Environmental and physiological factors influencing phototactic flight of Bemisia tabaci

Abstract. Experiments were conducted in a glasshouse and in the laboratory to determine the environmental and physiological parameters that affect flight behaviour of Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae). The number of whiteflies taking off and exhibiting a positive response to sky light in the glasshouse was greatest from 08.30 to 10.00 hours. During peak flight activity less than 5% of the population engaged in phototactic orientation. Temperature was the best single predictor for the phototactic response, accounting for 75% of the variability in whitefly ascent. Sex ratios were determined for individuals remaining on poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima (Willd.), and for individuals that exhibited phototactic orientation; both groups deviated from an expected 1:1 ratio. Males were more prevalent on the plants (1:0.76), whereas females were much more prevalent (1:3.02) among the whiteflies responding to sky light. A higher percentage of the females displaying a phototactic response contained eggs when compared to females remaining on poinsettia (87 v 65%). The two groups of females did not differ significantly in their weights, but males that remained on the plants were heavier than males that responded to sky light. Mark–recapture studies and experiments where phototactic individuals were removed from the population established that the response was short-lived. Whiteflies exhibiting a phototactic response in the glasshouse were more likely to exhibit long-duration, phototactic flights in a vertical flight chamber when compared to individuals that remained on poinsettia (80.7 ± 6.7 v 36.0 ± 5.8% phototactic response; 7.0 ±3.2 v 0.7±0.2min flights). There was also less deviation in flight across the horizontal plane among the individuals that exhibited a positive response to sky light in the glasshouse in comparison to individuals that remained on their host. However, initial rates of climb were not significantly different between the two groups of whiteflies.     

Evidence for the Predator Attraction Hypothesis in an amphibian predator–prey system

Many species possess damage-released chemical alarm cues that function in alerting nearby individuals to a predator attack. One hypothesis for the evolution and/or maintenance of such cues is the Predator Attraction Hypothesis, where predators, rather than prey, are the “intended” recipients of these cues. If a predator attack attracts additional predators, these secondary predators might interfere with the predation event, providing the prey with a better chance to escape. In this study, we conducted two experiments to explore this hypothesis in an amphibian predator/prey system. In Experiment 1, we found that tiger salamanders (Ambystoma mavortium) showed a foraging attraction to chemical cues from wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) tadpoles. Salamanders that were experienced with tadpole prey, in particular, were strongly attracted to tadpole alarm cues. In Experiment 2, we observed experimental encounters between a tadpole and either one or two salamanders. The presence of the second predator caused salamanders to increase attack speed at the cost of decreased attack accuracy (i.e., increasing the probability that the tadpole would escape attacks). We also found that the mere presence of visual and chemical cues from a second predator did not affect this speed/accuracy trade-off but did cause enough of a distraction to increase tadpole survival. Thus, our findings are consistent with the Predator Attraction Hypothesis for the evolution and/or maintenance of alarm cues.     

视力与视觉诱发电位的相关分析

对104例病人的图形翻转VEP的瞬态波形各参数,以及9例正常或近视学生的稳态曲线功率谱与视力之间的关系进行了多元相关统计分析,旨在探讨VEP的哪些参数可客观地评估视力.结果表明,瞬态VEP的波形参数中以13’格诱发的N_1P_1、P_1N_2的峰峰值及P_(100)潜伏期与视力的相关系数最大,故认为,分析视力时以平均P_(100)波的波幅值和P_(100)波潜伏期作指标较为灵敏;而稳态、VEP能谱曲线则显示,视力与平均相叶能谱或刺激频率点的能谱相关性较大,与二次谐波的相关性则小.     

