Representatives of several families of insect viruses were tested for growth and pathogenicity in the olive fruit fly, Dacus oleae Gmel. The viruses included nuclear polyhedrosis viruses, an iridovirus, two picornaviruses, and Trichoplusia ni small RNA virus (a member of the Nudaurelia beta family), in addition to two naturally occurring viruses of the olive fruit fly. Two viruses, one of the t...

Insect-specific ascoviruses with a circular genome are distributed in the USA, France, Australia and Indonesia. Here, we report the first ascovirus isolation from Spodoptera exigua in Hunan, China. DNA-DNA hybridization to published ascoviruses demonstrated that the new China ascovirus isolate is a variant of Heliothis virescens ascovirus 3a (HvAV-3a), thus named HvAV-3h. We investigated the ph...

Variability within sex pheromone signalling systems is generally believed to be low because of strong stabilizing selection; yet the noctuid moth Heliothis subflexa (Hs) shows significant intraspecific variation. One possible explanation is that females may alter their sex pheromone blend depending on prevailing olfactory cues in the habitat, which we termed the 'experience hypothesis'. This co...

The gene encoding the viral enhancing factor (VEF) of Trichoplusia ni granulosis virus has been cloned from a lambda gt11 expression library, and the complete nucleotide sequence determined. The VEF gene encodes a protein with a predicted Mr of 104K which does not share homology with any previously reported proteins. A possible promoter is located four nucleotides upstream of the initiation cod...

The genome of Heliothis armigera entomopoxvirus (HaEPV) has been mapped with four restriction endonuclease enzymes (BamHI, HindIII, PstI and XhoI), and its length estimated at 233 kbp. An EcoRI-generated HaEPV genomic fragment hybridized to all fragments identified as genomic termini, providing the first experimental evidence for the presence of terminal repeat elements in an EPV genome. The Ha...

Transgenic crops producing insecticidal toxins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been grown in many parts of the world since 1996. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required that industry submit insect resistance management (IRM) plans for each Bt corn and cotton product commercialized. A coalition of stakeholders including the EPA, USDA, acad...

The corn earworm Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) and the old world bollworm Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are allopatric species and occur in important agricultural crops. In maize, both species tend to infest the ear. The introduction of H. armigera in Brazil has created a new scenario, where these Helicoverpa species might cohabit and interact with one another, affecting the...

There have been several reports concerned with the replication and morphogenesis of insect baculoviruses during the past decade [1--7]. While there is general agreement as to the assembly of the virus on the basis of electron microscopic studies, there are still questions regarding the details of the replicative mechanisms, such as the acquisition of the virus envelope. Three possible ways have...

New cell lines from embryos of Ephestia kuehniella were recently developed. Primary cultures were initiated in September 2002 from 2 to 4 day old eggs in either modified TC-100 or ExCell 400 medium. From these initial cultures, one, originally isolated in the Ex-Cell medium, produced sufficient cell growth to allow subcultivation and eventually led to the establishment of two cell strains, one ...