There are potent immunomodulators in saliva of the bloodfeeding arthropods which transmit many of the world's most serious diseases that may benefit the arthropod by preventing the vertebrate host from becoming sensitized to the saliva. In addition, saliva can enhance transmission of parasites/pathogens by arthropods. As a result, vaccines that target the arthropod (e.g. salivary immunomodulato...

Although exotic plants comprise a substantial portion of floristic biodiversity, their contributions to community and ecosystem processes are not well understood. We manipulated plant species richness in old-field communities to compare the impacts of native vs. exotic species on plant biomass, seed production, and arthropod community structure. Plants within diverse communities, regardless of ...

We tested the hypothesis that leaf modifying arthropod communities are correlated with cottonwood host plant genetic variation from local to regional scales. Although recent studies found that host plant genetic composition can structure local dependent herbivore communities, the abiotic environment is a stronger factor than the genetic effect at increasingly larger spatial scales. In contrast ...

Evolutionary adaptations in plant, microorganism and arthropod interactions are primarily studied in systems involving only two of these groups: plants and microbes, plants and arthropods, or arthropods and microbes (Biere and Tack, 2013). Beside this, it was stated recently that there is emerging evidence that three-way interactions between plants, arthropods andmicroorganisms can play a major...

The composition of snake venoms shows a high degree of variation at all taxonomic levels, and natural selection for diet has been implicated as a potential cause. Saw-scaled vipers (Echis) provide a good model for studying this phenomenon. The venoms of arthropod feeding species of Echis are significantly more toxic to natural scorpion prey than those of species which feed predominantly upon ve...

In desertified regions, shrub-dominated patches are important microhabitats for ground arthropod assemblages. As shrub age increases, soil, vegetation and microbiological properties can change remarkably and spontaneously across seasons. However, relatively few studies have analyzed how ground arthropods respond to the microhabitats created by shrubs of different plantation ages across seasons....