Science topic

Diptera - Science topic

An order of the class Insecta. Wings, when present, number two and distinguish Diptera from other so-called flies, while the halteres, or reduced hindwings, separate Diptera from other insects with one pair of wings. The order includes the families Calliphoridae, Oestridae, Phoridae, SARCOPHAGIDAE, Scatophagidae, Sciaridae, Simuliidae, Tabanidae, Therevidae, Trypetidae, Ceratopogonidae; Chirnomidae; Culicidae; Drosophilidae; Glossinidae; Muscidae; Tephriridae; and Psychodidae. The larval form of Diptera species are called maggots (see larva).
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If we are being encouraged to share our publications here, it is ridiculous to not be able to communicate. That flies in the face of what you are trying to do here (or at least what you used to prioritize). How on earth is somebody supposed to even guess who they should be "following", unless they are allowed to communicate. If I receive a publication from somebody, I should be allowed to say "thank you" whether I know them yet or not, and I should be allowed to say thanks if somebody is interested in my work as well. I should also be allowed to make more specific requests and comments than to simply send a generic request to see a publication. Case in point, often there is supplementary information attached to publications which does NOT appear here at ResearchGate, and which must be specifically requested. If we can't specify what we want to see, it's pretty hard to share it. To receive a notification saying that I can't even say thank you is a slap in the face too.
And, lots of people choose not to "follow" everyone, because they don't want their emails to be clogged with useless notifications (which may or may not be the case here at ResearchGate - I admittedly don't know the reality in this case - however, this is the assumption that is made by most people relating to "following").
I don't know what the motivation or reason is for this change in your policies, but it's not appreciated by this author and researcher.
David J. Ferguson
Albuquerque, New Mexico
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I erroneously uploaded a publication which should not be publicly available. How do I take it down?
The paper is Radosevic et al., 2024, Lessons from long-term research: Diptera species turnover and dominance shifts with respect to climate-driven changes.
Thank you.
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I am seeking experts insights to contend against fruitfly infestation in cucurbits! It poses a significant threats to cucurbits crops impacting production and quality. Let's exchange idea and experience for sustainable production.
#fruitflyManagemet#cucurbitscrop#researchdiscussion.
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fruitfly infestation in cucurbits
Fruitfly infestation in cucurbits controlled by an integrated approache, physical, chemical and biological control, early sowing of cucurbit is another way that reduces Fruitfly infestation in cucurbits, chemical control measure is most effective measure to control fruitfly infestation in cucurbits, and also use some flower like merigold is also seen that to reducefruitfly infestation in cucurbits, Integrated Pest Management is also best aprroache to control fruitfly infestation in cucurbits.only using chemical controls when necessary, and promoting a balanced ecosystem maximize the management program's efficacy while minimizing pesticide reliance.
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Hi there, researchgaters...
I am trying to find descriptions of the genitalia of Hermetia illucens, the black soldier fly (Stratiomyidae), but no luck.
I identified a couple papers that seem to contain this information:
  • Iide, P. & Mileti, D.I.C. (1976) Estudos Morfológicos sobre Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758) (Diptera, Stratiomyidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia, 36 (4), 923–935.
  • McCallan E. 1974. Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), a cosmopolitan American species long established in Australia and New Zealand. Entomol. Mo. Mag. 109: 232–234.
If anyone out there has PDF of these or any other paper containing photos or images of the genitalia of this species, I will be most grateful to get a copy!
Thanks in advance.
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Hi Pierre-Olivier,
You may find interesting descriptions here :
Munsch-Masset, Labrousse, Beauregard and Bressac - 2022 - The reproductive tract of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) is highly differentiated and suggests adaptation to sexual selection : DOI: 10.1111/eea.13358.
If you need more about it i may present you to Christophe Bressac at IRBI.
Have a nice day!
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Garret, 2020 used traps of blue, yellow, and white colors for sampling and collected several specimens.
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I think the yellow one is better.
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Is there a method to plot flower color reflectance spectrum on a butterfly visual system (over six photo-receptors),like what was usually done to bees (a hexagon) and flies (a square)?
The visual system in R package pavo does not have in-built butterfly visual system. The manual showed how to construct mantis shrimp (with ten photo-receptors) visual system by ourselves, but it seems impossible to use the constructed visual system into the analysis.
(usually the system is used by the code "visual=apis" for bees, "visual=musca" for flies, etc.)
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I need to increase egg laying in BSF brooding cage and increase their mating frequency.
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You might consider looking for commercially available products containing the pheromone known as "methyl (2E,4Z)-decadienoate." This pheromone is known to attract female black soldier flies and could help increase egg laying in your breeding setup. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions for proper usage. (Reference online)
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Hello,
It is important to choose the best fly divers (source of chitin) at least qualitatively.
Thanks
Gedvidas
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To measure the mechanical properties of flies from divers, you can employ various experimental techniques. Here are a few methods commonly used to assess the mechanical properties of biological materials, such as chitin:
  1. Tensile Testing: This method involves applying a controlled tension force to a small section of the fly's exoskeleton (composed of chitin) until it breaks. Tensile testing measures properties like tensile strength, elongation at break, and Young's modulus.
  2. Nanoindentation: Nanoindentation is a technique that uses a sharp probe to apply a controlled load and measure the resulting indentation depth on the fly's exoskeleton. This method provides information about hardness, elastic modulus, and other surface mechanical properties.
  3. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM): AFM can be used to examine the surface topography and mechanical properties of flies' exoskeletons at the nanoscale. It measures forces between the AFM probe and the sample surface, allowing the determination of properties such as stiffness, adhesion, and deformation behavior.
  4. Microhardness Testing: This technique involves applying a small, localized force to the fly's exoskeleton using a hardness tester. Microhardness testing measures the hardness of the material, which relates to its resistance to deformation.
