Department of Entomology

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10919/24230

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 342

2016 Southeast Regional Bunch Grape Integrated Management Guide
Nita, Mizuho; Burrack, Hannah J.; Pfeiffer, Douglas G.; Mitchem, Wayne; Lockwood, David; Bellinger, Robert (2016-04-04)
While not technically a numbered VCE publication, this is produced by a group of extension specialists in the southeastern region. CALS is a member of the Southeastern Small Fruit Consortium, the producer of this guide.
2016 Southeast Regional Caneberry Integrated Management Guide. Southeastern Small Fruit Consortium
Brannen, Philip; Schnabel, Guido; Burrack, Hannah J.; Bessin, Richard; Pfeiffer, Douglas G.; Mitchem, Wayne; Jennings, Katie; Lockwood, David; Fernandez, Gina; Sial, Ash (2016-04-04)
While not technically a numbered VCE publication, this is produced by a group of extension specialists in the southeastern region. CALS is a member of the Southeastern Small Fruit Consortium, the producer of this guide
2016 Spray Bulletin for Commercial Tree Fruit Growers
Pfeiffer, Douglas G.; Bergh, J. Christopher; Frank, Daniel L.; Hooks, C. R. R.; Walsh, C. S.; Yoder, Keith S.; Rahan, Mahfaz; Kotcon, J. B.; Derr, Jeffrey F.; Chandran, Rakesh S.; Weaver, Michael W.; Brown, Amy; Parkhurst, James A. (2016-01-01)
This is a multi-state guide, with orchard recommendations for Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
2D and 3D Chromosome Painting in Malaria Mosquitoes
George, Phillip; Sharma, Atashi; Sharakhov, Igor V. (Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2014-01-01)
Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) of whole arm chromosome probes is a robust technique for mapping genomic regions of interest, detecting chromosomal rearrangements, and studying three-dimensional (3D) organization of chromosomes in the cell nucleus. The advent of laser capture microdissection (LCM) and whole genome amplification (WGA) allows obtaining large quantities of DNA from single cells. The increased sensitivity of WGA kits prompted us to develop chromosome paints and to use them for exploring chromosome organization and evolution in non-model organisms. Here, we present a simple method for isolating and amplifying the euchromatic segments of single polytene chromosome arms from ovarian nurse cells of the African malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. This procedure provides an efficient platform for obtaining chromosome paints, while reducing the overall risk of introducing foreign DNA to the sample. The use of WGA allows for several rounds of re-amplification, resulting in high quantities of DNA that can be utilized for multiple experiments, including 2D and 3D FISH. We demonstrated that the developed chromosome paints can be successfully used to establish the correspondence between euchromatic portions of polytene and mitotic chromosome arms in An. gambiae. Overall, the union of LCM and single-chromosome WGA provides an efficient tool for creating significant amounts of target DNA for future cytogenetic and genomic studies.
Ambient Air Temperature Does Not Predict whether Small or Large Workers Forage in Bumble Bees (Bombus impatiens).
Couvillon, Margaret J.; Fitzpatrick, Ginny; Dornhaus, Anna (2010)
Bumble bees are important pollinators of crops and other plants. However, many aspects of their basic biology remain relatively unexplored. For example, one important and unusual natural history feature in bumble bees is the massive size variation seen between workers of the same nest. This size polymorphism may be an adaptation for division of labor, colony economics, or be nonadaptive. It was also suggested that perhaps this variation allows for niche specialization in workers foraging at different temperatures: larger bees might be better suited to forage at cooler temperatures and smaller bees might be better suited to forage at warmer temperatures. This we tested here using a large, enclosed growth chamber, where we were able to regulate the ambient temperature. We found no significant effect of ambient or nest temperature on the average size of bees flying to and foraging from a suspended feeder. Instead, bees of all sizes successfully flew and foraged between 16°C and 36°C. Thus, large bees foraged even at very hot temperatures, which we thought might cause overheating. Size variation therefore could not be explained in terms of niche specialization for foragers at different temperatures.
Analysis of the Aedes albopictus C6/36 genome provides insight into cell line utility for viral propagation
