Grasses are traditionally considered as wind pollinated, however, field observations confirmed frequent insect visits to grass flowers, suggesting insect pollination. Fruit and seed predators inflict heavy losses to cereals and millets during their growth, maturation and storage. The actual factors guiding insects and predators to grass flowers, fruits and seeds are not clear. Here, we report a...

International trade in bees and bee products is a complex issue, affected bytheir different origins and uses. The trade in bees, which poses the main risk for disease dissemination, is very active and not all transactions may be officially registered by the competent authorities. Globally, bee health continues to deteriorate as pathogens, pests, parasites and diseases are spread internationally...

JUNE 2012 was the coolest June since 1998 and across southern and eastern Scotland it was the wettest June on record. Rainfall was 250 per cent to 300 per cent of normal in the Borders, Lothians and Fife, and the number of days with rain was among the highest in the past 50 years. In marked contrast, it was drier than average in Shetland and parts of the north-west and the Western Isles, with s...

In agricultural applications, the introduction of predators is used to control the prey/pests level so that crop damage is limited; however, though a satisfactory equilibrium between predators and prey may exist, it may be unstable. In order to achieve pest control, its stabilization should then be achieved and, since predator releases occur at discrete time instants, we model them through impu...

the tomato leafminer, tuta absoluta (meyrick), is one of the most important pests of tomato, solanum lycopersicum l., in iran. in this research, natural enemies diversity of t. absoluta and proportion of predators or parasitoids density to moth eggs or larvae density on five tomato cultivars including super strain b, super chief, mobil, korral, and early urbana y were studied in an experimental...

BACKGROUND Biological control provided by natural enemies play an important role in integrated pest management. Generalist insect predators provide an important biological service in the regulation of agricultural insect pests. Our goal is to understand the explicit process of oviposition preference, habitat selection and feeding behavior of predators in farmland ecosystem consisting of multipl...