Grasshoppers of the species Schistocerca nitens (Thiinberg), Locusta migratoria (L.) and Tmethis pulchripennis (Bolivar) are able to withstand air temperatures higher than lethal internal temperature (48 °C) for more than an hour, during which time they maintain an internal temperature as much as 8°C below air temperature. Rates of evaporation at high air temperatures are much greater than thos...

Ectotherms have evolved preferences for particular body temperatures, but the nutritional and life-history consequences of such temperature preferences are not well understood. We measured thermal preferences in Locusta migratoria (migratory locusts) and used a multi-factorial experimental design to investigate relationships between growth/development and macronutrient utilization (conversion o...

Corpora allata (CA) from male Locusta migratoria were tested for their ability to synthesize juvenile hormone (JH) and to respond to stimulating brain/corpora cardiaca (CC)-extracts under in vitro conditions. We found that a preincubation of the CA of both sexes at 4 degrees C for 24 h lowers their basal rate of synthesis and retains their responsiveness to allatotropic factors. Male CA can be ...

Elucidation of the secondary structure of the exchangeable apolipoproteins has been hindered by the difficulty in producing crystals suitable for X-ray spectrographic analyses. Consequently, in order to analyze potential structure-function relationships in the family of insect exchangeable apolipoproteins, apolipophorins-III (apoLps-III), two apoLps-III cDNA clones, one from the palo verde beet...

Many types of cuticular proteins are found in a single insect species, and their number and features are very diversified among insects. The cuticle matrix consists of many different proteins that confer the physical properties of the exoskeleton. However, the number and properties of cuticle proteins in Locusta migratoria remain unclear. In the present study, Illumina sequencing and de novo as...

The migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, shows remarkable phenotypic plasticity at behavioral, physiological, and morphological levels in response to fluctuation in population density. Our previous studies demonstrated that dopamine (DA) and the genes in the dopamine metabolic pathway mediate phase change in Locusta. However, the functions of different dopamine receptors in modulating locust p...

The Asian Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria migratoria L.) is a pest that continuously threatens crops in the Amudarya River delta near the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Its development coincides with the growing period of its main food plant, a tall reed grass (Phragmites australis), which represents the predominant vegetation in the delta and which cover vast areas of the former Ar...

Labeled spermatocytes from locusts killed 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 days after exposure to tritiated thymidine were examined with the electron microscope to determine their meiotic stage. It was found that tritiated thymidine uptake in young spermatocyte nuclei is completed some 24 hours before synaptinemal complexes are formed. It is concluded that in the locust, premeiotic DNA synthesis is complet...