Entomology Commons^™

Efficacy Of Rice Insecticide Seed Treatments At Selected Nitrogen Rates For Control Of The Rice Water Weevil, Lissorhoptrus Oryzophilus Kuschel, Mallory Elise Everett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Seed-applied insecticides are the standard control method used to prevent rice water weevil (Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel) injury to rice (Oryza sativa L.) roots, and often results in greater yields than rice that receives no seed-applied insecticide. Yield increases from seed-applied insecticides often occur even when insect pressure is low and should not cause yield loss. The research objective was to evaluate the effect of urea-nitrogen rate and seed-applied insecticide on number of rice water weevil larvae, nitrogen uptake and rice grain yield. Six trials were conducted at the Pine Tree Research Station (PTRS) and the Rice Research Extension Center (RREC) …

Overview Of The Integrated Pest Management (Ipm) Terrain And Activities In Furtherance Of The Walmart Initiative To Purchase Fresh Vegetables From Local Growers In Alabama, Franklin Quarcoo, Conrad Bonsi

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Tuskegee University has been providing various types of technical expertise to limited resource farmers who have been supplying Walmart with collard greens, watermelons and purple hull peas. A number of pests bedevil the cultivation of these crops; cost-effective management methods for these pests are needed. The objectives of this paper are to document the IPM activities associated with supplying produce to Walmart; summarize pest problems encountered on the afore-stated crops; recommend IPM methods suitable for limited resource farmers; and suggest other activities that ensure that farmers incur even less pest-related crop losses. Anthracnose was the major pest encountered on watermelons. …

Evaluation Of The Distribution And Impacts Of Parasites, Pathogens, And Pesticides On Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Populations In East Africa, Elliud Muli, Harland Patch, Maryann Frazier, James Frazier, Baldwyn Torto, Tracey Baumgarten, Joseph Kilonzo, James Ng Ang A. Kimani, Fiona Mumoki, Daniel Masiga, James Tumlinson, Christina Grozinger

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

In East Africa, honey bees (Apis mellifera) provide critical pollination services and income for small-holder farmers and rural families. While honey bee populations in North America and Europe are in decline, little is known about the status of honey bee populations in Africa. We initiated a nationwide survey encompassing 24 locations across Kenya in 2010 to evaluate the numbers and sizes of honey bee colonies, assess the presence of parasites (Varroa mites and Nosema microsporidia) and viruses, identify and quantify pesticide contaminants in hives, and assay for levels of hygienic behavior. Varroa mites were present throughout Kenya, except in the …

A Review Of New World Laemophloeus Dejean (Coleoptera: Laemophloeidae): 2. Neotropical Species With Antennal Club Of Three Antennomeres, Michael C. Thomas

Insecta Mundi

Eleven Neotropical species of Laemophloeus Dejean with antennal clubs composed of three antennomeres are reviewed, diagnosed, and illustrated. Six of the species are described as new: L. capitesculptus Thomas, n. sp., L. corporeflavus Thomas, n. sp., L. dozieri Thomas, n. sp., L. insulatestudinorum Thomas, n. sp., L. planaclavatus Thomas, n. sp., and L. taurus Thomas, n. sp. Four new synonymies are proposed: L. catharinensis Kessel (=L. incisus Sharp), new synonym; L. similans Kessel (=L. incisus Sharp), new synonym; L. distinguendus Sharp (=L. megacephalus Grouvelle), new synonym, and L. chevrolati …

Effects Of Landscape Complexity And Habitat Management On Stemborer Colonization, Parasitism And Damage To Maize, Charles A.O. Midega, Mattias Jonsson, Zeyaur R. Khan, Barbara Ekbom

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Lepidopteran stemborers are a serious constraint to efficient production of maize in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the most effective ways of managing these pests is through a habitat management system called push-pull. Landscape complexity has been shown to enhance biological control of insect pests, and therefore may influence effectiveness of habitat management systems designed to control pests. We studied the relative importance of the push-pull cropping system as a local effect and proportional cover of grassland as a landscape effect on (i) stemborer population density and damage to maize, and (ii) parasitism and mortality of stemborer life stages in western …

A Morphological And Genetic Analysis Of Forensically Important Blow Flies, From Georgia: The Genus Lucilia, Katie S. Googe

