In this study, we investigated the role of selection in the maintenance of a dorsal colour polymorphism in natural populations of the northern leopard frog, Rana pipiens. We determined genetic structure both spatially and temporally from a suite of putatively neutral molecular markers and tested whether or not the colour locus exhibited patterns of genetic variation that differed from those of ...

background: the present study was undertaken to study the larvicidal activity of different extracts of nerium ole- ander leaves, and post-treatment temperature- toxicity relationship of these extracts against culex pipiens. further, the most potent extract was used to evaluate its biological and genotoxic activities. methods: crude extracts of n. oleander leaves were prepared using water, chlor...

the polygene chromosomal pattern together with the somatic and meiotic chromosomes of the autogenous tehran strain of culex pipiens molestus is described. the first and third chromosomes are metacentric, the second one is slightly submetacentric. each chromosome has well-defined, large puffed char­acteristic centromeres. randomly distributed asynaptic regions on the polytens chromosomes are ind...

The detection of West Nile virus (WNV) in mosquitoes by real-time RT-PCR provides valuable information on the epidemiology of the virus and identifies mosquito species that are potential vectors. Testing sets of pooled mosquitoes of the same species is logistically the easiest and most cost-effective approach for WNV testing; however, little information is available on how the results of small ...

Alphavirus transducing systems (ATSs) are alphavirus-based tools for expressing genes in insects. Here we describe an ATS (5'dsMRE16ic) based entirely on Sindbis MRE16 virus. GFP expression was used to characterize alimentary tract infections and dissemination in three Culicine and two Lepidopteran species. Following per os infection, 5'dsMRE16ic-EGFP efficiently infected Aedes aegypti and Cule...

This study describes the aquatic habitats, species composition, and the insecticide resistance level of the mosquito Culex pipiens pallens in Shandong Province, China. A cross-sectional survey of mosquito larval habitats was conducted from May to November 2014 to determine the species composition and larval abundance. Larvae were collected using the standard dipping technique, and a total of fo...

Data are presented for 2,393 progeny from a number of crosses related to a study in ecological genetics of the Burnsi and Kandiyohi polymorphisms in natural populations of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens. No significant differences in viability were found between wild-type homozygotes (+/+) and Burnsi heterozygotes (B/+) or homozygotes (B/B). Similarly, no difference in viability was found betwe...

Many invasive species succeed in becoming established in new locations because of their competitive superiority to native species. This has been shown in several examples involving mosquitoes. In this study, we examined the interspecific competition between mosquito larvae of a well-established, non-native species, Culex pipiens, and those of its ecologically similar, native congener Culex rest...