Entomology Commons^™

New Insights Into The Function And Development Of The Soldier Caste In Termites, Li Tian

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

The evolution of nonreproductive castes is a defining characteristic of eusociality. The function and developmental regulation of the altruistic worker and soldier caste is the central element contributing to major advantages of eusociality over solitary animals. The soldier caste is the first evolved sterile caste in termites. Their primary function is believed to be colony defense. However, the function and development of termite soldiers remains largely unknown. Because of their apparent morphological adaptation for fighting and their limited behavior repertoire, our understanding of colony defense by termite soldiers is limited to their physical defense. In addition, we know little about …

Letter From The Dean, Michael Vayda

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Herbivore Response To Soybean Under Differing Induction Methods, John L. Dryburgh

LSU Master's Theses

Plants are attacked by a variety of herbivore feeding guilds and respond with specific responses to specific attacks, which may be localized or systemic. How a plant defends against one feeding guild may alter the plant’s response against a different feeding guild. A better understanding of these interactions will allow for the development of refined pest management programs. One situation in which this may occur is in interactions between chewing and piercing/sucking herbivores, such as aphids. Aphids are important crop pests primarily due to their ability to transmit viruses, the efficacy of which can be affected by plant defenses. To …

Effectiveness Of An Artisanal Mcphail Trap For Mass Trapping Tephritid Fruit Flies In Haiti, Fractyl Mertilus

LSU Master's Theses

Three field experiments were conducted in a mango orchard in Croix-des-bouquets (Haïti) to develop an effective artisanal McPhail trap, less expensive than the commercial traps, for mass trapping Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart) and Anastrepha suspensa (Loew). A field trial conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of two newly made artisanal trap models (AT1 and AT2) with the commercial McPhail trap (MP) demonstrated that the artisanal traps yielded similar results in the average number of fruit flies caught (8.9±2.6, 13±2.9, and 16±4.1 respectively). Moreover, the cost-efficacy ratio was a lot higher in the artisanal trap models (AT1: 0.42 $ per flies caught, AT2: …

Effects Of Detrital Subsidy On Arthropod Communities In Louisiana Rice Fields And Predation On Rice Water Weevil (Lissorhoptrus Oryzophilus), Nathan Mercer

LSU Master's Theses

The rice water weevil (RWW), Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus (Kuschel), is the most important insect pest of rice in the United States. Integrated pest management strategies for RWW in Louisiana consist of cultural controls, resistant cultivars and chemical insecticides. The fourth component of IPM, biological control, is largely absent from the literature for RWW, making exploration of biological control a logical next step in developing a full set of IPM strategies. The three main types of biological control are augmentation, classical and conservation. With little known about RWW predators, conservation biological control makes the most sense as local natural enemy abundance is …

Effects Of Spinosad On Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes Formosanus Shiraki (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), Dependra Bhatta

LSU Master's Theses

Formosan subterranean termites, Coptotermes formosanus, are economically important structural pests of warm and humid regions. Different control measures have been developed to avoid the damage caused by them. Among the available measures, chemical treatments have predominated for the last five decades. In our study we tested the effect of spinosad, a biopesticide, on C. formosanus. Spinosad is composed of bacterial metabolites that have been widely used to control various agriculture pests. It has been tested on Kalotermitidae and Termitidae; however, not on Rhinotermitidae, the most destructive of termite families. Both no choice and choice tests were conducted using three concentrations, …

Eastern Boxelder Bug, Boisea Trivittata (Hemiptera: Rhopalidae) Confirmation In Arkansas, S. W. Chordas Iii, C. T. Mcallister

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Seed Blends And Soil-Insecticide On Western And Northern Corn Rootworm Emergence From Mcry3a1+ Ecry3.1ab Bt Maize, Daniel L. Frank, Ryan Kurtz, N A. Tinsley, Aaron J. Gassmann, Lance J. Meinke, Daniel Moellenbeck, Michael E. Gray, Larry W. Bledsoe, Christan H. Krupke, Ronald E. Estes, Patrick Weber, Bruce E. Hibbard

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Seed blends containing various ratios of transgenic Bt maize (Zea mays L.) expressing the mCry3A+eCry3.1Ab proteins and non-Bt maize (near-isoline maize) were deployed alone and in combination with a soil applied pyrethroid insecticide (Force CS) to evaluate the emergence of the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, in a total of nine field environments across the Midwestern United States in 2010 and 2011. Northern corn rootworm, Diabrotica barberi Smith & Lawrence emergence was also evaluated in four of these environments. Both western and northern corn rootworm beetle emergence from all Bt treatments was significantly reduced when compared with beetle …

