Entomology Commons^™

Natural History Notes And New County Records For Ozarkian Millipeds (Arthropoda: Diplododa) From Arkansas, Kansas And Missouri, N. W. Youngsteadt, C. T. Mcallister

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Phenology Of A Relict Population Of The Pitcher Plant Mosquito, Wyeomyia Smithii (Diptera: Culicidae), In Tattnall Co., Ga, Rachel L. Morreale

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Wyeomyia smithii Coquillett lives only within the pitchers of the purple pitcher plant, Sarracenia purpurea L. An isolated population of Wy. smithii occurs in Tattnall Co., GA isolated from other populations by over 300 km in all directions. In order to monitor the stability, phenology, and behavior of this population, fluctuations of the larval and pupal abundances (number/pitcher) were monitored over time. The density (number/mL) of Wy. smithii larvae present within pitchers was recorded from June 2012 until April 2014. Fluid volume contained in pitchers had a strong positive effect on larval abundance within the pitcher (r² = 0.624). …

The Prevalence And Effect Of Wolbachia Infection On The Brown Widow Spider (Latrodectus Geometricus), Brittany Dane' Arrington

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Wolbachia was recently identified in the Brown Widow Spider (Latrodectus geometricus). This symbiont has not previously been found in this genus, therefore the consequences on the host’s population dynamics are unknown. The frequency of endosymbiont infection can provide insight into the population dynamics of the host as this bacteria is known to alter host life history. In my 1^st chapter I determine the prevalence of Wolbachia pipentis infection in in the Brown Widow Spider (Latrodectus geometricus) from five locations in the Southeastern United States. Infection frequency differed significantly among sampling locations, ranging from 20% to …

Beyond Race And Place: Distal Sociological Determinants Of Hiv Disparities, J. R. Robbins, M. Buot, J. P. Docena

Faculty Scholarship

Informed behavior change as an HIV prevention tool has yielded unequal successes across populations. Despite decades of HIV education, some individuals remain at high risk. The mainstream media often portrays these risk factors as products of race and national borders; however, a rich body of recent literature proposes a host of complex social factors that influence behavior, including, but not limited to: poverty, income inequality, stigmatizing social institutions and health care access. We examined the relationship between numerous social indicators and HIV incidence across eighty large U.S. cities in 1990 and 2000. During this time, major correlating factors included income …

Choosing And Using Diversity Indices: Insights For Ecological Applications From The German Biodiversity Exploratories, Kathyrn Morris, T Caruso, F. Buscot

Faculty Scholarship

Biodiversity, a multidimensional property of natural systems, is difficult to quantify partly because of the multitude of indices proposed for this purpose. Indices aim to describe general properties of communities that allow us to compare different regions, taxa, and trophic levels. Therefore, they are of fundamental importance for environmental monitoring and conservation, although there is no consensus about which indices are more appropriate and informative. We tested several common diversity indices in a range of simple to complex statistical analyses in order to determine whether some were better suited for certain analyses than others. We used data collected around the …

Estimating The Frequency Of Cry1f Resistance In Field Populations Of The European Corn Borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), Blair D. Siegfried, Murugesan Rangasamy, Haichuan Wang, Terence A. Spencer, Chirakkal V. Haridas, Brigitte Tenhumberg, Douglas V. Sumerford, Nicholas P. Storer

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Transgenic corn hybrids that express toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have suppressed European corn borer populations and reduced the pest status of this insect throughout much of the US corn belt. A major assumption of the high-dose/refuge strategy proposed for insect resistance management and Bt corn is that the frequency of resistance alleles is low so that resistant pests surviving exposure to Bt corn will be rare. Results: The frequency of resistance to the Cry1F Bt toxin was estimated using two different screening tools and compared with annual susceptibility monitoring based on diagnostic bioassays and LC_{50 …}

Interspecific Competition Of A New Invasive Mosquito, Culex Coronator, And Two Container Mosquitoes, Aedes Albopictus And Cx. Quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae), Across Different Detritus Environments, D. A. Yee, J. F. Skiff

