Arthropods Research Articles

The limits of life revealed in a silicified micro-ecosystem: Sphenophyllum stems, leaves, and roots trapped inside an arthropod boring in a Permian calamitalean

The limits of life revealed in a silicified micro-ecosystem: Sphenophyllum stems, leaves, and roots trapped inside an arthropod boring in a Permian calamitalean

Avaliação preliminar da diversidade e abundância de artrópodes num pomar de aveleiras

Functional biodiversity is an asset for agricultural systems, particularly due to the role played by the promotion of ecosystem services, namely the natural control of crop pests. The biodiversity of arthropods associated with the hazelnut orchards in Portugal is little known, specially in relation with the natural enemies, and resumed to lists of the main pests. In this sense, and in order to contribute to the conservation and promotion of functional biodiversity in the hazelnut orchards, it is important to know the diversity and abundance of arthropods of this agroecosystem. The work was carried out in the organic hazelnut orchard of Estacao Agraria de Viseu. Arthropods were collected, between May and August 2018, using the knockdown technique, after which they were screened in the laboratory and selected by orders, morphotypes and functional roles (predators, parasitoids, phytophages, detritivorous and indifferent). About 1557 arthropods were captured belonging to 9 orders from the class Insecta class (88% of the inidividuals) and the class Arachnida class (order: Araneae). Regarding the class Insecta, the most abundant orders were: Hemiptera - suborder Heteroptera, (Anthocoridae and Miridae), Coleoptera (greater number of morphotypes, in particular of the Coccinelidae family) and, also, Hymenoptera, Dermaptera and Neuroptera. Keywords: dried fruits, entomofauna, functional biodiversity, Corylus avellana L.

CLASSES & Diagnosis of Parasitic Diseases

A parasite is a daily routine structure that experiences on or inside a host life form and gets its food from the cost of its host. There are three rule classes of parasites that can cause infections in people: Protozoa, Helminths, and Ectoparasites. Protozoa are minuscule, single-celled living beings that can be free-living or parasitic in nature. They can duplicate in people, which adds to their endurance and moreover allows genuine illnesses to create from a solitary life form. Transmission of protozoa that live in a human's stomach related framework to another human that normally happens through a fecal-oral course (for instance, tainted food or water or individual to-singular contact). Protozoa that live in the blood or tissue of people are communicated to different people by an arthropod vector (for instance, through the nibble of a mosquito or sand fly).

Setaria tundra, what do we know, what is still to be discovered?

Over the past years, the nematode species from the Onchocercidae family, Setaria tundra, has expanded its range by thousands of kilometres from subpolar to subtropical climate zone. Its presence has been confirmed in seven new countries. The appearance of this parasite in many other European countries, especially central and southern ones, is highly probable. In recent years, its mass appearance has led to the numerous fall of reindeer in Fennoscandia, thus causing significant economic damage. There is also a growing risk of its gradation in Central Europe, which threatens overpopulated wild deer species and possibly farm animals, however there is no information if other than mosquitoes blood-sucking arthropods act as its vector. This paper covers the range of occurrence of S. tundra in Europe, all of the reported intermediate and definitive hosts, phylogeny, biology, morphology, health effects, and treatment methods.

A synopsis of the ecology of Protura (Arthropoda: Hexapoda)

This publication reviews the literature on the ecology of Protura. Current knowledge is scarce, fragmentary and scattered among papers which do not all strictly deal with ecology or soil arthropods communities. Therefore all available information is summarized in order to better understand the ecology of these arthropods. The density of Protura ranges from hundreds to thousands of individuals per m2. Their aggregate distribution is probably related to food (fungal hyphae) availability and quality, and to the production of aggregation pheromones. Protura tend to form species assemblages characterizing different habitats. Their populations often show an unbalanced sex ratio in favour of females, suggesting that a single male can fertilize several females, perhaps via spermatophores. For some species only females have been collected, which suggests the possibility of parthenogenesis. Our analysis of the available information on phenology and population dynamics of Protura points toward annual cycles with one, two or more peaks of reproductive activity.

