Ovipositing females from invasive (Krasnodar Territory of Russia) and native (Far East of Russia) populations of Harmonia axyridis were fed one of a set of diets ranging from 50 Myzus persicae aphids every day to 1 aphid every 10 days and all were also provided with a 10% sugar solution. The experiment was conducted at 20°C under short (12 h) and long (18 h) day conditions. Most of the females from the native population that consumed 50 or 10 aphids per day continued to oviposit under both long and short day conditions. Females that consumed 1 aphid per day or every 2 days practically stopped laying eggs but under long day conditions their ovaries were still active, whereas under short day conditions ca 50% of them were reproductively inactive (only germaria present) and had a well-developed fat body. Further reduction in diet resulted in an increase in the proportion of reproductively inactive females. However, about half of the females that terminated oogenesis under long day conditions had poorly developed fat bodies, which indicates that diapause was not induced. For the females from the invasive population, both photoperiodic and trophic effects were weak: under short day conditions, some females entered diapause when prey was abundant, whereas about 50% (independent of photoperiod) did not enter diapause when starved. This risk-spreading strategy, possibly, facilitates the adaptation of this invasive ladybird to unpredictable environmental conditions., Antonina A. Ovchinnikova, Andrey N. Ovchinnikov, Margarita Yu. Dolgovskaya, Sergey Ya. Reznik, Natalia A. Belyakova., and Obsahuje bibliografii
1_The arboricolous dolichoderine ant Liometopum microcephalum (Panzer, 1798) is considered to be mainly predatory, although there are some reports of it tending aphids. The main objective of the present study was to confirm that this ant has a trophobiotic relationship with aphids and assess seasonal differences in its utilization of honeydew. We hypothesized that the worker ants on trees where they have their nest (nest tree) and trees where they are foraging (foraging trees) should differ in gaster mass and sugar content depending on their direction of movement, and that both should be highest in spring. From spring to summer 2009, ascending and descending workers were collected from nest and foraging trees at a locality in South Moravia, Czech Republic. Mass of their gasters and their content of total and reducing sugars were measured using chemical (photometric) methods. Differences in gaster mass confirmed the flow of liquid food from foraging to nest trees, but there were no significant between-month differences. Contents of total and reducing sugars were positively correlated with gaster mass. The gasters of workers descending from foraging trees contained significantly more reducing sugars than those of workers descending or ascending nest trees. The content of reducing sugars was lowest at the beginning of the ants’ activity period in April and highest in June, with a non-significant drop in July. Results for total sugars were similar, with the decrease in July being significant. The concentration of sugars in the gasters of workers ascending and descending nest trees did not differ significantly but the absolute content of total sugars was higher in the gasters of ascending ants., 2_Results from foraging trees confirmed that the ants collected the honeydew from these trees. Possible reasons for the ambigous results for nest trees are discussed. We conclude that trophobiosis is an important component of the nutritional biology of L. microcephalum., Jiří Schlaghamerský ... []., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
We recorded the association between the planthopper Tettigometra laetus Herrich-Schäffer, 1835 (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Tettigometridae) and three ant species belonging to the subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae in a coastal dune area of Flanders (Belgium). Lasius psammophilus Seifert, Tetramorium caespitum L. and Formica cunicularia Latreille were observed attending and palpating the dorsal glandular area of this planthopper, taking honeydew directly from its anus, herding them and carrying them into their nests when disturbed. The planthopper was rarely found in the absence of ants and probably develops within ant nests, which may provide protection against predation and adverse weather conditions. The natural history of temperate ant-hemipteran relationships is discussed.
In a series of articles, we have been developing a theory of \emph{tropical diagrams of probability spaces}, expecting it to be useful for information optimization problems in information theory and artificial intelligence. In this article, we give a summary of our work so far and apply the theory to derive a dimension-reduction statement about the shape of the entropic cone.
Troponin T (TnT) is recently being considered to be an important diagnostic marker of myocardial damage in adults, but this marker has not yet been used in neonates. The present study was designed to determine the normal level of cardiac TnT in the cord blood of healthy term neonates. Cardiac troponin T concentration in cord blood was measured in 15 healthy term neonates using commercial kit (Enzymun-Test System, Boehringer, Mannheim). TnT serum concentration was 0.05±0.04 /ig/1 in 10 of 15 babies whereas in the remaining 5 haemolysed samples its concentration was elevated (mean 0.19±0.07 /vg/1). It is important to consider that incidental haemolysis of blood samples can mimic pathological elevation of TnT by interfering with the assay.
A new genus, Trurlia Jałoszyński, in the tribe Cephenniini (Scydmaenidae: Scydmaeninae) is described. The type species is T. insana sp. n. from Sumatra; females of an undescribed species are also reported to occur in W Malaysia. Trurlia most closely resembles Cephennomicrus Reitter, but it is the first genus of the Scydmaenidae with entirely fused antennomeres 10 and 11, forming a large, oval, abruptly separated club. Based on a disarticulated female of Trurlia sp., the detailed morphology of the new genus is described and illustrated, and possible relationships with other genera of the tribe are discussed. Comments on evolution, polarity of characters and feeding strategy of the Cephenniini are included.