Entomology Commons^™

Movement Of Striacosta Albicosta (Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Larvae On Transgenic Bt And Non-Bt Maize, Débora G. Montezano, Thomas E. Hunt, Priscila M. Colombo Da Luz, Kelsey Karnik, Stephen D. Kachman, Ana Maria Velez, Julie A. Peterson

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Exposure of lepidopteran pests to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins has been shown to affect the behavior of larvae, including increased movement and avoidance of Bt-expressing plants or diet. Therefore, we hypothesized that the behavior of western bean cutworm, Striacosta albicosta (Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), an important pest of maize, could be affected when exposed to Bt plants. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of artificial arena and on-plant experiments to determine S. albicosta neonate behavior when exposed to Bt and non-Bt plant tissue. Video tracking experiments presented neonate larvae with the choice of Bt or non- …

Evaluating The Field Efficacy Of Uv-C On Two California Strawberry Arthropod Pests, Jose Luis Alvarado Rojas

Master's Theses

The efficacy of two different autonomous Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) units on two spotted spidermite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), and greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum. (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). was tested in four commercial strawberry fields in California.

In 2020, California strawberry growers used 12 million pounds of active ingredients (AIs) to keep pests under economic thresholds. While pesticides are an important part of an integrated pest management program, their use poses threats to the environment and human health. To protect agricultural workers, the public and the environment, regulators in California have consistently limited or removed the use of certain pesticide AIs. For …

Nebline, June/July 2023

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Introducing Nit Kits: Extension's New Program on Head Lice in Early Childhood Settings by Kait Chapman

Curiosity as a Tool for Health Access by Emily Gratopp

Recipe of the Month: Refreshing Watermelon Salad by Emily Gratopp

Nebraska Celebrates Wildflower Week, June 5–11 by Sarah Browning

Graden Guide: Things to Do This Month

Fescue Toxicosis by Connor Biehler

Graywater Use in Nebraska by Becky Schuerman

Aphids, Scales and Spider Mites, Oh My! by Kait Chapman

Challenging Behaviors: Using Positive Language by Hayley Jackson

Extension News: New 4-H Assistant

4-H’ers Qualify for State Presentations Contest

4-H Clubs Helped at Kiwanis Karnival

Nebraska …

Dietary Parental Effects In A Generalist Heribivore, Emma J. Sellers

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

The environment or experiences of a parent generation can impact the fitness of the next generation, a phenomenon known as parental effects. The parental diet, for example, can have consequences for their offspring who may perform better or worse on the same diet. Dietary specialists are often the focus of studies of parental effects due to diet because a narrow diet breadth suggests that the offspring environment may be predictable. Dietary generalists, in contrast, are less often studied regarding parental effects and this may be because their wide diet breadth makes the future environment less predictable.

We investigated whether parental …

Pestfacts Wa Issue 06 - June 2023, Benjamin S. Congdon, Rebecca Severtson

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 6 - June 2023 contents:

• Green peach aphid alert
• 2023 winter spring insecticide guide is now available

Long-Term Mammal Herbivory On Arthropod Assemblages At Kruger National Park, South Africa, Ludzula Mukwevho, Tatenda Dalu, Frank Chidawanyika

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Protected savannas are essential reserves for biological diversity, including endangered arthropod species, however, extreme grazing by mammals has cascading impacts on the communities and disrupts the functioning of these ecosystems globally. The current study assessed the abundance, species richness and composition of arthropods at the long-term grazing exclosures of Kruger National Park, South Africa. Pitfall traps and active searches were used to sample arthropods at the ungrazed, moderately, and heavily grazed exclosures. We found that Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Araneae were the most abundant orders of arthropods sampled. The abundance of multi-taxon, Diptera and Hymenoptera was significantly different between exclosures. …

Effect Of Use Of Tsetse Repellant Collar Technology On The Farm Performance And Household Welfare Of Small-Scale Livestock Farmers In Kenya, Beatrice W. Muriithi, Kassie Menale, Gracious M. Diiro, Michael N. Okal, Daniel K. Masiga

