Entomology Commons^™

Abiotic And Biotic Stressors Causing Equivalent Mortality Induce Highly Variable Transcriptional Responses In The Soybean Aphid, Laramy S. Enders, Ryan D. Bickel, Jennifer A. Brisson, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Blair D. Siegfried, Anthony J. Zera, Nicholas Miller

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Environmental stress affects basic organismal functioning and can cause physiological, developmental, and reproductive impairment. However, in many nonmodel organisms, the core molecular stress response remains poorly characterized and the extent to which stress-induced transcriptional changes differ across qualitatively different stress types is largely unexplored. The current study examines the molecular stress response of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines) using RNA sequencing and compares transcriptional responses to multiple stressors (heat, starvation, and plant defenses) at a standardized stress level (27% adult mortality). Stress-induced transcriptional changes showed remarkable variation, with starvation, heat, and plant defensive stress altering the expression of …

A Revised Catalog Of The Species Of Stenocrates Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini), With Descriptions Of Three New Species From Peru And Brazil And Stenocrates Inpai Ratcliffe, 1978 Placed In Junior Synonymy With Stenocrates Popei Endrödi, 1971, Brett C. Ratcliffe

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Three new species of the South American genus Stenocrates Burmeister, 1847 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini) are described: Stenocrates serendipitus Ratcliffe, new species and Stenocrates mimeomus Ratcliffe, new species, both from Amazonian Peru, and Stenocrates hastatus Ratcliffe, new species from southeastern Brazil. Descriptions, diagnoses, distributions, and illustrations of the parameres of the new species are provided. Stenocrates inpai Ratcliffe, 1978, is placed in new junior synonymy with Stenocrates popei Endrödi, 1971, based upon the examination of additional specimens. A revised, annotated catalog of Stenocrates species is provided.

Beetles (Coleoptera) Of Peru: A Survey Of The Families. Scarabaeoidea, Brett C. Ratcliffe, M. L. Jameson, L. Figueroa, R. D. Cave, M. J. Paulsen, Enio B. Cano, C. Beza-Beza, L. Jimenez-Ferbans, P. Reyes-Castillo

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The 1042 species of Scarabaeoidea known to occur in Peru are listed with their taxonomic placement in families, subfamilies, and tribes.

Determining Optimum Soil Type And Salinity For Rearing The Federally Endangered Salt Creek Tiger Beetle, Cicindela (Ellipsoptera) Nevadica Lincolniana Casey (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae), Stephen M. Spomer, Gary J. Brewer, Michael I. Fritz, Robert R. Harms, Kay A. Klatt, Aimee M. Johns, Sarah A. Crosier, Joseph A. Palmer

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Effective rearing methods are needed to recover the federally endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle, Cicindela (Ellipsoptera) nevadica lincolniana Casey, a subspecies that occurs exclusively in saline wetlands and seeps along Little Salt Creek in Lancaster County, Nebraska. Experiments were initiated to determine soil type and salinity concentrations appropriate for stimulating female oviposition in laboratory settings to produce larvae and/or adults for reintroduction to native habitats. In 2013, there were highly significant differences between native soil and a sand/loess soil mixture, but no differences between two salinity levels, 0.354 M and 0.5 M. In 2014, using only a sand/loess soil mixture, …

Biological Control With Trichogramma Pretiosum Increases Organic Maize Productivity By 19.4%, Maria De Lourdes Corrêa Figueiredo, Ivan Cruz, Rafael Braga Da Silva, John E. Foster

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Spodoptera frugiperda is a major pest causing maize yield loss in Brazil. There is therefore a need for control methods, notably for organic farming because classical pesticides are not allowed. A potential solution for organic maize is to apply the biological control agent Trichogramma pretiosum to reduce S. frugiperda populations. Here, we tested the application of one, two, or three releases of T. pretiosum. We measured plant damage ratings, egg masses parasitized, and grain yield. Results show that 79.2% of egg masses were parasited. Maize yields for parasited plots increased of 701 kg/ha versus control plots. This result equals a …

