anastrepha bezzii (diptera: tephritidae) larvae are common inside fruits of sterculia chicha (malvaceae) in minas gerais state, brazil. the seed dormancy and attack by a. bezzii of the native species s.chicha can be detrimental to seed germination and thus the natural spread of this plant. the objectives of the current study were to compare ecological observations of a. bezzii and s. chicha in ...

The extraordinary diversity of phytophagous insects may be attributable to their narrow specialization as parasites of plants, with selective tradeoffs associated with alternate host plants driving genetic divergence of host-associated forms via ecological speciation. Most phytophagous insects in turn are attacked by parasitoid insects, which are similarly specialized and may also undergo host-...

Recently, most foodborne illness outbreaks of salmonellosis have been caused by consumption of contaminated fresh produce. Yet, the mechanisms that allow the human pathogen Salmonella enterica to contaminate and grow in plant environments remain poorly described. We examined the effect of feeding by phytophagous insects on survival of S. enterica on lettuce. Larger S. enterica populations were ...

anastrepha bezzii (diptera: tephritidae) larvae are common inside fruits of sterculia chicha (malvaceae) in minas gerais state, brazil. the seed dormancy and attack by a. bezzii of the native species s.chicha can be detrimental to seed germination and thus the natural spread of this plant. the objectives of the current study were to compare ecological observations of a. bezzii and s. chicha in ...

Oviposition behavior in phytophagous insects and entomophagous parasitoids is often modified by the presence of conspecific brood (eggs and larvae). Often, females avoid laying eggs on or in hosts bearing brood, a behavior that acts to reduce the level of competition suffered by their offspring. Avoidance of occupied hosts is typically mediated by cues and/or signals associated with brood. In t...

Phytophagous insects use a wide range of indicators or associated cues to avoid laying eggs in sites where offspring survival is low. For insects that lay eggs in flowers, these unsuitable sites may be created by the host plant's resource allocation to flowers. In the sequentially flowering host plant, Yucca glauca, late-opening distal flowers are more likely to be aborted in the presence of al...

There is growing awareness of the importance of natural selection in driving genetic divergence and speciation, and several of the most apparent cases of this ecological speciation are provided by the existence of genetically distinct host forms in phytophagous insects. Such examples of host-associated differentiation (HAD) have become increasingly documented, and the implications of this pheno...

The diversity and community structure of arthropods in an organic double-cropped rice ecosystem in Guangdong Province, China was studied. We compared the arthropod communities in the early season (Apr-Jul) crop to those in the late season (Aug-Nov) crop in 2009. The comparisons were undertaken using a combination of community assessment approaches, including morphospecies richness, the Shannon-...

Competition plays an important role in structuring the community dynamics of phytophagous insects. As the number and impact of biological invasions increase, it has become increasingly important to determine whether competitive differences exist between native and exotic insects. We conducted a meta-analysis to test the hypothesis that native/ exotic status affects the outcome of herbivore comp...