In species with time!limited opportunities for insemination\ precopulatory mate!guarding is expected to coevolve with the duration of female reproductive cycles[ Despite this adaptation to female characteristics\ it may also be advan! tageous for males to adjust the duration of guarding with respect to sex ratio because the bene_ts of guarding are dependent on the availability of females[ If fe...

Respiration rate increases 6.3-fold during 15 days of post-oviposition development in embryos of the Southern ground cricket, Allonemobius socius. This ontogenetic increase in metabolism of non-diapause insects is blocked during diapause, such that metabolic rate is only 36% of the rate measured for 15 days developing embryos. Surprisingly, however, there is not an acute metabolic depression du...

The ixodid Amblyomma aureolatum is suspected to play a role in the epidemiology of wild life-cycle hemoparasites, which frequently infect dogs in rural and hunting areas in Brazil. Little is known about its bionomics. The objective of the present study was to evaluate some bionomic aspects of A. aureolatum ticks in Brazil. One engorged female, collected from a dog (Canis familiaris) in São Seba...

BACKGROUND Anopheles gambiae s.s. Giles is a major malaria vector in Sub-Saharan Africa. Studies of the basic biology of this mosquito, including oviposition, provide a background for assessing which attributes might be exploited for suppressing A. gambiae populations. Here, we report on when during the diel cycle A. gambiae individuals deposit eggs as compared to the ovipositional patterns of ...

This study aimed to investigate the responses to abrupt changes in feeding and illumination during the egglaying period. Six hens were housed individually in cages under constant environmental conditions, with a photoperiod of 15 h (0400-1900) and ad libitum access to food for 10 days. Then the same hens were subjected to a feed withdrawal trial (between 1200 and 0830), followed by a 5-h reduct...

Longevity, duration of the oviposition period, realized fecundity, potential fecundity, and egg fertility of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner), were examined in the laboratory under three different adult diet regimes. All parameters were signiÞcantly reduced for the water-only diet compared with 10% honey or sucrose diets, except fertility, which could not be measured after 5 d beca...

Adult aphid predators disperse across the landscape seasonally in search of prey aggregations that are patchily distributed and temporally variable. However, flight is energetically costly consumes resources could be invested reproduction. Hippodamia convergens an important predator North American cereal crops other agricultural systems. Consumption floral can enhance adult survival during peri...

A yolk protein enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (YP-ELISA) was developed for the predator Orius insidiosus (Say). The YP-ELISA is intended to assess reproductive response to dietary and other rearing conditions, and to assist in quality control and diet development for mass rearing. Hybridomas and monoclonal antibodies were produced against homogenates of eggs dissected from females. Hybridoma...

The number of egg rafts oviposited by Culex pipiens and Culex restuans in infusion-baited ovitraps varied with the type of infusion substrate, infusion age, method of infusion preparation, and calendar date. In one or more tests, more Culex egg rafts were collected from water infused with Kentucky bluegrass sod, mixed grass clippings, straw, or a commercial rabbit chow than from a water control...

Predator-experienced individuals often change their predation avoidance response when they re-encounter the same predators or their cues. Recent reports show that behavioural change sometimes occurs even before the re-encounter. To function as an adaptive strategy in the wild, such prospective experience-induced behaviour should change flexibly in response to changing situations. We assessed fl...