The carob moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is a serious pest and causes a considerable loss of yield of pomegranate in Iran. Apanteles myeloenta (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is the dominant parasitoid of this pest parasitizing it more than 30% in recent years. This parasitoid is a candidate for augmentative biological control program to reduce the level of the infestation of fruit overwinter. The objective of this research was to optimize the mass production of A. myeloenta. The mean developmental time of females was 28 days and of males 27 days. Pupal development lasted 7 days. The second instar was the preferred host and most heavily parasitized (45%). Wasps that started their development in second instar hosts produced the highest progeny and those that started in third instar hosts survived as adults for longest. The sex ratio (females to males) of A. myeloenta that emerged from carob moth larvae parasitized in the first instar was 1 : 3.5, in the second instar 1 : 3 and in the third instar 1 : 2. The influence of different host ages on the functional response of A. myeloenta to host density was assessed. Logistic regression indicated a type II functional response to different densities of all the stages of the host tested., Hossein Kishani Farahani, Seyed Hossein Goldansaz., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Béthoux recently identified the species †Adiphlebia lacoana Scudder from the Carboniferous of Mazon Creek, Ill., USA as the oldest beetle. The fossils bear coriaceous tegmina with pseudo-veins allegedly aligned with "rows of cells" as they occur in Permian beetles and extant Archostemata. The examination of four new specimens of †Adiphlebia lacoana from the same locality revealed that the "cells" are in fact clumps of clay inside a delicate meshwork, and no derived features shared with Coleoptera or Coleopterida (= Coleoptera + Strepsiptera) were found. Instead, †Adiphlebia lacoana bears veinal fusions and braces similar to extant Neuroptera. These features support a placement in †Strephocladidae, and are also similar to conditions found in †Tococladidae. These unplaced basal holometabolan families were erroneously re-analyzed as ancestral Mantodea and Orthoptera. Homologization of the wing pairs in neopteran lineages is updated and identification errors are corrected. A new Permian beetle family †Moravocoleidae [†Protocoleoptera (= Permian Coleoptera with pointed unpaired ovipositor; e.g., †Tshekardocoleidae)] is described., Jarmila Kukalová-Peck, Rolf G. Beutel., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
This paper describes the characterization of a set of nine microsatellite markers for the pipe-organ mud-dauber wasp, Trypoxylon albitarse F. (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), a common solitary wasp species in Brazil. Eight of the nine loci described were found to be polymorphic. The number of alleles ranged from three to 11. Observed and expected heterozygosity on the population level ranged from 0.135 to 0.891 and 0.177 to 0.865, respectively. Genotypic analyses revealed no deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium or linkage disequilibrium after sequential Bonferroni correction. Cross-species amplification was also tested for nine related species and positive amplifications were found in most of the assays. These markers will be useful in studies involving relatedness analysis and investigations of the population genetics of these wasps., Juliano Da Costa Almeida ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Společenstva mravenců většinou reagují na změny jejich biotopů méně výrazně než společenstva jiných organismů. V biotopech měnících se pozvolněji (např. neobhospodařované louky) se zpravidla dlouho zachovává původní druhová skladba myrmekofauny, zatímco výměna druhů z jiných skupin (rostlin i většiny bezobratlých) je mnohem rychlejší. Podobně na člověkem výrazně pozměněných lokalitách typu výsypek, odkališť nebo pískoven společenstvo mravenců velmi často sestává pouze z několika běžných druhů, zatímco mezi ostatními organismy se obyčejně najde řada druhů z Červené knihy. Mezi příčiny těchto rozdílů patří zejména značná schopnost mravenců regulovat podmínky panující v hnízdě, jejich agresivita a způsob šíření. Nově vzniklou lokalitu nejrychleji osídlí druhy mravenců běžné v okolí, kdežto obecně vzácnější specialisté mají zpoždění a již existující kolonie dříve příchozích je na lokalitu nepustí. Na druhou stranu z výskytu kolonií druhů na místech pro ně nevhodných může ukazovat, že na těchto lokalitách panovaly v uplynulých letech podmínky odlišné., Ant assemblages are usually less affected by environmental alteration than other organisms. They persist without obvious changes in slowly changing habitats (e.g. unmanaged meadows) much longer than assemblages of plants or most invertebrates. Similarly, communities of ants consist of several common species in anthropogenic habitats (spoil dumps, coal ash settling basins or sandpits) whereas assemblages of other organisms usually contain some rare and endangered species. The ability of ants to regulate environmental conditions in nests, their agressivity and mode of dispersion play an important role in this respect. A new locality is often first colonised by common ant species. The occurrence of colonies of certain species in habitats with suboptimal conditions can indicate the past changes of local environmental conditions., and Pavel Pech.
Painting the Jungle, the amply illustrated publication of an excellent Czech author of scientistific drawings, Jan Dungel, brings together fascinating photos and drawings of the jungle from his journeys through South America - Amazonian rainforests, savannahs (grassland with widely spaced trees), Llanos (extensive systems of grasslands on flat plains) or in Pantanal (the world´s largest wetland area in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay). and [autor recenze] Jan Zima.