Consider the agent in the arthropod

Consider the agent in the arthropod

Ants Increase Cloverworm Herbivory Via Nonconsumptive Pathways

Generalist arthropod predators often exhibit a range of intraguild interactions reducing their potential efficacy as biological control agents. These interactions may include consumptive or nonconsumptive effects that mediate the impacts of herbivores. We examined interactions among 2 generalist predators, the striped lynx spider (Oxyopes salticus Hentz; Araneae: Oxyopidae) and an ant (Lasius neoniger Emery; Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and a herbivore, the green cloverworm (Hypena scabra F.; Lepidoptera: Erebidae), all prevalent in central Kentucky soybean agroecosystems. We hypothesized that individual predator treatments would reduce green cloverworm survival and resultant leaf damage, but that predators would interfere with each other when both were present. To study these interactions, field cages containing potted soybeans were used to examine 8 treatment combinations (control, cloverworm, spider, ant, spider + cloverworm, ant + cloverworm, ant + spider, and ant + spider + cloverworm). When proportional leaf damage was compared, spider, ant + spider, and spider + cloverworm treatments had significantly less damage than the ant, ant + cloverworm, and ant + spider + cloverworm treatments. Spider presence tended to decrease plant damage while ant presence significantly increased damage. No differences among treatments were found for either spider or cloverworm recovery, indicating potential nonconsumptive effects of ants that may include compensatory feeding. We found that generalist predators, such as L. neoniger, can inhibit biological control due to nonconsumptive interactions even when the same species in a different system provides substantial levels of pest suppression. Resumen Los depredadores de artropodos generalistas a menudo exhiben un rango de interacciones intra-gremial (entre el grupo depredador) reduciendo su eficacia potencial como agentes de control biologico. Estas interacciones pueden incluir efectos consuntivos o no consuntivos que median los impactos de los herbivoros. Examinamos las interacciones entre dos depredadores generalistas, la arana lince rayada (Oxyopes salticus Hentz; Araneae: Oxyopidae) y una hormiga (Lasius neoniger Emery; Hymenoptera: Formicidae), y un herbivoro, el gusano verde de trebol (Hypena scabra F.; Lepidoptera: Erebidae), todos prevalentes en los agroecosistemas de soja del centro del estado de Kentucky. Presumimos que los tratamientos de depredadores individuales reducirian la sobrevivencia del gusano verde de trebol y el dano resultante en las hojas, pero que los depredadores interferirian entre si cuando ambos estuvieran presentes. Para estudiar estas interacciones, se utilizaron jaulas de campo que contenian soja en maceta para examinar 8 combinaciones de tratamiento (el control, el gusano verde de trebol, arana, hormiga, arana + el gusano verde de trebol, hormiga + el gusano verde de trebol, hormiga + arana, y hormiga + arana + el gusano verde de trebol). Cuando se comparo el dano proporcional de las hojas, los tratamientos de arana, hormiga + arana y arana + el gusano verde de trebol tuvieron un dano significativamente menor que los tratamientos de hormiga, hormiga + el gusano verde de trebol y hormiga + arana + el gusano verde de trebol. La presencia de las aranas tiende a disminuir el dano a las plantas, mientras que la presencia de las hormigas aumenta significativamente el dano. No se encontraron diferencias entre los tratamientos para la recuperacion de la arana o el gusano verde de trebol, lo que indica posibles efectos no consuntivos de las hormigas que pueden incluir la alimentacion compensatoria. Descubrimos que los depredadores generalistas, como L. neoniger, pueden inhibir el control biologico debido a interacciones no consumidoras, incluso cuando la misma especie en un sistema diferente proporciona niveles sustanciales de supresion de plagas. Key Words: Hypena scabra; field cage; food web; Lasius neoniger; Oxyopes salticus View this article in BioOne

Survey of Thysanoptera Using Colored Sticky Card Traps in Florida, USA, Olive Groves

Olives are a potential emerging crop for the state of Florida, USA, and the pest arthropods in commercial groves in the state are under-studied. Thrips (order Thysanoptera) are an almost ubiquitous concern among specialty crop growers in Florida. Yellow and blue sticky card traps were used to survey the canopies of trees in 4 North Central Florida olive groves to determine thrips abundance and distribution over 2 growing seasons. Of the 16 species of thrips identified, most were Frankliniella spp., with Florida flower thrips, Frankliniella bispinosa (Morgan) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), being the most abundant species for both yr. Yellow traps were more effective for most species of thrips, although several species were more abundant on blue traps. No consistent differences between yr existed. Although overall abundance of flower feeding thrips species coincided with flowering events in the olive orchards, there was insufficient flowering to make statistical correlations between the peak of thrips abundance and flowering events in the olive groves. The results of this study will be useful in informing future economic threshold analyses of Thysanoptera in Florida olive groves. Resumen Las aceitunas son un cultivo potencial emergente para el Estado de la Florida, EE. UU., y los artropodos plagas en los bosques comerciales del estado estan poco estudiados. Los trips (orden Thysanoptera) son una preocupacion casi omnipresente entre los productores de cultivos especializados en la Florida. Se usaron trampas adhesivas amarillas y azules para examinar las copas de los arboles en 4 olivares del norte central de la Florida para determinar la abundancia y distribucion de trips durante 2 temporadas de crecimiento. De las 16 especies de trips identificadas, la mayoria fueron Frankliniella spp., con el trips de flores de la Florida, Frankliniella bispinosa (Morgan) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), siendo la especie mas abundante para ambos anos. Las trampas amarillas fueron mas efectivas para la mayoria de las especies de trips, aunque varias especies fueron mas abundantes en las trampas azules. No existieron diferencias consistentes entre los anos. Aunque la abundancia general de especies de trips que se alimentan de las flores coincidio con los eventos de floracion en los huertos de olivos, no hubo suficiente floracion para hacer correlaciones estadisticas entre el pico de abundancia de trips y los eventos de floracion en los olivares. Los resultados de este estudio seran utiles para informar futuros analisis de umbral economico de los Thysanoptera en los olivares de la Florida. Key Words: thrips; flower pest; Frankliniella bispinosa; Homalodisca vitripennis; olives; Olea europaea View this article in BioOne