Miller, Jason R.; Koren, Sergey; Dilley, Kari A.; Puri, Vinita; Brown, David M.; Harkins, Derel M.; Thibaud-Nissen, Françoise; Rosen, Benjamin D.; Xiao-Guang, Chen; Tu, Zhijian Jake; Sharakhov, Igor V.; Sharakhova, Maria V.; Sebra, R.; Stockwell, T. B.; Bergman, N. H.; Sutton, G. G.; Phillippi, A. M.; Pieemarini, P. M.; Shabman, R. S. (2018-03)
The 50-year old Aedes albopictus C6/36 cell line is a resource for the detection, amplification, and analysis of mosquito-borne viruses including Zika, dengue, and chikungunya. The cell line is derived from an unknown number of larvae from an unspecified strain of Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. Toward improved utility of the cell line for research in virus transmission, we present an annotated assembly of the C6/36 genome.
Ancient and modern colonization of North America by hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae (Hemiptera: Adelgidae), an invasive insect from East Asia
Havill, Nathan P.; Shiyake, Shigehiko; Galloway, Ashley Lamb; Foottit, Robert G.; Yu, Guoyue; Paradis, Annie; Elkinton, Joseph S.; Montgomery, Michael E.; Sano, Masakazu; Caccone, Adalgisa (2016-05)
Hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae, is an invasive pest of hemlock trees (Tsuga) in eastern North America. We used 14 microsatellites and mitochondrial COI sequences to assess its worldwide genetic structure and reconstruct its colonization history. The resulting information about its life cycle, biogeography and host specialization could help predict invasion by insect herbivores. We identified eight endemic lineages of hemlock adelgids in central China, western China, Ulleung Island (South Korea), western North America, and two each in Taiwan and Japan, with the Japanese lineages specializing on different Tsuga species. Adelgid life cycles varied at local and continental scales with different sexual, obligately asexual and facultatively asexual lineages. Adelgids in western North America exhibited very high microsatellite heterozygosity, which suggests ancient asexuality. The earliest lineages diverged in Asia during Pleistocene glacial periods, as estimated using approximate Bayesian computation. Colonization of western North America was estimated to have occurred prior to the last glacial period by adelgids directly ancestral to those in southern Japan, perhaps carried by birds. The modern invasion from southern Japan to eastern North America caused an extreme genetic bottleneck with just two closely related clones detected throughout the introduced range. Both colonization events to North America involved host shifts to unrelated hemlock species. These results suggest that genetic diversity, host specialization and host phylogeny are not predictive of adelgid invasion. Monitoring non-native sentinel host trees and focusing on invasion pathways might be more effective methods of preventing invasion than making predictions using species traits or evolutionary history.
Apheloria polychroma, a new species of millipede from the Cumberland Mountains (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae)
Marek, Paul E.; Means, Jackson C.; Hennen, Derek A. (Zootaxa, 2018-01-25)
Millipedes of the genus Apheloria Chamberlin, 1921 occur in temperate broadleaf forests throughout eastern North America and west of the Mississippi River in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains. Chemically defended with toxins made up of cyanide and benzaldehyde, the genus is part of a community of xystodesmid millipedes that compose several Müllerian mimicry rings in the Appalachian Mountains. We describe a model species of these mimicry rings, Apheloria polychroma n. sp., one of the most variable in coloration of all species of Diplopoda with more than six color morphs, each associated with a separate mimicry ring.
Arm-specific dynamics of chromosome evolution in malaria mosquitoes
Sharakhova, Maria V.; Xia, Ai; Leman, Scotland C.; Sharakhov, Igor V. (Biomed Central, 2011-04-07)
Background: The malaria mosquito species of subgenus Cellia have rich inversion polymorphisms that correlate with environmental variables. Polymorphic inversions tend to cluster on the chromosomal arms 2R and 2L but not on X, 3R and 3L in Anopheles gambiae and homologous arms in other species. However, it is unknown whether polymorphic inversions on homologous chromosomal arms of distantly related species from subgenus Cellia nonrandomly share similar sets of genes. It is also unclear if the evolutionary breakage of inversion-poor chromosomal arms is under constraints. Results: To gain a better understanding of the arm-specific differences in the rates of genome rearrangements, we compared gene orders and established syntenic relationships among Anopheles gambiae, Anopheles funestus, and Anopheles stephensi. We provided evidence that polymorphic inversions on the 