Melanism has long been thought to be a habitat adaptation with a fitness cost. Here we reported a homozygous melanic strain (SEM) of Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) established with black pupae spontaneously occurring within a typical laboratory population (SEW). The melanization is expressed globally, and only in the pupal stage. After pupation, the melanic SEM pup...

The domed fitness functions are suggested to describe developmental patterns of progeny parasitoids in relation to host age at oviposition in solitary koinobint parasitoids that are engaged in single parasitism, but few studies have investigated the applicability of the functions as related to superparasitism. The present study was designed to compare fitness functions between single parasitism...

Studies on insect dispersal and other behaviors can benefit from using markers that will not alter flight and fitness. Rare earth elements, such as samarium (Sm), have been used as ingested markers of some insects and detected using neutron activation analysis (NAA). In this study, samarium nitrate hexahydrate was mixed into artificial diet for boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (...

The efficacy of transgenic cotton genotypes containing Cry1Ac, Cry1F, and Cry1Ac stacked with Cry1F (WideStrike®, Dow Agrosciences, Indianapolis, IN) were investigated during 2001-2003 against the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (=BAW), and the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (=FAW), in laboratory bioassays and small experimental field plots. In all experiments, cot...

The black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a serious localized pest of vegetable and field crops. We have characterized a newly discovered baculovirus, the Agrotis ipsilon multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AgipMNPV), that was isolated from A. ipsilon in Illinois. Restriction enzyme fragment profiles of AgipMNPV DNA were distinct from those of previously described...

We examined the effect of two avocadofurans, 2-(pentadecyl)furan and 2-(heptadecyl)furan, from avocado idioblast oil cells on maturation and larval feeding behavior of a generalist insect herbivore, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Experiments were conducted using two larval sizes: early-stadium larvae refer to those larvae from experiments initiated with neonates while late...

Plant allocation to defensive compounds in response to growth in elevated atmospheric CO(2) in combination with two levels of nitrogen was examined. The aim was to discover if allocation patterns of transgenic plants containing genes for defensive chemicals which had not evolved in the species would respond as predicted by the Carbon Nutrient Balance (CNB) hypothesis. Cotton plants (Gossypium h...