Parental Rna Interference Of Genes Involved In Embryonic Development Of The Western Corn Rootworm, Diabrotica Virgifera Virgifera Leconte, Chitvan Khajuria, Ana Maria Vélez, Murugesan Rangasamy, Haichuan Wang, Elane Fishilevich, Meghan L.F. Frey, Newton Portilho Carneiro, Premchand Gandra, Kenneth E. Narva, B. D. Siegfried

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

RNA interference (RNAi) is being developed as a potential tool for insect pest management and one of the most likely target pest species for transgenic plants that express double stranded RNA (dsRNA) is the western corn rootworm. Thus far, most genes proposed as targets for RNAi in rootworm cause lethality in the larval stage. In this study, we describe RNAi-mediated knockdown of two developmental genes, hunchback (hb) and brahma (brm), in the western corn rootworm delivered via dsRNA fed to adult females. dsRNA feeding caused a significant decrease in hb and brm transcripts in the adult …

Selection Of Reference Genes For Rt-Qpcr Analysis In The Monarch Butterfly, Danaus Plexippus (L.), A Migrating Bio-Indicator, Huipeng Pan, Xiaowei Yang, Keith Bidne, Richard L. Hellmich, Blair D. Siegfried, Xuguo Zhou

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is a powerful technique to quantify gene expression. To facilitate gene expression study and obtain accurate results, normalization relative to stably expressed reference genes is crucial. The monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus (L.), is one of the most recognized insect species for its spectacular annual migration across North America. Besides its great voyages, D. plexippus has drawn attention to its role as a bio-indicator, ranging from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to natural ecosystems. In this study, nine reference genes from D. plexippus genome were selected as the candidate reference genes. The expression profiles of these …

Early Detection And Mitigation Of Resistance To Bt Maize By Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), David A. Andow, Steven G. Pueppke, Arthur W. Schaafsma, Aaron J. Gassmann, Thomas W. Sappington, Lance Meinke, Paul D. Mitchell, Terrance M. Hurley, Richard L. Hellmich, R. Pat Porter

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Transgenic Bt maize that produces less than a high-dose has been widely adopted and presents considerable insect resistance management (IRM) challenges.Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, has rapidly evolved resistance to Bt maize in the field, leading to local loss of efficacy for some corn rootworm Bt maize events. Documenting and responding to this resistance has been complicated by a lack of rapid diagnostic bioassays and by regulatory triggers that hinder timely and effective management responses. These failures are of great concern to the scientific and agricultural community. Specific challenges posed by western corn rootworm resistance to Bt maize, …

A Monographic Revision Of The Genus Hoplopyga Thomson, 1880 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae: Gymnetini), Jennifer M. Shaughney, Brett C. Ratcliffe

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

A comprehensive revision of the genus Hoplopyga Thomson, 1880 is presented. Eighteen species are redescribed, and two new species are described. A key for identification, distribution maps, and images of the 20 species are provided. Hoplopyga ruteri Antoine is removed from the genus and placed in junior synonymy with Macrocranius similis Schürhoff. Lectotypes are designated for Hoplopyga brasiliensis (Gory and Percheron), Hoplopyga corumbana Schürhoff, and Hoplopyga multipunctata (Gory and Percheron). The following new synonymies are established: Hoplopyga lucidiventris (Thomson) is Hoplopyga foeda (Schaum); Hoplopyga spurca (Janson) is Hoplopyga liturata (Olivier); Hoplopyga monacha (Gory and Percheron) and Hoplopyga rubida (Gory and …

Short-Horned Grasshopper Subfamilies Feed At Different Rates On Big Bluestem And Switchgrass Cultivars, Muhammad Ullah, Fatima Mustafa, William W. Hoback, Mathew L. Brust, Kerri M. Farnsworth-Hoback, John E. Foster

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Grasshopper species belonging to subfamilies Melanoplinae, Gomphocerinae and Oedipodinae were tested for their feeding rate on three types of grass. All grasshopper species were offered Shawnee and Kanlow cultivars of switchgrass, Panicum virgatum L. and big bluestem, Andropogon gerardii Vitman. The grasshoppers, Melanoplus femurrubrum and Melanoplus differentialis were also tested for their feeding on turgid or wilted leaves of the Shawnee cultivar of switchgrass. We found that M. differentialis consumed more switchgrass compared to big bluestem while M. femurrubrum and Arphia xanthoptera consumed the most Shawnee switchgrass. The M. differentialis consumed more turgid grass compared to wilted switchgrass. The feeding …

