Specific immunological response against the granulosis virus of the codling moth (Cydia pomonella) in woodmice (Apodemus sylvaticus): field observations

Antibodies specific to the granulosis virus (GV) of the codling moth (Cydia pomonella) were detected by indirect ELISA in sera of woodmice (Apodemus sylvaticus) trapped in an apple orchard sprayed by tractor-drawn mist blower with 2 × 10¹³ virus granules C. pomonella GV/ha. Such antibodies were absent from sera of mice trapped before virus had been applied. Virus antigens were detected by double antibody sandwich ELISA on the ground in and around the orchard and also in the faeces of woodmice inhabiting the orchard, but did not persist from one year to another. Some, but not all, of the samples containing virus antigens were found to be infective.     

Dienoic acid contents of rats with linoleic acid and pyridoxine deficiencies

Low dienoic acid content of the tissues of rats has been produced in two ways: (a) withdrawal of essential fatty acid from the diet, and (b) exclusion of pyridoxine or thiamine from the diet or severe restriction of food (caloric deficiency).By the first method dienoic acid content of the tissues fell to lower levels, and typical symptoms of the deficiency were produced. By the second procedure, the fall was more rapid in the acute vitamin deficiencies but no symptoms characteristic of linoleic acid deficiency occurred. A similar but less rapid course was followed in caloric restriction.Since no essential difference in dienoic acid content of the tissues of rats was found under these several dietary conditions, it was concluded that pyridoxine under the conditions of these experiments does not exert a special supplementary action in the production or conservation of polyenoic fatty acids.     

Residual activity of microencapsulated permethrin against stable flies on lactating dairy cows

Emulsifiable concentrate and microencapsulated formulations of permethrin were evaluated for residual activity against stable flies on lactating dairy cows. Cows were treated in the field with each formulation and hair was clipped from the leg and shoulder area, and bioassayed at 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 14 days after treatment. Significantly more stable flies died when exposed to hair sampled 3, 4 and 7 days after treatment from the shoulder than from the lower leg. Analysis with gas chromatography of hair samples showed no detectable permethrin residues on shoulder or leg hair 72 h after treatment with the emulsifiable concentrate formulation. Microencapsulated permethrin was still detectable on hair sampled from both locations 7 days after treatment. The permethrin concentration on the leg hair was approximately 50% of the shoulder hair concentration after 3 days, with the leg hair residue dropping to 31% of shoulder level after 7 days.     

Soyabean Stem In Vivo Nitrate Reductase Activity

Stem from three- and four-week-old Soyabean [Glycine max (L.)Merr. cv. Tracy] plants reduced from 0.3 to 0.7 µmol nitrateh^–l g^–l f. wt. Leaf activity was 4.7–7.6 µmolnitrate h^–l g^–l f. wt. Outer stem was two to fourtimes more active at reducing nitrate than was inner stem. Plantnitrate nutrition had a strong effect upon the ratio of activitypresent in stem and leaf. More nitrate increased the proportionpresent in leaves. Glycine max L., soyabean, nitrate assimilation, nitrogen metabolism, Rhizobium japonicum     

Nickel and Cobalt Toxicities in Oat Plants

The types of symptomsand anatomical changes produced in oatplants by the addition of nickel and of cobalt to nutrient solutionor by iron deficiency have been compared with those occurringin oat plants from several areas of Aberdeenshire and shownto be similar. Nickel contents are comparable whilst the cobaltcontent of the sand-culture plants is considerably higher.     

Evaluation of DNA barcoding and identification of new haplomorphs in Canadian deerflies and horseflies

This paper reports the first tests of the suitability of the standardized mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) barcoding system for the identification of Canadian deerflies and horseflies. Two additional mitochondrial molecular markers were used to determine whether unambiguous species recognition in tabanids can be achieved. Our 332 Canadian tabanid samples yielded 650 sequences from five genera and 42 species. Standard COI barcodes demonstrated a strong A + T bias (mean 68.1%), especially at third codon positions (mean 93.0%). Our preliminary test of this system showed that the standard COI barcode worked well for Canadian Tabanidae: the target DNA can be easily recovered from small amounts of insect tissue and aligned for all tabanid taxa. Each tabanid species possessed distinctive sets of COI haplotypes which discriminated well among species. Average conspecific Kimura two‐parameter (K2P) divergence (0.49%) was 12 times lower than the average divergence within species. Both the neighbour‐joining and the Bayesian methods produced trees with identical monophyletic species groups. Two species, Chrysops dawsoni Philip and Chrysops montanus Osten Sacken (Diptera: Tabanidae), showed relatively deep intraspecific sequence divergences (～10 times the average) for all three mitochondrial gene regions analysed. We suggest provisional differentiation of Ch. montanus into two haplotypes, namely, Ch. montanus haplomorph 1 and Ch. montanus haplomorph 2, both defined by their molecular sequences and by newly discovered differences in structural features near their ocelli.