Endosymbiosis with microorganisms is common in insects, with more than 10% of species requiring the metabolic capabilities of intracellular bacteria for their nutrient acquisition. Aphids harbor an obligate mutualism with the vertically transferred endosymbiont, Buchnera aphidicola, which produces key nutrients lacking in the aphid's phloem-based diet that are necessary for normal development a...

Facultative bacterial endosymbionts can play an important role in the evolutionary trajectory of their hosts. Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) are infected with a wide variety of facultative endosymbionts that can confer ecologically relevant traits, which in turn may drive microevolutionary processes in a dynamic selective environment. However, relatively little is known about how symbiont divers...

the effect of eight cucumis l. (cucurbitaceae) genotypes, including native cucumber genotypes (hormozgan, bushehr and gilan), greenhouse cucumber genotypes (girtap, negeen, sepehr and pouya) and armenian cucumber (cucumis melo var. flexuosus) was studied on the life table and population growth parameters of aphis gossypii glover to evaluate antibiosis resistance. the experiment was conducted at...

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii, is one of the most biologically diverse species of aphids; a polyphagous species in a family where most are host specialists. It is economically important and belongs to a group of closely related species that has challenged aphid taxonomy. The research presented here seeks to clarify the taxonomic relationships and status of species within the Aphid gossypii g...

Plants grown under elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) experience physiological changes that influence their suitability as food for insects. To determine the effects of living on soybean (Glycine max Linnaeus) grown under elevated CO2, population growth of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) was determined at the SoyFACE research site at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinoi...

The interactions between herbivorous insects and their symbiotic micro-organisms can be influenced by the plant species on which the insects are reared, but the underlying mechanisms are not understood. Here, we identify plant nutrients, specifically amino acids, as a candidate factor affecting the impact of symbiotic bacteria on the performance of the phloem-feeding aphid Aphis fabae. Aphis fa...

The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura, is one of the most important economic pests affecting soybean production in Wisconsin and neighboring states. Since its discovery in 2000, the soybean aphid has become established in the North Central Region and presents a potential threat to the soybean industry. Insecticides are available for control of the soybean aphid, but are an additional prod...

Rapid evolution has rarely been assessed in biological control systems despite the similarity with biological invasions, which are widely used as model systems. We assessed post-introduction climatic adaptation in a population of Longitarsus jacobaeae, a biological control agent of Jacobaea vulgaris, which originated from a low-elevation site in Italy and was introduced in the USA to a high-ele...