Honors College Theses

Identification of Blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) to species is important for estimating postmortem intervals, because insect species develop at different rates. Three Blow fly species in Georgia; Lucilia coeruleiviridis, L. cuprina, and L. sericata are similar morphologically, making identification difficult. Furthermore, the status of L. cuprina is in doubt; this species may be a complex of true L. cuprina, and L. cuprina x L. sericata hybrids. The objective of this study was to survey the Georgia Blow fly community and validate the statuses of L. coeruleiviridis, L. cuprina, and L. sericata, through morphological and …

Transcriptional Activation Of Antioxidants May Compensate For Selenoprotein Deficiences In Amblyomma Maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) Injected With Selk- Or Selm- Dsrna, S. Adamson, R. Browning, P. Singh, S. Nobles, A. Villareal, Shahid Karim

Faculty Publications

The Gulf‐Coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum, possesses an elaborate set of selenoproteins, which prevent the deleterious effects from oxidative stress that would otherwise occur during feeding. In the current work, we examined the role of selenoprotein K (SelK) and selenoprotein M (SelM) in feeding A. maculatum by bioinformatics, transcriptional gene expression, RNA interference and antioxidant assays. The transcriptional expression of SelK did not vary significantly in salivary glands or midguts throughout the bloodmeal. However, there was a 58‐fold increase in transcript levels of SelM in tick midguts. Ticks injected with selK‐dsRNA or selM‐dsRNA did not reveal any observable …

Nebline, April 2014

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Backyard Farmer -- Six Decades of Growing Gardeners and Protecting the Environment

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events

Special Pullout Section: Weed Awareness

Hexapod Herald - Vol. 26, No. 2, April 2014

Hexapod Herald and Other Entomology Department Newsletters

Contents: Welcome - Congratulations - Grants - Publications - Faculty News - Meet an Off-Campus Student - Student News - Bruner Club News - Meeting/Workshop News - Buzzing along - Calendar of Events

Towards The Development Of Ash Varieties Resistant To Emerald Ash Borer, Lindsay Ann Kolich

Open Access Theses

The emerald ash borer (EAB; Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is a destructive invasive beetle from Asia which has killed millions of ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) throughout North America. This phloem-feeding borer is capable of killing otherwise healthy trees and colonizes trees as small as saplings - most affected trees die within four years of colonization. Asian ash species (i.e., Manchurian and Chinese) appear to be more resistant to EAB than those native to North America (e.g., green, white, and black ash). In this project we use reciprocal and conspecific grafts of these five ash species to determine the …

A Novel Three Degree-Of-Freedoms Oscillation System Of Insect Flapping Wings, Yi Qin

Open Access Theses

We propose an oscillation system to replicate the dynamic behavior of flapping wings, inspired by insect flight muscles. In particular, we study the flight of the fruit fly Drosophila virilis . We model the wing as a rigid body with three degree-of-freedom, described by three Euler angles: the stroke angle, the rotation angle and the deviation angle. Insect flight muscles are separated into two types: power muscles and control muscles. One actuator and one torsional spring at the stroke angle act as the power muscles. Two torsional springs at the rotation angle and the deviation angle mimic the control muscles. …

Using Insects To Teach Stats: Creating Flipped Classroom Materials That Support Student Learning Of The Statistical Analysis Skills Requisite Within The International Baccalaureate Higher Level Biology Course Syllabus, John C. Gasparini

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

I work as a science teacher at a school in Germany. While I have enjoyed taking all of my classes within the UNL Masters in Entomology Program, I am not, and will not be a practicing entomologist in my career. That is why I would like my thesis project to focus on using the lessons that I have learned in completing this distance education program to improve my teaching.

I feel as if I learned a great deal about insects in this program, but in addition I also learned quite a bit about what works and what does not work …

Human African Trypanosomiasis Research Gets A Boost: Unraveling The Tsetse Genome, Serap Aksoy, Geoffrey Attardo, Matt Berriman, Alan Christoffels, Mike Lehane, Dan Masiga, Yeya Toure

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, is a neglected disease that impacts 70 million people distributed over 1.55 million km2 in sub-Saharan Africa [1]. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense accounts for almost 90% of the infections in central and western Africa, the remaining infections being from T. b. rhodesiense in eastern Africa [1]. Furthermore, the animal diseases caused by related parasites inflict major economic losses to countries already strained [2]. The parasites are transmitted to the mammalian hosts through the bite of an infected tsetse fly.

