This paper documents the bizarre descending behavior from the tree crown to the ground of the larvae of the moth, Scopelodes contracta Walker (Lepidoptera: Limacodidae) and the interaction of the larva with predatory ants. S. contracta larvae infest leaves of many tree species in urban areas and orchards in Japan. Mature larvae and leaves without basal leaf parts were found under trees of four ...

Portable analytical systems are versatile tools for application in areas including biomedicine, biosecurity, food safety and environmental monitoring. This work contributes to the increasing demand low-cost, environmentally friendly substrates portable by using natural Bombyx mori cocoons. Further, silk fibroin is also extracted from these cocoons electrospun into oriented randomly fiber substr...

Habitat heterogeneity is thought to affect top-down control of herbivorous insects and contribute to population stability by providing a more attractive microhabitat for natural enemies, potentially leading to reduced population fluctuations. Identifying the parameters that contribute to habitat heterogeneity promoting top-down control of herbivorous insects by natural enemies could facilitate ...

Jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the cores of galaxy clusters have the potential to be a major contributor to the energy budget of the intracluster medium (ICM). To study the dependence of the interaction between the AGN jets and the ICM on the parameters of the jets themselves, we present a parameter survey of two-dimensional (axisymmetric) ideal hydrodynamic models of back-to-back je...

A hitherto largely unresolved problem in behavioral biology is how workers are prevented from reproducing in large insect societies with high relatedness. Signals of the queen are assumed to inform the nestmates about her presence in the colony, which leads to indirect fitness benefits for workers. In the ant Camponotus floridanus, we found such a signal located on queen-laid eggs. In groups of...

Eggs of Fasciola hepatica were exposed for 10 days to extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELFMF) at the frequency of 50 Hz and density of 2 mT (rms). The results show an accelerated hatching of F. hepatica eggs in relation to control (non-exposed) group. The host snails, Lymnaea truncatula, were divided into three groups; those of groups I and II were infected with the miracidia of F. hepat...

OBJECTIVE The study was conducted to evaluate cardioprotective effect of silk cocoon (Abresham) Bombyx mori (B. mori) on isoprenaline-induced myocardial infarction. This study deals with the cocoons, which is called Abresham in the Unani system of medicine. It is one of the 64 drugs which Avicenna has mentioned in Avicenna's tract on cardiac drugs and used in the treatment of cardiovascular dis...

The invasive non-native earthworm Amynthas agrestis (Goto and Hatai, 1899) has recently been documented invading forests of the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States. This epigeic earthworm decreases the depth of organic soil horizons, and this may play a role in the decrease of millipede richness and abundance associated with A. agrestis invasion. To investigate the mechanism...

Limnodrilus hoffmeisteri Claparede, 1862 is a cosmopolitan Oligochaeta widely used as indicator of organic pollution in water bodies. Previous contributions have shown the effects of organic matter and temperature on the life history of the species, although very little is known about the factors that influence its reproduction. This study aimed 1) to test whether the larger weight of individua...