scholarly journals Cold storage-mediated rearing of Trichogramma evanescens Westwood on eggs of Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) and Galleria mellonella L.

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253287
Author(s):  
Aslam Haque ◽  
Saiful Islam ◽  
Abdul Bari ◽  
Akhtar Hossain ◽  
Christos G. Athanassiou ◽  
...  

The egg parasitoid Trichogramma evanescens Westwood is considered as an efficient biological control agent for managing several lepidopteran pests and it is widely distributed throughout the world. Mass rearing protocols of parasitoids that are currently in use in biocontrol programs require a meticulous quality control plan, in order to optimize their efficacy, but also their progeny production capacity. In this paper, the effect of different factors on the quality control in mass rearing of T. evenescens, using Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) and Galleria mellonella L. as host species, were investigated. The impact of egg agewas significant in the rates of parasitism, for both host species tested. Significantly highest percent of parasitoid emergence was noticed in two day-old eggs for both host species, while one day-old eggs day exhibited the maximum emergence when both species were used togetherin the same trials. Age-dependent storage egg preservation at either 4 or 9°C significantly influenced the parasitism percentages on both species. The highest parasitism percentage was recorded in two day-old G. mellonella eggs that are kept for 15 days at 9°C while the lower in one day-old P. interpunctella eggs for 60 d storage. Moreover, the highest parasitoid mortality was recorded in T. evanescens reared either on P. interpunctella or G. mellonella at 20°C. Rearing of the parasitoid on a mixture of eggs of both host species resulted in higher parasitism, but not always in higher rates of parasitoid emergence. The results of the present work provide useful information that can be further utilized in rearing protocols of T. evanescens.

Author(s):  
Mohammad Muslim ◽  
M. Shafiq Ansari ◽  
Fazil Hasan

Bracon hebetor is a Lepidopteran parasitoid which is used in IPM program as biological control agents. Corcyra cephalonica is fictitious host for mass rearing of B. hebetor in laboratory, rest hosts reared on their respective hosts i.e. Corcyra cephalonica, Plodia interpunctella, Ephestia kuehniella were reared on wheat flour, Galleria mellonella on its artificial diet, Helicoverpa armigera on chickpea pods, Earias vitella on okra fruits, Spodoptera litura and Spodoptera littoralis on castor leaves. The results of this study showed that the paralysis and parasitisation potential of B. hebetor were found higher on C. cephalonica followed by G. mellonella, E. kuehniella, P. interpunctella while it was shortest on S. litura and S. littoralis.


Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan ◽  
Yeasmin ◽  
Athanassiou ◽  
Bari ◽  
Islam

We evaluated possible improvements to the mass rearing of the larval parasitoid Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on irradiated host wax moth Galleria mellonella L. and Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae. The use of irradiated G. mellonella and P. interpunctella larvae at the dose of 150 Gy proved useful for enhancing the parasitism and adult emergence of H. hebetor due to the absence of negative repercussions on parasitoid development. Overall, parasitism was increased as the host larvae was irradiated with higher doses, while significantly higher parasitism was recorded at 150 and 300 Gy compared to lower doses. The female parasitoids preferred the irradiated larvae and significantly higher numbers of larvae were parasitized compared with non-irradiated larvae. The results also showed that irradiated larvae of G. mellonella served better as hosts for H. hebetor as compared with irradiated larvae of P. interpunctella. The implementation of these findings would be helpful for improving the mass production of parasitoids and the effectiveness of releases of biocontrol agents for the control of stored product pests.


Author(s):  
Hong Chen ◽  
Yang Xu

The impact of environmental regulation has been an important topic. Based on the Chinese Custom Database and China City Statistical Yearbook, this paper investigates the effect of environmental regulation on export values and explores potential mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Taking advantage of China’s first comprehensive air pollution prevention and control plan, the Air Pollution Control in Key Zones policy, as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ the difference-in-differences method to examine the causal relationship between environmental regulation and exports. We find the statistically significant and negative effect of environmental regulation on exports at the city level. Moreover, we find that the potential mechanism is the change in export values caused by firm entry and exit, especially by exiters, rather than the change in the number of exporting firms in the city caused by firm entry and exit. In addition, we find the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation based on the differences of environmental policy across cities and the Broad Economic Categories classification.


Author(s):  
Erin Polka ◽  
Ellen Childs ◽  
Alexa Friedman ◽  
Kathryn S. Tomsho ◽  
Birgit Claus Henn ◽  
...  

