The toxicity of three insecticides to Lysiphlebus fabarum (Marshall) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae), a parasitoid of Aphis fabae Scopoli (Hemiptera: Aphididae), was investigated using IOBC/wprs protocols. Abamectin 1.8 EC, imidacloprid 350 SC, and pymetrozine 25 WP were tested under laboratory conditions at recommended field rates. Immature stages of the parasitoid were exposed to materi...

The microbial diversity of water kefir, made from a mixture of water, dried figs, a slice of lemon and sucrose was studied. The microbial consortia residing in the granules of three water kefirs of different origins were analyzed. A collection of 453 bacterial isolates was obtained on different selective/differential media. Bacterial isolates were grouped with randomly amplified polymorphic DNA...

The evolutionary maintenance of sex is one of the big unresolved puzzles in biology. All else being equal, all-female asexual populations should enjoy a two-fold reproductive advantage over sexual relatives consisting of male and female individuals. However, the "all else being equal" assumption rarely holds in real organisms because asexuality tends to be confounded with altered genomic consti...

Six acetic acid bacterial isolates, obtained during a study of the microbial diversity of spontaneous fermentations of Ghanaian cocoa beans, were subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. (GTG)(5)-PCR fingerprinting grouped the isolates together, but they could not be identified using this method. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences allocated the isolates to the genus Acetob...

abstract competition is a phenomenon that influences the size, structure and stability of insect communities, particularly on solitary endoparasitoids species. although, competition normally incurs costs, it might be adaptive for the surviving individual. to determine which factors affect the patch use strategy of foragers under competition, the effect of previous experience with hosts already-...

Models of host-parasite coevolution predict pronounced genetic dynamics if resistance and infectivity are genotype-specific or associated with costs, and if selection is fueled by sufficient genetic variation. We addressed these assumptions in the black bean aphid, Aphis fabae, and its parasitoid Lysiphlebus fabarum. Parasitoid genotypes differed in infectivity and host clones exhibited huge va...

the aphidiine parasitoids (hym., braconidae) attacking the pest aphids on various pome and stone fruit trees in different parts of iranwere studied. a total of 13 species belonging to seven genera of aphid parasitoids were identified in association with 17 aphid species on 10 different species of fruit trees. sixty nine tritrophic associations were detected from the studied area of which 25 ass...