A method is described for continuous rearing of Distantiella theobroma (Dist.) in the laboratory at approximately 75°F. and 65 per cent, relative humidity. Adults were caged on young cocoa twigs, and the mated females transferred to cocoa seedlings for egg-laying; 24 hours after hatching, the nymphs were transferred to unripe cocoa pods. The egg and nymphal stages lasted about 14–16 and 23 days, respectively.

Diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, is known for causing damage to Brassica crops and developing resistance to chemical and biological pesticides; it has become one of the most difficult pests to manage in many regions around the world. The only way to reduce reliance on pesticides is to maximize the role of natural control agents for integrated pest management programs and be able to incorporate the mortality from control agents into pest control decision-making. More than 90 hymenopterous parasitoids are associated with DBM worldwide; among them, Diadegma semiclausum, is a major endoparasitoid of P. xylostella. To optimize parasitism of pests in pest control decision-making, it is necessary to develop rapid and simple methods for distinguishing parasitized from non-parasitized larvae in the field. Here we report on a number of diagnostic tools to identify parasitized larvae. One is based on differential melanization reactions in hemolymph due to immune suppression in parasitized larvae. The lack of coagulation reactions in hemolymph provides a simple initial test, where squashing a non-parasitized larva onto nitrocellulose membrane traps chlorophyll-containing gut content on the membrane leaving a green dot of clotted gut material. However, in immune-suppressed parasitized larvae, the gut content was washed away in absence of coagulation reactions and the membrane lacks a green dot. This tool alone or combined with others, allows quick detection of parasitized caterpillars in the field. We further showed that the antibody MAb 9A5 can be used to detect D. semiclausum parasitized larvae of DBM in Western blots.

Colour piceous black ; the head with dark brown scaling above, except for a line of pale scales bordering the eye, and with pale buff scales beneath ; scaling of the prothorax brown or grey brown on the disk, an ill-defined dark brown stripe at the side, and grey or buff beneath ; scaling on the elytra grey or brown, with a very ill-defined darker stripe between striae 2 and 5, usually vanishing at a short distance from the base, but often traceable to behind the middle in the form of spots.

The earliest reference to the occurrence of Helopeltis in Ceylon was made by the French entomologist, Signoret (1858), when he described Helopeltis antonii, the so-called “Mosquito Blight”. Helopeltis attacking cacao in Ceylon was first recorded in the year 1880 or 1881 in the Matale district (Green, 1901), the damage to the young leaves and stems having attracted the attention of cacao planters. Populations of Helopeltis occurring on cacao today, however, favour the pods, damage to young leaves and stems being relatively rare and generally associated with poor shade over the cacao plant. This apparent change of feeding habits prompted a careful and critical examination of the existing species of Helopeltis in Ceylon. Extensive collections of Helopeltis from the major cacao-growing areas in the island, including the Matale district, have not provided any specimens referable to Helopeltis antonii. The new species described below was the only species of Helopeltis found on cacao at Teldeniya, Kundasale and in the Matale district, which may be regarded as representative of the major cacao-growing areas of Ceylon.

The identity is established of Palexorista quadrizonula (Thomson), an African Tachinid parasite of Lepidopterous pests, including the armyworms (Spodoptera spp.). The species is described and the known hosts recorded.

The following notes deal with the Agaonidae represented in a small collection of fig insects formed in 1907–8, in Sarawak, by Mr. J. Hewitt, now Director of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa.

The genus Niponius has hitherto been studied only from the standpoint of the adult characters, the larva having been unknown. These characters were considered by Fowler (Fauna of British India, Coleoptera, General Introduction 1912, p. 93) probably to be worthy of family rank; to quote Fowler “The very curious genus Niponius is closely related to the Histeridae, to which family it was assigned by its discoverer, Mr. G. Lewis, but it also bears affinities to other families, and is in several ways abnormal; we have therefore regarded it, with some hesitation, as provisionally separate.” The structure of the male genital tube was studied by Sharp & Muir (Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1912, p. 512) and they remark (l.c. p. 513) “The four families Histeridae, Synteliidae, Sphaeritidae and Niponiidae are so closely related by the aedeagus, that they might form one family, in which the Histeridae would include the higher developments.”

The mixture of O, O-diethyl O-ethlmercaptoethyl thiophosphate and O, O-diethyl S-ethylmercaptoethyl thiophosphate, known as Systox, which has been previously tested against Aphids, has now been tested as a systemic insecticide against the eggs and larvae of Pieris brassicae (L.) and the eggs, larvae and adults of Phaedon cochleariae (F.).

