Urban areas are increasing globally, providing opportunities for biodiversity researchers to study the process in which species become established in novel, highly disturbed habitats. This ecological process can be understood through analyses of morphological and genetic variation, which can shed light on patterns of neutral and adaptive evolution. Previous studies have shown that urban populat...

In recent years, pesticide resistance in some lepidopteran species, along with a general desire to reduce dependence on chemical pesticides, have led to increased interest in evaluating and enhancing the effects of naturally occurring biological control agents on the crucifer Lepidoptera. Due to the relative ease of documenting the impact of parasitoids on pest populations, however, virtually a...

The exceptional diversity of insects is often attributed to the effects of specialized relationships between insects and their hosts. Parasite-host interactions are influenced by current natural selection and dispersal, in addition to historical effects that may include past selection, vicariance, and random genetic drift. Both current and historical events can lead to reduced fitness on some h...

Color ornaments are often viewed as products of countervailing sexual and natural selection, because more colorful, more attractive individuals may also be more conspicuous to predators. However, while evidence for such countervailing selection exists for vertebrate color ornaments (e.g., Trinidadian guppies), similar studies have yet to be reported in invertebrates. Indeed, evidence for female...

Selectivity is an important factor in identifying candidate pesticides to be used in crop protection since it characterizes chemicals that, while being effective against target pests, exert an acceptable impact on the other components of the environment. Extrapolated to an integrated pest management (IPM) context, selectivity implies that candidate pesticides may preserve the ability of benefic...

Nutritional enhancement of crops using genetic engineering can potentially affect herbivorous pests. Recently, oilseed crops have been genetically engineered to produce the long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at levels similar to that found in fish oil; to provide a more sustainable source of these compounds than is currentl...

Caterpillar feeding induces direct and indirect defences in brassicaceous plants. This study focused on the role of the octadecanoid pathway in induced indirect defence in Brassica oleracea. The effect of induction by exogenous application of jasmonic acid (JA) on the responses of Brussels sprouts plants and on host-location behaviour of associated parasitoid wasps was studied. Feeding by the b...