  5. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM): SEM can provide detailed images of the fly's exoskeleton, allowing for qualitative analysis of its structure and morphology. Although it does not directly measure mechanical properties, it can help assess the quality and integrity of the chitin-based material.
When choosing fly divers as a source of chitin, qualitative assessment can involve visual inspection, comparing physical characteristics such as size, color, and texture. You may also consider the environmental conditions where the flies were reared, as this can influence the properties of their exoskeletons. Additionally, obtaining flies from reliable and well-established sources or suppliers can increase the chances of obtaining high-quality chitin for qualitative purposes.
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Instinct responsive behaviors are very stable and can last for hundreds of generations. For example in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) flies that were kept in a vivarium for 80 years and never been exposed to a predator (i . e. Wasps) exhibit special reaction in terms of egg laying capacity.
How this kind of behavior exists for many many generations in lab-grown animals?
I will be glad if you can share your thoughts with me.
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Hello,
Of course that genes are involved in behaviour processes and in the regulation of these processes. If you are interested to find which genes are involved in a particular process (i.e egg laying behaviour) you should use the gene ontology database.
Take a look at the link below (i hope is still available) to see all known genes of D.melanogaster involved in the egg laying behaviour.
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Hello, I am a student in analytical chemistry, I am supposed to prepare samples, quality control, and calibration serial dilution for a forensic project which is working on larvae and flies (for quantification of benzodiazpines).
would you please correct what I wrote here even in terms of the specific volume and concentration?
Sample prep:
Collected sample with matrix is spiked with target analytes and RS (recovery standard)
Sample is extracted (prepared for analysis)
IS (internal standard is spiked before the analysis
Cal prep:
Calibration standards (mixture of target analytes and RS) are prepared with serial dilution
IS is added before the analysis
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I appreciate your response,
you wrote " Prepare a series of quality control samples by spiking known amounts of the target analytes and RS into a matrix. Extract the QC samples to prepare them for analysis"
I have some questions:
1) It seems the QC sample preparation is the same with the sample preparation, what is the difference exactly?
2) what do you mean by "series of QC samples" ?
my advisor told me the feature of QC samples is the fact that we can consider their recovery as 100%,, I thought it means we have to do the same process like the sample preparation BUT add the RS after the extraction process (because in this way we know that the QC recovery is 100%)
I dont know, maybe I am wrong. I am working with HPLC-ESI-mass
another question, you wrote I need to spike the RS into the calibration serial dilution too, is there any extraction process for calibration serial dilution?
waiting for your response, Zeinab.
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Why is chaetotaxy (of Head and Thorax) given so much importance in taxonomy of flies? Does it bear any evolutionary significance?
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James Des Lauriers, Thank you!
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In your opinion, what is the best sampling method for flies of the bombyliidae family?
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Dear Reza
The best method is direct sweeping on the ground for Bombyliidae and for Mythicomyiidae malaise and pan traps works well.
All the best
Babak
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These brown blow flies were collected on a citrus farm in Mooinooi, North West province, South Africa (March 2022). We suspect it may be Cordylobia anthropophaga (the mango fly).
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Muscidae, showing affinities with Phaonia
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I've been looking for a species or genera key to identify bombyliidae specimens from Minnesota, i know of at key for the eastern united states (http://www.hr-rna.com/RNA/Other%20insect%20pages/Bombylid%20key.htm#1%20split) and for east Canada (https://cjai.biologicalsurvey.ca/kme_06/key_gen.html#c2) but I'm not sure if either one is good for me to use. I've been using the key to the eastern united states and it seems to work better than the Canada one for my specimens but I'm not sure what the western limit of "eastern united states" is, the author of the key does not specify. The only other thing i can think of is to buy "Bee flies of the world" but that's from 1973 so it's probably outdated. Any help is appreciated.
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Early, in the spring it is easy to see some furry insects flying and hovering just above the ground. These are flies of the genus Bombylius, members of a large family of flies, Bombyliidae, known as bee flies. Bombylius flies are widely distributed in the northern hemisphere; they are found in North America as well as in Europe and Asia
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The stomach content belong to Lepomis gibossus also known by the pumpkimseed sunfish who lives in fresh water . So please I want to know the ID of the this diptera ( family, genus... ).
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It is not possible to accurately identify the family, genus, or species of a diptera (a group of insects including flies, mosquitoes, and midges) based on the stomach content of a Lepomis gibbosus (pumpkinseed sunfish). In order to accurately identify a diptera, it is necessary to examine the physical characteristics of the insect, such as its size, shape, color, and specific morphological features.
To identify a diptera, you will need to collect a specimen and observe it using a microscope or other specialized equipment. You can then compare the characteristics of the insect to those of known diptera species in order to determine its identity. Alternatively, you can consult a taxonomic reference or seek the assistance of a diptera expert who has the knowledge and expertise to identify the insect.
I hope this information is helpful! Let me know if you have any further questions.
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I am trying to determine the population structure of a dipteran insect. Most of the previous studies have performed the studies using SSRs. However I want to know if the same studies can be performed using ITS sequences. If so what are the expected differences that might arise?
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Yes, population structure analysis can be performed using internal transcribed spacers (ITS) instead of SSRs. ITS are regions of non-coding DNA between the 16S and 23S ribosomal RNA genes. They are commonly used in population genetics studies because they can be sequenced quickly and provide a good measure of genetic differentiation between populations.
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Hello;
I recently analyzed the video data of climbing assay in drosophila using Fiji. I used a valid plug-in for tracking flies. At the end of the analysis, Fiji converts the results to excel documents (.xls). I suppose to have sequentially decreasing data in the excel files, but I get a series of crazy numbers instead. Besides, some of the data (numbers) are changed to dates. Please find the attached file to have a look at.
When I try to analyse the videos on another computer (Imac), there is no problem with the excel files. I can get the proper results without mistakes. Something seems wrong with my computer (Mac) or program. Everything is updated. Has anybody had a similar problem before, or do you have any idea what's wrong with Fiji on my computer?
