scholarly journals Rapid nectar-meal effects on a predator's capacity to kill mosquitoes

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 140426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina E. Carvell ◽  
Josiah O. Kuja ◽  
Robert R. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Ricinus Communis ◽  
Juvenile Stage ◽  
East African ◽  
Jumping Spider ◽  
Nectar Feeding ◽  
Evarcha Culicivora ◽  
Better Than

Using Evarcha culicivora , an East African jumping spider (Salticidae), we investigate how nectar meals function in concert with predation specifically at the juvenile stage between emerging from the egg sac and the first encounter with prey. Using plants and using artificial nectar consisting of sugar alone or sugar plus amino acids, we show that the plant species ( Lantana camara , Ricinus communis , Parthenium hysterophorus ), the particular sugars in the artificial nectar (sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose), the concentration of sugar (20%, 5%, 1%) and the duration of pre-feeding fasts (3 days, 6 days) influence the spider's prey-capture proficiency on the next day after the nectar meal. However, there were no significant effects of amino acids. Our findings suggest that benefits from nectar feeding are derived primarily from access to particular sugars, with fructose and sucrose being the most beneficial, glucose being intermediate and maltose being no better than a water-only control.

scholarly journals Nectar Meals of a Mosquito-Specialist Spider

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josiah O. Kuja ◽  
Robert R. Jackson ◽  
Godfrey O. Sune ◽  
Rebecca N. H. Karanja ◽  
Zipporah O. Lagat ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Laboratory Tests ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Ricinus Communis ◽  
Aloe Vera ◽  
East African ◽  
Natural Diet ◽  
Striga Asiatica ◽  
Early Instar ◽  
Evarcha Culicivora

Evarcha culicivora, an East African jumping spider, is known for feeding indirectly on vertebrate blood by actively choosing blood-carrying mosquitoes as prey. Using cold-anthrone tests to detect fructose, we demonstrate thatE. culicivoraalso feeds on nectar. Field-collected individuals, found on the plantLantana camara, tested positive for plant sugar (fructose). In the laboratory,E. culicivoratested positive for fructose after being kept withL. camaraor one of another ten plant species (Aloe vera, Clerodendron magnifica, Hamelia patens, Lantana montevideo, Leonotis nepetaefolia, Parthenium hysterophorus, Ricinus communis, Senna didymobotrya, Striga asiatica, andVerbena trivernia). Our findings demonstrate thatE. culicivoraacquires fructose from its natural diet and can ingest fructose directly from plant nectaries. However, experiments in the laboratory also show thatE. culicivoracan obtain fructose indirectly by feeding on prey that have fed on fructose, implying a need to consider this possibility when field-collected spiders test positive for fructose. In laboratory tests, 53.5% of 1,215 small juveniles, but only 3.4% of 622 adultE. culicivora, left with plants for 24 hours, were positive for fructose. These findings, along with the field data, suggest that fructose is especially important for early-instar juveniles ofE. culicivora.

scholarly journals Male and Female Mate-Choice Decisions by Evarcha culicivora, An East African Jumping Spider

Ethology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 113 (9) ◽  
pp. 901-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona R. Cross ◽  
Robert R. Jackson ◽  
Simon D. Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
East African ◽  
Jumping Spider ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Evarcha Culicivora

scholarly journals Convergence between a mosquito-eating predator's natural diet and its prey-choice behaviour

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 160584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert R. Jackson ◽  
Chan Deng ◽  
Fiona R. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Strong Convergence ◽  
Classification System ◽  
Prey Choice ◽  
East African ◽  
Choice Behaviour ◽  
Jumping Spider ◽  
Prey Category ◽  
Natural Diet ◽  
Evarcha Culicivora ◽  
Male Mosquitoes

