Adult Lepidoptera use their antennae to probe their distant and proximate environment with sensory organs which detect volatile and contact chemicals. In this work, we have investigated the role and the sensitivity of antennal contact chemoreceptors of Spodoptera littoralis. Adults of both sexes have long and filiform antennae composed of about 70 flagellomeres. Each flagellomere bears six tast...

The induced defense response in plants towards herbivores is mainly regulated by jasmonates and leads to the accumulation of so-called jasmonate-induced proteins. Recently, a jasmonate (JA) inducible lectin called Nicotiana tabacum agglutinin or NICTABA was discovered in tobacco (N. tabacum cv Samsun) leaves. Tobacco plants also accumulate the lectin after insect attack by caterpillars. To stud...

Gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of egg lipids during development of Spodoptera littoralis showed the presence of 13 fatty acids ranging in carbon chain length from caproic (C6:0) to linolenic acid (C 18:3). Palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic and linoleic acids composed over 90% of the total fatty acids. Palmitic acid was always the predominant fatty acid and oleic acid was the second mos...

the use of adjuvants enhances the insecticide efficiency and increases the persistence of insecticides. in this study, the effect of adjuvants on the toxicity of chlorpyrifos and cyhalothrin formulations were investigated under laboratory and field conditions. the comparative toxicity of two chlorpyrifos [(48% emulsifiable concentrate (ec)] formulations (dursban and pyrifos el nasr), two cyhalo...

Extracellular self-DNA (esDNA) is produced during cell and tissue damage or degradation and has been shown to induce significant responses in several organisms, including plants. While the inhibitory effects of esDNA have been shown in conspecific individuals, little is known on the early events involved upon plant esDNA perception. We used electrophysiology and confocal laser scanning microsco...

The furanoeremophilanes 6 beta-angeloyloxy-1,10-dehydrofuranoeremophilan-9-one (1), 6 beta-hydroxy-1,10-dehydrofuranoeremophilan-9-one (2) and 6 beta-propionyloxy-1,10-dehydrofuranoeremophilan-9-one (3) were isolated from Senecio otites, their structures elucidated by spectral analyses, and their insecticidal and phytotoxic properties evaluated. Compounds 1-3 proved to be effective aphid antife...

The great phenotypic variability and the lack of diagnostic characters in the genus Pylaiella render the systematic study of this genus problematic. In this study, we investigated the diversity of Pylaiella littoralis along the Brittany (France) coast using a DNA barcoding multilocus approach with mitochondrial (cox1, nad1, and atp9) and chloroplastic (rbcL and atpB) markers associated with a p...

*Correspondence: Ahmed M. Saveer, Department of Plant Protection Biology, Box 102, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] Mate recognition is crucial for reproductive isolation and for maintaining species integrity. Chemosensory-mediated sexual communication with pheromones is an essential component of mate recognition in moths. Confronted with sex pheromone stimuli released fr...

Bacillus thuringiensis was isolated from 36 of 50 residue samples obtained from an animal feed mill (a stored-product environment). Of 710 selected colonies having Bacillus cereus-B. thuringiensis morphology isolated from the samples, 477 were classified as B. thuringiensis because of production of parasporal delta-endotoxin crystals. There was a diverse population of B. thuringiensis, as revea...

Insect odorant binding proteins (OBPs) are thought to involve in insects' olfaction perception. In the present study, we identified 38 OBP genes from the antennal transcriptomes of Spodoptera litura. Tissue expression profiles analysis revealed that 17 of the 38 SlitOBP transcripts were uniquely or primarily expressed in the antennae of both sexes, suggesting their putative role in chemorecepti...