Difficulties for adaptation of wild rodents' colonies in the laboratory may hamper experimental studies. We describe the use of a hollow brick inside cages, to provide shelter and reduce stress of the animals. It facilitates the cleaning of cages, since the animals stay inside the brick while they are transferred to a new cage. This method was applied in a trial for adaptation of Oryzomys nigri...

Morphological variation of Aphidius ervi Haliday (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) 1 associated to different aphid hosts 2 3 Cinthya M. Villegas , Vladimir Žikić, Saša S. Stanković, Sebastián A. Ortiz-Martínez, Ainara 4 Peñalver-Cruzand Blas Lavandero * 5 6 1: Laboratorio de Interacciones Insecto-Planta, Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de 7 Talca, Talca, Chile. 8 2: Department of Biology ...

Aphidius transcaspicus Telenga, a mealy plum aphid (Hyalopterus pruni Geoffroy) parasitoid from the Mediterranean, was recently introduced into Hawaii for control of invasive aphids. Under laboratory conditions the parasitoid successfully attacked several important aphid pests in Hawaii, including the melon aphid Aphis gossypii Glover, the banana aphid Pentalonia nigronervosa (Coquerel), the gr...

Local adaptation is promoted when habitat or mating preferences reduce gene flow between populations. However, gene flow is not only a function of dispersal but also of the success of migrants in their new habitat. In this study I investigated mating preference in conjunction with phenotypic plasticity using Aphidius parasitoids adapted to different host species. Males actively attempted to ass...

fumigant toxicity of camphor was studied against the aphid aphis craccivora koch and three associated natural enemies, i.e. coccinella undecimpunctata l., aphelinus albipodus hayat & fatima and aphidius colemani viereck. aphis craccivora was the most tolerant one compared with all tested natural enemies as the recorded lc50 values were 12.71, 6.33, 1.16 and 0.48 mg camphor/liter space for t...