I appreciate your help.
Best,
Dilara
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Thank you for sharing your ideas. It is very annoying that Excel has uncorrected issues. I've tried hard to change something in Excel to get clear results. I suppose I have found the reason for my corrupted data.
My issue was much simpler than I thought. It was all about language settings! Seems funny; however, region-dependent date/time/number formatting changes my data because I use Excel in Turkish language and with its settings. What I did was change the decimal and thousand separators to the EN version. It worked!
I appreciate your help and your other suggestions. I am happy not to do analysis in R or other since I haven't used them before :)
Thank you for your time.
Best,
Dilara
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Hello everyone,
I'm an undergrad biology student from Denmark, and i work on a project with D. melanogaster. We're having a problem we can't figure out, and therefore i've created this account, hoping some of you have had the same experience with the CAFE and knows the reason.
We're feeding D. melanogaster with the Capillary Feeder Assay (CAFE) with 5 μL capillary tubes. Our problem is that after we've been feeding the flies for 24 hours or so, an air pocket starts to form in the bottom of the capillary tubes (green arrow, see attached picture), therefore making the liquid food inaccessible to the flies. The liquid food should "fall down" after the flies drinks from the capillary tubes, but instead this air pocket forms. This happens to at least 9/10 capillary tubes. The red ring (see attached picture) is how the capillary tubes should look like with liquid food and no air pocket in the bottom.
We're feeding them with 5 % sucrose and tap water in both 20 and 23 degrees Celsius.
Capillary tubes are 23 mm long and made of glass. Unknown inner or outer diameter. The capillary tubes we use: https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/DK/en/product/sigma/p1799
I hope the problem is clear and that i've provided all the necessary information
Christian
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Christian; Well, I'm baffled. Adding fluid at the top will probably form a bubble, but try it and see what happens. Jim Des Lauriers
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Other than the dead heart?
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The larvae attack the plant, especially the bases of the leaves, and burrow into them, which leads to yellowing of the plant, pallor and poor production. Severe infestation leads to permanent wilting, and the plant can be easily uprooted and an unpleasant odor appears as a result of rotting.
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I knocked in a fragment of about 1000 bp to the fly genome. In order to validate that the knock in worked, I designed primers roughly 250 bp upstream of the insert, and 250 bp downstream of the insert, expecting that any fly not containing the insert would show a 500 bp product and any fly with the insert would show a 1500 bp product, using the Pfu enzyme. However, when I run the PCR, I only get the expected 500 bp band on yw flies that didn't undergo the knockin at all, and no bands in my experimental flies. I tried doing a touchdown PCR, but that also came up blank.
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It might be worth designing internal ( inside the insert) primers and amplifying outerF-innerR and outerR to inner F and innerf-innerR to check that the insert is inserted somewhere even if it might not be where you expected
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I am trying to rear D. hydei on Carolina Instant Medium (in an incubator at 25C with 12:12 L:D). I have not been adding yeast. The flies are surviving but not thriving. I’m looking for recommendations to improve things.
Ultimately, I want to observe oviposition behavior. I’ve read females begin courting much earlier than males. At what age have others tested egg-laying? Males and females same age? How long to allow them to lay eggs? Since they re-mate often, should I keep the males in the oviposition chamber? With D. melanogaster, I use 4-day old females that have been kept continuously with males but I put only females in the oviposition chamber (overnight for ~15 hours). Wondering how I might need to modify this protocol for best results with hydei.
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Hello Andrea,
I am attaching my 2 publications for your help. you can see the methodology and can use this in the citation as well (as a gesture of thanks).
good day!
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Hello, can someone help me with an estimate of known species for Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera in these two territories? I have searched without much success, it seems as if all the papers I have reviewed shy away from offering a number of species.
Thanks in advance!
Jorge
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Dear Jorge, the following publications may be helpful:
1) Lepidoptera_Puerto Rico
Butterflies s. Ramos (1996)
2) Arthropda Hispaniola
see Perez-Gelabert (2020): Checklist, Bibliography and Quantitative Data of the Arthropods of Hispaniola
3) Insect taxonomical bibliography Puerto Rico - see file!
Wirh kind regards / Saludos
Juergen
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I made an RC plane for project as a beginner. While undergoing fligh test I found my plane flied vertical position (i.e. without stability )
Fan on upside and tail on down. What is the reason?
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hi.,
When airplanes appear to be landing sideways it is to keep the aircraft lined up with the runway centerline during their final approach. Depending on the wind strength, the airport's location, the type of aircraft, and the pilot's skill will dictate which technique they will use.
porpoising is usually caused by a tail-heavy condition. It is indeed a SA Micro Stik 26in wingspan..
The phugoid or long period motion is a characteristic oscillations of the aircraft after a small disturbance of the steady flight (ie. due to small horizontal control surface motion or the air gust). The airplane is traveling along the sinusoidal trajectory with small changes of the air speed and pitch angle.
Best wishes..
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I am trying to express a short RNA sequences in the nucleus in Drosophila. Are there any UAS-based expression vectors in flies that do not have PAS in the 3'? Or on the other hand, is it possible to just express a transcription termination sequence at the 3' of my transcript so that my transcript terminates before reaching the PAS? I don't want to have to mess with the vector backbone itself (removing PAS...etc.). I am quite new to molecular work regarding vectors, so if I am missing something important, under a misunderstanding of sorts, or if you have good suggestions, please let me know. Thank you!
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Talk with folks in your lab. Just because you want to do something doesn't mean it's possible or practical. Do what you know will work.
As my Ph.D advisor said "you can't rush quality".
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Dear colleagues, I am specialist form Chironomidae, but not much familiar with the midge larvae from the other families. I have one, strange to me, from spring in mountains from Kosovo. Would you help me with the identification? Maybe you could give me at least the family or maybe genus or species?
