Chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae), also known as non-biting midges, are one of the most abundant groups of insects in aquatic habitats. They undergo a complete metamorphosis of four life stages of which three are aquatic (egg, larva, and pupa), and the adult emerges into the air. Chironomids serve as a natural reservoir of Aeromonas and Vibrio cholerae species. Here, we review existing knowle...

For a long time, respiratory proteins have been considered unnecessary in most insects because the tracheal system was thought to be sufficient for oxygen supply. Only a few species that survive under hypoxic conditions were known exceptions. However, recently it has become evident that (1) intracellular hemoglobins belong to the standard repertoire of insects and (2) that hemocyanin is present...

The proliferation of disease-vector mosquitoes has been attributed to the effects of land-use change. We investigated the relationship between land use, macroinvertebrate communities, and water chemistry in water-filled containers in native forest, pasture land, and urban land at two locations (Waikanae and Paraparaumu) in the Kapiti region, New Zealand. Larvae of the endemic Culex pervigilans ...

Among the impacts of coastal settlements to estuaries, nutrient pollution is often singled out as a leading cause of modification to the ecological communities of soft sediments. Through sampling of 48 sites, distributed among 16 estuaries of New South Wales, Australia, we tested the hypotheses that (1) anthropogenic nutrient loads would be a better predictor of macrofaunal communities than est...

Sediment samples were collected in 4 sites along a salinity gradient (between 0.2 and 27.3) of the Aussa River (Marano Lagoon, northern Adriatic Sea, Italy) and a decreasing gradient of industrial contamination downstream (from Stn A1 to Stn A4) to assess how a riverine-lagoonal system responds to chemical contamination by applying an integrative measure of its benthic ecological properties. Be...

Predator-prey interactions have a major effect on species abundance and diversity, and aggregation is a well-known anti-predator behaviour. For immobile prey, the effectiveness of aggregation depends on two conditions: (a) the inability of the predator to consume all prey in a group and (b) detection of a single large group not being proportionally easier than that of several small groups. How ...

objective: the orange-red spectrum of  the skin of  electric yellow (labidochromis caeruleus) is  one  of  the  idealistic and  necessary  schemas sought  by  aquarists  and commercial producers. in this study, the effect of live foods meal on the skin coloration of juvenile electric yellow was examined. methods: 270 fish with an average living body weight was 0.42 ± 0.11 g, and average total l...

american foulbrood (afb) disease is caused by the sporeforming bacterium paenibacillus larvae larvae. traditional diagnosis is based on culture technique is time and laboratory work consuming. in this study with standard strain, pcr was developed by specific primers and pcr products were electrophoresed on 0.8 % agarose gel. the pcr primers were selected on the basis of the 16s rrna gene and am...

A juvenoid insect growth regulator, pyriproxyfen (Nylar or Sumilarv), in a 10% emulsifiable concentrate (10 EC) and a granular (3% sand granules) formulation was evaluated for efficacy against natural populations of chironomid midges in man-made ponds in central Florida. Both formulations at 0.05 kg AI/ha induced complete suppression of adult midge emergence for 1 wk. At 0.2 kg AI/ha, emergence...

A chironomid midge, Cricotopus lebetis (Sublette) (Diptera: Chironomidae), was discovered attacking the apical meristems of Hydrilla verticillata (L.f. Royle) in Crystal River, Citrus Co., Florida in 1992. The larvae mine the stems of H. verticillata and cause basal branching and stunting of the plant. Temperature-dependent development, cold tolerance, and the potential distribution of the midg...