On the basis of 1115 records of Evarcha culicivora feeding in the field, we can characterize this East African jumping spider (Salticidae) as being distinctively stenophagic. We can also, on the basis of laboratory prey-choice experiments, characterize E . culicivora as having a specialized prey-classification system and a hierarchy of innate preferences for various categories of mosquitoes and other arthropods. Prey from the field belonged to 10 arthropod orders, but 94.5% of the prey records were dipterans. Mosquitoes were the dominant prey (80.2% of the records), with the majority (82.9%) of the mosquitoes being females, and thereafter midges were the most common prey (9.2% of the records). Preference profiles that were determined from experiments showed strong convergence with natural diet in some, but not all, instances. In experiments, E . culicivora adults appeared to distinguish between six prey categories and juveniles between seven, with blood-carrying anopheline female mosquitoes being ranked highest in preference. For adults, this was followed by blood-carrying culicine female mosquitoes and then anopheline female mosquitoes not carrying blood, but these two preferences were reversed for juveniles. Moreover, for juveniles, but not for adults, anopheline male mosquitoes seem to be a distinct prey category ranked in preference after blood-carrying culicine females and, for both adults and juveniles, preference for midges is evident when the alternatives are not mosquitoes. These findings illustrate the importance of going beyond simply specifying preferred prey categories when characterizing predators as ‘specialized’ and a need to make clear conceptual distinctions between a predator's natural diet, the prey categories that are relevant to the predator, and the predator's prey-choicebehaviour.

scholarly journals Ethnomedicinal Plants Traditionally Used for the Treatment of Jaundice (Icterus) in Himachal Pradesh in Western Himalaya—A Review

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Disha Raghuvanshi ◽  
Rajni Dhalaria ◽  
Anjali Sharma ◽  
Dinesh Kumar ◽  
Harsh Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Ricinus Communis ◽  
Western Himalaya ◽  
Saccharum Officinarum ◽  
Himachal Pradesh ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Tinospora Cordifolia ◽  
Ethnomedicinal Plants ◽  
Pharmacological Significance

Ethnomedicinal plants have a significant role in the lives of people of rural and tribal areas. Thousands of medicinal plant species are used to treat various diseases, including jaundice, and are considered an important therapeutic resource to minimize these diseases. Jaundice (icterus) is a chronic disease that occurs when the amount of bilirubin in the blood increases. This review describes different ethnomedicinal plants used for curing jaundice by tribal and rural people of Himachal Pradesh. The study reveals 87 ethnomedicinal plant species belonging to 51 different families, which are used for treating jaundice in Himachal Pradesh. These plants are arranged in a systematic way, which includes a description of their common name, botanical name, along with its family, plant parts used, region, and mode of use in tabulated form. Some of the plant extracts have already been explored for their phytochemical and pharmacological significance and proved their potential in the preparation of new medicines or drugs against the treatment of jaundice. This review is an attempt to highlight the indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants, which are specifically used for the treatment of jaundice. The data mentioned in the present review is compiled from various sources like existing literature, books, Google Scholar, and Scopus publications. Among all the observed plant species, most used medicinal plants for the treatment of jaundice include Justicia adhatoda, Emblica officinalis, Ricinus communis, Saccharum officinarum, Terminalia chebula, Berberis aristata, Cuscuta reflexa, and Tinospora cordifolia. Plants that are mostly utilized for the treatment of jaundice need to be scientifically validated by pharmacological analysis and should be subsequently used for the preparation of new drugs, which may prove far more beneficial than the existing one.

Studies on the Development of Benzoyl Peroxide Catalysed Rapid Oil Tanning using Linseed Oil

2021 ◽  
Vol 116 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bindia Sahu ◽  
Jaya Prakash Alla ◽  
Gladstone Christopher Jayakumar
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Tensile Strength ◽  
Physical Properties ◽  
Water Absorption ◽  
Benzoyl Peroxide ◽  
Special Class ◽  
Linseed Oil ◽  
Tanning Process ◽  
Remarkable Reduction ◽  
Better Than