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Identification to species level is impossible as not all species have been thoroughly described in the larval stage. Recommend DNA sequencing if possible
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I have a dataset (fastq files) of 15 fastq flies uploaded on Galaxy bioinformatics portal. I deleted them some time back to free some space. Now I want to retrieve these files. I can see these files as deleted, but not able to restore or download them. Is there any way to get these files back on my portal.
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Sure! Note the
x shown, y deleted
stats displayed just beneath the history title? Clicking on the "y deleted" part will unhide the deleted datasets in your history bar. The ones you haven't purged yet should have an Undelete it link, which will do just what it says
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Dear colleagues,
I'm looking for articles where I can find tests of food attractants used to monitor fruit flies. I am not looking for pheromone-based attractants.
We have already performed a series of tests where we tried to have a glue trap (containing aroma dissolved in propylene glycol) and the raw materials from which the aroma was made were used next to them (eg grapes and grape aroma). Fruit flies almost always chose the raw material itself and they were not interested in the aroma in the glue. Even after removing the raw material itself, the glue trap with aroma did not attract them.
I will be happy for any of your knowledge and articles on the topic.
Thank you.
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Hi, Josef,
take an article about yeast.
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I found this insect in the digestive tract content of Hypoatherina temminckii (marine fish). The sampling location in seagrass waters of Karang Congkak Island, Kepulauan Seribu (Seribu Island), Indonesia. I can't identify the insect groups, I just suppose this is part of Diptera but have never seen marine (or semi-aquatic) insects in my sampling location.
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In the upper picture, in my opinion, a diptera from the family Syrphidae
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i have been working on fly of asilidea family i want to ask you how i can collect these insects specially from soil? and if there are more of them in places with herbaceous covering or not?
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You might float them separate from soil samples with a suitable sugar solution. In Florida we separated lovebug larvae that way 50 or 60 years ago. Unfortunately I forget the details; maybe this old citation would give you a lead:
Hetrick, L. (March 1970). "Biology of the 'love-bug', (Diptera: Bibionidae)"(PDF). Florida Entomologist. Entomological Society of Florida: 23–26. doi:10.2307/3493110. JSTOR 3493110. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
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I'm using Ctrax to autotrack multiple flies, the videos have a good quality but when I run fixerrors script I have a lot of errors. I tried to change many parameters but I always have lots of errors (2000 and more) Does anyone can help?
Thank you in advance
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Ctrax is an open source freely available, machine vision program for estimating the positions and orientations of many walking flies, maintaining their individual identities over long periods of time. It was designed to allow high throughput quantitative analysis of behavior in freely moving flieIf you get a general error message, try these steps:
Check your : Internet connection Proxy settings VPN connections Make sure:Your files have finished syncing in Backup and Sync Restart: Drive for desktop Your computer
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We are looking for a suction tool/machine that would allow us to automatically count small insects (aphids, fruit flies) as they are sucked into a tube or container. It could be a counting with a laser cell, for example, or any other method.
To be clear: we would like to count aphids on infested plants, and one easy solution would be to use a suction/vacuum device (active sampling) so the insects would be counted as they are sucked into the device.
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Insect pest monitoring is typically performed in agriculture and forestry to assess the pest status in given locations (i.e., greenhouse, field, orchard/vineyard, forest) by collecting information about the target pest presence, abundance, and distribution. Within the integrated pest management programs in agriculture, the final goal of insect pest monitoring is to provide growers with a practical decision-making tool. Typically, an automatic trap equipped with a camera involves two modules: the hardware and the software. The hardware is typically composed of the trap structure containing the bait and retaining the trapped insects, an electronic box including the camera, a data transmission modem, a battery, and eventually an external power supply, such as a solar panel. The software is composed of the online repository in which the capture data pictures are stored and accessed plus optional image analysis algorithms to automatically identify and count the captures. Trap design may vary according to the target pest to be monitored, as detailed in this section.
Some to be considered: An automatic trap prototype modifying a commercial trap (Pomotrap®, currently Carpo® by Isagro S.p.A., Milan, Italy) with data acquisition and data transfer systems to monitor the codling moth Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in apple orchards;
‘Jackson trap’ was equipped with a camera device for the automatic monitoring of the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae)
Bucket traps are typically adopted to monitor fruit flies where a camera-based electronic McPhail trap was used to monitor by remote the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae Gmelin (Diptera: Tephritidae).
Agriculture operators are now facing the ‘Big Data Analysis’ prospect: organize, aggregate and interpret the massive sample size of available digital data with sophisticated algorithms to drive decisions based on data interpretation, prediction, and inference potentially on a global scale.
Camera-based insect monitoring can be exploited not only for pest monitoring but also for early detection and survey, allowing a prompt reaction especially for invasive species. There is a potential perspective to interconnect traps among sites and create a network at local, regional, country, continental, and global scales.
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Do not lose focus trying to kill the flies, rather work hard to get rid of what's attracting the flies - is this the right problem-solving philosophy/mindset for successful research? How else can a research approach the fly-source problem?
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We are in a time when philosophy does not raise question about break baking alone but bakes bread. Heuristic and holistic approach requires dealing with the causes rather than trying to eliminate the effect.
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Which chemical is best for preservation during the time of collection and after some months I need to identify them.
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You can preserve in 70% ethanol and kept in freezer. This would enable the specimens to last longer without damaging the tissues.
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Tachinidae flies are difficult to identification , so , I need classification key to the species which parasitoid on Lepidoptera>
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Cerretti, Tschorsnig, Lopresti, Di Giovanni. (2012). MOSCHweb — a matrix-based interactive key to the genera of the Palaearctic Tachinidae (Insecta, Diptera). ZooKeys 205: 5–18. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.205.3409. Interactive key to the genera of the Palaearctic Tachinidae (Insecta: Diptera).
