The Balbiani ring (BR) genes in the midge Chironomus, a genus belonging to Diptera, code for large secretory proteins, used to construct the larval tube. The 15-23-kb long core block in each gene consists of an array of tandemly arranged approximately 200-bp long repeat units, where a single repeat unit is composed of a constant and a subrepeat region. In order to investigate the evolutionary f...

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is an industrial additive that is widely used as a plasticizer. Due to its widespread use, DEHP is often found in freshwater ecosystems and many freshwater species have been exposed to various levels of DEHP in natural aquatic systems. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is a metabolizing enzyme produced in response to exposure to DEHP. To evaluate the effects of DEHP ...

Collective animal behaviour is often modeled by systems of agents that interact via effective social forces, including short-range repulsion and long-range attraction. We search for evidence of such effective forces by studying laboratory swarms of the flying midge Chironomus riparius. Using multi-camera stereoimaging and particle-tracking techniques, we record three-dimensional trajectories fo...

This report constitutes the first study of Culicoides spp. and their seasonal abundance at Al-Ahsa, the largest oasis in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. New Jersey light traps were used to collect the midges at Mastock farm and Al-Mansura village. The mean monthly abundance was determined from October 1993 to October 1994. The mean monthly number per trap reached its minimum value during ...

The effects of heavy metals pollution in two Polish rivers on the genome of phylogenetically distant species of the family Chironomidae were studied. The concentrations of Pb, Zn and Cd in the channel sediments of Chechło and Biała Przemsza Rivers were many times higher than reference data, as a result of over 50 years of the lead and zinc ores extraction. In the studied species Prodiamesa oliv...

Increased use of pesticides in conventional agriculture implies potential risks to the environment. In aquatic ecosystems, benthic organisms may be exposed via contaminated water and sediment, leading several cascading effects on food web. The aim this study was assess functional implications environmental realistic concentrations herbicide 2,4-D insecticide fipronil (alone combination) native ...

Studying aquatic benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs) in the field requires accurate taxonomic identification, which can be difficult and time consuming. Conventionally, head capsule morphology has been used to identify wild larvae of Chironomidae. However, due to the number of species and possible damage and/or deformity of their head capsules, another supporting approach for identification is ne...

Fourth instar larvae of Chironomus thummi were permitted to incorporate labeled amino acids and/or sigma-aminolevulinic acid (sigma-ALA) in vivo and in organ culture. The products secreted into the hemolymph or into the culture medium were examined by acrylamide gel electrophoresis. Nine electrophoretic bands can be resolved as hemoglobins without staining. When gels are sliced for scintillatio...