Transplantation of neurons reveals processing areas and rules for synaptic connectivity in the cricket nervous system

In order to assess the nature of spatial cues in determining the characteristic projection sites of sensory neurons in the CNS, we have transplanted sensory neurons of the cricket Acheta domesticus to ectopic locations. Thoracic campaniform sensilla (CS) function as proprioceptors and project to an intermediate layer of neuropil in thoracic ganglia while cercal CS transduce tactile information and project into a ventral layer in the terminal abdominal ganglion (TAG). When transplanted to ectopic locations, these afferents retain their modality-specific projection in the host ganglion and terminate in the layer of neuropil homologous to that of their ganglion of origin. Thus, thoracic CS neurons project to intermediate neuropil when transplanted to the abdomen and cercal CS neurons project to a ventral layer of neuropil when transplanted to the thorax. We conclude that CS can be separated into two classes based on their characteristic axonal projections within each segmental ganglion. We also found that the sensory neurons innervating tactile hairs project to ventral neuropil in any ganglion they encounter after transplantation. Ectopic sensory neurons can form functional synaptic connections with identified interneurons located within the host ganglia. The new contacts formed by these ectopic sensory neurons can be with normal targets, which arborize within the same layer of neuropil in each segmental ganglion, or with novel targets, which lack dendrites in the normal ganglion and are thus normally unavailable for synaptogenesis. These observations suggest that a limited set of molecular markers are utilized for cell–cell recognition in each segmentally homologous ganglion. Regenerating sensory neurons can recognize novel postsynaptic neurons if they have dendrites in the appropriate layer of neuropil. We suggest that spatial constraints produced by the segmentation and the modality-specific layering of the nervous system have a pivotal role in determining synaptic specificity. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Processing of global and local properties——An analysis with event-related brain potentials

The different processing of global and local properties of compound visual stimuli was studied with event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in the present experiment. It was found that, compared with the identification of global properties, the discrimination of local properties elicited longer RTs, lower accuracies, increased amplitudes of P1, decreased amplitudes of N1, and longer latencies of N2 and P3. The conflict of global and local properties increased the amplitudes of P2, decreased the amplitudes of P3, and prolonged latencies of N2 and P3. These results indicated that the advantage of global processing occurs at an early perceptual stage, and the attentional mechanisms for global and local processing may be different.     

Use of seedling progeny tests for genetical studies as part of a potato (Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum) breeding programme

A diallel set of crosses, including selfs and some reciprocal crosses, was made between 15 parents chosen for their male fertility from those included in a tetraploid potato (Solanum tuberosum subsp. tuberosum) breeding programme at the Scottish Crop Research Institute. Seedling progeny tests were used to evaluate the progenies for non-race-specific resistance to late blight (Phytophthora infestans) in both foliage and tubers, quantitative resistance to the white potato cystnematode (PCN) (Globodera pallida) and the commercial worth of their tubers as judged by breeders' visual preference. No reciprocal differences were found. Comparisons of the selfs and crosses revealed inbreeding depression for breeders' preference, which varied among the parents from negligible to severe, whilst there were also statistically significant differences for foliage and tuber blight, but not for PCN. When the selfs were omitted from the combining ability analyses, large differences in general combining ability (GCA) were found for all four traits, and smaller differences in specific combining ability for tuber blight and breeders' preference. The only statistically significant correlation between GCAs for different traits was a favourable one of r = 0.56 between foliage and tuber resistance to late blight. It was concluded that prospects were good for simultaneously improving all four traits by multitrait genotypic recurrent selection.     

Orientation of agents of wound myiasis to hosts and artificial stimuli in Hungary

Abstract. The orientation of adults of the myiasis species Wohlfahrtia magnified and Lucilia sericata to artificial visual stimuli (cloth targets) and olfactory stimuli ('swormlure-4', a potent screwworm attractant), was studied in sheep pastures near to Sarbogard in Hungary. Experiments with odour-baited cloth targets, enclosed in electrocuting grids, demonstrated that colour was an important factor influencing catches on targets: a black target caught most flies of both species, with other colours in the following order of effectiveness, blue > white > yellow. Wohlfahrtia magnified did not respond to swormlure-4 in the strong manner that L. sericata did. The sex ratios of W. magnifica caught on targets (67.2% males) and hand-netted from fence posts (68.8% males) were similar and biased towards males, whereas that of L. sericata on targets was strongly biased towards females (15.6% males), indicating a fundamental difference in the response of these two myiasis species towards the swormlure-baited targets. The orientation of these two species towards hosts was also recorded together with that of a third species, Phormia regina . Electric nets placed beside infested sheep caught significantly more flies of all three species than those placed beside uninfested sheep or in the absence of sheep. The sex ratio of W. magnified caught around infested sheep was the reverse of that on targets, with 68.5% females. Wohlfahrtia magnifica responded more strongly to healthy, uninfested sheep than did L. sericata and P. regina . The potential for use of targets both for population monitoring and control is discussed.     

