Applied Entomology - Science topic

These ants are closely related to Apis cerana bees in South India.

I am currently involved in research for controlling weevils in stored wheat using different essential oils.

What could be the best concentration (microlitres per litre of air) of essential oils for comparison?

We wish to test all the oils at one fixed concentration. We are trying to shortlist a few effective essential oils and test them out at different concentrations.

Is it a good idea?

It's known that phytates are a P storage in plants, in particular seeds. Plants produce enzymes to release P upon need. Also ruminants can digest phytates thanks to their gut microbiome. However, for many animals phytic acid is an antinutrient because it binds nutrients in cationic form (Ca2+, Mg2+ etc.). Insect have proven able to digest a wide variety of substrates thanks to their gut microbiome. I found mentions of phytates in insect-based products, but it wasn't addressed whether insects can digest them. Do you know if any experiment proved they can digest phytates?

Fig attached.

This insect was found damaging shoots of Araucaria angustifolia in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. There was a population of this insect, as in the attached images, and the attacked shoot died months later.

I ask for the help of specialists in hemiptera to identify this insect pest, as no record was found in the literature about this order associated with damage to Araucaria angustifolia.

Other than the dead heart?

Hi everybody,

we are using circular pitfall traps (regular yogurt cups) since many years, and unfortunately, sometimes we encounter mice and lizards as by-catch in our samples.

These animals fall in the pitfall traps, are not able to climb out of it and drown...

Researches (e.g. see link attached) and personal reflections resulted in the following possible easy-to-install preventive measures:

1) covering the pitfall traps with a thin, wide-meshed iron grid, so it is too thin to "grab and climb" for invertebrate, but slippery enough for insects and spiders

2) using funnels with a slippery surface, so small vertebrata can't enter, while insects can fall into it

I personally like more solution 1, but I wanted to ask you to share your experience :-)

We aim mostly on spiders, centipedes, millipedes, beetles and other surface insects.

Thank you and greetings,

Michael

Thyrinteina arnobia (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) is the major defoliator of eucalyptus plants in Brasil in the last 50 years. 

Since them, no parasitoid had been recorded for eggs of this pest in the field. In te lab we demonstrated that some kind of substance on the surface of these eggs protect them.    

In 2017, we a found a parasitoid in eggs of Thyrinteina arnobia (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) in the field.

I would like to know who can identify this parasitoid. The quality of the photo is very poor but I can take better ones if necessary.

Best regards,

José Cola Zanuncio

Looking to id below beetles, Photographs attached.. Expert comments would be appriciated

Location: Bhaderwah, J & K, India

1. Image 1949- Which Cicada Species ?

2. Image 1663- Is it june beetle ?

3. Image 1644- Have no Idea for this one

4. Image 1919- is it dung beetle ?

The objective is to (1) determine the distribution and limits of a population in a given area, (2) to determine all species present in the area, (3) to determine the relative abundance (apparent density) of each species present in time and space. I would be grateful for your input on challanges and solutions for these tasks... i.e. what are the requirements for a baseline-survey etc.

(Landscape scale would be approx. 900 ha or more.)

I focus my research on Wasps in Greece.

Dear RG friends,

I am providing a complete H. armigera diet for larvae and maintaining the eggs in the growth chamber as well as in-room conditions. But since three months, eggs laid from the moths are not at all hatching. Could anyone tell the reason?

Thanking you.

I looking for live specimes Ctenolepisma longicaudata. I need live specimes, can someone breeding?

I came out to realize that a person who is enlisted as an author of some publications that I am the REAL AUTHOR, is marked instead of me. How do I change that?

Example:

Standardized sampling plan for Aphis gossypii based on the cotton cultivar, plant phenology and crop size

Neonicotinoid seed dressings have caused concern world-wide is reported in the 2017 published articel here in 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318129140_Country-specific_effects_of_neonicotinoid_pesticides_on_honey_bees_and_wild_bees

I am interested to know if seed dressings  with neonicotinoid is really forbidden. A) in which crops and

B) in which countries especially in USA.

