Larvae of Manduca sexta are facultative specialists on plants in the family Solanaceae. Larvae reared on solanaceous foliage develop a strong preference for their host; otherwise, they remain polyphagous. The host-specific recognition cue in potato foliage for Manduca larvae is the steroidal glycoside, indioside D. Two pairs of galeal taste sensilla, the lateral and medial sensilla styloconica,...

Real-time rendering of vegetation is currently a problem in need of a solution. The lack of plants and trees reduces the realism of outdoor scenes. The large number of polygons that form this kind of objects implies that current hardware cannot achieve interactive rendering of outdoor scenes. This paper deals with this problem and it presents a multiresolution scheme that allows us to represent...

A high level of genetic variability for growth habit types is observed in tetraploid, cultivated coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides (L.) Codd). Very few cultivars with trailing habit exist, and those that are available generally have dark green or purple foliage color. Coleus with trailing growth habit is desirable as it increases its utility for use in hanging baskets, mixed containers, and ...

A foundational study assessed effects of biochemical pathway introduction into poplar to produce eugenol, chavicol, p-anol, isoeugenol and their sequestered storage products, from potentially available substrates, coniferyl and p-coumaryl alcohols. At the onset, it was unknown whether significant carbon flux to monolignols vs. other phenylpropanoid (acetate) pathway metabolites would be kinetic...

Oxylipins function as signaling molecules in plant growth and development and contribute to defense against stress. Here, we show that oxylipins also facilitate infestation of Arabidopsis thaliana shoots by the phloem sap-consuming green peach aphid (GPA; Myzus persicae), an agronomically important insect pest. GPAs had difficulty feeding from sieve elements and tapping into the xylem of lipoxy...

Since many bat species thrive in densely vegetated habitats, echoes from foliage are likely to be of prime importance to the animals' sensory ecology, be it as clutter that masks prey echoes or as sources of information about the environment. To better understand the characteristics of foliage echoes, a new model for the process that generates these signals has been developed. This model takes ...

In tsetse both sexes feed exclusively on the blood of vertebrates for a few minutes every 2-3 days. Tsetse flies seek cover from high temperatures to conserve energy and plants provide shelter for tsetse in all the biotopes they occupy. Recently, tsetse have taken cover in plantations and under the invasive bush Lantana camara that has invaded large areas of the tsetse fly belt of Africa. Flies...

Ceratothripoides claratris Shumsher is one of themost important thrips pest of tomatoes in central Thailand. Hence we conducted studies to determine the intraand inter-plant distribution of C. claratris on tomatoes in two types of greenhouses, i.e., open-plastic and closed net house. The experimentswereconductedon thecampusof theAsian InstituteofTechnology inBangkok,Thailand. Both adults and la...

Oxylipins function as signaling molecules in plant growth and development and contribute to defense against stress. Here, we show that oxylipins also facilitate infestation of Arabidopsis thaliana shoots by the phloem sap–consuming green peach aphid (GPA; Myzus persicae), an agronomically important insect pest. GPAs had difficulty feeding from sieve elements and tapping into the xylem of lipoxy...