The unexplained collapse of honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies across the world continues to fascinate both the scientific and mainstream media alike. This is mainly due to the worldwide importance of honeybees in ecological and commercial sectors. We recently reported how the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor, altered the viral landscape in the Hawaiian archipelago by decreasing the viral ...

In dioecious parasite species, genetic structure can differ between sexes, as recently demonstrated for the digenetic trematode Schistosoma mansoni and the ectoparasitic tick Ixodes ricinus. This article presents some of the methods that allow detecting such a pattern in natural populations. The proximate and ultimate factors that potentially generate a sex-specific genetic structure are discus...

The prevalence of helminthic and protozoal infestations was studied among 778 individuals from a rural area of Northern Nigeria. The principal helminths present were Necator americanus or hookworm (46.27%, Hymenolepis nana (2.31), Enterobius vermicularis (1.29%), Taenia saginata (1.16%), Ascaris lumbricoides (0.51%), strongyloides stercorlis (2.26%) and Trichuris trichiura (2.26%). The prevalen...

1) Moth Trapping. Despite the use of Bt-transgenic cotton on over 98% of the acreage in Tennessee, bollworm and tobacco budworm still compose an important pest complex. Bollworms may cause significant economic damage to Bt cotton fields, and the bollworm/budworm can be even more damaging to non-Bt cotton. More importantly, the threat of tobacco budworm infestations results in high adoption of B...

Schistosomiasis is one of the oldest and commonest parasitic infestations of mankind and one of the leading infestations of public health concern. Hitherto, praziquantel has been the only drug for mass eradication of Schistosomiasis. Few reports have shown possible resistance of the schistosome to praziquantel in some part of the world with global concern about the future of the drug. We report...

The unexplained collapse of honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies across the world continues to fascinate both the scientific and mainstream media alike. This is mainly due to the worldwide importance of honeybees in ecological and commercial sectors. We recently reported how the ectoparasitic mite, Varroa destructor, altered the viral landscape in the Hawaiian archipelago by decreasing the viral ...

Colpodella gonderi is the only ectoparasitic flagellate of ciliated protozoa described thus far. This investigation reveals new records of C. gonderi retrieved from soil samples in southern Scotland, UK. Of fourteen ciliates species identified in one single occasion, three of them, Colpoda steinii, Pseudoplatyophrya nana and Grossglockneria acuta, were infested with the parasite. These results ...

The small passerine family Neosittidae has never been checked under the presence of ectoparasitic mites Syringophilidae (Acariformes: Prostigmata). Herein, we describe a new species, Aulobia sittellae n. sp., collected from Varied Sittella Daphoenositta chrysoptera (Latham). In addition to first record syringophilid on host representative Neosittidae, it is also genus in Australian region. Addi...