BACKGROUND Toxoplasma gondii infection is mainly caused by ingestion of water or food that is contaminated with oocysts excreted by cats, or by eating raw meat containing T. gondii tissue cysts. However, oral transmission does not explain the common occurrence of toxoplasmosis in a variety of hosts, such as herbivorous animals, birds, and wild rodents. Little information exists on the maintenan...

At meiotic prophase, the grasshopper Chorthippus longicornis has normal synaptinemal complexes inside paired homologous chromosomes. Evidence is presented that short single cores and small multiple core complexes occur inside metaphase I chromosomes. At first anaphase, interphase, and early spermatid stage, large multiple core complexes are located in the cytoplasm. It is speculated that the mu...

Monogeneans, a class of parasitic platyhelminthes, are usually found on the surface fish. When it feeds its host, harbours bacteria, which can survive in gut. Occasionally, monogeneans may cause damages fish tissue while feeding and allow secondary infection. The present study aimed to isolate identify culturable bacteria obtained within gill monogeneans, Cichlidogyrus thurstonaeand Scutogyrus ...

What is Nasonia? A small (2–3 mm) parasitoid wasp that oviposits in the pupae of flies (but not those of Drosophila!). This hymenopteran occurs naturally in bird nests and at carcasses. Three species are known: the cosmopolitan N. vitripennis and two endemic North American species, N. giraulti and N. longicornis. Nasonia is extremely easy to culture on commercially available host pupae, it has ...

Electromorphic variation among populations of Drosophila mojavensis, D. arizonensis and D. longicornis was examined for seven genetic loci. The average electrophoretic mobility for a population was used as the metric. D. mojauensis and D. arizonensis use larval substrates in different parts of their geographic ranges, while D. Zongicornis is more narrowly restricted to different species of the ...

Arthropod-borne infectious diseases cause many deaths and a major economic burden worldwide. Repellents play an important role in protecting people from biting arthropods. The repellency of veratraldehyde, known food additive, the WJ-1041 formulation containing 10% veratraldehyde was tested against Aedes albopictus Culex pipiens pallens females Haemaphysalis longicornis nymphs using arm-in-cage...