Faculty Publications

The mosquito Culex coronator (Dyar and Knab) (Diptera: Culicidae) has undergone rapid range expansion in the United States since 2003, with its historical distribution in the southwest expanding eastward to the Atlantic coast. Although Cx. coronator nominally use small natural aquatic habitats for development, the use of containers (e.g., tires) makes it potentially important as container invasive. To determine the potential ecological effects of Cx. coronator on resident container species, we conducted a laboratory experiment to assess its competitive ability with two common tire-inhabiting species, Aedes albopictus (Skuse) and Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) (Diptera: Culicidae). Larvae were reared under a factorial …

Computational Identification And Molecular Verification Of Mirna In Eastern Subterranean Termites (Reticulitermes Flavipes), Tian Yu

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Reticulitermes flavipes is one of the most common termite species in the world, and has been an intriguing research model due to its ecological and biological and economic significance. The fundamental biological question addressed by this study is to elucidate the role of miRNAs in termite development and how miRNA can influence labor division. miRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that have an important role in gene regulation at post-transcriptional level, and can potentially be involved in the regulation of caste polyphenism. Using a computational approach, I identified 167 conserved and 33 novel miRNAs in the dataset. miR-iab-4 and 19 other …

Nocturnal Homing In The Tropical Amblypygid Phrynus Pseudoparvulus (Class Arachnida, Order Amblypygi), Eileen Hebets, E.J. Gering, Verner P. Bingman, Daniel D. Wiegmann

Eileen Hebets Publications

Arthropods are renowned for their navigational capabilities, with numerous examples known from insects and crustaceans. Early studies of amblypygids (Class Arachnida, Order Amblypygi) also suggest complex nocturnal navigation, despite their apparent lack of visual adaptations to the low-light conditions of a tropical understory. In a series of two studies, we use the tropical amblypygid, Phrynus pseudoparvulus, to assess their nocturnal homing ability. Our first experiment displaced and tracked resident and nonresident individuals. Resident individuals, displaced up to 4.5 m from their home refuges and released onto their home tree, were more likely to return to their previously occupied refuge than …

Detection Of Predator Cues Alters Mating Tactics In Male Wolf Spiders, Dustin J. Wilgers, Daniel Wickwire, Eileen Hebets

Eileen Hebets Publications

Males of the wolf spider, Rabidosa punctulata, exhibit condition-dependent alternative mating tactics, whereby small, poor condition males engage in multimodal courtship while large, good condition males adopt a direct mount tactic that forgoes courtship. This study explores the possibility that tactic-specific costs can help explain this unintuitive pattern of mating tactic expression. Specifically, we hypothesize that courtship signaling is costly with respect to eavesdropping by predators and that males can alter their tactic expression based upon the perceived environmental predation risk. We test this by first examining the risk of predation associated with different mating tactics. We use a …

The Role Of The Bacterial Endosymbiont, Arsenophonus, In The Soybean Aphid, Aphis Glycines, Jason A. Wulff

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Bacterial endosymbionts can have profound impacts on their host’s ecology. Notably, endosymbionts can protect their hosts against natural enemies and influence host plant interactions. The endosymbiont Candidatus Arsenophonus infects a wide taxonomic range of arthropod hosts, and is suspected of an uncharacterized mutualistic role in hemipterous insects. In the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines, an introduced pest of soybeans in the United States, Arsenophonus is the sole facultative endosymbiont. The focus of this dissertation is to characterize the role of Arsenophonus in the aphid, with an overall emphasis on its impact on aphid management strategies.

I first used diagnostic PCR …

Changing Litter Resources Associated With Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Invasion Affect Benthic Communities In Headwater Streams, Christopher J. Strohm

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Hemlock woolly adelgid is an invasive herbivore causing extensive mortality of eastern hemlock, an important foundation species that provides stable conditions influencing biological communities. Hemlock is often found in riparian areas and following its decline, broadleaved species, including birch, beech, and rhododendron, will replace it. These plants differ from hemlock in patterns of canopy cover and leaf properties, which influence conditions and resources within streams.

