We investigated the effect of mutual interference on the attack efficiency and the rate of successful parasitism on the parasitoid Spalangia cameroni (Perkins) attacking pupae of the stable fly Stomoxys calcitrans (L.). Female parasitoids (2, 4, 8, 16, or 32) were exposed to 100 fly pupae during 24 h. The number of pupae that were attacked and the number successfully parasitized increased with ...

We report the results of a study on potential food sources of the widely distributed Indo-Australian braconid fruit fly parasitoid Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Adults sustained life on diets of fruit juice or fruit pulp, a homopteran and its associated honeydew, or extrafloral nectary secretions. Longevities on all these foods and fecundity on fruit juice we...

We evaluate the performance of Twitter-based influenza surveillance in ten English-speaking countries across four continents. We find that tweets are positively correlated with existing surveillance data provided by government agencies in these countries, with r values ranging from .37–.81. We show that incorporating Twitter data into a strong autoregressive baseline reduces mean squared error ...

Commercial shipments of Orius spp. (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) commonly include water and protein, the latter typically supplied by eggs from a moth such as Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller). To determine whether modified dietary conditions might improve predation, newly eclosed adult female Orius pumilio (Champion) were fed on E. kuehniella eggs plus encapsulated water, encapsulated 5% sucrose soluti...

the parasitoid trichogramma brassicae bezdenko is used for inundative releases in biological control programs against lepidopteran pests in agro-ecosystems. age-specific functional responses of t. brassicae to different egg densities (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, and 80) of sterilized eggs of ephestia kuehniella at 23±1°c, 60±5% rh, and 16:8 h (l:d photoperiod ) were studied. e. kuehniella densities ...

Changes in program directions at the Saskatoon Research Centre have resulted in the organization of a research team equipped to develop microorganisms for the biological control of important agricultural weeds. This paper presents a brief introduction to the science of inundative biological control and an overview of the research progress made on controlling Canada thistle, wild oats, and green...