Tschorsnig, H. -P. , Herting, B., Raper, C. M., Rayner, R. 2002. The Tachinids (Diptera: Tachinidae) of Central Europe: Identification Keys for the Species and Data on Distribution. English Translation by Chris Rapper. If you write Chris Rapper he can send you the key. There you can find the known hosts of most of the species.
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I'm trying to use this DAC technology in the aviation industry. Can anyone suggest some ideas on how to do so? I too have some ideas and am willing to work on them.
My work will be designing a cost-efficient module that can be used for carbon capture. If you have seen a CC plant, there are large fans that suck the air, I thought of eliminating that energy of running that motor. As the plane already flies through a lot of air in its journey, we can almost make the plane carbon neutral.
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Dear Mr Nagpal,
Though my specialization is Avionics so I cannot comment on the technicalities but recently I came across an article where the concept is to use DAC to provide energy for the aircraft by absorbing and converting atmospheric CO2 into fuel. If I remember correctly it was Aerion the company developing supersonic passenger aircraft. There are a number of aircraft that fly in the region of atmosphere where quantity of CO2 is sufficient. If you can keep the weight and size small enough UAVs can be a good host platform. Regards
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Carrion Ecology: What is the best way the statistically analyse the correlation of bacteria community data to volatile profiles and to fly community data across 3 time points using ordination techniques in R? I have data of carrion-associated bacteria (snout swabs, NGS) for timepoint 1,2,3 and cadaver volatiles (GC-MS data) for time points 1,2,3 together with blow fly, flesh fly and true fly abundance and species data for time points 2 and 3 derived from 75 stillborn piglet cadavers. Cadavers were exposed in differently managed forests in 3 study regions (75 sites). I want to correlate the bacteria matrices with volatile matrices and fly matrices to see if there is a temporal change of bacteria, volatiles and flies and want to look for indicator species. I want to use ordination methods not to loose species information. I read about coinerta analysis but I have more than one matrix to correlate with traits. Do you have any fancy idea how to analyse the data?
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Unfortunately not, but do you have an idea which statistics are useful?
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Please, delete Marco Bonelli from co-aouthorship of the paper Revision of Carexomyza Roháček with descriptions of three new Nearctic species (Diptera: Anthomyzidae) !
He has been generated as co-author without any my action. Terrible!
Sincerely,
Jindřich Roháček
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Do you know this co-author? If not then perhaps he claimed co-authorship when asked by researchgate
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Scientists have invented a panacea which may expand the life span of human being. A group of researchers of University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has revealed a report in this regard. Journal of Gerontology: Biological Science has published this report. The report shows that the new medicine Mifepristone may bring unprecedented success for the human being and other species. Applying this drug on the body of flies it has been found that the life span of female flies that interact with male flies has been increased. At that time their fertility decreased while their immunity has been increased. Researchers hope that same thing will happen in case of human being after applying this medicine upon them. If this endeavor becomes success, are the human beings going to live long or be immortal?
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Longevity and healthy aging can definitely be extended beyond current age boundaries and may reach the ancient biblical and mystical measures, if modern science will be applied in an ethical manner. Transhumanism is an interesting research topic; I do personally put no trust in such expectations; even economic singularity seems to be far away, given the current global health crisis. I do answer your question with a quote from F. Dostoievski: there is no morality without immortality.
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Hello everybody, I am not a specialist and I want test the effect of some substances on mosquitoes and flies but I have no idea how can I get them and how to keep them alive for treatment?
Thanks in advance
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It also depends on the mosquitoe's type. All these could actually be sorted out if you contact a medical entomologist or anyone working on mosquitoes.
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Identification keys for Tachinidae flies within the Oriental region
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Thanks Gaurav Singh for sharing the keys from Europe and US. the Europe one is comprehensive while the US one is helpful with characters in drawings.
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Hello,
I would like to visually identify and quantify the pollen morphotypes carried by insects which have been stored in 70% ethanol. The insects are Diptera (mainly Syrphids), and Hymenoptera (mainly wild bees, bumblebees and honeybees). To facilitate pollen identification, we have collected the anthers of all flowering plants species encountered on the studied sites, and also stored them in 70% ethanol.
Firstly, is it possible to visually identify pollen after it has remained for several months in alcohol, because I read about pollen hydration that could cause damage to the exine? If it is, what is the best way to collect the "free" pollen from ethanol and the pollen that remains on the insect's body? Then, is there a specific method for preparing pollen that has been stored in 70% ethanol for visual identification under the microscope?
Thank you very much for taking the time to read and answer!
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I think that the pollen should not change greatly morphologically. Try it should work.
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I understand that light is one of the strongest external cues to affect our clock system. I am curious about other possible factors that are less discussed. I am finding a great amount of literature of EMFs on insects such as fruit flies, but when it comes to human studies the results are always contradictory.
I would be open to any suggestions on researchers and the latest studies in the field.
Thank you,
Korey
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There ar edifferneces between species in the effects on electromagnetic fields on the secretion of melatonin. Our team showed that in rats at relatively high levels of exposure melatonin secretion declined whereas no effect could be shown in humans, whatever the duration of exposure, short or long..
See the several papers by B. Selmaoui and Y. Touitou on PubMed on the topic
All best
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Dear All
I have some Thaumaleidae larvae from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Using key of Disney (1999) I identified them as Thaumalea testacea and Thaumalea verralli. Disney lists in his key only T. verralli, T. testacea and T. truncata whereas Fauna Europaea give a checklist of few dozens of them for Europe. Are there any other keys for Thaumaleidae larvae which I could use for my material identification, and what is current list of taxa recorded from Bosnia and Herzegovina?
Thank you for any help..
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Does anyone know a fast and simple method (apart of using tweezers) to sample ectoparasites (especially bat flies, Nycteribiidae, but also mites and ticks) on small bats (15 g)? We release the bats after sampling.
