Amphibians Matter Amphibians are an important component of the global ecosystem. In New York State, the biomass of one diminutive salamander species alone is equal to that of all the white-tailed deer. If you think that is impressive, that same salamander species in Virginia has a biomass 7x as great, another salamander species in Japan has a biomass 50x as great, and a frog species in Puerto R...

Biocontrol agents are critical for pest management in sustainable agriculture. Generalist arthropod predators may hold a great potential as biocontrol because they ubiquitous and consume pests agroecosystems. However, their diet composition over the entire crop season has rarely been quantified, which hinders our ability to assess real field conditions that foster temporal dynamics of alternati...

Establishment and maintenance of the natural enemy are critical for successful biological control pests on plants without alternative food predators. Great efforts have been devoted to exploring suitable supplementary In this study, we evaluated feasibility using Tyrophagus curvipenis (Fain Fauvel) (Acari: Acaridae) as a source Neoseiulus cucumeris (Oudemans) Phytoseiidae) by investigating surv...

the distribution pattern of pest population is one of the factors not only effects on sampling program and data analysis method, but also can be used to measure the density of pests and their natural enemies. thus, the spatial distribution pattern of the pea aphid, acyrthosiphon pisum harris (hem.: aphididae) and its two major predators, hippodamia variegata goeze (col.: coccinellidae) and cocc...

Background: Due to its nutrient content, a variety of spoilage microorganisms can grow in bee pollen, especially when handling practices are not appropriate. So, this survey was designed to assess the physicochemical and microbiological properties of bee pollen collected from Bulgaria. Methods: In June 2014, 13 fresh and 19 dried bee pollen samples were collected from Bulgaria. Water activity ...

New distribution records and host associations of natural enemies banana insect mite pests are reported. These include eight parasitoids (two trichogrammatids, two mymarids, encyrtids, one pteromalid, scelionid) twelve predators (one thrips, staphylinids nine coccinellids). Two egg parasitoids, Prosoligosita perplexa Hayat & Husain Epoligosita duliniae Livingstone Yacoob reported for the fi...

27 Social pollinators such as honey bees face attacks from predators not only at the nest, but also during 28 foraging. Pollinating honey bees can therefore release alarm pheromones that deter conspecifics from visiting 29 dangerous inflorescences. However, the effect of alarm pheromone and its chemical components upon bee 30 avoidance of dangerous food sources remains unclear. We tested the re...

Executive Summary 3 1: Introduction 9 2: Factors causing bee declines – implications for agriculture 15 3: Ecological farming versus industrial agriculture – impacts on bees 21 4: Ecological pest control to eliminate the use of synthetic chemical pesticides 39 Appendix 1 54 Appendix 2 56 3 The drastic decline of wild and managed bee populations recorded in recent years in Europe and North Ameri...