Search results for "Insecta"
showing 10 items of 265 documents
Predator Mixes and the Conspicuousness of Aposematic Signals
2003
Conspicuous warning signals of unprofitable prey are a defense against visually hunting predators. They work because predators learn to associate unprofitability with bright coloration and because strong signals are detectable and memorable. However, many species that can be considered defended are not very conspicuous; they have weak warning signals. This phenomenon has previously been ignored in models and experiments. In addition, there is significant within- and among-species variation among predators in their search behavior, in their visual, cognitive, and learning abilities, and in their resistance to defenses. In this article we explore the effects of variable predators on models th…
Symposium overview: Evolution of pheromonal communication in insects.
2009
1749-6632 (Electronic) 0077-8923 (Linking) Journal Article Review
Revision of the Eurasian species of Aegilips Haliday, 1835 (Hymenoptera: Figitidae: Anacharitinae)
2022
The knowledge of Aegilips in Eurasia is updated. One new species is described: Aegilips insularis Mata-Casanova and Pujade-Villar sp. nov., from Portugal (Madeira). The genus is also cited for the first time in the Indomalayan region with specimens of A. atricornis found in Northern India and Pakistan. Aegilips curvipes Giraud, 1860, Aegilips gemellus Belizin, 1961, Aegilips laevis (Hedicke, 1914), Aegilips montanus Belizin, 1951 and Aegilips punctatus Belizin, 1951 are synonymized with A. nitidulus (Dalman, 1823). Aegilips vena Fergusson, 1985 is synonymized with Aegilips zaitzevi Kovalev, 1974. Aegilips notatus Belizin, 1951, and Aegilips punctulatus Hedicke, 1928 are designated as incert…
Jack of all trades, master of all: a positive association between habitat niche breadth and foraging performance in pit-building antlion larvae.
2012
Species utilizing a wide range of resources are intuitively expected to be less efficient in exploiting each resource type compared to species which have developed an optimal phenotype for utilizing only one or a few resources. We report here the results of an empirical study whose aim was to test for a negative association between habitat niche breadth and foraging performance. As a model system to address this question, we used two highly abundant species of pit-building antlions varying in their habitat niche breadth: the habitat generalist Myrmeleon hyalinus, which inhabits a variety of soil types but occurs mainly in sandy soils, and the habitat specialist Cueta lineosa, which is restr…
On the contractile mechanism of insect fibrillar flight muscle. IV. A quantitative chemo-mechanical model.
1975
Ausgehend von detaillierten Vorstellungen zur Kinetik der myofibrillaren ATPase und der Ankopplung der Enzymwirkung an die Mechanik der Myosinbruckenzyklen wird ein quantitatives chemo-mechanisches Modell fur den fibrillaren Insektenflugmuskel vorgeschlagen. Mit der Wahl eines einheitlichen Parametersatzes gelingt es praktisch alle bisher in der Literatur beschriebenen Resultate zu simulieren. Dazu gehoren der verzogerte Spannungsaufbau bei rechteckformigen und sinusoidalen Langenanderungen, charakteristische Nichtlinearitaten in den oszillatorischen Langen-Spannungsschleifen, die Aktivierung der ATPase Aktivitat durch statische und dynamische Dehnung, der proportionale Anstieg des Wirkungs…
Water striders (Heteroptera: Gerromorpha: Gerridae) of Romania with an update on the distribution of Gerris gibbifer and G. maculatus in southeastern…
2018
The Romanian fauna comprises two species of Aquarius Schellenberg, 1800, eight species of Gerris Fabricius, 1794 and one species of Limnoporus Stål, 1868, and we hereby update the distribution and provide insights on the phenology and ecology of all eleven species in this country. We furthermore update the distribution of the two closely related species Gerris gibbifer Schummel, 1832 and G. maculatus Tamanini, 1946 in southeastern Europe. Gerris maculatus is recorded for the first time from Hungary, Montenegro and Slovenia, and the first detailed localities from Romania and Serbia are given. All bibliographic records of G. gibbifer from Romania, Macedonia and Serbia are based on misidentifi…
Dinotrema cavernicola sp. n. (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Alysiinae), a new species of the genus Dinotrema Foerster from caves of Spain
2014
Dinotrema cavernicola sp. n. was collected in two caves in Spain. This is the first Dinotrema species known to occur in caves. This new species is described and compared to D. affine (Fischer, 1973) and D. collybiae Munk & Peris-Felipo, 2014, species sharing a mid-longitudinal carina on the propodeum.
A novel putative insect chitinase with multiple catalytic domains: hormonal regulation during metamorphosis
2002
0264-6021 (Print) Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; We have used differential display to identify genes that are regulated by juvenile hormone in the epidermis of the beetle Tenebrio molitor. One of the genes encodes T. molitor chitinase 5 (TmChit5), a chitinase possessing an unusual structure. Sequence analysis of TmChit5 identified five 'chitinase units' of approx. 480 amino acids with similarity to chitinase family 18. These units are separated by less conserved regions containing putative PEST (rich in proline, glutamic acid, serine and threonine) sequences, putative chitin-binding domains and mucin domains. Northern-blot analysis identified a single transcript of approx…
From phylogenetics to phylogenomics: the evolutionary relationships of insect endosymbiotic gamma-Proteobacteria as a test case.
2007
The increasing availability of complete genome sequences and the development of new, faster methods for phylogenetic reconstruction allow the exploration of the set of evolutionary trees for each gene in the genome of any species. This has led to the development of new phylogenomic methods. Here, we have compared different phylogenetic and phylogenomic methods in the analysis of the monophyletic origin of insect endosymbionts from the gamma-Proteobacteria, a hotly debated issue with several recent, conflicting reports. We have obtained the phylogenetic tree for each of the 579 identified protein-coding genes in the genome of the primary endosymbiont of carpenter ants, Blochmannia floridanus…
Developments in the use of baculoviruses for the surface display of complex eukaryotic proteins
2001
The ability to couple genotype to phenotype has proven to be of immense value in systems such as phage display and has allowed genes encoding novel functions to be selected directly from complex libraries. However, the complexity of many eukaryotic proteins places a severe constraint on successful display in Escherichia coli. This restriction could be resolved if a eukaryotic virus could be similarly engineered for display purposes. Preliminary data have suggested that the baculovirus Autographa californica, a multiple nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV) is a candidate for eukaryotic virus display because the insertion of peptides into the native virus coat protein, or the expression of for…