A New Species of Anthurium sect. Cardiolonchium (Araceae) from the Cordillera Oriental (Napo Province), Ecuador

Anthurium bustamanteae Croat, E. Freire, R. Bleiweiss & F. Sornoza Molina is here described and illustrated. The species is an Ecuadorean member of section Cardiolonchium Schott and has a reddish inflorescence that is visited by birds and arthropods. The species is most similar to A. sanguineum Engl., another bird-visited species.

The University Hospital Institute Mediterrannée Infection from Marseille to Dakar.

In Senegal, we have developed technology-driven research based on observation and technology transfer especially in molecular biology, genomics, culturomics, and proteomics with the use of the first Maldi-TOF mass spectrometer in clinical microbiology in Africa. This strategy is associated with a policy of training students from the South and helping them to return back. This technology transfer and expertise has enabled us to explore the causes of non-malarial fevers of unknown causes, with the study of the repertoire of infectious pathogens in humans and arthropod vectors, to diagnose infectious diseases in rural areas with Point of Care laboratories, to isolate new bacteria, and to study pathologies linked to mass gatherings. They have also allowed us to develop transdisciplinary research including the study of the microbiota in malnourished children. We wish to continue this technological development, which provides the foundation for high-level research in Senegal.

Excavating eurypterids, giant arthropods of the Palaeozoic

The eurypterids of the Silurian Bertie Group of North America are some of the most striking fossils known, with their dark organic cuticle outlined against a background of light coloured dolomite. Eurypterus is the most abundant genus but the pterygotids with their long grasping claws have fired our imagination as giant extinct predators. Large complete specimens are rarely found—the specimens are dominated by moulted exoskeletons that often disarticulate—but a giant that emerged from the rock more than 50 years ago is being prepared to go on display.

Ameliorating effect of quercetin against UV radiation-induced damage in Drosophila melanogaster

Quercetin is a plant flavonoid found in various fruits, leaves such as tea, vegetables and has been extensively studied due to its antioxidative, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-neurodegenarative effects. UV radiation is harmful for human being as it may cause several complications such as skin cancer. Fruit fly (Drosophila sp.) has long been used as an arthropod model for genetics related studies. In the present study, the protective effect of quercetin is evaluated against UV-C radiation induced damage using Drosophila melanogaster. Pre-treatment with quercetin (10 µM) recovered the shortened lifespan caused by UV radiation and has also increased eclosion rate and the dose of quercetin is lower than the previously reported doses of other flavonoids. Flies subjected to moderate dose of UV radiation showed distinct abnormal characters such as incomplete abdominal pigmentation, curly wings or outstretched wings, whereas quercetin pretreatment showed no such abnormal characters or mutant phenotypes. There is a considerable amount of change in the eclosed adult fly size, pupal size and pupal migration distance as well. Gel electrophoresis study of salivary gland DNA of D. melanogaster demonstrates the efficacy of quercetin in conferring protection to DNA against UV radiation-induced damage. Therefore, it can be concluded that quercetin may act as an effective protective agent against UV radiation-induced damage. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3588543

Risk assessment of genetically engineered rice Bt-9 resistant to Cnaphalocrocis medinalis: influence on above-ground arthropods in Korea

Risk assessment of genetically engineered rice Bt-9 resistant to Cnaphalocrocis medinalis: influence on above-ground arthropods in Korea

Molecular characteristics and replication mechanism of dengue, zika and chikungunya arboviruses, and their treatments with natural extracts from plants: An updated review.