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Following
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The hexagonal boron nitride powder synthesised via the tube furnace flies off from the crucible during the synthesis and gathers at the cooler end of the furnace.
Can somebody suggest a possible solution for the same as all my synthesised products are gathering at one end of the tube furnace
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Rightly suggested by Dr. PERVAIZ
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Does insect such as flies and mosquitoes transmit the COVID-19 virus as a mechanical transmission?
Virus transmission take place by insect legs, mouth parts and other body parts.
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Dear Mr. Riad!
According to the latest available knowledge, no - insects do not contribute to the transmission of COVID-19: YET. In the future as this virus mutates approximately every second week and as it spreads out dynamically around the world, the situation might change.
References:
1) M. Dicke et al. (2020). "Edible insects unlikely to contribute to transmission of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2" June 02, 2020 , Journal of Insect as Food and Feed, © Wageningen Academic Publishers 2020 Available at:
2) Baicheng, HUANG & Kegong TIAN. (2020). "Interspecies transmission and evolution of the emerging coronaviruses: perspectives from bat physiology and protein spatial structure", Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, 2020, Vol. 7, Issue 2, 218-226, Available at:
Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely
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When crossing grey body flies with normal wings, 25% of their progeny had a black body. Approximately 25% of all daughter individuals did not have fully developed wings. What traits dominate? What genotypes do parents have?
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Nice Dear James Des Lauriers
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Hi,
I am trying to do a 3 point bend test for a lattice structure. The beam is already latticed and is a nodal structure. The pins are discrete rigid shells.
3 interactions were created where the surface of the pins were made Master and the slave being a nodal set consisting of just the top most nodes of the latticed beam. This can be seen in the image. The friction defined is 0.2.
The simulation runs but in the animation, the beam flies out instead of bending. I have attached the video file here.
Any advice on improving this would be very helpful. Is there something missing in the interactions or the way I am defining it?
Thank you for your inputs!
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Basically, here's the problem:
I have 2 different morphological trait that are continuous(ish) variables that could, if necessary, be treated as categorical. I want to see if they co-occur significantly.
The issue is my supervisor wants me to take this and compare it to the phylogenetic tree of Syrphidae using "statistics". I... do not know how to do that?? There's so many papers on this topic, with so many different possible routes to take, but a lot of them seem unnecessarily convoluted and complicated. Where is a good place to start?
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Amanda,
What I would do, intuitively, is to do ancestral state reconstructions for the two traits, given the phylogeny, then collect the posterior trait values at each (ancestral) node for both traits, and then calculate their correlation. I have no idea if there are statistical caveats to this approach, but at least it's a starting point - and it's simple.
Thomas
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I am doing a research on fruit flies (Bactrocera zonata) and i have tried to rear it many times in a cage under laboratory conditions but i didn't get any egg and even there were no mating. The flies well lived for more than a month but without mating and eggs.
Please give me your suggestions and advises that help to induce mating and egg laying.
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James Des Lauriers Thank you very much for your respond
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Syrphidae:Diptera
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this may be useful, at least for any common genera you may have, if not for the individual species.
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We are currently planning to do experiments where we want to study differential gene expression in both tephritid fruit flies and fly symbionts at the same time. We are however a bit unsure about how to do the rRNA depletion step because several more commonly used universal depletion kits do not appear to be produced. We are aware that recently some new kits that can be applicable to this have been made such as Ribopools and Zymobiomics universal rRNA depletion kits, but given their recent arrival we are unsure about them. Are there people here who have experiences with these kits? In addition, we read in literature also about some alternative approaches: Terminator™ 5′-PhosphateDependent Exonuclease and DSN. We do not have much experience in transcriptomics at the moment though so we are curious about what others think about these approaches. I do know that DSN can also reduce very common mRNA transcripts but i thought that it might be an advantage in this case as this would lead to more symbiont transcripts being recovered.
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I see.
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I have become interested in potentially doing a small study on non-bee pollinators by looking at what pollen are present on their bodies. I am unsure whether or not this would be a useful contribution, since while there appear to be many studies on the role of non-bee pollinators, there doesn't seem to be many studies indicating the state of the literature.
That being said I did find this paper which identifies some gaps in the literature but it is now somewhat out of date and only focuses on flies and not other pollinators.
I would appreciate any insights into the state of the literature on non-bee pollinators and their contribution(s), as well as any interesting papers etc.
In particular is it known:
  • Which plants each pollinator is responsible for pollinating and in what proportions
  • Whether species labelled as pollinators actually pollinate or simply visit plants?
  • Are there any species in which it is contested whether or not they act as pollinators?
  • Are there any obvious gaps in the literature?
Thanks in advance! I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
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I studied avocado pollinators, bees and non-bees, in their native land Central America and out of America. I investigated the avocado visitors' behavior, pollen carrying and pollination effectiveness. There are more works like mine, studying non-bee pollinators of various plant species.
Please see in : Pollinators of Avocado Chapter, Full-text available, January 2002
  • 📷Manes Wysoki, 📷Michael A. van den Berg, 📷Gad Ish-Am, [...], 📷Geoff K. Waite.
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Does anyone has tips to maintain Bactrocera olea flies under lab conditions?
How to favor puparial emergence (temperature, D/L conditions, food...) and feed adults to keep them alive as long as possible...?
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With an atificial diet rich in protein:
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Hi,
I'm trying to understand the protocol to make the CRISPR mutant stock. I have transgenic Vasa cas 9 (X chromosome) and gRNA (2nd chromosme) flies. I start by crossing cas 9 males with gRNA female flies and then I'm lost. Can anyone help me out on how to go ahead and get a balanced stock?
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Thank yo so much Thomas Kidd and
Chne Jing
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Hello everyone.
