An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Agrilus planipennis; Spathius; adults; biological control; competitive exclusion; host specificity; insect behavior; larvae; multiparasitism; oviposition; parasitoids; East Asia
Abstract:
... New associations between parasitoid species is common in biological control with interactions ranging from coexistence to competitive exclusion. Spathius agrili and Spathius galinae, native to North East Asia, are two host-specific idiobiont larval parasitoids of the invasive emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis that do not overlap in their native ranges but have been recently introduced to the U ...
... The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera:Liviidae), vector of huanglongbing disease, displays a high degree of color polyphenism. In the adult stage, ACP exhibits abdominal colors that can be separated into three color groupings: blue-green, grey-brown and orange-yellow. Color morphology has been shown to influence important and energetically costly psyllid life traits including ...
Lycorma delicatula; adults; flight; insect behavior; sexual maturity; wind
Abstract:
... Adult spotted lanternflies, Lycorma delicatula, launch themselves into the wind from elevated locations such as trees, lamp posts, and buildings. Individuals fly in short, successive bouts along descending trajectories of between 10 and 50 m before landing, crawling upward on a new structure, and again launching upwind. The possible physiological limits to the durations of flight-bouts, if not con ...
... The leaf beetle Ambrostoma quadriimpressum (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is monophagous on elm trees, Ulmus pumila (Ulmaceae). As this species lives on elm during most of its life but pupates and overwinters as an adult in the soil, the flightless beetle seeks a host plant after emergence from the soil. Previous field experiments showed that the beetle locates host plants via orientation to standing ...
... Video-recordings were made of adult spotted lanternflies, Lycorma delicatula, taking flight from apple trees in an orchard in northeast Pennsylvania in September, 2017 during a mass dispersal flight event involving thousands of adults. The trajectories of adults flying upwind in straight and level or gradually descending flight allowed them to traverse only up to ca. 40 m in a single flight-bout. ...
... Many insects use tactics to protect their eggs from predation, infection, and water loss, among other risks. Some assassin bugs only in the New World tribe Apiomerini are known to use plant substances, such as resin, instead of secretions to protect their eggs. Here, we report a novel storage mechanism and the utilization of plant resin for egg protection in Asian assassin bugs, Velinus nodipes an ...
... Hibiscus harlequin bugs (Tectocoris diophthalmus) are Australian jewel bugs known for their maternal care behavior, gregariousness and warning coloration. They feed on plants in the Malvaceae family, although the nymphs will also cannibalize unguarded eggs. Here, I detail observations over 3-year period in Brisbane (QLD), mostly on cultivated Hibiscus and Malvaviscus varieties, to quantify the fre ...
... The social environment provides males with information about the likelihood of reproductive competition. However, social context can be highly variable, and males must track their environment in order to alter reproductive investment appropriately. In addition to using information gained as adults to adjust reproductive strategies, males can use cues in early life to anticipate future mating compe ...
... Diaphorina citri is a major pest of citrus because it transmits Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, a phloem-limited bacterium that putatively causes Huanglongbing (HLB). The disease moves slowly through a tree, and the vector facilitates further within-tree movement via transmission of the pathogen. However, this only happens when D. citri stylets contact the phloem, to inoculate bacteria during p ...
Tribolium castaneum; adults; eggs; females; hatching; insect behavior; insects; laboratory experimentation; oviposition; oviposition sites; progeny; sex ratio
Abstract:
... Female insects must assess multiple factors when laying eggs, including both abiotic and biotic conditions of the laying site. Competition may also play a crucial role in the oviposition decisions of females. Competition at oviposition sites may take two forms: current competition between adults for both food and access to sites for oviposition, and future competition between offspring that will h ...
... The adaptation to alternate host plants of introduced herbivorous insects can be vital to agriculture due to the emergence of crop pests. Historically, it is assumed that there are trade-offs associated with the adaptation to new host plants; a generalist genotype that adapts to an alternate host is expected to have a relatively lower fitness on the ancestral host than a specialist genotype (physi ...
... Relatively little is known about intraspecific variation in the use of chemical defenses by cosmetid harvestmen. In this study, we investigated sexual and ontogenetic variation in the emission of secretions from the scent glands and the morphology of the ozopores of Erginulus clavotibialis, a Neotropical species from Belize. Most individuals (> 94%) did not secrete when seized by leg IV, however, ...
Teleogryllus oceanicus; acoustics; adults; body condition; body size; group housing; hearing; immune response; insect behavior; males; phenotype; phonotaxis; population density; rearing; stocking rate; Kauai
Abstract:
... When sexual signals are perceived during growth and development they can provide information regarding the social conditions likely to be encountered as an adult. Perception of cues related to the presence and density of future mates and potential competitors can result in altered adult phenotypes. Previous studies have shown that adult male Teleogryllus oceanicus field crickets from a Kauai, Hawa ...
... Scorpions are dominant predators in some environments. Nevertheless, most studies of predatory behavior in scorpions have focused on diet composition whereas some other relevant aspects, such as predatory strategy, have been poorly explored. Herein we evaluate the prey acceptance and predatory strategy of the scorpion Bothriurus bonariensis against sympatric prey with different defenses. As prey, ...
Crematogaster; Isoptera; Oecophylla longinoda; Platythyrea; Tetramorium; adults; analysis of variance; foraging; grasshoppers; insect behavior; linear models; nymphs
Abstract:
... We examined the recruitment rate of nestmates during prey capture in six arboreal ant species: Myrmicaria opaciventris, Platythyrea conradti, Crematogaster sp., Crematogaster clariventris, Tetramorium aculeatum, and Oecophylla longinoda. Termites and grasshoppers were used as prey. Prey were grouped by size: for termites, we presented ants with either workers or soldiers and for grasshoppers, we u ...
... The behavioral response of the larval parasitoid Spintherus dubius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) to volatile compounds derived from its Apion weevil hosts was investigated in two-choice bioassays. Odor source candidates were the larval and adult stages of weevils, clover flowers, and feces from adult weevils. Despite S. dubius being a larval parasitoid, the odor of weevil larvae isolated from the cl ...
... Mosquito control using different methods remains an integral component of intervention programmes which aim to protect humans from various mosquito-borne diseases. The host seeking behaviour of mosquitoes is essentially guided by odorant receptor neurons housed in the antenna, maxillary palps and proboscis. The odorant receptor neurons are responsible for detecting chemical cues from hosts and als ...
... Light intensity significantly affects insect flight behaviour. Mating of butterflies is significantly associated with flight frequency. However, no research has elucidated the effects of light intensity on butterfly flight. Thus, a clear understanding of the effects of light intensity on flight has significant theoretical implications for the cultivation and utilization of butterflies. We observed ...
Antonio Biondi; Xingeng Wang; Jeffrey C. Miller; Betsey Miller; Peter W. Shearer; Lucia Zappalà; Gaetano Siscaro; Vaughn W. Walton; Kim A. Hoelmer; Kent M. Daane
... Insect parasitoids are often manipulated to improve biological control programs for various arthropod pests. Volatile compounds can be a relevant cue used by most parasitoid hymenoptera for host or host microhabitat location. Here, we studied olfactory responses of the braconid Asobara japonica Belokobylskij, an Asiatic endoparasitoid of the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura), toward its ...
... Variations in morphological and behavioral properties of animals are generally considered as evolutionary adaptations to unpredictable environments. At the same time, individuals may present a strong consistency in their expressed behavior. In this study, we investigated inter-individual variations and consistency in walking behavior of both apterous and winged morphs of the rose aphid, Macrosiphu ...