Malaria vector control targeting the larval stages of mosquitoes was applied successfully against many species of Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) in malarious countries until the mid-20th Century. Since the introduction of DDT in the 1940s and the associated development of indoor residual spraying (IRS), which usually has a more powerful impact than larval control on vectorial capacity, the focu...

The growth and development of Helicoverpa armigera was observed in the laboratory by feeding them on different foods viz; leaf, flower and fruit of lady finger, cotton, pigeon pea and chick pea. Based on the food ingested, food digested and food excreted as well as on weight and size of the larvae and the duration of larval period, the fruit of chick pea was found to be the most suitable food f...

Hormonal control of post-embryonic morphogenesis is well established, but it is not clear how differences in developmental endocrinology between species may underlie animal diversity. We studied this issue by comparing metamorphic thyroid hormone (TH) physiology and gonad development across spadefoot toad species divergent in metamorphic rate. Tissue TH content, in vitro tail tip sensitivity to...

Most models on settlement of open marine invertebrate populations are based on space-limitation. These models, however, do not recognise that free space may not drive the demography of populations when larval numbers are small or when larval supply varies along a gradient in the habitat. They also do not incorporate the effects of larval choice when settling. It has been hypothesised that, in g...

The red palm weevil (RPW) Rhynchophorus ferruginous (Olivier) was fully developed and reared on a meridic diet consisting of agar, distilled water, commercial yeast as well as laboratory produced amino and fatty acid rich brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), wheat meal, corn flour, benzoic acid, ascorbic acid, sorbic acid, vitamin mix and tetracycline hydrochloride. A group of weevils rea...

Water salinity is an intense physiological stress for amphibians. However, some species, such as Bufo calamita, breed in both brackish and freshwater environments. Because selection under environmentally stressful conditions can promote local adaptation of populations, we examined the existence of geographic variation in water salinity tolerance among B. calamita populations from either fresh o...