Predation Of Introduced Mosquito Larvae By The Midge Metriocnemus Knabi In The Phytotelma Of The Pitcher Plant Sarracenia Purpurea And Colonization Following Dry Conditions, Gary Joseph Torrisi, W. Wyatt Hoback, John E. Foster, Elvis A. Heinrichs, Leon G. Higley

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The leaves of the carnivorous Sarracenia purpurea (Purple Pitcher Plant) provide habitat for obligate insects. Within the pitchers of this plant, Metriocnemus knabi (Pitcher Plant Midge) larvae coexist with Wyeomyia smithii (Pitcher Plant Mosquito) larvae. No other mosquito species has been reported to utilize this habitat in the presence of the midge. We tested whether the midge larvae were responsible for the elimination of other mosquito species. We introduced 1 Aedes triseriatus (Eastern Treehole Mosquito) larva, into each of 90 different pitchers. After 45–75 minutes, we extracted the fluid from the Purple Pitcher Plant and counted mosquito and midge larvae. …

Linkage Of An Abcc Transporter To A Single Qtl That Controls Ostrinia Nubilalis Larval Resistance To The Bacillus Thuringiensis Cry1fa Toxin, Brad S. Coates, Blair D. Siegfried

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Field evolved resistance of insect populations to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crystalline (Cry) toxins expressed by crop plants has resulted in reduced control of insect feeding damage to field crops, and threatens the sustainability of Bt transgenic technologies. A single quantitative trait locus (QTL) that determines resistance in Ostrinia nubilalis larvae capable of surviving on reproductive stage transgenic corn that express the Bt Cry1Fa toxin was previously mapped to linkage group 12 (LG12) in a backcross pedigree. Fine mapping with high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) anchor markers, a candidate ABC transporter (abcc2) marker, and de novo mutations predicted from …

Impact Of Spodoptera Frugiperda Neonate Pretreatment Conditions On Vip3aa19 Insecticidal Protein Activity And Laboratory Bioassay Variation, Karen F. Da Silva, Terence A. Spencer, Carolina Camargo Gil, Blair D. Siegfried, Frederick S. Walters

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Variation in response to insecticidal proteins is common upon repetition of insect bioassays. Understanding this variation is a prerequisite to detecting biologically important differences.We tracked neonate Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) susceptibility to Vip3Aa19 over 17 generations using standardized bioassay methods. Five larval pretreatment conditions and one bioassay condition were tested to determine whether susceptibility was affected. These included: storage time; prefeeding; storage at reduced temperature; storage at reduced humidity; colony introgression of field-collected individuals. Extremes of photoperiod during the bioassay itself were also examined.

RESULTS: LC₅₀ values for two strains of S. frugiperda varied 6.6-fold or 8.8-fold over …

Patterns Of Differential Gene Expression In Adult Rotation-Resistant And Wild-Type Western Corn Rootworm Digestive Tracts, Chia-Ching Chu, Jorge A. Zavala, Joseph L. Spencer, Matías J. Curzi, Christopher J. Fields, Jenny Drnevich, Blair D. Siegfried, Manfredo J. Seufferheld

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The western corn rootworm (WCR, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) is an important pest of corn. Annual crop rotation between corn and soybean disrupts the corn-dependent WCR life cycle and is widely adopted to manage this pest. This strategy selected for rotation-resistant (RR) WCR with reduced ovipositional fidelity to corn. Previous studies revealed that RR-WCR adults exhibit greater tolerance of soybean diets, different gut physiology, and host–microbe interactions compared to rotation-susceptible wild types (WT). To identify the genetic mechanisms underlying these phenotypic changes, a de novo assembly of the WCR adult gut transcriptome was constructed and used for RNA-sequencing analyses of …

Feed The Future Ipm Innovation Lab: A Critical Role In Global Food Security, R. Muniappan, Elvis A. Heinrichs

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The World Food Summit of 1966 defined ”food security” as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.” Food insecurity is part of a continuum that includes hunger (food deprivation), malnutrition (deficiencies, imbalances, or excess of nutrients), and famine. The world faces three major challenges: (1) to match the rapidly changing demand for food, (2) to do so in ways that are environmentally and socially acceptable, and (3) to ensure that the world’s poorest people are no longer hungry. World population is expected to reach 9 …