Who has a survey what is going on?

Thanks.

If you've worked on islands, especially islands that have never been connected to continents, you've probably noticed that new construction projects often lead to an increase of invasive species in the area. As a scientist, what measures can you suggest to mitigate increases in invasive species abundance in recently disturbed habitats? I'm thinking especially about terrestrial invertebrates (I work mostly on ants and land snails), but it would be interesting to hear people's thoughts who work on different systems as well. If you have any references that you think would be relevant, I'd love to see them! Thanks!

One of my friends from Germany was curious to know if there are similar keys like those published by the Royal Entomological Society and other entomological groups in Australia. The only ones I know are usually targeted to a specific family and published in the form of individual research publications.

Are there any extensive and reliable keys for the different orders of Insects?

I can imagine that given the rich biodiversity in India in comparison to Europe it is very difficult to make keys like those which can pin point to the species level ID. However, if you know any then please list them here.

Thanks.

Male squash bees choose to sleep/rest in pumpkin/squash flowers.  Perhaps the microclimate within wilting flowers provides temperature cues to male squash bees that make the flowers attractive and cause the male bees to become more sedate.

The insect was sighted in Mbarara - Uganda (Tropical Climate).

Coordinates of region sighted: 0.6072° S, 30.6545° E.

Feeding: The insect seems to be a pest preferring spicy vegetables and plants such as Rosemary (Salvia Rosmarinus), Spinach (Spinacia oleracea), Vegetable-Dodo (amaranth), & mint species.

Observable traits (see photographs attached): 3 pairs of Legs, a pair of short antennae (2 – 5 mm), no pronounced wing growth, and exo-skelton or outer cuticle soft to the touch.

During last months I've been searching for Leptanilla specimens at Madrid, Spain. Leptanillinae are minute, blind subterranean ants rare to find and placed in a basal position in the phylogenetic tree of the Formicidae. I excavated a small area of 40 square meters and used Berlese methods to extract the specimens from the soil. I collected 3 queens, 1 larvae and 535 workers, probably corresponding to 3 species (one of them Leptanilla charonea, and the others pending of identification, without precluding new sp). In a pool placed 50 meters away from the excavation area I collected 370 undescribed males corresponding to 4 (maybe 5) species.

I am seeking the collaboration of experts in order to:

1) Identify and describe the specimens

2) Make DNA analysis to associate males with workers (a special problem not solved in Leptanillinae, currently with two parallel taxonomies, one of males and another of workers and queens).

A brief account of the excavation at Madrid, and some observations on the fligth of Leptanilla males, can be found in these entries of my blog:

Could you please replace "Cover Image" by the title of our article published in

Hi!

I want to help a friend with his bioassays on flies with LED lights. He is using commercial LED lights which come with specifications on nanometers (nm) and intensity of light. However since this is a serious scientific project, I think we cannot just take the company's word for it.

I have read about such equipment as a radiophotometer or something to that effect, but we do not have such a specific machine in the lab. I believe perhaps a more common machine such as a spectrophotometer should be capable of giving as a fair measure of these parameters as a reference?

Please any suggestions (please minding I am a biologist with limited engineering or physics jargon) would be extremely helpful. Many thanks in advance.

Do any one own the mantis of Eremiaphilidae, Chaeteessidae and Mantoididae?

If you have those mantis, would you like to cooperate some experiments?

I want to sequenc those mitochondrial genomes to discuss the evolution of Mantodea.

please contact me.

Dear Collegues,

Are you interested in Medical and Veterinary Entomology as well as Global Health?

An Entomology Summer School, entitled “Hands on’ Course on Arthropods of Medical and Veterinary Significance: A global perspective, from theory to practice”, will be held from the 26th till the 30th of August 2019 at the National Vet School of Toulouse (ENVT), France.

Please find the complete programme leaflet attached to this message.

The course will encompass topics such as arthropod-borne diseases, resistance in arthropod populations, control tools, principles of laboratory rearing and morphological identification of arthropods of medical and veterinary importance (i.e. mosquitoes, flies, sand flies, fleas, ticks, mites, etc.).