My goal was to evaluate potential impacts of adelgid-induced alterations to riparian canopies and litter on benthic communities and litter breakdown in streams. I characterized benthic invertebrate communities, litter colonization and litter breakdown in streams …

Exploring The Links Between Seasonal Variation And Spider Foraging, Thomas Edward Dantas Whitney

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

According to optimal foraging theory, generalist predators, such as spiders, are thought to feed indiscriminately on prey according to its availability, especially when food is scarce. In contrast, generalists can display selective feeding decisions under regimes of high prey abundance, but few studies have tracked changes in prey choice on a seasonal basis under open field conditions. Additionally, adaptations to surviving winter have been largely ignored in the research of foraging behavior. To elucidate this, I monitored prey availability and collected common forest-dwelling wolf spiders for molecular gut-content analysis, in parallel for 18 months, to assess the temporal changes occurring …

Assessing And Mitigating Lawn Insecticide Hazards To Bees And Other Beneficial Invertebrates, Jonathan Lane Larson

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Turfgrass settings, including lawns, golf courses, and sports fields, support many beneficial invertebrates that provide important ecosystem services. These non-target organisms and their associated predation, decomposition, and pollination services can be disrupted by the use of certain insecticides. I compared the ecotoxicity of representatives from three major turf insecticide groups, the neonicotinoids, premix formulations, and the anthranilic diamides, in lab and field realistic settings in order to inform industry initiatives towards environmental sustainability.

In lab and field bioassays clothianidin, a neonicotinoid, and a premix clothianidin/pyrethroid spray were acutely toxic to beneficial insects. Populations of predators, springtails, and earthworms, as well …

Insecticide Resistance In The Bed Bug, Jennifer R. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Populations of Cimex lectularius, the bed bug, have resurged around the world posing significant challenges for pest management professionals and causing physical, economic, and emotional strife. Pyrethroid resistance has been found in the vast majority of populations making pest management more difficult. The objectives of my dissertation research were to document the evolution of resistance to pyrethroid and neonicotinoid combination products (called combination products here) and to a neonicotinoid in the laboratory, to record potential fitness costs to resistance to the combination products, and to compare the efficacy of nine insecticides on six populations. In the laboratory, populations of …

Contents, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.

Development Of Fad7-1 Single Mutant Arabidopsis Thaliana Plants That Are Resistant To Aphids, Kaleb L. Vaughn, Carlos A. Avila, Carmen S. Padilla-Marcia, Fiona L. Goggin

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

Aphids are a group of sap-feeding insects that attack most of the world’s crops. The loss of function of fatty acid desaturase7 (FAD7) in Solanum lycopersicum (tomato plant) induces aphid resistance that is dependent upon the accumulation of plant defense hormones such as salicylic acid (SA). Tomato lacks most of the genetic resources found in the model plant Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). There is an analogous fad7-1 line of Arabidopsis; however, the line has a background mutation, the glabra-1 (gl1), that causes the absence of trichomes (small hairs), which are essential to plant defense. In order to study aphid resistance, a …

The Introduced Dirt-Colored Seed Bug, Megalonotus Sabulicola (Hemiptera: Rhyparochromidae): New For Arkansas, S. W. Chordas Iii, C. T. Mcallister, H. W. Robison

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

New Host And Location Record For The Bat Bug Cimex Adjunctus Barber 1939, With A Summary Of Previous Records, M. E. Grilliot, J. L. Hunt, C. G. Sims, C. E. Comer

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

In June 2009, 14 Rafinesque’s big-eared bats(Corynorhinus rafinesquii) were collected from an abandoned house near Shepherd, San Jacinto County, Texas. Three individuals harbored bat bugs which were subsequently identified as Cimex adjunctus Barber 1939. This is the first record of this species from C. rafinesquii. In August 2013, 10 C. rafinesquii were collected from a maternity colony in Drew County in southeastern Arkansas. Four of the bats harbored bat bugs, which were identified as C. adjunctus. This is the first record of this bat bug from Arkansas. A summary of previous state and host records of the insect is provided, …

An Insight Into The Microbiome Of The Amblyomma Maculatum(Acari: Ixodidae), Khemraj Budachetri, Rebecca E. Browning, Steven W. Adamson, Scot E. Dowd, Chien-Chung Chao, Wei-Mei Ching, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study was to survey the bacterial diversity of Amblyomma maculatum Koch, 1844, and characterize its infection with Rickettsia parkeri. Pyrosequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA was used to determine the total bacterial population in A. maculatum. Pyrosequencing analysis identified Rickettsia in A. maculatum midguts, salivary glands, and saliva, which indicates successful trafficking in the arthropod vector. The identity of Rickettsia spp. was determined based on sequencing the rickettsial outer membrane protein A (rompA) gene. The sequence homology search revealed the presence of R. parkeri, Rickettsia amblyommii, and Rickettsia endosymbiont of …