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Tsetse-transmitted Animal African Trypanosomosis (AAT) is a disease of economic importance to livestock development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is widely managed using trypanocides that are expensive for smallholders and associated with health risks due to drug residues in animal products and drug resistance. Developed recently by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) and partners, the novel Tsetse repellent collar technology (TRCT) provides an effective alternative control measure that targets the tsetse fly vector of AAT. This study assessed the impact of TRCT on household welfare and food security by using ex-post non-experimental data obtained from 632 …

Two New Genera Of Enopliinae, Skelleyus And Divulgoatus (Coleoptera: Cleridae), Weston Opitz

Insecta Mundi

Two new genera, Skelleyus Opitz and Divulgoatus Opitz (Coleoptera: Cleridae: Enopliinae), show unusual antennal development. Funicular antennomeres become shorter as they approach an extensive ca­pitulum. This study involves three taxa, Skelleyus leavengoodi Opitz, new species, Divulgoatus kelleri Opitz, new species, and Divulgoatus discrepans (Gorham).

The two new genera of Cleridae presented in this work show a most unusual antennal development. The greatly extended antennal capitulum is not found in any other member of the Enopliinae. The complete illustrations of the antennae are depicted in the species descriptions.

Biodiversity Of Histerid Beetles (Coleoptera: Histeridae) From Brazil. I. Southern Region, Fábio Luiz De Leão Leonel, Fernando Willyan Trevisan Leivas

Insecta Mundi

This contribution adds data to the conservation and distribution of Histeridae species (Coleoptera) in the Neotropical region through a survey of Brazil’s South region. More specifically, it provides: i) a list of local Histeridae species; ii) a list of species that are inside Conservation Units in southern Brazil; iii) biotic (biome, ecoregion and associations/affinities) and abiotic information (altitude and month of occurrence) for each species. In total, 66 genera and 164 histerid beetle species were recorded, distributed in seven subfami­lies and 11 tribes. Among these, one genus and three species are new records for the region. Fifty percent of the …

A New Genus And Sixteen New Species Of False Click Beetles (Coleoptera: Eucnemidae) Described From The Heredia Province Of Costa Rica With Several Additional Records From The Osa Peninsula And Panama, Robert L. Otto, Jyrki Muona, Jim Córdoba-Alfaro

Insecta Mundi

More than 1,300 specimens of Eucnemidae collected from Heredia Province in Costa Rica during the 1990s Arthropods of La Selva (ALAS) survey were studied from 2018 through 2022. One new genus of false click beetle, Absensiugum Otto, Muona and Córdoba-Alfaro, is described. Nematodes teres Horn, from the Ne­arctic and Caribbean regions, is transferred to this new genus to form Absensiugum teres, new combination. Sixteen new species of false click beetle (Coleoptera: Eucnemidae) are described from Costa Rica. These new species are: Adelothyreus brevis, Adelothyreus costaricensis, Adelothyreus totus, Quirsfeldia stethonoides, Lacus pectinatus, Maelodrus costaricensis, Onichodon …

A New Species Of Acmaeodera Eschscholtz, 1829 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) From Southern Nevada, Usa, Richard L. Westcott

Insecta Mundi

A new species of Acmaeodera Eschscholtz, 1829, A. raschkoi Westcott (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is described from southern Nevada, USA, and compared to four other species in the genus. Its habitat and means of capture are discussed in detail.

A new species of Acmaeodera Eschscholtz, 1829 from Nevada is described herein and figured. Its habitat and means of capture are described. According to Nelson et al. (2008), there were 145 valid species of Acmaeodera in the USA. Since that time, only one more has been added (MacRae 2014), and one has been synonymized (Hansen and Westcott 2023), leaving 146 species of the …

Pathogenicity Of Multiple Providencia Species (Enterobacteriales: Morganellaceae) To The Mass-Reared Mexican Fruit Fly (Diptera: Tephritidae), Bacilio Salas, Hugh E. Conway, Don C. Vacek, Christopher Vitek, Erin Schuenzel