Viruses transmitted by arthropods (arboviruses) are the etiological agents of several human diseases with worldwide distribution; including dengue (DENV), zika (ZIKV), yellow fever (YFV), and chikungunya (CHIKV) viruses. These viruses are especially important in tropical and subtropical regions; where, ZIKV and CHIKV are involved in epidemics worldwide, while the DENV remains as the biggest problem in public health. Factors, such as, environmental conditions promote the distribution of vectors, deficiencies in health services, and lack of effective vaccines, guarantee the presence of these vector-borne diseases. Treatment against these viral diseases is only palliative since available therapies formulated lack to demonstrate specific antiviral activity and vaccine candidates fail to demonstrate enough effectiveness. The use of natural products, as therapeutic tools, is an ancestral practice in different cultures. According to WHO 80 % of the population of some countries from Africa and Asia depend on the use of traditional medicines to deal with some diseases. Molecular characteristics of these viruses are important in determining its cellular pathogenesis, emergence, and dispersion mechanisms, as well as for the development of new antivirals and vaccines to control strategies. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge of the molecular structure and replication mechanisms of selected arboviruses, as well as their mechanism of entry into host cells, and a brief overview about the potential targets accessed to inhibit these viruses in vitro and a summary about their treatment with natural extracts from plants.

Maize‐field complexity and farming system influence insectivorous birds’ contribution to arthropod herbivore regulation

Maize‐field complexity and farming system influence insectivorous birds’ contribution to arthropod herbivore regulation

Sharing Your Home With Arthropods

Sharing Your Home With Arthropods

Rainforest and cloud forest Scolytodes (Curculionidae, Scolytinae, Hexacolini) from the Arthropods of La Selva inventory in Costa Rica: new species, new synonymy, new records.

Quantitative collecting efforts over the last several decades in Costa Rica have resulted in many new species of insects. The Arthropods of La Selva projects included collecting from a typical lowland Neotropical forest and up an altitudinal transect, and has provided many valuable samples of insects, spiders and mites potentially new to science. We describe 18 new species in the bark beetle genus Scolytodes Ferrari, 1867, 14 of which were collected during this project: S.angulus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.sufflatus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.squamatifrons Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.comosus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.spatulatus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.seriatus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.profundus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.catinus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.fimbriatus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.sulcifrons Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.planifrons Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.porosus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.mundus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.callosus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.parvipilus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.plenus Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., S.niger Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov., and S.simplex Jordal & Kirkendall, sp. nov. One species, Scolytodesminutissimus Schedl, 1952, is redescribed to match the holotype. We give new Costa Rica records for S.costabilis Wood, 1974, which is the correct name for S.obesus Wood, 1975 (syn. nov.). We report Costa Rica as a new country record for six species: Scolytodesclusiacolens Wood, 1967, S.crinalis Wood, 1978, S.culcitatus (Blandford, 1897), S.libidus Wood, 1978, S.reticulatus (Wood, 1961), and S.spadix (Blackman, 1943). From a closely related genus, we provide the first record for Central America (and only the second collection) of Pycnarthrumfulgidum Wood, 1977.

First reports of Zoophthora radicans (Entomophthoraceae) and Metarhizium rileyi (Clavicipitaceae) as pathogens of Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) in Argentina

Fil: Manfrino, Romina Guadalupe. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Estudios Parasitologicos y de Vectores. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Centro de Estudios Parasitologicos y de Vectores; Argentina

Farming with nature: using precision agriculture to rescue arthropod populations and provide ecosystem services

Farming with nature: using precision agriculture to rescue arthropod populations and provide ecosystem services

Selection of tomato genotypes for processing resistant to spider mite and whitefly

The objective of the research was to select genotypes from the second generation of the first backcross (F 2 BC 1 ) between the tomato cultivar for processing S. lycopersicum cultivar Redencao and the wild access S. habrochaites var. hirsutum PI-127826, with high levels of zingiberene (ZGB), resistant to the mite Tetranychus urticae Koch and the whitefly ( Bemisia tabaci biotype B). From the F 2 BC 1 population the ZGB content was quantified and then five plants with high zingiberene was selected (RVTZ 2011-079-117, RVTZ 2011-079-185, RVTZ 2011-079-335, RVTZ 2011-079-345 and RVTZ 2011-079-503) and four with low zingiberene content (RVTZ 2011-079-417, RVTZ 2011-331-460, RVTZ 2011-079-538 and RVTZ 2011-079-548). Genotypes selected for high and low ZGB content and the parentals S. habrochaites var. hirsutum access PI-127826 and ‘Redencao’ were evaluated for repellency to the mite T. urticae and the whitefly Bemisia tabaci biotype B. There was a significant and inverse correlation between ZGB content and average distances traveled by mites on tomato leaflets. Plants of PI-127826, wild parental with high ZGB content, showed averages for number of whitefly eggs significantly lower in relation to the group of F 2 BC 1 , genotypes with low-ZGB. Genotypes of the F 2 BC 1 generation with high zingiberene levels RVTZ 2011-079-117, RVTZ 2011-079-185, RVTZ 2011-079-335, RVTZ 2011-079-345 and RVTZ 2011-079-503 are promising for progress in achieving lines with background for processing, resistant to arthropod pests. Among them RVTZ 2011-079-117 stands out for both pests evaluated.