A field survey was carried out to investigate kenaf plants cultivated in Telaga Papan, Terengganu, Malaysia with respecting to their performance, root galling and growth characteristics. In this investigation, the aims were to assess the status of nematode infection on kenaf planted on this sandy BRIS area and estimate the incidence and severity of infection. Inspection of kenaf plants showed d...

Larvae of Oliera argentinana, Brèthes 1916 (Lepidoptera: Cecidosidae) were rediscovered inducing spindle-shaped galls enclosed within swollen stems of Schinus (Anacardiaceae) in central Argentina and Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Male, female, immature stages, and plant galls of O. argentinana are redescribed, using optical and scanning electron microscopy. The genus Olie...

Sixty-nine herbaceous perennial ornamentals in 56 genera were evaluated for root galling after 2 months in soil infested with Meloidogyne hapla under greenhouse conditions. Plants were rated susceptible or resistant based on the number of galls present on the root system. Thirty-six percent had more than 100 galls on the roots (similar to 'Rutgers' tomato controls) and were rated susceptible. T...

Communities of insect herbivores and their natural enemies are rich and ecologically crucial components of terrestrial biodiversity. Understanding the processes that promote their origin and maintenance is thus of considerable interest. One major proposed mechanism is ecological speciation through host-associated differentiation (HAD), the divergence of a polyphagous species first into ecologic...

Pistacia integerrima is one of twenty species among the genus Pistacia. Long horn-shaped galls that develop on this plant are harvested and used in Ayurveda and Indian traditional medicine to make "karkatshringi", a herbal medicine used for the treatment of asthma and different disorders of respiratory tract. However, until now, the molecular mechanisms of action of "karkatshringi" and its chem...

Gall inducing insects most frequently oviposit in young tissues because these tissues have higher metabolism and potential for differentiation. However, these insects may also successfully establish in mature tissues as was observed in the super-host Copaifera langsdorffii. Among C. langsdorffii gall morphotypes, one of the most common is a midrib gall induced by an undescribed species of Cecid...

The host range of the knapweed nematode, Subanguina picridis (Kirjanova) Brzeski, under controlled environmental conditions was extended to include, in addition to Russian knapweed, Acroptilon repens (L.) DC., plant species within the Centaureinae, and Carduinae subtribes of the Cynareae tribe of the Asteraceae family. Examination of host response to nematode infection revealed that Russian kna...

Introduction: Plant galls are insect-induced tumor-like growths of plant tissue which nourish and protect developing gall former larvae (1). Gall inducers are typically host specific (2). The morphology of galls produced is unique to each gall former species and reflects the expression of both insect and host plant genomes (3). For each species of gall inducer, gall size at maturity varies wide...