Suitable alterations in gene expression are believed to allow animals to survive drastic changes in environmental conditions. Drosophila melanogaster larvae cease eating and exit moist food to search for dry pupation sites after the foraging stage in what is known as the wandering stage. Although the behavioral change from foraging to wandering causes desiccation stress, the mechanism by which ...

Insects protect themselves from majority of infections by a non-specific innate immune system (present in both vertebrates and invertebrates). Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV), a baculovirus, causing the deadly grasserie disease is a scourge to silkworm industry and we report here the first success in combating this disease with the help of a nanosilica-virus complex. Hydrophobic ...

The endoscopic and histopathological findings detected in Sparus aurata experimentally infected with third-stage Anisakis larvae without intermediate host are evaluated and discussed. In six fish, live nematode larvae were introduced by gastroscopy into the stomach. The first observation by endoscope, 15 days after challenge, showed the presence of some larvae at the level of gastric mucosa. An...

Two species of mayfly nymphs, Habroleptoides modesta (Hagen) and Habrophlebia lauta (Eaton) (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae), were found as suitable experimental intermediate hosts of the fish nematode Rhabdochona denudata (Dujardin, 1845) (Rhabdochonidae), an intestinal parasite of Palaearctic cyprinids. The parasite's eggs were obtained from nematode gravid females parasitizing the European c...

Lagochilascaris minor is the etiological agent of lagochilascariosis, a disease that affects the neck region and causes exudative abscesses, with eggs, adult parasites and L3/L4 larvae in the purulent exudates. Mice are now considered to be intermediate hosts for the parasite. To determine the pattern of infection in B1 cell-deficient mice, experimental lagochilascariosis was studied in BALB/c ...

The first larval stage of Microprosthema semilaeve (von Martens, 1872) is described from ovigerous females collected off Sombrero Key, Florida Keys, USA, and Guana Island, British Virgin Islands, Caribbean. The larvae are characterized by a broad, triangular telson bearing posterolateral spines and an “anomuran seta,” a first maxilliped that differs markedly from the very similar (to each other...

In Hynobius retardatus, most larvae in regions of low elevation metamorphose by autumn of the same year. However, larvae of some populations found in cold, mountainous ponds cannot metamorphose within the year and become aged, overwintered larvae. Gonadal development in larvae under the age of 1 year (larvae developed from eggs spawned in the same year) and in aged, overwintered larvae (spawned...

Amphibians (tadpoles of the frog Bombina bombina [L.] and the newt Triturus vulgaris [L.]) and aquatic insects (larvae of the alderfly Sialis lutaria [L.] [Megaloptera], dragonflies Sympetrum sanguineum [Miller] and Coenagrion puella [L.] [Odonata], and the caddisfly Oligotrichia striati [L.] [Trichoptera]) were found to serve as paratenic hosts for the third-stage larvae (L3) of the nematode A...