A micro-cage bioassay was developed to test the effect of slash pine pollen (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) supplementation to a whole onion plant (Allium cepa L. variety Pegasus) diet on thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) reproductive parameters. Frankliniella fusca (Hinds) females were placed on two to three-leaf stage onion seedling under a treatment of either slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) po...

Larvae of most butterfly species feed on a limited number of host species belonging to a single plant family. The choice of host plants is determined both at the egg-laying and larval-feeding stages (Schoonhoven et al., 1998). The choice of oviposition site by an adult female is crucial to the survival of their offspring, and thus the mother butterflies lay their eggs with great precision on th...

The experiment was conducted to find out the efficacy of dodder vine extract as seed protectant against pulse beetle, Callosobruchus chinensis on gram seed in the laboratory of the Department of Entomology, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during the period of February to May, 2009. The concentrations of dodder vine extract were 5, 2 and 1% respectively. Efficacies of these treatm...

Olfactory cues play decisive roles in the lives of most insect species, providing information about biologically relevant resources, such as food, mates, and oviposition sites. The nocturnal moth Manduca sexta feeds on floral nectar from a variety of plants (and thus serves as a pollinator), but females oviposit almost exclusively on solanaceous plants, which they recognize on the basis of olfa...

The main British population of Gortyna borelii occurs on the north Essex coast, on sites very close to sea level. During 1999, 2000 and 2001, ovipositing strategies of G. borelii were studied providing details of egg laying behaviour, preferred oviposition host plants, height of ova deposition and distance of the oviposition site from the nearest larval food plant (Peucedanum officinale). Six o...

Herbivores have been hypothesized to adapt locally to variation in plant defences and such adaptation could facilitate novel associations in the context of biological invasions. Here, we show that in the native range of the viburnum leaf beetle (VLB, Pyrrhalta viburni), two populations of geographically isolated hosts-Viburnum opulus and Viburnum tinus-have divergent defences against VLB ovipos...

Aedes aegypti is responsible for the transmission of dengue, a disease that infects millions of people each year. Although essential oils are well recognized as sources of compounds with repellent and larvicidal activities against the dengue mosquito, much less is known about their oviposition deterrent effects. Commiphora leptophloeos, a tree native to South America, has important pharmacologi...

The egg production and development of Amphibolus venator (Klug) were investigated at five temperatures (25, 27.5, 30, 32.5 and 35°C), 70% r.h. and 16L–8D photoregime. The optimum temperature for multiplication and development of A. venator was around 32.5°C. Pre-oviposition period decreased with increasing temperature. Temperature in the range 25–35°C had no effect on oviposition period. The av...

Parasitic Maculinea alcon butterflies can only develop in nests of a subset of available Myrmica ant species, so female butterflies have been hypothesized to preferentially lay eggs on plants close to colonies of the correct host ants. Previous correlational investigations of host-ant-dependent oviposition in this and other Maculinea species have, however, shown equivocal results, leading to a ...

The oviposition process of the red imported Þre ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), is described as a succession of four events forming one egg-laying cycle. Each time an egg is laid, the vulva opens and the sting is fully extended. When the vulva closes, the egg is forced to the base of the sting, whereupon the sting is usually retracted across the egg. This phenomenon has...