2R arms in these three species nonrandomly captured similar sets of genes. This nonrandom distribution of genes was not only a result of preservation of ancestral gene order but also an outcome of extensive reshuffling of gene orders that created new combinations of homologous genes within independently originated polymorphic inversions. The statistical analysis of distribution of conserved gene orders demonstrated that the autosomal arms differ in their tolerance to generating evolutionary breakpoints. The fastest evolving 2R autosomal arm was enriched with gene blocks conserved between only a pair of species. In contrast, all identified syntenic blocks were preserved on the slowly evolving 3R arm of An. gambiae and on the homologous arms of An. funestus and An. stephensi. Conclusions: Our results suggest that natural selection favors specific gene combinations within polymorphic inversions when distant species are exposed to similar environmental pressures. This knowledge could be useful for the discovery of genes responsible for an association of inversion polymorphisms with phenotypic variations in multiple species. Our data support the chromosomal arm specificity in rates of gene order disruption during mosquito evolution. We conclude that the distribution of breakpoint regions is evolutionary conserved on slowly evolving arms and tends to be lineage-specific on rapidly evolving arms.
Arthropod Pest Management Research on Vegetables in Virginia - 2010
Kuhar, Thomas P.; Schultz, Peter B.; Doughty, Hélène; Jenrette, James (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2011-02-22)
Describes arthropod pest management research on vegetable crops including evaluation of federally-labelled and experimental insecticides.
Arthropod Pest Management Research on Vegetables in Virginia - 2011
Kuhar, Thomas P.; Schultz, Peter B.; Doughty, Hélène; Kamminga, Katherine; Jenrette, James (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2012-02-01)
Describes arthropod pest management research on vegetable crops including evaluation of federally-labelled and experimental insecticides.
Arthropod Pest Management Research on Vegetables in Virginia--2013
Kuhar, Thomas P.; Schultz, Peter B.; Doughty, Hélène; Jenrette, James (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2014)
This booklet contains arthropod pest management research conducted on vegetable crops in Virginia in 2013.
Asparagus Beetles on Asparagus
Kuhar, Thomas P.; Day, Eric R. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2009-07-29)
Describes life history of Crioceris asparagi and Crioceris duodecimpunctata and damage to asparagus. Also notes methods for controlling these crop pests.
Asparagus Beetles: Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Crioceris asparagi (L.) and Crioceris duodecimpunctata (L.)
Day, Eric R.; Kuhar, Thomas P. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2009-05-01)
Describes life history of Crioceris asparagi and Crioceris duodecimpunctata and damage to asparagus. Also notes methods for controlling these crop pests.
Association of Salivary Cholinesterase With Arthropod Vectors of Disease
Temeyer, Kevin B.; Schlechte, Kristie G.; Olafson, Pia U.; Drolet, Barbara S.; Tidwell, Jason P.; Osbrink, Weste L. A.; Showler, Allan T.; Gross, Aaron D.; de Leon, Adalberto A. Perez (2020-11)
Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) was previously reported to be present in saliva of the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini), with proposed potential functions to 1) reduce acetylcholine toxicity during rapid engorgement, 2) modulate host immune responses, and 3) to influence pathogen transmission and establishment in the host. Potential modulation of host immune responses might include participation in salivary-assisted transmission and establishment of pathogens in the host as has been reported for a number of arthropod vector-borne diseases. If the hypothesis that tick salivary AChE may alter host immune responses is correct, we reasoned that similar cholinesterase activities might be present in saliva of additional arthropod vectors. Here, we report the presence of AChE-like activity in the saliva of southern cattle ticks, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus; the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (Linnaeus); Asian tiger mosquitoes, Aedes albopictus (Skuse); sand flies, Phlebotomus papatasi (Scopoli); and biting midges, Culicoides sonorensis Wirth and Jones. Salivary AChE-like activity was not detected for horn flies Haematobia irritans (L.), stable flies Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), and house flies Musca domestica L. Salivary cholinesterase (ChE) activities of arthropod vectors of disease-causing agents exhibited various Michaelis-Menten K-M values that were each lower than the K-M value of bovine serum AChE. A lower K-M value is indicative of higher affinity for substrate and is consistent with a hypothesized role in localized depletion of host tissue acetylcholine potentially modulating host immune responses at the arthropod bite site that may favor ectoparasite blood-feeding and alter host defensive responses against pathogen transmission and establishment.