Nutritional Physiology Of Life-History Trade-Offs: How Food Protein–Carbohydrate Content Influences Life-History Traits In The Wing-Polymorphic Cricket Gryllus Firmus, Rebecca M. Clark, Anthony J. Zera, Spencer T. Behmer

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Although life-history trade-offs result from the differential acquisition and allocation of nutritional resources to competing physiological functions, many aspects of this topic remain poorly understood. Wing-polymorphic insects, which possess alternative morphs that trade off allocation to flight capability versus early reproduction, provide a good model system for exploring this topic. In this study, we used the wing-polymorphic cricket Gryllus firmus to test how expression of the flight capability versus reproduction trade-off was modified across a heterogeneous protein–carbohydrate nutritional landscape. Newly molted adult female long- and short-winged crickets were given one of 13 diets with different concentrations and ratios of protein …

Speed And Resolution In The Age Of Technological Reproducibility, Shawn Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

The rate of acceleration of the biologic and synthetic world has for a while now, been in the process of exponentially speeding up, maxing out servers and landfills, merging with each other, destroying each other. The last prehistoric relics on Earth are absorbing the same oxygen, carbon dioxide and electronic waves in our biosphere as us. A degraded .jpeg enlarged to full screen on a Samsung 4K UHD HU8550 Series Smart TV - 85” Class (84.5” diag.). Within this composite ecology, the ancient limestone of the grand canyon competes with the iMax movie of itself, the production of Mac pros, …

Behavioral Responses Of Male Parasitic Wasps To Plant Cues: A Comparison Of Two Host-Plant Complex Sources Of Cotesia Congregata (Say), Megan Ayers

Theses and Dissertations

Prior exposure to plants cues can enhance assortative mating in insects. We hypothesized that, as previously reported for females, males of Cotesia congregata would display inherent responses to plant cues that could be modified by postemergence experience and further, that males originating from two different host-plant complexes (HPCs) would display different behavioral responses to these HPCs. In no-choice contact assays with a non-host plant, searching responses of males and females increased sharply at Day 2 and remained stable through Day 4. In no-choice assays with potential host plants, males searched longer on catalpa than tobacco; responses were not modified by …

Responses Of The Catalpa Sphinx, Ceratomia Catalpae, And Its Primary Parasitoid, Cotesia Congregata, To Varying Levels Of Iridoid Glycosides In Catalpa, Jessica L. Bray

Theses and Dissertations

The catalpa sphinx, Ceratomia catalpae, is a specialist on Catalpa trees, which produce iridoid glycosides (IGs). Whereas some trees are defoliated every year, others escape herbivory. Caterpillar populations are either heavily parasitized by the braconid wasp, Cotesia congregata, or remain unparasitized. We hypothesized that these patterns could be explained by variable IG concentrations among trees and insect responses to these chemicals. IG concentrations varied among trees. Percent defoliation was positively related to IG concentration. In comparisons of insect responses to relatively high or low IG concentrations, moths preferred to oviposit on trees with high IG concentrations. Caterpillars did …

Non-Destructive Dna Extraction Methods That Yield Dna Barcodes In Spiders, Reva Ann Bork

Honors Program Theses

DNA barcodes are short sequences of nucleotides that differ from species to species (Hebert et al., 2003; Hebert & Gregory, 2005). DNA barcoding is very important in helping to reconstruct phylogenetic trees and to confirm the identity of threatened or endangered species in the wild. Additionally, it has become increasingly popular in the food industry to test the accuracy of the food being sold in fast food chains (Wong and Hanner, 2008). For scientific purposes, nondestructive DNA extraction techniques need to be explored because they allow for preservation of the voucher specimen, which is particularly important for rare or extinct …

Comparative Analysis Of Development And Survival Of Two Natal Fruit Fly Ceratitis Rosa Karsch (Diptera, Tephritidae) Populations From Kenya And South Africa, Chrysantus M. Tanga, Aruna Manrakhan, John Henry Daneel, Samira A. Mohamed, Khamis Fathiya, Sunday Ekesi