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Mexican fruit fly (Anastrepha ludens (Loew)) (Diptera: Tephritidae) represents a major threat to fruit production in the Western Hemisphere. Sterile insect technique is used to suppress and eradicate wild populations. Success of this control method necessitates weekly production of hundreds of millions of flies, their sterilization by irradiation, and their aerial release. Diet needed to produce large fly numbers are conducive to the spread of bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria were isolated from 3 rearing facilities and from multiple sources: eggs, larvae, pupae and spent diet, and were found to include some isolates identified to the genus Providencia (Enterobacteriales: Morganellaceae). We …

A Study On Image Processing Techniques And Deep Learning Techniques For Insect Identification, Vinita Abhishek Gupta, M.V. Padmavati, Ravi R. Saxena, Pawan Kumar Patnaik, Raunak Kumar Tamrakar

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Automatic identification of insects and diseases has attracted researchers for the last few years. Researchers have suggested several algorithms to get around the problems of manually identifying insects and pests. Image processing techniques and deep convolution neural networks can overcome the challenges of manual insect identification and classification. This work focused on optimizing and assessing deep convolutional neural networks for insect identification. AlexNet, MobileNetv2, ResNet-50, ResNet-101, GoogleNet, InceptionV3, SqueezeNet, ShuffleNet, DenseNet201, VGG-16 and VGG-19 are the architectures evaluated on three different datasets. In our experiments, DenseNet 201 performed well with the highest test accuracy. Regarding training time, AlexNet performed well, …

A Taxonomic List Of The Old World Genera In The Subfamily Hesperiinae (Hesperiidae) Arranged Into Tribes, Jing Zhang, Qian Cong, Jinhui Shen, Leina Song, Nick V. Grishin

The Taxonomic Report of the International Lepidoptera Survey

A taxonomic list of valid genera in the subfamily Hesperiinae from the Old World assigned to tribes is provided. This list is based on phylogenetic analysis of genomic sequence data complemented by morphological considerations. As a result, there are no incertae sedis non-fossil genera in the family Hesperiidae.

Mathematics Of Population-Genetics Model For Assessing The Impacts Of Insecticide Resistance And Temperature On Population Abundance Of Malaria Mosquitoes, Jemal Mohammed-Awel

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Interactive Effects Of Bark Beetles, Ophiostomatoid Fungi, And Subterranean Termites On Wood Decomposition And The Biogeochemical Cycling Of Pine Forests, Kimberlyn Pace

Theses and Dissertations

A frequent source of pine tree mortality in recent years can be attributed to pine bark beetles and their vectored Ophiostomatoid fungi, an organism that has been observed to attract subterranean termites that preferentially recruit to this downed woody debris. This interaction may significantly modify biogeochemical fluxes in bark beetle mass mortality events, but studies are often limited to singular regions or single pine-dominated ecosystems. Two studies were designed to test the interactive effects of these associations on terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and decomposition processes, the first using replicated field trials in Mississippi, Arizona, and Honduras across two years and the …

Determining The Impact Of Post-Harvest Water Management On Chironomid Abundance, Agrochemical Biomass And Potential Trophic Biomagnification, Mason Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Agriculture has diminished shorebirds’ natural habitat in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Remaining natural stopover sites are supplemented with agricultural fields during the fall and winter. This study evaluates the impact of 4 different post-harvest water management strategies on shorebird food abundance and potential agrochemical biomagnification. Chironomid samples estimated abundance, biomass, and chironomid agrochemical concentration in each field. A risk assessment of agrochemical biomagnification to shorebirds was made across all treatments. Of treatments represented on all study sites, winter treatment had greatest chironomid abundance and biomass. Models indicated that days since flood initiation, start date, and temperature are significant predictors of …

Activity Level Of Helicoverpa Armigera Nucleopolyhedrovirus (Hearnpv) And Feeding Habits Of Helicoverpa Zea Larvae After Ingestion Of Hearnpv In Mississippi Soybean, Judge Tyler Fortenberry