ATP-sensitive inwardly rectifying potassium channel regulation of viral infections in honey bees
O'Neal, Scott T.; Swale, Daniel R.; Anderson, Troy D. (Nature, 2017-08-17)
Honey bees are economically important pollinators of a wide variety of crops that have attracted the attention of both researchers and the public alike due to unusual declines in the numbers of managed colonies in some parts of the world. Viral infections are thought to be a significant factor contributing to these declines, but viruses have proven a challenging pathogen to study in a bee model and interactions between viruses and the bee antiviral immune response remain poorly understood. In the work described here, we have demonstrated the use of flock house virus (FHV) as a model system for virus infection in bees and revealed an important role for the regulation of the bee antiviral immune response by ATP-sensitive inwardly rectifying potassium (KATP) channels. We have shown that treatment with the KATP channel agonist pinacidil increases survival of bees while decreasing viral replication following infection with FHV, whereas treatment with the KATP channel antagonist tolbutamide decreases survival and increases viral replication. Our results suggest that KATP channels provide a significant link between cellular metabolism and the antiviral immune response in bees.
Bean leaf beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) preference for two Phaseolus beans over soybean
Shrader, Meredith Edana; Kuhar, Thomas P.; Schultz, Peter B.; Pfeiffer, Douglas G.; Kamminga, Katherine (2014)
In the eastern and central U.S., bean leaf beetle, Cerotoma trifurcata (Förster) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is a pest of legume crops, on which adults chew holes in leaves, can destroy seedlings, and can injure pods (Smelser and Pedigo 1992a, J. Econ. Entomol. 85: 2408 - 2412; Smelser and Pedigo 1992b, J. Econ. Entomol. 85: 2399 - 2403; Koch et al. 2005, Crop Prot. 24: 734 - 742). The beetle is also a primary vector of bean pod mottle virus, which can further reduce yield and seed quality in soybeans (Giesler et al. 2002, Plant Dis. 86: 1280 - 1289). On the Delmarva Peninsula, snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), lima beans (Phaseolus lunatus L.), and soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), are each important crops, and relatively high populations of C. trifurcata occur. To better understand the potential intercrop movement of the beetle and its implications for pest management, we conducted beetle host plant preference experiments...
Bean Leaf Beetle Biology and Management in Snap Beans
Cassell, Meredith E.; Kuhar, Thomas P. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2005-09-01)
Describes life history of bean leaf beetles, damage to bean plants, and methods of biological and chemical control.
Bean Pod Mottle Virus in Virginia Soybeans
Cassell, Meredith E.; Tolin, Sue A.; Kuhar, Thomas P.; Schultz, Peter B. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2009-10-09)
Describes disease cycle of Bean Pod Mottle Virus in soybeans. Also describes symptoms, possible sources of this disease, and management methods.
Bed Bugs and Infectious Disease: A Case for the Arboviruses
Adelman, Zach N.; Miller, Dini M.; Myles, Kevin M. (PLOS, 2013-08-01)
Bed bug infestations (Cimicidae; Cimex lectularius) have been increasing worldwide over the last few decades [1,2]. Several factors have been posited to explain this resurgence, including widespread insecticide resistance, human population growth, and increased international travel [1]. Clinically, reactions to bed bug bites vary from unapparent, to small (,5 mm) maculopapular lesions, to large wheals (2–6 cm); other reactions include bullous rashes, dermatitis, and asthma [1,3]. However, in the developed world the psychological, social, and economic impacts of bed bugs may be the most troubling aspects of the resurgence [2]. While the bed bug invasion cuts across economic lines, those with sufficient resources are able to clear the infestations, while those without may have to live with their bed bugs into the foreseeable future [2,4].

Browse

Browsing Department of Entomology by Department "Entomology"

Results Per Page

Sort Options