The darkling beetle, Sternoplax souvorowiana (Reitter) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), is flightless and lives in the Guerbantonggut desert in northwestern China. Its special eggshell structure, day-active habit, large body size, short life cycle, and ease of rearing under laboratory conditions make it an excellent model for advanced studies on desert adaptation. Determining the sex of this beetle...

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of different dietary sources of unsaturated fatty acids (fish oil (FO) and/or linseed oil (LO)) on laying performance, egg yolk fatty acid composition, ovarian follicular development, antioxidative properties, immune response and tibial bone characteristics in aged laying hens. A total of 100 Hisex Brown hens at 56 weeks of age were h...

Interspecific brood parasitism represents a prime example of the coevolutionary arms race where each party has evolved strategies in response to the other. Here, we investigated whether common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) actively select nests within a host population to match the egg appearance of a particular host clutch. To achieve this goal, we quantified the degree of egg matching using the a...

Marigold flower extract (MFE), a natural source of xanthophylls, was added to the diets of hens at different concentrations (0, 150, 250, and 350 mg/kg of diet) to determine the effects of MFE on hen performance, physical characteristics of egg quality, and carotenoid content of the egg yolk of hens housed in enriched cages. Additionally, the highest dose of MFE (350 mg/kg) was tested under com...

Every living being has a set of paired chromosomes, which carry all the genetic material necessary to maintain life and also to propagate new life. All but one pair of chromosomes are called autosomes and carry genes for all the characteristics of the body, such as skin, hair and eye color, mature size, and body characteristics. The remaining pair are called sex chromosomes. They carry the gene...

The objectives of this experiment were to investigate effects of dietary replacement of maize with bakery by-product (BB) with or without enzyme supplementation on the performance of laying hens and egg quality characteristics. A total number of one hundred and eighty 87-week-old Hy-Line Leghorn hens, with an average laying rate of 56.7±3.8% (late production phase) and 1470±14 g live body weigh...

OBJECTIVE Unravelling the determinants of parasite life-history traits in natural settings is complex. Here, we deciphered the relationships between biotic, abiotic factors and the variation in 4 life-history traits (body size, egg presence, egg number and egg size) in the fish ectoparasite Tracheliastes polycolpus. We then determined the factors affecting the strength of the trade-off between ...

Microdera punctipennis Kaszab (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) is an endemic species in Guerbantonggut desert in China. To explore the ways that M. punctipennis egg adapts to dry desert environment, morphological characteristics of the egg was investigated along with the egg of the nondesert beetle Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Water loss rate and survival rate of these eggs under di...