Genome-Wide Transcript Profiling Reveals Novel Breast Cancer-Associated Intronic Sense Rnas, Sang Woo Kim, Elane Fishilevich, Gustavo Arango-Argoty, Yuefeng Lin, Guodong Liu, Zhihua Li, A. Paula Monaghan, Mark Nichols, Bino John

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play major roles in development and cancer progression. To identify novel ncRNAs that may identify key pathways in breast cancer development, we performed high-throughput transcript profiling of tumor and normal matched-pair tissue samples. Initial transcriptome profiling using high-density genome-wide tiling arrays revealed changes in over 200 novel candidate genomic regions that map to intronic regions. Sixteen genomic loci were identified that map to the long introns of five key protein-coding genes, CRIM1, EPAS1, ZEB2, RBMS1, and RFX2. Consistent with the known role of the tumor suppressor ZEB2 in the cancer-associated epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT), in situ …

Behavioural Responses Of Stable Flies To Cattle Manure Slurry Associated Odourants, K Tangtrakulwanich, T A. Albuquerque, G. J. Brewer, F. P. Baxendale, L Zurek, D N. Miller, D. B. Taylor, K A. Friesen, J. J. Zhu

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans [Diptera: Muscidae] L.) are blood-feeding synanthropic pests, which cause significant economic losses in livestock. Stable fly antennae contain olfactory sensilla responsive to host and host environment-associated odours. Field observation indicated that the abundance of stable flies increased significantly in grasslands or crop fields when cattle manure slurry was applied. Major volatile compounds emanating from manure slurry were collected and identified. Behavioural responses of stable flies to those compounds were investigated in laboratory bioassays and field-trapping studies. Results from olfactometer assays revealed that phenol, p-cresol and m-cresol were attractive to adult stable flies. When …

Comparisons Of Antifeedancy And Spatialrepellency Of Three Natural Product Repellents Against Horn Flies, Haematobia Irritans (Diptera:Muscidae), Junwei J. Zhu, Gary J. Brewer, David J. Boxler, Kristina Friesen, David B. Taylor

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Horn flies are among the most important biting fly pests of cattle in the United States. Horn fly management is largely dependent upon pesticides, which ultimately leads to the rapid development of insecticide resistance. Alternative control strategies, including repellents, have shown promising results in reducing fly biting. In the present study, we examined the efficacy and longevity of recently identified natural product repellents against horn flies.

RESULTS: Catnip oil, geraniol and C8910 acids reduced horn fly feeding in a laboratory bioassay and also exhibited spatial repellency in the olfactometer. Residual activity was observed for up to 3 days in …

A Protocol To Preserve The Integrity Of Stable Fly (Diptera: Muscidae) Dna For Long Distance Shipment, K. M. Kneeland, Steven R. Skoda, Elizabeth A. Claassen, John E. Foster

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Population genetic studies on a global scale may be hampered by the ability to acquire quality samples from distant countries. Preservation methods must be adequate to prevent samples from decay during shipping, so an adequate quantity of quality DNA can be extracted for analysis, and materials used must not be prohibited by the pertinent Postal Service. We tested a shipping protocol for stable flies which preserves the samples and adheres to Postal regulations. Samples were soaked in 95% ethanol for 6, 12, 24 and 48 hours; the ethanol was then poured off. Samples remained 'dry' for 2, 4, 6 and …

Dopamine Receptor Antagonists As New Mode-Of-Action Insecticide Leads For Control Of Aedes And Culex Mosquito Vectors, Andrew B. Nuss, Karin F K Ejendal, Trevor B. Doyle, Jason M. Meyer, Val J. Watts, Catherine A. Hill

Department of Entomology Faculty Publications

New mode-of-action insecticides are sought to provide continued control of pesticide resistant arthropod vectors of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). We previously identified antagonists of the AaDOP2 D1-like dopamine receptor (DAR) from the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, with toxicity to Ae. aegypti larvae as leads for novel insecticides. To extend DAR-based insecticide discovery, we evaluated the molecular and pharmacological characteristics of an orthologous DAR target, CqDOP2, from Culex quinquefasciatus, the vector of lymphatic filariasis and West Nile virus. CqDOP2 has 94.7% amino acid identity to AaDOP2 and 28.3% identity to the human D1-like DAR, hD1. CqDOP2 and AaDOP2 exhibited similar …

Metatranscriptomic Profiles Of Eastern Subterranean Termites, Reticulitermes Flavipes (Kollar) Fed On Second Generation Feedstocks, Swapna Priya Rajarapu, Jacob T. Shreve, Ketaki P. Bhide, Jyothi Thimmapuram, Michael E. Scharf