Influencias Antropogénicas En El Mantenimiento De Los Senderos En El Género De Hormigas Corta Hojas Atta, Glen Zinck

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Leaf-cutter ants have been shown to rigorously maintain their trunk trails throughout the year and regardless of if they have traffic. The behaviors of this clearing mechanism of the ants has been well-documented with different natural obstacles such as leaves and twigs, yet the comparative energy and time used by the ants with anthropogenic obstacles still remains unknown. In order to determine the differences in time and energy for moving these obstacles, both natural and artificial obstacles were tested in tandem during these trials. I used different sizes of blockers to see if the surface area and weight factored into …

Costs Of Female Mating Behavior In The Variable Field Cricket, Gryllus Lineaticeps, Cassandra M. Martin

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Female animals may risk predation by associating with males that have conspicuous mate attraction traits. The mate attraction song of male field crickets also attracts lethal parasitoid flies. Female crickets, which do not sing, may risk parasitism when associating with singing males. If parasitism risk is sufficiently high, it may affect the evolution of female mating behaviors. In this dissertation, I explore the interaction between the female variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, and the parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea. To begin, I investigated whether female parasitism risk resulted from being near singing males. I found that females can become …

Influence Of Temperature On The Tensile Strength Of Spider Silk (Araneus Gemmoides), Victoria Lekson

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Temperature ranges between day and night in southern California can be as great as 30°C and may influence vital functioning of ectothermic organisms. Arachnids produce silks from a pair of spinnerets in their abdomen and rely on variance in protein composition to make different types of silks. Temperature may influence tensile strength of filaments. We tested the effects of temperature on tensile strength of dragline silk of five specimens of Araneus gemmoides (orb-weaver) which were collected from Malibu Creek State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California, under five temperature conditions. Each specimen was placed in a 0.0283 …

Molecular Evolution Of Glycoside Hydrolase Genes In The Western Corn Rootworm (Diabrotica Virgifera Virgifera), Seong-Il Eyun, Haichuan Wang, Yannick Pauchet, Richard H. Ffrench-Constant, Andrew K. Benson, Arnubio Valencia-Jimenez, Etsuko N. Moriyama, Blair Siegfried

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Cellulose is an important nutritional resource for a number of insect herbivores. Digestion of cellulose and other polysaccharides in plant-based diets requires several types of enzymes including a number of glycoside hydrolase (GH) families. In a previous study, we showed that a single GH45 gene is present in the midgut tissue of the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). However, the presence of multiple enzymes was also suggested by the lack of a significant biological response when the expression of the gene was silenced by RNA interference. In order to clarify the repertoire of cellulose-degrading enzymes and related …

P-27 Factors Affecting Phonotactic Responses In Male Acheta Domesticus, Erik Thordarson

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

This research addresses some of the possible factors that affect male Acheta domesticus phonotactic responses to calls of males of the same species. The study examines cricket age and social interaction with females as possible factors affecting this behavior. Through logistic regression analysis, the study attempts to demonstrate a link between these factors and the responsiveness of the male crickets in the study. As the crickets aged, they responded to a wider range of syllable periods, which may imply that they follow a similar pattern of decreasing selectivity in their response with age as their female counterparts. The socialization aspect …

The Soldiers In Societies: Defense, Regulation, And Evolution, Li Tian, Xuguo Zhou

Entomology Faculty Publications

The presence of reproductively altruistic castes is one of the primary traits of the eusocial societies. Adaptation and regulation of the sterile caste, to a certain extent, drives the evolution of eusociality. Depending on adaptive functions of the first evolved sterile caste, eusocial societies can be categorized into the worker-first and soldier-first lineages, respectively. The former is marked by a worker caste as the first evolved altruistic caste, whose primary function is housekeeping, and the latter is highlighted by a sterile soldier caste as the first evolved altruistic caste, whose task is predominantly colony defense. The apparent functional differences between …

Nebline, March 2014

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Make a Difference -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Food & Health

Family Living

Farm & Acreage

Home & Family Living

Horticulture

Pests & Wildlife

4-H & Youth

Extension Calendar

and other extension news and events