The use of visual cues in host evaluation by aphidiid wasps

We examined host evaluation behaviour in three species of aphid parasitoids, Ephedrus californicus Baker, Monoctonus paulensis (Ashmead), and Praon pequodorum Viereck (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae). Mated females were provided with pairwise choices among three kinds of hosts in the laboratory: (green) pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), and a green and a pink colour morph of alfalfa aphid, Macrosiphum creelii Davis. Patterns of attack and host acceptance were species-specific. Females of E. californicus did not respond to the presence of aphids prior to making antennal contact. Variations in rates of parasitization (pea aphid>green alfalfa aphid>pink alfalfa aphid) were consistent with differences in aphid defensive behaviours; no ‘preference’ for any host type was evident when aphids were anaesthetized with carbon dioxide. In M. paulensis, the order of preference (pea aphid>green alfalfa aphid>pink alfalfa aphid) did not vary when aphids were immobilized, or presented in the dark, or both. Host movement did not influence the rate of attack by M. paulensis. In contrast, the ranked order of preference in P. pequodorum varied with circumstance. In the light, females attacked pea aphid and green alfalfa aphid with equal frequency, but parasitized significantly more of the former; both kinds of aphids were attacked and parasitized at higher rates than pink alfalfa aphid. In the dark, P. pequodorum females parasitized green and pink alfalfa aphids equally and at higher rates than pea aphids. Whereas E. californicus was more successful ovipositing in immobilized hosts, P. pequodorum females attacked and laid more eggs in normal than anaesthetized aphids. Patterns of host recognition and evaluation are compared across six species representing four genera in the family Aphidiidae.     

Traveling Waves and the Processing of Weakly Tuned Inputs in a Cortical Network Module

Recent studies have shown that local cortical feedback can havean important effect on the response of neurons in primary visualcortex to the orientation of visual stimuli. In this work, westudy the role of the cortical feedback in shaping thespatiotemporal patterns of activity in cortex. Two questionsare addressed: one, what are the limitations on the ability ofcortical neurons to lock their activity to rotatingoriented stimuli within a single receptive field? Two, can thelocal architecture of visual cortex lead to the generation ofspontaneous traveling pulses of activity? We study theseissues analytically by a population-dynamic model of ahypercolumn in visual cortex. The order parameter thatdescribes the macroscopic behavior of the network is thetime-dependent population vector of the network. We firststudy the network dynamics under the influence of a weakly tunedinput that slowly rotates within the receptive field. We showthat if the cortical interactions have strong spatialmodulation, the network generates a sharply tuned activityprofile that propagates across the hypercolumn in a path thatis completely locked to the stimulus rotation. The resultantrotating population vector maintains a constant angular lagrelative to the stimulus, the magnitude of which grows with thestimulus rotation frequency. Beyond a critical frequency thepopulation vector does not lock to the stimulus but executes aquasi-periodic motion with an average frequency that is smallerthan that of the stimulus. In the second part we consider thestable intrinsic state of the cortex under the influence of isotropic stimulation. We show that if the local inhibitoryfeedback is sufficiently strong, the network does not settleinto a stationary state but develops spontaneous travelingpulses of activity. Unlike recent models of wave propagation incortical networks, the connectivity pattern in our model isspatially symmetric, hence the direction of propagation ofthese waves is arbitrary. The interaction of these waves withan external-oriented stimulus is studied. It is shown that thesystem can lock to a weakly tuned rotating stimulus if thestimulus frequency is close to the frequency of the intrinsic wave.