Department of Entomology Faculty Publications

Background: Second generation lignocellulosic feedstocks are being considered as an alternative to first generation biofuels that are derived from grain starches and sugars. However, the current pre-treatment methods for second generation biofuel production are inefficient and expensive due to the recalcitrant nature of lignocellulose. In this study, we used the lower termite Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), as a model to identify potential pretreatment genes/enzymes specifically adapted for use against agricultural feedstocks. Results: Metatranscriptomic profiling was performed on worker termite guts after feeding on corn stover (CS), soybean residue (SR), or 98% pure cellulose (paper) to identify (i) microbial community, (ii) pathway …

Assessing Chemical Control Of Earthworms At Airports, Thomas W. Seamans, Bradley F. Blackwell, Glen E. Bernhardt, Daniel A. Potter

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Earthworms originating from Europe (e.g., Lumbricus spp., Aporrectodea spp.), which are common in the United States and southern Canada can create hazardous conditions at airports by attracting birds that pose a threat to aircraft. These nonnative earthworms are also considered pests on golf courses and sports fields, as well as having detrimental effects on temperate boreal forests. No toxicants or repellents are currently registered for earthworm control in the United States. Our purpose was to identify products that could be used to repel or suppress nonnative earthworms on airports or other managed sites where they pose a hazard or nuisance. …

The Impacts Of Water Availability On Macroinvertebrate, Ector Matias Martell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In many regions around the world climate is changing and biotic communities are changing with it. In areas like the southwestern U.S., drought is one of the major sources of disturbance. Although droughts are an integral part of the natural hydrological cycles, they can have devastating effects on freshwater ecosystems when disrupted by extended periods of drought, resulting in changes to the structure and function of biotic communities. In this study, we surveyed four streams in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico from 2010 to 2014: Agua Chiquita, Rio Peñasco, Wills Creek, and the Sacramento River; These years encompassed an …

Sewer Overflows And The Vector Mosquito Proximity To Human West Nile Virus Infections, Andrea Simone Bowers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

DeKalb and Fulton Counties, which share the metropolitan Atlanta area, have seen an increase in West Nile infected vector mosquitoes; the increase is associated with close proximity to combined sewer overflow facilities. Despite completion of the remediation system in 2008, the mosquito population testing positive for West Nile virus has increased each year from 2010 through 2012. Guided by the Geographical Information System framework and using spatial analysis and regression analyses, this study described and quantified the relationship between sewer system overflows and amplification of vector mosquitoes; an additional goal was to investigate their proximity to human cases of West …

Evolution Of Hematophagous Habit In Triatominae (Heteroptera: Reduviidae), Fernando Otálora-Luna, Antonio J. Pérez-Sánchez, Claudia Sandoval, Elis Aldana

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

All members of Triatominae subfamily (Heteroptera: Reduviidae), potential vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, etiologic agent of the Chagas disease, feed on blood. Through evolution, these bugs have fixed special morphological, physiological, and behavioral aptations (adaptations and exaptations) adequate to feed on blood. Phylogeny suggests that triatomines evolved from predator reduvids which in turn descended from phytophagous hemipterans. Some pleisiomorphic traits developed by the reduvid ancestors of the triatomines facilitated and modeled hematophagy in these insects. Among them, mouthparts, saliva composition, enzymes, and digestive symbionts are the most noticeable. However, the decisive step that allowed the shift from predation to hematophagy …

Sequence-Characterized Amplified Regions That Differentiate New World Screwworms From Other Potential Wound-Inhabiting Flies, Joan A Christen, Steven R. Skoda, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Donald J. Lee, John E. Foster

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Abstract. New World screwworms, Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel, 1858), were once devastating pests of warmblooded animals in the United States before they were successfully eradicated using the sterile insect technique. Guarding against the introduction of screwworms to North America or any other screwworm-free area relies on rapid, reliable identification of suspected cases. In the current study, the DNA from excised markers generated by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction was used as the basis to generate 2 species-specific sequence-characterized amplified region molecular markers. Resulting primer pairs, named CR92A1 and J1A2 (each with forward and reverse components), produced amplicons of 852 …

Transcriptional Profiling Of Resistant And Susceptible Buffalograsses In Response To Blissus Occiduus (Hemiptera: Blissidae) Feeding, Crystal M Ramm, Michael Wachholtz, Keenan Amunsen, Teresa J. Donze, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Paul Twigg, Nathan A. Palmer, Gautam Sarath, Frederick P. Baxendale