A high rate of modifications in wing venation in a small population of a species X (Diptera: Tipoloidea) could be the result of low genetic elasticity? Would this fact support our hypothesis that it is a relict and isolated population?
I have added some Background and Facts, which could be useful.
Background: In a study in hypogeal environments we have found a species of cranefly that is apparently isolated (trapped) in the cave (outside the cave conditions are not suitable for survival). We think that it is an eutroglophile species, of which only this population of the cave has survived, losing the population of the external environment in the past.
Fact: We found anomalies in the wing venation of almost half of the specimens. Although the wing venation in the cranflies may be surprisingly prone to individual anomalies (including the addition of crossveins), I do not think it is sufficient to explain such a high rate of anomalies as those found.
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Is there any evidence that the flies use their wings at all? If not, the anomalies could be reflective of a lack of selection pressure for wing structural integrity.
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I ran an experiment to evaluate fly attraction to a number of bacterial cultures (n=50). Briefly what I did is: 20 male flies were exposed to two odour sources at a time-one containing a bacterial culture and other containing control; number of flies that showed attraction to the culture and control were counted after a certain time. The test was repeated 10 times for one bacterium. Similarly female flies attraction was also tested for the same bacterium. Thus for one bacterium I had 20 replicates in total (10 for males and 10 for females). Now, I want to analyse the data to evaluate which bacterium showed attraction at what extent and how they differ gender-wise. I am not certainly sure which statistical test will be suitable for this purpose. I was thinking about Kruskal-Wallis test but not sure if its the correct one. I am using SPSS. Could you please suggest which statistical test will be suitable to analyze this data set?
Thanks in advance.
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You could use the chi-square test. For one (each?) bacterium, the test was repeated 10 times; so, you could count the total number of flies who were attracted and not attracted, and this separately for male and female flies.
This could, for example, yield this crosstable (with the total counts in the cells):
----------Male----------Female
Yes--- 80--------------60
No-----20--------------40
In this example the chi-square is significant:
X-squared = 8.5952, df = 1, p-value = 0.00337
In this example the male flies were significantly more attracted than the females flies. With these residuals:
residuals male female yes 1.195 -1.195 no -1.826 1.826
See also the "jpeg" for these residuals.
I added the R script. You can run R code online:
For the chi-square using SPSS:
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The wound myiasis causing flies of animals are potential human myiasis agents. Monitoring the animal myiasis helps to more precisely identify the dominant and aggressive species in the province.
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No I dont. Veterinary people are in charge of animal health and do a good job.
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Dear all, we are now working evaluating the effect of a plan in a fly-diabetes type II model. This is the first time we are using this model, therefore, I would like to ask you: why are flies being fed since they are pupae? Is it more logical to feed them once they are adults? Thanks in advance for your help.
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I am guessing so that everything is kept as constant as possible. If you feed them once they are adults, it's easy for the timing to affect the result. But if there is always food around once they emerge, then that removes that variable.
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I am trying to amplify intronic region of miR-1017 from Drosophila genomic DNA. Have done this several times before with no issue. Currently I am screening flies for mutation and for the purpose I am trying to PCR amplify the region. But the same working conditions isn't working anymore. I have tried with fresh primers, different set of primers, proteinase K treatment of template. It works for few round and then I start getting blank gel picture only with the ladder.
Any suggestions on this?
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If the DNA can only be amplified for a few round, maybe you need to consider the possibility of contamination in the DNA. Check the quality of DNA (concentration and purity) and run it on gel to see the integrity.
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I am trying to find out how the mating staus (virgin or non-virgin) of female flies affect their response to heat stress i.e. an exposure to ~39 degrees. Does virgin females take longer to be knocked down as compared to the non-virgin females.
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Hello,
I have performed a TAG assay on adult male and female Drosophila,
however, I seem to end up with other values that that are reported in literature (40-50µg per mg fly).
My relative levels of TAG when I compare male and females have the expected fold increase in female flies.
I'm afraid I'm doing something wrong in my calculations.
Would someone be willing to share some data (that they are not using) just to check whether I'm doing something horrendously wrong?
Thanks in advance
Sofie
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Dear Yanjun Xu,
thank you for your answer. I indeed find similar levels with the color-coupled assay.
However I was using this paper for reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5752231/
Where they seem to find 100µg/mg female fly, which is more or less double (female flies weigh about 1 mg). I suppose the method of homogenization of the flies might play an important role in how much fat is released?
Thanks for your answer it is very helpfull
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I want to watch development of carnivorous larvae (diptera larvae) by giving a solid chemical that does not dissolve in water. How do I determine doses? how many meat do I need to put in for how many larvae? What should be the unit of doses (mg/g, mg/larvae)?
I would appreciate it if you help me design the experiment...
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No problem, thank you anyway :)
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Currently trying to identify bot fly larvae presence via PCR/sequencing, so looking for reliable primer sets.
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You can use COI gene primers sets, they perfectly suitable for speies identification. I think Jerry (5 -CCACATTTATTTTGATTTTTTGG-3 ) and Pat (5 - TCCAATGCACTAATCTGCCATATTA-3 ) primers set should work fine for you. More information you will find in these articles:
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I'm currently doing some work with molecular identification of flies using the COI region for my masters. All the flies came from the same location. These particular three flies were identified as Peckia (sarcodexia) lambens after Genbank search. Following alignment and tree building using reference sequences obtained from Genbank, two of the three flies showed 100 percent identity with each other (where as they showed slightly lower with the third fly). On the tree, they clustered more closely together on a sub branch on their own, whereas the third fly clustered with a reference sequence. I'm not really sure how to explain this. Any ideas?
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Sounds like a nice research project. Good luck with it.
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We are attempting to rear Phytomyza gymnostoma with little success. Counterparts in other areas are also struggling. Does anyone have any experience rearing this species or other Phytomyza? Recommendations of relevant literature are also appreciated.