Sharing individualized results with health study participants, a practice we and others refer to as “report-back,” ensures participant access to exposure and health information and may promote health equity. However, the practice of report-back and the content shared is often limited by the time-intensive process of personalizing reports. Software tools that automate creation of individualized reports have been built for specific studies, but are largely not open-source or broadly modifiable. We created an open-source and generalizable tool, called the Macro for the Compilation of Report-backs (MCR), to automate compilation of health study reports. We piloted MCR in two environmental exposure studies in Massachusetts, USA, and interviewed research team members (n = 7) about the impact of MCR on the report-back process. Researchers using MCR created more detailed reports than during manual report-back, including more individualized numerical, text, and graphical results. Using MCR, researchers saved time producing draft and final reports. Researchers also reported feeling more creative in the design process and more confident in report-back quality control. While MCR does not expedite the entire report-back process, we hope that this open-source tool reduces the barriers to personalizing health study reports, promotes more equitable access to individualized data, and advances self-determination among participants.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naglaa F. Abdel-Hameid ◽  
I. R. M. Elzoghby ◽  
A. L. Mehany ◽  
W. A. A. Sayed

AbstractThe performance of parasitism by the egg parasitoid, Trichogramma evanescens Westwood (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) on eggs of Angoumois grain moth, Sitotroga cerealella Olivier (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) was investigated under cold storage and gamma irradiation treatments of the host eggs. Cold storage treatment could improve the parasitoid mass rearing techniques and reduced the costs of biological control programs, while gamma irradiation might be used as a supplementary support at the times of high demand. The suitability of the S. cerealella eggs, stored at – 20 °C for 0.5, 1, or 2 h. as a host for T. evanescens was evaluated. The sensitivity of S. cerealella eggs to gamma irradiation treatments and the acceptability of irradiated eggs for parasitism by T. evanescens females for the parental P and F1 generations were examined. The results revealed that parasitism was drastically reduced more than adult’s emergence and sex-ratio (% of females) after cold storage periods of S. cerealella eggs. Moreover, the parasitism percentages were relatively reduced to (97.1, 96.1, 93.03, and 92.7 %) after irradiating the S. cerealella eggs at 40, 60, 80, and 100 Gy, respectively than the control (97.3% emergence). The percentages of emergence and females’ percent were slightly decreased by gamma irradiation doses, while, equal preferred by the F1 generation of parasitoid that produced from irradiated S. cerealella eggs.


2012 ◽  
Vol 78 (8) ◽  
pp. 2914-2922 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Bitoun ◽  
S. Liao ◽  
X. Yao ◽  
S.-J. Ahn ◽  
R. Isoda ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTPrevious studies have shown that BrpA plays a major role in acid and oxidative stress tolerance and biofilm formation byStreptococcus mutans. Mutant strains lacking BrpA also display increased autolysis and decreased viability, suggesting a role for BrpA in cell envelope integrity. In this study, we examined the impact of BrpA deficiency on cell envelope stresses induced by envelope-active antimicrobials. Compared to the wild-type strain UA159, the BrpA-deficient mutant (TW14D) was significantly more susceptible to antimicrobial agents, especially lipid II inhibitors. Several genes involved in peptidoglycan synthesis were identified by DNA microarray analysis as downregulated in TW14D. Luciferase reporter gene fusion assays also revealed that expression ofbrpAis regulated in response to environmental conditions and stresses induced by exposure to subinhibitory concentrations of cell envelope antimicrobials. In aGalleria mellonella(wax worm) model, BrpA deficiency was shown to diminish the virulence ofS. mutansOMZ175, which, unlikeS. mutansUA159, efficiently kills the worms. Collectively, these results suggest that BrpA plays a role in the regulation of cell envelope integrity and that deficiency of BrpA adversely affects the fitness and diminishes the virulence of OMZ175, a highly invasive strain ofS. mutans.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
N.F. Addeo ◽  
C. Li ◽  
T.W. Rusch ◽  
A.J. Dickerson ◽  
A.M. Tarone ◽  
...  

Population growth and rapid urbanisation have increased the global demand for animal feed and protein sources. Therefore, traditional animal feed production should be increased through the use of alternative nutrient sources. Insects as feed are beginning to fill this need. One such insect is the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens L. (Diptera: Stratiomyidae). However, to more effectively mass produce the black soldier fly, a better understanding of its thermal biology is needed. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of age, size, and sex on adult black soldier fly thermal preference. The thermal preference of adult black soldier flies was determined by exposing flies to a thermal gradient with a range of surface temperatures and monitoring their positions over time. An aluminium plate was used to create a linear thermal gradient where surface temperatures ranged from ~15-60 °C. Flies were distinguished by age (1-d-post-emergence vs 7-d-post-emergence), size (large vs small) and sex (male vs female) to assess whether thermal preference differed by specific life-history traits. Thermal preference for 7-d-post-emergence adults was significantly lower (19.2 °C) than 1-d-post-emergence adults (28.7 °C), respectively. Similarly, small adults selected significantly cooler (21.1 °C) temperatures than large adults (26.9 °C). No significant differences in thermal preferences were found between sex, regardless of age or size. In fact, males and females had similar thermal preference of 23.8 and 24.2 °C, respectively. This study reveals that multiple life-history traits of adult black soldier fly affect their thermal preference, and thus should be taken into consideration by mass rearing facilities to optimize production.


2022 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 270-285
Author(s):  
Tiago Coito ◽  
Miguel S.E. Martins ◽  
Bernardo Firme ◽  
João Figueiredo ◽  
Susana M. Vieira ◽  
...  

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