Establishment of fungus comb in Laboratory colonies ofMacrotermes michaelseni andOdontotermes montanus (Isoptera, Macrotermitinae)

1983 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sieber
1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 820-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
David O. Ribble ◽  
John S. Millar

We examined the effects of sibling matings upon reproductive performance among inbred and outbred laboratory colonies of Peromyscus maniculatus. The inbred colony was founded by 12 females collected from one locality in Alberta and bred for 20 generations, with 35–45 pairs each generation. The outbred colony consisted of first-generation mice born of wild-caught females from diverse areas in Alberta. Consistent with theoretical expectations, there were no differences in reproductive performance between sibling and control (outbred) pairs within the inbred colony of mice. In contrast, sibling pairs had significantly fewer young per litter than control pairs within the outbred colony. Reproductive performance measures (proportion breeding, days from pairing to first litter, number of litters, and total number of offspring produced) were also significantly lower among sibling pairs from the outbred colony than among sibling pairs from the inbred colony. Lastly, we predicted that reproductive performance of the control pairs from the outbred colony would be less than that of control pairs from the inbred colony, due to outbreeding depression. Contrary to our predictions, average litter survival rates were greatest among the outbred colony control pairs. We suggest that the benefits of inbreeding or outbreeding extend broadly across the inbreeding–outbreeding continuum in natural populations of northern Peromyscus.


Parasite ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Cannet ◽  
Mohammad Akhoundi ◽  
Jean-Michel Berenger ◽  
Gregory Michel ◽  
Pierre Marty ◽  
...  

1990 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. M. Logan ◽  
Faizah Abood

AbstractThe amidinohydrazone insecticide hydramethylnon, exhibited delayed toxicity to workers of Reticulitermes santonensis Feytaud and Microtermes lepidus Sjöstedt over a range of concentrations, with deaths starting two to six days after exposure. R. santonensis workers which had been exposed to hydramethylnon passed the insecticide to untreated termite workers, larvae and nymphs by trophallaxis. Laboratory colonies of R. santonensis exposed to hydramethylnon were killed completely within 20 days. The possible use of hydramethylnon impregnated baits for the control of subterranean termites is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Tharaka Wijerathna ◽  
Nayana Gunathilaka ◽  
Kithsiri Gunawardena

The field-based studies on sand flies are not adequate to uncover information required for the control of the leishmaniasis through reduction of vector populations. Therefore, establishment and maintenance of laboratory colonies of sand flies is an essential step in leishmaniasis research. In the current study, a colony of P. argentipes was established from wild-caught sand flies following standard procedures from the published literature. Morphological measurements of laboratory-reared and wild-caught individual sand flies were compared to assess the difference between two groups. The colony was successfully established under confined laboratory conditions. The comparison of morphometric parameters revealed that the laboratory-reared sand flies are significantly larger than those caught from wild, suggesting a possibility of increased fitness of sand flies under favorable environmental conditions which may cause higher prevalence in the disease. The current study reports the first successful attempt in colonizing sand flies under laboratory conditions. However, the colony data suggest that the conditions extracted from the published literature need to be optimized to suit local settings in order to achieve maximum population sizes within the available amount of resources.


Author(s):  
Chenyan Shi ◽  
Lu Zhao ◽  
Evans Atoni ◽  
Weifeng Zeng ◽  
Xiaomin Hu ◽  
...  

AbstractMosquitoes belonging to the genus Aedes can efficiently transmit many pathogenic arboviruses, placing a great burden on public health worldwide. In addition, they also carry a number of insect specific viruses (ISVs), and it was recently suggested that some of these ISVs might form a stable species-specific “core virome” in mosquito populations. However, little is known about such a core virome in laboratory colonies and if it is present across different developmental stages. In this study, we compared the viromes in eggs, larvae, pupae and adults of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes collected from the field as well as from a lab colony. The virome in lab-derived Ae. albopictus is very stable across all stages, consistent with a vertical transmission route of these viruses, forming a “vertically transmitted core virome”. The different stages of field collected Ae. albopictus mosquitoes also contains this stable vertically transmitted core virome as well as another set of viruses shared by mosquitoes across different stages, which might be an “environment derived core virome”. Both these vertically and environmentally transmitted core viromes in Ae. albopictus deserve more attention with respect to their effects on vector competence for important medically relevant arboviruses. To further study this core set of ISVs, we screened 46 publically available SRA viral metagenomic dataset of mosquitoes belonging to the genus Aedes. Some of the identified core ISVs are identified in the majority of SRAs. In addition, a novel virus, Aedes phasmavirus, is found to be distantly related to Yongsan bunyavirus 1, and the genomes of the core virus Phasi Charoen-like phasivirus is highly prevalent in the majority of the tested samples, with nucleotide identities ranging from 94% to 99%. Finally, Guadeloupe mosquito virus, and some related viruses formed three separated phylogenetic clades. How these core ISVs influence the biology of mosquito host, arboviruses infection and evolution deserve to be further explored.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (18) ◽  
pp. 4709-4714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjie Li ◽  
Daniel J. Yelle ◽  
Chang Li ◽  
Mengyi Yang ◽  
Jing Ke ◽  
...  

Depolymerizing lignin, the complex phenolic polymer fortifying plant cell walls, is an essential but challenging starting point for the lignocellulosics industries. The variety of ether– and carbon–carbon interunit linkages produced via radical coupling during lignification limit chemical and biological depolymerization efficiency. In an ancient fungus-cultivating termite system, we reveal unprecedentedly rapid lignin depolymerization and degradation by combining laboratory feeding experiments, lignocellulosic compositional measurements, electron microscopy, 2D-NMR, and thermochemolysis. In a gut transit time of under 3.5 h, in young worker termites, poplar lignin sidechains are extensively cleaved and the polymer is significantly depleted, leaving a residue almost completely devoid of various condensed units that are traditionally recognized to be the most recalcitrant. Subsequently, the fungus-comb microbiome preferentially uses xylose and cleaves polysaccharides, thus facilitating final utilization of easily digestible oligosaccharides by old worker termites. This complementary symbiotic pretreatment process in the fungus-growing termite symbiosis reveals a previously unappreciated natural system for efficient lignocellulose degradation.


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