多杀菌素和氟虫睛对瓢虫、寄生蜂和菜缢管蚜选择性的研究

采用药膜法研究了多杀菌素和氟虫睛对3种瓢虫、2种寄生蜂和菜缢管蚜的选择性。与菜缢管蚜相比,2种杀虫剂对3种瓢虫的毒性较低(LC50比值=1.73-41.9),尤其是氟虫睛对3种瓢虫以及多杀菌素对稻红瓢虫均具有较好的选择性(LC50比值大于5)。菜蚜茧蜂和蚜虫宽缘金小蜂对2种杀虫剂的敏感性远高于3种瓢虫和菜缢管蚜,2种杀虫剂对菜蚜茧蜂和蚜虫宽缘金小蜂均是高毒的(LC50比值=0.006-0.05)。3种瓢虫对多杀菌素和氟虫睛具有较高的耐药性,这将有助于其在生物防治中的应用。     

Are you what you eat? A highly transient and prey‐influenced gut microbiome in the grey house spider Badumna longinqua

Stable core microbial communities have been described in numerous animal species and are commonly associated with fitness benefits for their hosts. Recent research, however, highlights examples of species whose microbiota are transient and environmentally derived. Here, we test the effect of diet on gut microbial community assembly in the spider Badumna longinqua. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing combined with quantitative PCR, we analyzed diversity and abundance of the spider's gut microbes, and simultaneously characterized its prey communities using nuclear rRNA markers. We found a clear correlation between community similarity of the spider's insect prey and gut microbial DNA, suggesting that microbiome assembly is primarily diet‐driven. This assumption is supported by a feeding experiment, in which two types of prey—crickets and fruit flies—both substantially altered microbial diversity and community similarity between spiders, but did so in different ways. After cricket consumption, numerous cricket‐derived microbes appeared in the spider's gut, resulting in a rapid homogenization of microbial communities among spiders. In contrast, few prey‐associated bacteria were detected after consumption of fruit flies; instead, the microbial community was remodelled by environmentally sourced microbes, or abundance shifts of rare taxa in the spider's gut. The reshaping of the microbiota by both prey taxa mimicked a stable core microbiome in the spiders for several weeks post feeding. Our results suggest that the spider's gut microbiome undergoes pronounced temporal fluctuations, that its assembly is dictated by the consumed prey, and that different prey taxa may remodel the microbiota in drastically different ways.     

稻田蜘蛛混合种群空间分布模式动态分析(英文)

结果表明,在东方红农场稻田中总共有11科29属43种蜘蛛,其中早稻田中有8科19属43种,晚稻田中有10科27属36种。在水稻的不同发育阶段蜘蛛混合种群的空间分布模式存在差异。在早稻发育的前期、中期和后期,稻田蜘蛛混合种群的空间分布模式分别是聚集的、随机的和聚集的;在晚稻发育的前期、中期和后期,其空间分布模式依次是均匀的、聚集的和均匀的。同时,对其空间分布模式动态进行了初步分析。     

Alarm communication in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ropalidia</Emphasis> social wasps

Summary Alarm pheromones, chemical substances produced by social insects to alert the colony to threat, are the principal means by which colony defence is co-ordinated. We present the results of a study on alarm behaviour in 5 swarming species of wasps belonging to the genus Ropalidia. These species show a remarkably efficient strategy of alarm communication, including visual display and attack synchronization. We show that pheromones released from the venom gland play an important role in alarm recruitment in species belonging to the Ropalidia flavopicta group, but not in Ropalidia sumatrae. We analysed the contents of the venom reservoirs content of four of the studied species by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Glands were found to contain a complex mixture of volatile compounds as well as spiroacetals of higher molecular weight. Interestingly, despite all species producing similar chemical compounds from the venom gland, these were found to elicit alarm behaviour in only those species that build nest envelopes, suggesting a link between chemical release of alarm behaviour and the evolution of nest architecture in Ropalidia wasps.Received 19 August 2003; revised 29 February 2004; accepted 10 March 2004     

Patterns of nest provisioning and parental investment in the solitary digger wasp Ammophila sabulosa

Abstract.

• 1 In nest-building wasps there is a continuum from species that provision each offspring cell with one large prey item (single provisioning) to species that provision each cell with many small items (multiple provisioning). The significance of number of prey per cell was examined during two seasons in Ammophila sabulosa (L.), a species that provisions between one and five caterpillars per cell.
• 2 There was no difference between the total weight of prey in singly-provisioned and multiply-provisioned cells: individual caterpillars placed in multiply-provisioned cells were smaller.
• 3 Small caterpillars were captured and transported to the nest faster than large ones.
• 4 If the first prey provisioned was large, the cell was usually then permanently closed. If the first prey was small, additional prey were captured, and females appeared to become more selective: additional prey were rarely large.
• 5 It is suggested that the flexible provisioning strategy used by A.sabulosa allows a wide range of prey sizes to be utilized without affecting maternal control of offspring size and sex. This could be important when available prey sizes vary temporally and spatially.
• 6 There was a male-biased first generation investment ratio. Female-producing cells were provisioned with a higher total prey weight than male-producing cells, and conversion of prey weight to adult weight was more efficient for females.
• 7 Total prey weight provisioned is probably a good indirect measure of parental time investment in A.sabulosa. Other measures, particularly number of prey provisioned, will be less accurate.