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Comparative analysis of development and survivorship of two geographically divergent populations of the Natal fruit fly Ceratitis rosa Karsch designated as C. rosa R1 and C. rosa R2 from Kenya and South Africa were studied at seven constant temperatures (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 33, 35 °C). Temperature range for development and survival of both populations was 15-35 °C. The developmental duration was found to significantly decrease with increasing temperature for C. rosa R1 and C. rosa R2 from both countries. Survivorship of all the immature stages of C. rosa R1 and C. rosa R2 from Kenya was highest over …

Analyses Of Volatiles Produced By The African Fruit Fly Species Complex (Diptera, Tephritidae), Radka Břízová, Lucie Vaníčková, Mária Faťarová, Sunday Ekesi, Michal Hoskovec, Blanka Kalinová

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Ceratitis fasciventris, Ceratitis anonae and Ceratitis rosa are polyphagous agricultural pests originating from the African continent. The taxonomy of this group (the so-called Ceratitis FAR complex) is unclear. To clarify the taxonomic relationships, male and female-produced volatiles presumably involved in pre-mating communication were studied using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) followed by multivariate analysis, and gas chromatography combined with electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD). GC×GC-TOFMS analyses revealed sex specific differences in produced volatiles. Male volatiles are complex mixtures that differ both qualitatively and quantitatively but share some common compounds. GC-EAD analyses of male volatiles revealed that the antennal …

An Integrative Approach To Unravel The Ceratitis Far (Diptera, Tephritidae) Cryptic Species Complex: A Review, Marc De Meyer, Hélène Delatte, Sunday Ekesi, Kurt Jordaens, Blanka Kalinová, Aruna Manrakhan, Maulid Mwatawala, Gary Steck, Joannes Van Cann, Lucie Vaníčková, Radka Břízová, Massimiliano Virgilio

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

This paper reviews all information gathered from different disciplines and studies to resolve the species status within the Ceratitis FAR (C. fasciventris, C. anonae, C. rosa) complex, a group of polyphagous fruit fly pest species (Diptera, Tephritidae) from Africa. It includes information on larval and adult morphology, wing morphometrics, cuticular hydrocarbons, pheromones, microsatellites, developmental physiology and geographic distribution. The general consensus is that the FAR complex comprises C. anonae, two species within C. rosa (so-called R1 and R2) and two putatitve species under C. fasciventris. The information regarding the latter is, however, too limited to draw final conclusions on specific …

Control Of Vegetable Pests In Benin - Farmers' Preferences For Eco-Friendly Nets As An Alternative To Insecticides, Faustin Vidogbéna, Anselme Adégbidi, Rigobert Tossou, Françoise Assogba-Komlan, Mathieu Ngouajio, Thibaut Martin, Serge Simon, Laurent Parrot, Kerstin K. Zander

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

We investigated if eco-friendly nets (EFNs) are a viable and acceptable alternative to extremely high levels of insecticide use in vegetable production. Using a choice experiment, we found that vegetable producing farmers in Benin preferred all of the characteristics of EFNs except the higher labor requirements. The nets had been distributed in a trial phase for free but in the long run farmers would need to purchase the EFNs. The break-even point for investing in nets was found to vary with the lifespan of EFNs, their purchase price and potential health benefits from avoiding large quantities of insecticides. To break …

Integrated Multiple-Tactic Management Of The Redbanded Stink Bug On Soybeans In Louisiana, Miyanda Nzala Moonga

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) are major pests of soybeans in Louisiana and heavy infestations often lead to economic losses. The stink bug species complex has changed in the past decade with the prevalence of the invasive redbanded stink bug, Piezodorus guildinii (Westwood), which causes greater damage than other stink bug species. Moreover, control of the redbanded stink bug has been faced with challenges because it is less sensitive to recommended insecticides. Therefore, studies were conducted to evaluate different control options for P. guildinii. Among the studies conducted was the current status of egg parasitoids of stink bugs in Louisiana. Telenomus …