The fiber properties of lepidopteran silk depend on the amino acid repeats that interact during H-fibroin polymerization. The aim of our research was to relate repeat composition to insect biology and fiber strength. Representative regions of the H-fibroin genes were sequenced and analyzed in three pyralid species: wax moth (Galleria mellonella), European flour moth (Ephestia kuehniella), and I...

factors hindering the development of inundative biological control are insect rearing costs and provide an adequate amount of natural enemies at the appropriate time. storage of natural enemies is a useful technique to increase time flexibility of parasitoids production, and coincide the natural enemies release with pest outbreaks period, and also could reduce costs of mass production. another ...

New cell lines from embryos of Ephestia kuehniella were recently developed. Primary cultures were initiated in September 2002 from 2 to 4 day old eggs in either modified TC-100 or ExCell 400 medium. From these initial cultures, one, originally isolated in the Ex-Cell medium, produced sufficient cell growth to allow subcultivation and eventually led to the establishment of two cell strains, one ...

The endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia pipientis manipulates host reproduction by rendering infected males reproductively incompatible with uninfected females (cytoplasmic incompatibility; CI). CI is believed to occur as a result of Wolbachia-induced modifications to sperm during maturation, which prevent infected sperm from initiating successful zygote development when fertilizing uninfected fe...

A microsporidium that closely resembles Paranosema species at the level of the light microscope was isolated from the rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus. It's identity as Nosema oryzaephili (originally described from Oryzaephilus surinamensis) was confirmed by comparison with a known isolate of N. oryzaephili based on spore size, small subunit rDNA sequence, and relative infectivity t...