     

Plant-attracted ants affect arthropod community structure but not necessarily herbivory

Abstract.  1. The effectiveness of ants as plant defenders is equivocal for plants that attract ants via extrafloral nectaries (EFNs).
2. This study focused on the myrmecophilic savannah tree Pseudocedrela kotschyi that attracts ants to EFNs and on the arthropod fauna associated with P. kotschyi . Herbivory and arthropod community composition were compared between trees that were dominated by one of three congeneric ant species, Camponotus acvapimensis , C. rufoglaucus , and C. sericeus , and between trees where ants were experimentally excluded and untreated control trees.
3. Short-term ant-exclusion experiments failed to demonstrate a consistent effect of ants on herbivory.
4. Plants dominated by different ant species differed significantly in leaf damage caused by herbivorous insects. The relative ranking of herbivory levels of the trees dominated by different ant species was persistent in three consecutive years.
5. Ants significantly reduced the abundance of different arthropod groups (Araneae, Blattodea, Coleoptera, Homoptera, non-ant Hymenoptera). Other groups, including important herbivores, seemed not to be affected (Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, Heteroptera).
6. The study suggests that the presence of ants only benefits plants when specific ant species are attracted, and protection by these ants is not counterbalanced by their negative effect on other beneficial arthropods.     

A new combination expands the range of the African araneid spider Singafrotypa (Araneae, Araneidae)

Study of the syntype of Larinioides subinermis, a species known from Ethiopia only, revealed that it actually belongs to Singafrotypa Benoit, 1962. We redescribe Singafrotypa subinermis (Caporiacco, 1940), comb. n., and provide a key to females of four species belonging to Singafrotypa. A distribution map for all species is provided.     

Evidence for intersexual chemical mimicry in a dioecious plant

The dioecious Mediterranean fig, Ficus carica, displays a unique phenology in which males sometimes bloom synchronously with females (in summer), and sometimes not (in spring). Ficus carica is engaged in an obligatory mutualism with a specific pollinating wasp, which reproduces only within figs, localising them by their specific scents. We show that scents emitted by male figs show seasonal variation within individual trees. Scents of summer male figs resemble those of the co-flowering females, and are different from those of the same male trees in spring, when female figs are absent. These differences hold even if only compounds electrophysiologically active for pollinators are considered. The similar scents of summer males and females may explain why the rewardless females are still pollinated. These results offer a tractable model for future studies of intersexual chemical mimicry in mutualistic pollination interactions.     

Variation in social behavior within a spider mite genus, Stigmaeopsis (Acari: Tetranychidae)

The spider mites belonging to the genus Stigmaeopsis constructextremely dense oval woven roofs (web-nests) over depressionson the lower surface of host leaves and are known to have akind of sociality. The four species that occur on bamboo plantsin Japan show different nest areas. The nest area of Stigmaeopsislongus is the largest, followed by that of S. celarius, S. takahashii,and S. saharai in decreasing order. Smaller nests effectivelyprevent adults of several predator mite species from intruding.We hypothesized that variation in nest size reflects differentanti-intruder adaptations of this mite group in relation totheir sociality. The larger nest makers may adopt an alternativeanti-intruder strategy, namely, counterattack by a large group,so as to compensate for the disadvantage of large nests. S.longus and S. celarius adults effectively defended their largenests against potential predators, and the effects of nest defenseincreased with the number of individuals in a nest. S. takahashiiand S. saharai revealed no counterattack effect. Counterattackabilities that increase with the adult density, and thus, socialitymay compensate for the vulnerability of larger nests.     

Use of spider silk fibres as an innovative material in a biocompatible artificial nerve conduit

Defects of peripheral nerves still represent a challenge for surgical nerve reconstruction. Recent studies concentrated on replacement by artificial nerve conduits from different synthetic or biological materials. In our study, we describe for the first time the use of spider silk fibres as a new material in nerve tissue engineering. Schwann cells (SC) were cultivated on spider silk fibres. Cells adhered quickly on the fibres compared to polydioxanone monofilaments (PDS). SC survival and proliferation was normal in Live/Dead assays. The silk fibres were ensheathed completely with cells. We developed composite nerve grafts of acellularized veins, spider silk fibres and SC diluted in matrigel. These artificial nerve grafts could be cultivated in vitro for one week. Histological analysis showed that the cells were vital and formed distinct columns along the silk fibres. In conclusion, our results show that artificial nerve grafts can be constructed successfully from spider silk, acellularized veins and SC mixed with matrigel.