Theses and Dissertations

HearNPV was applied to a soybean field and evaluated for residual efficacy at different time intervals (0, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 hours) after application in laboratory bioassays with treated leaves. Larval mortality was rated at five, seven and twelve days after larval infestation. Larval mortality increased as the number of days after infestation increased. To evaluate the feeding habits of Helicoverpa zea at the 2^nd and 3^rd instar, HearNPV exposed larvae and untreated larvae were weighed at zero (before diet exposure), four, and seven days. At four days after exposure, larval weight gain of …

Determining The Importance Of Propagule Pressure And Dispersal Mechanisms For The Establishment And Spread Of Crapemyrtle Bark Scale, Acanthococcus Lagerstroemiae Kuwana (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae), Erika Renee Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Non-native scale insects can be economically and ecologically important pests of urban forests. Crapemyrtle bark scale (CMBS), Acanthococcus lagerstroemiae Kuwana (Hemiptera: Eriococcidae), is a scale that causes declines in plant vigor for a popular ornamental tree in the southeastern United States, crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia spp.). CMBS has spread rapidly throughout the Southeast and, more recently, into the Middle Atlantic. Despite problems associated with CMBS, important aspects of its ecology, such as the role of propagule pressure in establishment and the relative importance of mechanisms for between-tree dispersal, are not well-understood. We used field and laboratory studies to investigate these aspects of …

An Analysis Of Sediment Collected By Pogonomyrmex Salinus From The Jurassic Sundance Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Josephine H. Laprad

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Pogonomyrmex salinus is a species of harvester ant found in the Bighorn Basin area of Wyoming. Harvester ants are aptly named as they “harvest” seeds for food, but this harvesting behavior is also seen in their collection of sediment particles to build their mounds. For decades, paleontologists have looked to harvester ants for microfossils because the small size of the fossils makes them difficult for human eyes to find. But there are unresolved questions about the data that can be gleaned from the fossils collected by the ants. The mounds collected for this study include material from the Stockade Beaver …

An Analysis Of Sediment Collected By Pogonomyrmex Salinus From The Jurassic Sundance Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Josephine H. Laprad

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Pogonomyrmex salinus is a species of harvester ant found in the Bighorn Basin area of Wyoming. Harvester ants are aptly named as they “harvest” seeds for food, but this harvesting behavior is also seen in their collection of sediment particles to build their mounds. For decades, paleontologists have looked to harvester ants for microfossils because the small size of the fossils makes them difficult for human eyes to find. But there are unresolved questions about the data that can be gleaned from the fossils collected by the ants. The mounds collected for this study include material from the Stockade Beaver …

An Analysis Of Sediment Collected By Pogonomyrmex Salinus From The Jurassic Sundance Formation, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Josephine H. Laprad

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Pogonomyrmex salinus is a species of harvester ant found in the Bighorn Basin area of Wyoming. Harvester ants are aptly named as they “harvest” seeds for food, but this harvesting behavior is also seen in their collection of sediment particles to build their mounds. For decades, paleontologists have looked to harvester ants for microfossils because the small size of the fossils makes them difficult for human eyes to find. But there are unresolved questions about the data that can be gleaned from the fossils collected by the ants. The mounds collected for this study include material from the Stockade Beaver …

Effect Of Temperature On The Microbiome Of A Laboratory Reared Colony Of Haemaphysalis Longicornis Ticks, Brianna Mitchell

Poster Presentations

Honors research poster.

Haemaphysalis longicornis is a species of tick native to eastern Asia, including eastern China, Japan, eastern Russia, and Korea. To date, it has invaded and has now established its existence in Australia, New Zealand, and several of the Pacific Islands. This species of tick has recently been introduced to the United States, having a confirmed sighting in November 2017 on a sheep farm in New Jersey and since establishing populations in 18 states along the east coast and Appalachia. Based on the existing locations of H. longicornis in its native regions, as well as in the United …

Protecting Wa Crops Issue 30 - May 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Protecting WA Crops

Protecting WA Crops Issue 30 - May 2023 contents:

• GRDC Perth Research Updates – Pathology – Part 2
• Impact of fungicide product, rotation and timing on Net form net blotch in Planet barley in southern WA
• Economical management of Spot form net blotch in low rainfall environments
• Meet crop protection team member – Jason Bradley