Systox is toxic by direct contact to all stages of these insects but is much less effective in this way than diethyl p-nitrophenyl phosphate (paraoxon).

As a systemic insecticide applied to the roots of teh host-plant, Systox again acts on all stages of the insects (except the eggs of Phaedom), but, compared with the dose which killed Aphids, about twice as much is required to kill Phaedon larvae and between 20 and 100 times as much to kill Pieris larvae, depending on the method employed.

When applied systemically Systox, like paraoxon, can prevent the emergence of Pieris larvae from the eggs.

A fast and simple method of preparing virgin females of Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) for exposure in the field is described. Low predation rates were achieved by tethering the moths on a short (20 cm) piece of cotton thread directly to the plants and by keeping unnecessary daytime exposure to a minimum. Consistently high levels of successful mating were recorded in both berseem and cotton fields in Egypt, suggesting the suitability of the tethering technique for measuring reduction of mating levels in pheromone control trials.

Laemophloeus minutus (Ol.) has been reared on six food materials of a type with which the genus, Laemophloeus, is commonly associated in the field. Consideration of the length of egg to adult development, together with the mortality, recorded from each medium indicates that Manitoba wheat and whole-meal flour are equally favourable for the development of the species, followed in order of precedence by Plate maize, English wheat and, finally, National (85 per cent. extraction) and Canadian (70–75 per cent. extraction) flour which proved equally unfavourable.

The stage of the life-history at which mortality mainly occurred varied with the diet. The high death-rate on English wheat was caused by the inability of newly hatched larvae to enter grains undamaged in the germ region. Mortality on National and Canadian flour occurred chiefly in the fourth instar.

There were indications of cannibalism in both larval and adult stages, at any rate when the diet was unfavourable.

The germ of wheat was attacked in preference to any other part of the grain. Maize germ was also consumed but whether it was preferred to the same extent as that of wheat was not established.

Pupation was mainly, but not exclusively, intergranular in wheat. Normal cocoons were formed in National and Canadian flours but some larvae pupated in loose webbing or in flour free from webbing and freshly emerged adults were observed in unwebbed National and Canadian flour.

Tomato plants in Nigeria were subjected to foliar sprays of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (formulated as Dipel and Thuricide) and Baculovirus heliothis (Elcar), to which carbaryl, plus the adjuvants Tenac and Gustol were on occasion added, to test their effectiveness against Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) and other lepidopterous larvae. H. armigera larvae were found susceptible to both pathogens. The 0·5 kg/ha and the 1·0 kg/ha applications of Bacillus thuringiensis gave good field control of the larvae, similar to that of carbaryl at 1·5 kg/ha. Bacillus and virus were compatible but not significantly more effective when combined than when applied separately. Combinations of bacillus and virus with carbaryl were also not significantly more effective than the pathogens applied separately. B. thuringiensis at 0·5 kg/ha applied with carbaryl at 0·5 kg/ha was as good as carbaryl at 1·5 kg/ha. Gustol and Tenac did not significantly increase the effectiveness of the pathogens.

The oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata is an important crop pest in eastern Asia. Nocturnal insects, including nocturnal moths, have phototactic behavior to an artificial light source. Phototactic behavior in insects is species-specific in response to different wavelengths of light sources. Our previous study showed that green (520 nm) light emitting diode (LED) light resulted in a significantly higher phototactic behavior in M. separata moths compared to the other wavelength LED lights. The goal of the present study is to investigate the influence of green light illumination on biological characteristics of different developmental stages in M. separata. Our results revealed that when different developmental stages of M. separata were exposed to the green light illumination in a dark period, several biological characteristics in all developmental stages except for egg stage were positively changed, but those of F1 generation M. separata which are next generation of the adults exposed to the green light did not significantly change compared with the control level. These findings suggest that green light illumination at night (or dark period) has a positive effect on the development and longevity of M. separata.

British Guiana lies between the latitudes 0·41′ N. (source of the Essequebo River) and 8° 33′ 22″ N. (Punta Playa), has a depth from north to south of about 500 miles, a seaboard of about 270 miles trending in a south-easterly direction, and occupies in the north-east of South America an area approximately equal in extent to Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Surinam or Dutch Guiana, on the south and south-west by Brazil, and on the west by Venezuela.