The course targets entomologists, postgraduate students in this field, , post-doctoral scientists ACVM and EVPC residents, pest control professionals and the like.

Applications to attend will be accepted until the 31st of March.

See you in Toulouse?!

I am trying to analyse a data set with a pseudoreplication problem and would be grateful if someone could give me some guidelines on the best way to deal with it.

We have a set of subjects exposed to crossed treatments `Temperature` and `Light`, consisting of 4 and 5 levels, respectively (total of 20 conditions). In each condition, we monitored every individual daily for a given duration, looking for an irreversible change of their status (“inactive” -> “active” in our example). This is similar to survival data (“alive” to “dead”), so we thought Kaplan-Meier representations and Log-rank tests would be appropriate in our case.

However, we have faced unexpected issues during the experiment and had to optimize space in the climatic chambers, which caused a mix-up in the original plan: the 20 conditions are not replicated. Each of the 20 conditions corresponds to a separate box containing several individuals, but there is only one box per condition (20 boxes total). The conditions of `Temperature` and `Light` in each crossed condition were controlled continuously and confirmed to be reliable (with limited to no biases due to laboratory conditions).

To our knowledge, and from what we know of the study system, the status of individuals does not depend on the status of surrounding ones, and they are likely independent. However we have only one pool of individuals in each condition, with a ratio between “inactive” and “active” changing over time. We are not sure that statistical analyses for survival can be used without several groups of individuals per condition. Are there any workarounds for this situation? Alternatively, can we calculate the average duration until status change on all individuals in each box, and use that with tests for comparisons of means? If yes, how should we deal with individuals that did not change status during the monitoring period?

I can give example data if required, though the issue is more about whether this pseudoreplication can be circumvented with a different approach, at the cost of statistical power.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

I am interested in documented cases where defoliation by European giypsy moth (Lymantria dispar dispar) has led to die-back of oak on larger area (preferrably Europe). There is an on-going debate whether weakened oak forests need help by combating mass infestations of gipsy moth to avoid complete defoliation. Often a combination of different stress factors with the relatively late defoliation by gipsy moth may lead to death of individual oaks the followong year because necessary resources to develop new leaves are depleted. Forest owners fear the loss of old oaks on larger scale in extreme years like 2018 and argue for combating caterpillars of gipsy moth which may also affect non-target organisms. But are these fears reasonable? How big is the impact of defoliation on oak or other tree species?

I am looking into the assemblages of Silphidae between different habitats and within each habitat as well.

I am looking to collect adult Ceratopogonidae in SE Australia, targeting species with aquatic larvae. Can anyone suggest good trapping methods?  I know people used malaise traps before. Would you use them overnight or during the day?

An alternative wihch can be dissolved easily in order (with citrus oil our other safety product) to study trapped insects in the lab. I'm looking for a product which can be brushed on plastic.Thanks.

Applied entomology, Research work, PhD project

On egg stage - few days before hatching.

Visual differences in zoom, size, color, structure, weight and so on.

Do you have any ideas about automating this process?

On larva or adult stages. Do you have any ideas about automating this process?

Do you have some thoughts about automation of process?

Smth like: 'Insects as Sustainable Food Ingredients ' https://bit.ly/2Kacfdc

I found these insect pests on the Sal (Shorea robusta) trees. I found these trees were dying due to an unknown pest. I found these two pest only on the affected trees. These does not seem to be Sal borers are they? Can anybody identify these pests for me please?

Thanks in advance

During my field studies of water- and saproxylic- Coleoptera of Serbia I regularly use some non selective methods for attracting and collecting beetles (light traps, baited traps, pitfall traps…). Usually I separate all beetles from samples, including  the representatives of families that I am not interested. The separated material I conserve and pack; mainly in paper cylinders but also in 70% alcohol. Over time, a large number of individuals and species (Carabidae, Staphylinidae, Aphodidae etc…) were accumulated.  I am ready to provide this material to interested researches for further study. In return, I am not asking for anything. Only the list of identified species for my database.

