Sex pheromones have rarely been studied in parasitoids, and it remains largely unknown how male and female parasitoids locate each other. We investigated possible attraction (and repellency) between the sexes of two braconid wasps belonging to the same genus, the gregarious parasitoid, Cotesia glomerata (L.), and the solitary parasitoid, Cotesia marginiventris (Cresson). Males of both species w...

Pieris napi oleracea Harris is a native pierid butterfly that has suffered a range reduction in New England that began after the invasion of its range by the non-native congener Pieris rapae L. and one of its braconid parasitoids, Cotesia glomerata (L.). P. napi has nearly disappeared from Massachusetts, but remains common in northern Vermont. We investigated food plant abundance and Cotesia sp...

BACKGROUND The genus Ficus, collectively known as figs, is a key component of tropical forests and is well known for its ethnobotanical importance. In recent decades an increasing number of studies have shown the indigenous knowledge about wild edible Ficus species and their culinary or medicinal value. However, rather little is known about the role of these species in rural livelihoods, becaus...

Concern about the effects of various foods on human health has risen significantly in recent years. Plant-based foods, including fruit and vegetables, are regarded as important for human health. It is believed that plant-based diets have positive effects on health due to their phytochemical components. Plant extracts that contain various phytochemicals have been used in a numbers of studies to ...

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Microsatellite markers for dioecious fig species, Ficus bernaysii King (section Sycocarpus), Ficus pachyrrhachis K. Schum. & Lauterb. (section Sycocarpus), and Ficus copiosa Steud. (section Sycidium) were developed to estimate gene flow among closely related fig species. METHODS AND RESULTS Loci were developed from tri- and tetranucleotide-enriched genomic libraries. The ...

The antivenom properties of methanolic extract of Ficus iteophylla miq and Borassus aethiopum plants were investigated against the venom of Naja mossandica snake. Both plant extracts effectively reduced the Naja mossandica venom induced hemolytic activity. The result reveals that hemolysis due to venom was 81.5% without extract but the heomolytic activity was drastically reduced by Ficus iteoph...

Parasitoid diversity in terrestrial ecosystems is enormous. However, ecological processes underpinning their evolutionary diversification in association with other trophic groups are still unclear. Specialisation and interdependencies among chalcid wasps that reproduce on Ficus presents an opportunity to investigate the ecology of a multi-trophic system that includes parasitoids. Here we estima...

Figs (Ficus, Moraceae) constitute one of the largest genera of flowering plants with ca. 750 species worldwide. While the extraordinary mutualism between figs and their pollinating wasps has received attention for decades, we are only just beginning to reconstruct the phylogeny of both partners, a necessary framework for addressing a variety of questions concerning the evolution of mutualism. H...

Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten. is widely cultivated in Jeju Island (South Korea) for use in manufacture of health foods. This study described antidepressant effect of two flavonoids (kaempferol and quercitrin) isolated from the Opuntia ficus-indica var. saboten. The expression of the hypothalamic POMC mRNA or plasma β-endorphin levels were increased by extract of Opuntia ficus-indica var. s...