The Colony may be divided broadly into three belts. The northern one consists of a low-lying flat and swampy belt of marine alluvium—the coastal region. This rises gradually from the seaboard and extends inland for a distance varying from 5 to 49 miles. It is succeeded by a broader and slightly elevated tract of country of sandy and clayey soils. This belt is generally undulating, and is traversed in places by sand-dunes rising from 50 to 180 ft. above sea-level. The more elevated portion of the Colony lies to the southward of the above-mentioned regions. It rises gradually to the south-west, between the river valleys, which are in many parts swampy, and contains three principal mountain ranges, several irregularly distributed smaller ranges, and in the southern and eastern parts numerous isolated hills and mountains. The eastern portion is almost entirely forest-clad, but on the south-western side there is an extensive area of flat grass-clad savannah land elevated about 300 feet above sea-level.

Water-based ultra-low volume (WULV) applications to cotton at fourday intervals of a 1% a.i. polyurea-based microencapsulated formulation of the pheromone inhibitor 9-dodecenyl acetate (E/Z 80:20) in a 0·2-ha field cage in Malawi resulted in an average reduction of 60·2% in nightly mating of females of Diparopsis castanea Hmps. A relatively constant level of inhibitor was maintained by spraying with 30 g/ha initially and decreasing by 10% with each successive spray. Examination of the mated status of 1712 female moths sampled on 88 occasions revealed that, in the presence of inhibitor, mating increased linearly with increasing population density from 22 to 2844 moths/ha (equal numbers of males and females). In an openfield trial, WULV applications of 30 and 60 g of 1 % a.i. microencapsulated inhibitor/ha to isolated cotton plots (0·4–1·2 ha) at seven- and 14-day intervals had no measurable disruptive effect on released populations of moths as measured by oviposition and larval infestation of the crop, although there was some reduction in egg fertility and catches of males in pheromone traps in the treated plots. Timeseries analyses by gasliquid chromatography (GLC) of the residual inhibitor on filterpaper discs and cotton leaves in the field gave similar results, and GLC measurement of inhibitor on filter papers removed at intervals from the test plots showed that inhibitor loss was very rapid, typically 60% within two days and almost 100% after six days. Loss of inhibitor was less rapid in the field cage and under laboratory conditions. Physical and chemical evaluation of microcapsule deposition on cotton plants revealed that spray droplets penetrated to all parts of the plant but that deposition was greatest on the upper laminae of the top leaves of the plant. Methodology for assessing the success of mating-disruption experiments is described and discussed, and the failure of the open-field experiments is attributed mainly to the rapid loss of inhibitor from the formulation in the field.

Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) play significant roles in protecting organisms from abiotic stress damage. Here, we report the sequence and characterization of a P450s gene (AccCYP4AV1), isolated from Apis cerana cerana Fabricius. The open reading frame of AccCYP4AV1 is 1506 base pairs long and encodes a predicted protein of 501 amino acids and 57.84 kDa, with an isoelectric point of 8.67. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis indicated that AccCYP4AV1 is more highly expressed in the midgut than in other tissues. In addition, the highest expression occurs in newly emerged adult workers, followed by the first instar of the larval stage. In addition, the expression of the AccCYP4AV1 was upregulated by low temperature (4 °C), ultraviolet radiation, hydrogen peroxide, paraquat, and dichlorvos treatments. In contrast, AccCYP4AV1 transcription was downregulated by other abiotic stress conditions: exposure to increased temperature (44 °C), deltamethrin, cadmium chloride, and mercury (II) chloride. Moreover, when AccCYP4AV1 was knocked-down by RNA interference, the results suggested that multiple antioxidant genes (AccsHSP22.6, AccSOD2, AccTpx1, and AccTpx4) were downregulated and antioxidant genes AccGSTO1 and AccTrx1 were upregulated. The activity levels of peroxidase and catalase were upregulated in the AccCYP4AV1-knocked-down samples, compared with those in the control groups. These findings suggest that the AccCYP4AV1 protein might be involved in the defense against abiotic stress damage.

The bionomics and ecology of two Adelgids, Adelges knucheli (Schneider-Orelli & Schneider) and A. joshii (Schneider-Orelli & Schneider), first recorded from West Pakistan by Yaseen & Ghani (1966), have been studied by Ghani & Rao (1966). During surveys for the natural enemies of Adelgids in West Pakistan forests, another Adelges sp. on fir and three Pineus spp. on pines were found. They differed from described species in shape, size and arrangement of the wax pores on the sclerotised plates of the head and thorax, characters considered by Underwood (1963) the best for identifying apterous Adelgid adults. They are here described as new, and notes are given on their biologies seen in marked colonies under field conditions. All four species are monomorphic and anholocyclic.

