Subterranean termites have unusual plasticity in their breeding systems. As a result of their cryptic foraging and nesting habits, detailed information on the numbers and types of reproductive individuals in colonies has been difficult to obtain. In this study, we used microsatellite markers to infer the major features of the breeding system of the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes for...

Subterranean termite control accounted for 50% of the total business turnover of the Malaysian pest control industry in 2000, of which USS8-10 million were spent. About 70% of termite treatments were done on residential premises, 20% on industrial buildings and 10% on commercial buildings. The most important species are Coptotermes travians, C. curvignathus, C. havilandi C. kalshoveniand C. sep...

From freeze dried mucus of the Antarctic nemertine Parborlasia corrugatus we have isolated 10.3 kDa basic (pI>9.0) cytolytic protein, referred to as parborlysin. Although the purified protein sample was homogeneous by reversed phase HPLC chromatography profiles and several gel electrophoretic techniques, N-terminal sequence and mass spectrometric analyses revealed that it consisted of few very ...

a School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794, United States b CNRS, UMR 7144, Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin, Station Biologique de Roscoff, 29682 Roscoff, France c UPMC Université Paris 6, Station Biologique de Roscoff, 29682 Roscoff, France d Centre Ressources Biologie Marine FR2424, Analysis and Bioinformatics for Marine Science Pl...

Pine tree death caused by pine wood nematode (PWN) involves phoretic relationships between PWN and its vector Japanese pine sawyer beetle (JPS). In an effort to understand the diversity of fungi involved in PWN life cycle, a total of 176 fungal isolates were collected from PWNs, adults and larvae of JPS, PWN-diseased Japanese black pine that was cut down in 2005 at Jinju, Korea. Based on micros...

Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi differ in their abilities to use nitrogen sources and may be integral to maintaining fungal and plant diversity in ecosystems in which Ericaceae occur. In this study, we tested whether the fungal communities differ among three species of co-occurring Ericaceae. Fungi colonizing Cassiope tetragona, Empetrum nigrum and Vaccinium vitis-idaea roots in the Arctic tundra wer...

A number of hypotheses have been presented regarding the origins of the metazoans and, more specifically, the Bilateria. Using various phylogenetic analyses, characteristics have been mapped on phylogenetic trees to infer ancestral body plans and life history strategies of those ancestors. Many arguments on the evolution of the Bilateria are based on the presumed homology of certain characteris...

Water fungi and fungus-like organisms as a biological factor of ecological water systems have significant influence on the environment and its modification. They decompose necrosis substrates found in water bodies. Fungi also can act as facultative parasites and then frequently occur on their hosts. The main aim of the present study is to investigate which of the fungi and straminipiles can gro...

Partial 18S rRNA sequence of the nemertine Cerebratulus lacteus was obtained and compared with those of coelomate metazoans and acoelomate platyhelminths to test whether nemertines share a most recent common ancestor with the platyhelminths, as traditionally has been implied, or whether nemertines lie within a protostome coelomate clade, as suggested by more recent morphological analyses. Maxim...