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

ABSTRACT Understanding plant resistance mechanisms at a molecular level would provide valuable insights into the biological pathways impacted by insect feeding, and help explain specific plant tolerance mechanisms. As a first step in this process, we conducted next-generation sequencing using RNA extracted from chinch bug-tolerant and -susceptible buffalograss genotypes at 7 and 14 d after chinch bug feeding. Sequence descriptions and gene ontology terms were assigned to 1,701 differentially expressed genes. Defense-related transcripts were differentially expressed within the chinch bug-tolerant buffalograss, Prestige, and susceptible buffalograss, 378. Interestingly, four peroxidase transcripts had higher basal expression in tolerant control plants compared with …

Susceptibility Of Nebraska Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Populations To Bt Corn Events, David S. Wangila, Aaron J. Gassmann, Jennifer L. Petzold-Maxwell, B. Wade French, Lance J. Meinke

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Transgenic plants have been widely adopted by growers to manage the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, in field corn. Because of reduced efficacy in some Nebraska fields after repeated use of Cry3Bb1-expressing hybrids, single plant bioassays were conducted in 2012 and 2013 to characterize the susceptibility of western corn rootworm populations to the rootwormactive proteins Cry3Bb1, mCry3A, and Cry34/35Ab1. Results demonstrate that there are heritable differences in susceptibility of Nebraska western corn rootworm populations to rootworm-active Bt traits. Proportional survival and corrected survival data coupled with field histories collectively support the conclusion that a level of field resistance …

Transcriptional Analysis Of Susceptible And Resistant European Corn Borer Strains And Their Response To Cry1f Protoxin, Neetha Nanoth Vellichirammal, Haichuan Wang, Seong-Il Eyun, Estuko N. Moriyama, Brad Coates, Nicholas Miller, Blair Siegfried

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Background: Despite a number of recent reports of insect resistance to transgenic crops expressing insecticidal toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), little is known about the mechanism of resistance to these toxins. The purpose of this study is to identify genes associated with the mechanism of Cry1F toxin resistance in European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner). For this, we compared the global transcriptomic response of laboratory selected resistant and susceptible O. nubilalis strain to Cry1F toxin. We further identified constitutive transcriptional differences between the two strains.

Results: An O. nubilalis midgut transcriptome of 36,125 transcripts was assembled de novo from …

Degree-Day Prediction Models For The Flight Phenology Of Western Bean Cutworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Assessed With The Concordance Correlation Coefficient, Anthony A. Hanson, Roger D. Moon, R. J. Wright, Thomas E. Hunt, William D. Hutchinson

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Western bean cutworm, Striacosta albicosta (Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a native, univoltine pest of corn and dry beans in North America. The current degree-day model for predicting a specified percentage of yearly moth flight involves heat unit accumulation above 10°C after 1 May. However, because the moth’s observed range has expanded into the northern and eastern United States, there is concern that suitable temperatures before May could allow for significant S. albicosta development. Daily blacklight moth catch and temperature data from four Nebraska locations were used to construct degree-day models using simple or sine-wave methods, starting dates between 1 January …

Estimation Of Efficacy Functions For Products Used To Manage Corn Rootworm Larval Injury, N A. Tinsley, P. D. Mitchell, Robert Wright, Lance J. Meinke, R. E. Estes, M. E. Gray

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Maize, Zea mays L., is an economically important crop grown throughout the world. Corn rootworm, Diabrotica spp. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), larvae constitute a significant economic threat to maize production in the United States, where yield losses and management costs associated with corn rootworm species exceed $1 billion annually. Furthermore, the introduction of the western corn rootworm, D. virgifera virgifera LeConte, into maize-producing regions of Europe has made managing corn rootworm larval injury an international concern. Larvae injure maize plants by feeding on root tissue and are the primary target of management activities. Products commonly used to protect root systems from injury …

Diel Patterns Of Colaspis Brunnea And Colaspis Crinicornis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) In Southeastern Nebraska, Kentaro Miwa, Lance Meinke

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

A field study was conducted to increase our understanding of diel activity patterns of Colaspis brunnea (F.) and Colaspis crinicornis Schaeffer (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in key crop habitats. Within 24-h periods, C. brunnea was sampled in clover fields (primarily red clover, Trifolium pretense (L.), with some sweet clover, Melilotus officinalis (L.) Pallas, and downy brome, Bromus tectorum (L.)) and soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, fields, using a sweep-net, while whole-plant-count sampling was used to monitor C. crinicornis densities in field corn, Zea mays (L.). Sweep-net captures of C. brunnea were significantly greater at night than during the day, suggesting possible vertical …