Mean survival times for unfed ticks, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus Neumann exposed initially during the hot dry season (January) in Kenya were significantly higher than those of ticks exposed during the wet season (May). This was partly due to the timing of the next hot dry season which triggered the beginning of decline in survival, and partly due to the overall severity of the weather. The implication is that the time when the ticks feed affects the survival of the subsequent instar. The mean survival times for nymphs exposed initially during the wet and the hot dry seasons were 30 weeks and 44 weeks, respectively. Those for adult ticks ranged between 59–75 weeks and 62–79 weeks, respectively. Maximum survival times were, however, similar for adults but not for nymphs. Adult ticks had an initial period of 32–48 weeks of excellent survival, apparently independent of weather factors. Thereafter, mortality rates and adverse environmental factors were correlated. The survival of ticks fed on hosts of differing resistance status was also different. The most resistant host produced the smallest adult ticks and these gave the lowest survival, and vice versa. Male and female ticks from highly resistant hosts had similar survival, but the females from a moderately resistant host survived significantly better than the males. These results indicate the importance of weather and host resistance in R. appendiculatus survival.

Mosquitoes such as Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) are important vectors of organisms that cause disease in humans. Research into the development of effective standardized odour baits for blood-fed females (oviposition attractants), to enable entomological monitoring of vector populations, is hampered by complex protocols for extraction of physiologically active volatile chemicals from natural breeding site water samples, which have produced inconsistent results. Air entrainment and solvent extraction are technically demanding methods and are impractical for use in resource poor environments where mosquito-borne disease is most prevalent. This study reports the first use of a simple, robust extraction technique, stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE), to extract behaviourally active small lipophilic molecules (SLMs) present in water samples collected from Cx. quinquefasciatus breeding sites in Tanzania. Extracts from a pit latrine and from a cess pool breeding site attracted more gravid Cx. quinquefasciatus in pair choice bioassays than control extracts, and coupled gas chromatography-electroantennography (GC-EAG) allowed tentative identification of 15 electrophysiologically active chemicals, including the known oviposition attractant, skatole (3-methylindole). Here, we have demonstrated, using simple pair choice bioassays in controlled laboratory conditions, that SBSE is effective for the extraction of behaviourally and electrophysiologically active semiochemicals from mosquito breeding site waters. Further research is required to confirm that SBSE is an appropriate technique for use in field surveys in the search for oviposition cues for Cx. quinquefasciatus.

Recent studies show that Vetiver grass, (Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash), may have potential as a dead-end trap crop in an overall habitat management strategy for the spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). Vetiver grass is highly preferred for oviposition, in spite of the fact that larval survival is extremely low on this grass. The oviposition behaviour of female Chilo partellus moths was investigated by determining the amount and size of egg batches allocated to maize and Vetiver plants and studying the effect of rearing conditions and oviposition experience on host plant selection. Two-choice preference tests were used to examine the effect of experience of maize (a suitable host plant) and Vetiver plants on the oviposition choice of C. partellus. For both field-collected and laboratory-reared moths, no significant differences were found in the preference distributions between the experienced groups. It is concluded that females do not learn, i.e. that they do not change their preference for Vetiver grass after having experienced oviposition on either maize or this grass, which supports the idea that trap cropping could have potential as a control method for C. partellus. Differences observed between field-collected and laboratory-reared moths in the amount and size of egg batches laid on maize and Vetiver grass indicate that data obtained from experiments with laboratory-reared insects should be treated with caution.

Lasioderma serricorne (F.) is a small cosmopolitan beetle regarded as a destructive pest of several stored products such as grains, flour, spices, dried fruit and tobacco. Chemical insecticides are one of the measures used against the pest. However, intensive insecticide use has resulted in the appearance of resistant insect populations. Therefore, for the elaboration of more effective control programs, it is necessary to know the biological aspects of L. serricorne. Among these aspects, the genetic variability knowledge is very important and may help in the development of new control methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic variability of 11 natural populations of L. serricorne collected respectively in three and four towns in the states of Paraná and São Paulo, Brazil, using 20 primers random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and polymorphisms of esterases. These primers produced 352 polymorphic bands. Electrophoretic analysis of esterases allowed the identification of four polymorphic loci (Est-2, Est-4, Est-5 and Est-6) and 18 alleles. Results show that populations are genetically differentiated and there is a high level of genetic variability within populations. The high degree of genetic differentiation is not directly correlated to geographical distance. Thus, our data indicate that movement of infested commodities may contribute to the dissemination of L. serricorne, facilitating gene flow.