Wind turbines pose a threat to bees.

Ogloblin, A.A., 1965. Los generos nuevos de la familia Diapriidae (Ambositrinae, Hymenoptera). - Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina 27: 107-116.

I found this creature on a goldenrod plant.  From looking at treehoppers and nymphs in Bugguide, I didn't find anything like this, but imagine it is the nymph of some kind of treehopper.  Can anyone give me some clues (or an ID) as to what it is.  It was found in Albion, Michigan on June 15, 2017.  Thank you very much!

In the context of disease vectoring research, we wonder if this insect could be relevant. 

Kim, J. H., Kim, Y. H., Lee, G. S., Gho, H. G., & Han, M. W. (2003). Biological Characteristics and Mass Rearing System fro Cadra cautella (Walker) as a Substitute Diet fro Natural Enemies. Korean Journal of Applied Entomology.

I collected many sample of scolytid which intercepted from the imported tropical Africa log, but I cannot identify some of them besides of Xyleborus sp. Some samples belong to the Hylesinini tribe is most difficult to identify. 

Dear delegates I wish to get some information on rearing techniques of rice yellow stem borer. I started doing the same on natural host. But i face difficult and also feel cumbersome in doing mass culture. In this regard if anyone is having idea on artificial rearing techniques kindly help me.

Also if anyone having idea on best method to mass rear rice yellow stem borer kindly give me your valuable inputs.

With sincere regards

M. Annamalai

Hello students,

Are you interested in doing an internship or master's research on sensory profiling of insect based feed ingredients? At Protix (Dongen, Netherlands), we have an position that may interest you.

Check the link below:

Regards,

Aman Paul

I found it on a wasp (Rhynchium Oculatum).

Lot of Macrolophus this year on Bactrocera oleae in south France.

These are couple of grasshoppers ?

Investigating mechanics of the mandible and mouthparts as model for wood-cutting and processing strategy. Video of the organism would also be helpful.

Hi all,

I studied Monochamus saltuarius, a major insect vector of pine wood nematode, in Korean White Pine forests using Mark-Release-Recapture based on pheromone traps. 

However, their recapture rate is very low about 2~3% during study periods, i.e., 4~6 individuals were only recaptured (total marked and released individuals were about 168~243 individuals).

Thus, in each session, only 1 beetle or no beetles were recaptured (My experiments were conducted 11 occasions).

In this case, can I analyze population size of M. saltuarius using estimation methods, such as Jolly-Seber model?

Thanks.

I need information about Chinavia musiva (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), like biology, hosts and importance for  crops. Thanks

Dear all,

We are planning to study plant volatiles in crop plants with and without aphid infestation in the field. My questions are:

(1) Which headspace sampling setup would you recommend?

(2) Which material should be used to capture the volatiles (e.g. charcoal filter)?

(3) At which temperature should we store the samples (-20 or -80°C)?

Thank you very much!

Christoph

We found this yellow eggs on Mango leaf. It was found with larva of cabbage butterfly. when it was reared under rearing box, we found some parasitoid emerging out from this egg. And next time  when we reared the larva of cabbage butterfly solely in a rearing box, we found that egg automatically on the box the next day(sorry for not having that image!!!) and after few days same thing emerged.. How could that be possible??? Please suggest..

After rearing insects (Lepidoptera), all the mating couples were not able to disrupt copulation. They stay then still they die.

Can someone provide me papers or links for such phenomenon?

Thanks

My corn plot is suffering from insect infestation. I guess (not sure), it is fall armyworm infestation in corn. At this stage crop is around 5 feet tall. Any suggestion regarding use of proper insecticide will be appreciated.

Looking for relatively inexpensive source for coating Lindgrin funnel traps.

Wax worms, the larvae forms of moths such as Lesser wax moth (Achroia grisella), Greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella), and Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella), were recently discovered to be plastic-eaters. They are called wax worms because they are known to ingest beeswax. It was found that beeswax and polyethylene, that is present in plastic bags, plastic bottles, etc. have the same chemical composition. 

