Fifty-nine Hereford cattle susceptible to tick-borne diseases were used as tracer animals to assess the tick challenge and pathogenicity of Theileria parva under field conditions in Zimbabwe. They were moved periodically in groups of five to three commercial farms (one group consisted of four) during seasons of Rhipicephalus appendiculatus nymphal and adult activity. All tracer cattle were herd...

Nilaparvata lugens harbors yeast-like symbionts (YLSs). In present paper, a genome-wide analysis found 115 genes from Ni. lugens and 90 genes from YLSs that were involved in the metabolic degradation of 20 proteinogenic amino acids. These 205 genes encoded for 77 enzymes. Accordingly, the degradation pathways for the 20 amino acids were manually constructed. It is postulated that Ni. lugens can...

Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis, is transmitted to humans from the bite of Ixodes spp. ticks. During the borrelial tick-to-mammal life cycle, B. burgdorferi must adapt to many environmental changes by regulating several genes, including bba64. Our laboratory recently demonstrated that the bba64 gene product is necessary for mouse infectivity when B. burgdorferi is ...

With the incidence of Lyme disease increasing throughout the United States, reducing risk of exposure to the disease is of the utmost concern. In the northeastern U.S., the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is the primary vector and the white-footed mouse, (Peromyscus leucopus), the primary reservoir for Borrelia burgdorteri, the bacterium causing Lyme disease. Targeting I. scapularis engorg...

a recently described species of dysdercus, named dysdercus stehliki schaefer, 2013 (hemiptera: heteroptera: pyrrhocoridae), found in viçosa, minas gerais state, brazil, feeds upon the seeds of fallen fruits of sterculia chicha a. st. hil. (malvales: sterculiaceae). the biology and immature stages’ descriptions of d. stehliki were assessed in two environments: laboratory and field. individuals o...

Various animals produce inviable eggs or egg-like structures called trophic eggs, which are presumed to be an extended maternal investment for the offspring. However, there is little knowledge about the ecological or physiological constraints associated with their evolutionary origin. Trophic eggs of the seminivorous subsocial burrower bug (Canthophorus niveimarginatus) have some unique charact...

Parasites are often aggregated on a minority of the individuals in their host populations. Although host characteristics are commonly presumed to explain parasite aggregation on hosts, spatio-temporal aggregation of parasites during their host-seeking stages may have a dominant effect on the aggregation on hosts. We aimed to quantify, using mixed models, repeatability and autocorrelation analys...

Regression equations, based on scutal index (body length/scutal width), were developed to determine the duration of attachment for nymphal and adult female lxodes scapularis ticks. Feeding times were calculated for 444 nymphal and 300 female ticks submitted by bite victims between 1985 and 1989 in Westchester County, New York, an area where Lyme disease is highly endemic. Nymphs were attached f...

Development of the mouthparts in the cicada Meimuna mongolica (Distant) is investigated here for the first time using scanning electron microscopy in order to document changes occurring in different nymphal instars and from nymph to adult, during which a shift from subterranean root-feeding to feeding on aboveground parts of the host plant occurs. The structure and component of mouthparts is si...

Proteins were extracted from the cuticle of mid-instar nymphs of locusts, Locusta migratoria, and cockroaches, Blaberus craniifer. Seven proteins were purified from the locust extract and five from the cockroach extract, and their amino acid sequences were determined. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis indicates that the proteins are present only in the post-ecdysially deposited layer of the ny...