Evaluation Of Rice Stink Bug, Oebalus Pugnax (F.), Resistance To Lambda-Cyhalothrin And The Economic Impact On Rice Grain Quality For Multiple Foliar Insecticides, Trevor Bradley Newkirk

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rice stink bug, (RSB), Oebalus pugnax (F.), (Fabricius 1775) is the major pest of headed rice, Oryza sativa L. in the southern rice producing states. The evaluation of current insecticides is imperative to efficient and economical RSB management for rice growers. Multiple reports of field failures with lambda-cyhalothrin have been documented since 2019. Lambda-cyhalothrin has been the standard for RSB control for the past two decades. The objective for this research was to determine if RSB is becoming resistant to lambda-cyhalothrin in Arkansas, and the most economical insecticide choice for growers with respect to RSB control and grain quality. RSB …

Evaluation Of Thresholds, Control, And Behavioral Responses Of Tobacco Thrips, Frankliniella Fusca (Hitch), And Tarnished Plant Bugs, Lygus Lineolaris (Beauvoris), In Thryvon Cotton, Adam Young Whitfield

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tobacco thrips are an important pest in Mid-South cotton production. Thrips are a pest of seedling cotton, feeding on the leaf tissue of plants which can result in stunted growth, delayed fruiting, loss of apical dominance, and possible stand loss. Field studies were conducted in 2021 and 2022 to evaluate Thryvon, a new transgenic trait in cotton that produces the Bt toxin Cry51Aa, for control of tobacco thrips. Thryvon cotton was tested at three locations in Arkansas: Marianna, Tillar, and Keiser. These studies evaluated thrips control on ThryvOn vs non-ThryvOn cotton and the effect of insecticide seed treatments on ThryvOn …

Evaluation Of Bt Cotton Cultivar Efficacy And Economic Impact On Cotton Yield With And Without A Foliar Insecticide Application, Zackary Murray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Helicoverpa zea is the second most damaging insect pest of cotton in Arkansas. It is becoming more difficult to control in the United States due to recently documented resistant to dual gene cultivars. The objective of this thesis was to develop a better understanding of the efficacy of several Bt cotton technologies and foliar insecticides used to manage H. zea. Experiments examined damage in current commercial non-Bt, dual gene, and three gene cotton cultivars. Other experiments evaluated if H. zea could detect concentrations of chlorantraniliprole and residual of chlorantraniliprole in cotton for an extended period after application. These studies suggest …

The Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Ant Community Composition In A Temperate Deciduous Forest., Emma Jones

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Prescribed fire is a tool commonly used in land management to decrease wildfire frequency and promote plant diversity. However, the effects of prescribed fire on invertebrate communities, especially those within temperate deciduous forest, are poorly understood. I measured the response of epigeic ant communities in mixed mesophytic forest in Berea, Kentucky following prescribed burning. I used pitfall traps to repeatedly sample epigeic ants in replicate burned and unburned plots for up to 21 months postburn following two separate (2021 and 2022) prescribed fires. Ant species richness was similar between treatments (burn vs. control) and by burn year. Ant community composition …

Prevalence Of Ehrlichia And Rickettsia Within Ticks In Arkansas State Parks, Haley Stanton

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Within the past few decades, the number of diagnoses of tick-borne diseases – such as spotted fever rickettsiosis and ehrlichiosis – has steadily increased throughout the United States, with Arkansas having one of the highest rates in the country. These diseases pose a risk to both humans and animals, as both can acquire these infections from ticks. Due to the increasing geographic range of ticks, rise in cases, and likely underdiagnosis of these diseases, this study aimed to identify the infection rate of ticks themselves in multiple state parks in Arkansas. Four Arkansas state parks were each visited once a …

Pestfacts Wa Issue 03 - May 2023, Cindy L. Webster, Svetlana Micic, Alan Lord, Andrea Hills, Jean Galloway, Rebecca Severtson

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 3 - May 2023 contents:

• Identifying weevils
• Downy mildew in canola
• Meet PestFacts WA team member, Bec Severtson