We report a case of a 56-year-old woman with loss of conscious transferred to the cardiology unit where non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction was diagnosed. The patient reported a wasp sting a few minutes before the accident. The cardiac troponin level was high and confirmed damage of the heart muscle. Finally, echocardiography and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy revealed an ejection fractio...

Among the most common parasites of Drosophila in nature are parasitoid wasps, which lay their eggs in fly larvae and pupae. D. melanogaster larvae can mount a cellular immune response against wasp eggs, but female wasps inject venom along with their eggs to block this immune response. Genetic variation in flies for immune resistance against wasps and genetic variation in wasps for virulence aga...

Hymenoptera venoms are constituted by a complex mixture of chemically or pharmacologically bioactive agents, such as phospholipases, hyaluronidases and mastoparans. Venoms can also contain substances that are able to inhibit and/or diminish the genotoxic or mutagenic action of other compounds that are capable of promoting damages in the genetic material. Thus, the present study aimed to assess ...

It is estimated that more than 500 species of insects have been introduced to the Galápagos Islands via human activities. One these insect invaders yellow paper wasp, Polistes versicolor (Olivier) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), a social wasp native continental South America. In Galápagos, wasps are voracious predators larvae, compete with for prey or floral resources and nuisance. Wasp suppression me...

The present review article explains the salient features of hornet venom toxins, their physiological, biological and pharmacological effect on animals man. Hornets sting very fast inflict venom, which is more dangerous than those bees. Hornet contains both proteinaceous non-proteinaceous peptides i.e. scapin, adolapin, mellitin, mastoparans enzymes, mainly phospholipase hyaluronidase, show mult...

Leptomastix dactylopii (Howard) is an endoparasitoid wasp, natural enemy of mealybug Planococcus citri (Risso). Despite the acquired knowledge regarding this host-parasitoid interaction, only little information is available on the factors of parasitoid origin able to modulate the mealybug physiology. The major alteration observed in P. citri is a strong reduction in fecundity, which is evident ...

Background & Objective. Ultrarush induction for specific venom immunotherapy has been shown to be reliable and efficacious in adults. In this study its safety and tolerance in children was evaluated. Methods. Retrospective analysis of 102 ultrarush desensitizations carried out between 1997 and 2005 in 94 children, aged 4 to 15 years. Diagnosis and selection for immunotherapy were according to r...