Leather tanning is a stabilisation process of skin fibers. This is achieved by the interaction of collagen amino acids with tanning agents to stabilise skin from putrefaction. Tanning of collagen with oil is a special class of tanning known as chamois tanning. Chemically, the oil tanning involves oxidation of unsaturation present in the oil, which is generally achieved by exposing oil treated skins to air. In this study, Benzoyl peroxide has been used as an accelerating agent for oxidation of unsaturated bonds present in the linseed oil for oil tanning process. Results shows remarkable reduction in tanning duration from fifteen days to two days. The chamois leathers prepared using oxidation accelerant (Benzoyl peroxide) have been evaluated for physical properties such as water absorption (611%), tensile strength (18 N/mm2) and percentage of elongation (66 %) which are found to be better than control leathers.

scholarly journals Amino Acid Characteristics of Nigerian Local Cheese (‘Wara’)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Adeyeye EI ◽  
◽  
Idowu OT ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Essential Amino Acid ◽  
Crude Protein ◽  
Milk Protein ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Cow Milk ◽  
Amino Acid Requirements ◽  
Excellent Source ◽  
Better Than

This article reports the amino acid composition of the Nigerian local cheese called ‘wara’. ‘Wara’ is made by boiling cow milk with some added coagulant to cuddle the milk protein resulting in coagulated milk protein and whey. ‘Wara’ used to be an excellent source of nutrients such as proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins. Samples were purchased in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Amino acid values were high (g/100g crude protein) in Leu, Asp, Glu, Pro, Phe, Arg with total value of 97.7. The quality parameters of the amino acids were: TEAA (42.6g/100g and 43.6%) whereas TNEAA (55.1g/100g and 56.4%); TArAA (12.8g/100g and 13.1%); TBAA (14.2g/100g and 14.5%); TSAA (3.10g/100g and 3.17%); %Cys in TSAA (51.4); Leu/Ile ratio (1.74); P-PER1 (2.65); P-PER2 (2.48); P-PER3 (2.41); EAAI1 (soybean standard) (1.29) and EAAI2 (egg standard) (99.9); BV (97.2) and Lys/Trp ratio (3.62). The statistical analysis of TEAA/TNEAA at r=0.01 was not significantly different. On the amino acid scores, Met was limiting (0.459) at egg comparison, Lys was limiting at both FAO/WHO [24] and preschool EAA requirements with respective values of 0.966 and 0.97. Estimates of essential amino acid requirements at ages 10-12 years (mg/kg/day) showed the ‘wara’ sample to be better than the standard by 3.72-330% with Lys (3.72%) being least better and Trp (330%) being most. The results showed that ‘wara’ is protein-condensed which can be eaten as raw cheese, flavoured snack, sandwich filling or fried cake.

scholarly journals The cichlid oral and pharyngeal jaws are evolutionarily and genetically coupled

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Conith ◽  
R. Craig Albertson
Keyword(s):  
Prey Capture ◽  
Phenotypic Change ◽  
Functional Constraints ◽  
East African ◽  
Genetic Level ◽  
Evolutionary Success ◽  
African Rift ◽  
Pharyngeal Jaws ◽  
African Cichlids ◽  
Pharyngeal Jaw

AbstractEvolutionary constraints may significantly bias phenotypic change, while “breaking” from such constraints can lead to expanded ecological opportunity. Ray-finned fishes have broken functional constraints by developing two jaws (oral-pharyngeal), decoupling prey capture (oral jaw) from processing (pharyngeal jaw). It is hypothesized that the oral and pharyngeal jaws represent independent evolutionary modules and this facilitated diversification in feeding architectures. Here we test this hypothesis in African cichlids. Contrary to our expectation, we find integration between jaws at multiple evolutionary levels. Next, we document integration at the genetic level, and identify a candidate gene, smad7, within a pleiotropic locus for oral and pharyngeal jaw shape that exhibits correlated expression between the two tissues. Collectively, our data show that African cichlid evolutionary success has occurred within the context of a coupled jaw system, an attribute that may be driving adaptive evolution in this iconic group by facilitating rapid shifts between foraging habitats, providing an advantage in a stochastic environment such as the East African Rift-Valley.

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