A little about this fly in the Northeastern US:
This fly has two generations - one in spring and one in fall - with an aestivation and overwintering stage in between. The adults emerge when temperatures are ~18C and feed on plant exudates from puncture wounds made by the female flies in allium plant species. Oviposition occurs on the plant leaves and larvae feed in the leaf tissue. Pupation occurs either in the plant tissues or in the soil immediately around the base of the plant.
We are currently storing the fall generation in a refrigerator for ~3 months then transferring to 25C, 55% RH, 16:8 L:D. The eclosion rate is ~65%. We are unsure what conditions to maintain adults at and have settled on 18C, 55%RH, and 16:8 L:D. We provide water and onion plants on which flies can feed and develop. The adults only live about a week.
We are unsure about whether the spring flies will need to be stored at aestivation temps prior to eclosion. Not much is know about this species so any information is helpful.
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The key to success in breeding Phytomyza gymnostoma is the constant temperature at 26 ° C and high relative humidity (80%) with light photoperiod of 12 hours under laboratory conditions. Place the Allium plants in plastic pots inside cages lined with white muslin and keep the plants well moist. The Larvae of Phytomyza gymnostoma mine the stalk and bulbs of Allium plants which become soft and susceptible to fungal or bacterial infections. Frequently, severe plant deformations (split leaves and stalks, distortions) are observed. Females make large numbers of feeding punctures using their ovipositors, and then use their mouth parts to feed on leaf exudates. These punctures are the first sign that the flies are active. P. gymnostoma overwinter as pupae attached to plant tissues. At the beginning of spring, adults emerge.
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I study the community of predators on gregarious larval web of Euphydryas aurinia butterfly. I photographed a fly belong to Odontomyia (Diptera, Stratiomyidae) and I would understand what the potential reason (diet?) of its presence on butterfly nest. Thank you very much for your help!
Manuela Pinzari
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Larvae are detritus feeders in the water, in addition to the above.
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Good evening to you all.
I have modeled a bogie using Simpack software and i tried to connect the primary suspensions, secondary suspensions but this bogie leaves the track (flies) and after 4 seconds, it comes come back on the track and moves normally. I am confused and i dont know why this is happening? I have followed the tutorials on youtube but they are incomplete. Please help. Thank you.
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Dear Zainah Namayanja,
I suggest you to see links and attached files on subject.
Optimization of a bogie primary suspension damping to reduce wear ...
Examination of Vertical Dynamics of Passenger Car with Wheel Flat ...
Towards optimization of a high speed train bogie primary suspension
Bogie Rotational Resistance
On Active Suspension in Rail Vehicles - DiVA portal
Best regards
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Please,
I need this article to explain the relationship between hoverflies and certain plant species.
Thank you.
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Thanks Victor. I requested it today and i'm waiting for the answer.
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I have flies in which I have knocked out a specific (non essential) sugar transporter and I've noticed many of them turn and almost ebony colour when dead. Does anyone know why this might happen?
Thank you in advance
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Thank you both for your answers, I only see this change in colour in flies which are missing a sugar transporter and not in the control so I was wondering if this in someway contributed.
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Does anybody know dipteran species which oviposit NEAR feeding substrate but not IN it?
So far, I could only find dipterans that oviposit directly in the feeding substrate for the developing larvae (Drosophila, blow flies, houseflies... ).
Does anyone have an idea?
Thank you.
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In Syrphidae there are some examples. At least Rhingia campestris laying eggs on leaves overhanging cowdung (see Coe, 1942 Rhingia campestris life history ... Ent. mont Mag. 78: 121-130).
The species of the sub-family Pipizinae seem to lay their eggs away from the feeding substrate as these are gallforming Hemiptera and Syrphidae do not have a drilling ovipositor (see Rotheray 1997 Larval stages of ... Ent gaz. 48: 127-134 and van Steenis et al 2018 Trichopsomyia Iran Zoology in the Middle East 64: 345-359)
Many species (e.g. genera Merodon, Eumerus, Pipizella, Chrysotoxum) in which the larvae feed on bulbous plants or root aphids seems to lay eggs in the soil.
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There is always a lot of confusion and negative reaction when I discuss female intrasexual competition with lay people, especially women. Many feel the "female" is unnecessary and sexist or that it reduces all female disagreement down to the fight for mates. When I try to explain that the "sex" in intrasexual is a noun not a verb this rarely helps. There seems to be a taboo to even discussing female competition - even just admitting it exists. Women generally view it as negative even though competition can be healthy and is essential for cooperation. Understanding the mechanisms and anatomy of fic will also help women and girls by enabling us to target female bullying in schools and other institutions, where at the moment it flies under the radar.
I've been reading some research lately which differentiates FIC with female social competition (fsc) and discusses the pros and cons of using the different terms: fic for competition for mates and fsc for social competition. I'm not sure I see the utility as both are competition for fitness enhancing resources - BUT I also see substantial resistance by women in even discussing FIC at all.
Thanks
Paula
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I do not have much to contribute, but I support the idea of honestly and scientifically dissecting the biologic-psychologic-social feelings and forces which guide not only human behavior in good and bad, but guide also the way how every child develops psychologically and socially.
I am in favor of the model Homo sapiens socialis or sovieticus, which means that human nature is not that what we see now.
But it evolves to better in the absence of poverty, wars, bullying in schools etc etc.
And not only naturally, but also by the help of human sciences which find more and more details and mechanisms which can direct humans to evolve to better or worse and offer models of intervention to be tested scientifically.
FIC versus FSC seems a valid scientific concept.
You can promote it by Your fellow female researchers that even if the major social problems like wars are more attributable to men's animal level behavior, there is no reason to why not to do research also on girls' very basic feelings and their role for training better educators and parents.
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I am searching for some genera or species in Brachycera that have hairs on wing veins. If anyone has an idea, I would be interested to read it !
Thanks in advance,
Valentin N.
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