I am Ph.D. Scholar working on biology of little millet shoot fly (Atherigona sp.). I need taxonomic keys for genus Atherigona for species level characters

Glass is inert, can be cleaned with solvents and heat, so it can be reused. But plastic petri-dishes, vials, centrifuge tubes are omnipresent in laboratories, are disposable and can easily be modified. Of course one cannot use an aceton solution on polystyrene dishes or vials, but what are the disadvantages of coating plastic surfaces with insecticides for single use? 

Larvae of lepidopterans have been known to cease feeding and leave the host plant once after they finish feeding. After this they pupate on suitable sites. How do we determine if a certain larva is about to enter wandering phase. Some times pupation occurs on plant surfaces, making it difficult to determine wandering stage. Are there any guidelines?

I consider breeding mosquitoes of this genus difficult. I wonder if anyone is succeeding in raising. Another advice are welcome, such as type of food, place for oviposition, development time...

i studied mechanism of resistance in sand flies in laboratory. I asked that we must separated male from female  in selection before expose with insecticide.

I would like to collect hemolymph (at least 10 microlitres) from worker bumblebees in the field. I tried the protocol by Borsuk et al. 2017 (Borsuk G, Ptaszyńska AA, Olszewski K, Domaciuk M, Krutmuang P, Paleolog J (2017) A New Method for Quick and Easy Hemolymph Collection from Apidae Adults. PLoS ONE 12(1):e0170487. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170487): I captured a bumblebee with a hand net, blocked the bee on the edge of a polystyrene piece with my thumb, removed one antenna (then the other to be sure) with tweezers, gently pressed the bee’s abdomen to increase hemolymph pressure… and not a drop came out!

I also tried to collect hemolymph by puncturing the cuticle with a capillary (between the head/ thorax or between the second and third tergites of the abdomen [side sting]), but I could find only small amounts of hemolymph and there is a high risk of contamination (probably connected to a prolonged drought?).

Has anybody tried the method conceived by Borsuk and colleagues?

It is much less invasive than the microcaps method, so it would be better for my type of study.

Do you have any suggestions related to the best method to collect hemolymph from wild bumblebees in field conditions?

Do pheromones and aromas released by conspecific eggs, frass and larval food influence oviposition behavior of Idiophlebotomus padillarum more than the presence of Leishmania protist?

If so, then an effective monitoring and control strategy for leishmaniasis, specifically traps baited with pheromones, infusions and insecticides, can be established. 

My workshop's external siding seems to attract various kinds of things that do at least some of their growing inside a case of twigs, stones, or other junk.  Some of them look like fine felt.  Yesterday one of the cases was abandoned but not too far from where it had been, I saw a creature that was about the color (orange) as the occupant of the case.  It looked like a big ant but with interesting patterns in its wings. I snapped picture after picture (It was running around).  When I was cropping them, I saw that it seemed to have a pair of flies or wasps probably mating underneath its wings.  I wonder if this is a case of parasitoid flies or wasps whose female will lay her eggs in the abdomen of the host.  Anything you can tell me will be so helpful!  The creature was about a 10 mm in length....Much larger than the ~6 mm case.

I am trying to rear freshwater Ceratopogonidae larvae to associate them with adult forms. I have found only a handful of references mostly related to Culicoides sp.  Any extra information on lab conditions like oxygen requirements and diet would be valuable.

Stages of development (nymphs, adults, eggs, ...) with accumulated day degrees

I want to be able to separate the sexes into different vials. Is it possible to differentiate between the sexes at an immature stage?

it doesn't work with me in the case of Parlatoria blanchardi (date palm scale)

Galanthamine hydrobromide is a good compound for positive control, but it is very expensive, which other compounds can be used as positive assay against the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum?

in many papers DEET is used as repellent, could be used also as insecticide?

please provide me a reference

There were no traces of egg damage and beetles were reared in artificial diet.

To start beauveria insects bioassay which insects I may select to get clear data? And also advice me the artificial culture techniques of that insects.

Regards

Shuvrah