Cowpea beetle; Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) causes a great deal of losses on stored legume seeds thus leading to serious problems to farmers all over the world. This study aims to investigate ...certain life cycle parameters of C. maculatus by studying the fecundity, hatchability and certain other developmental parameters and the post harvest damage on cowpea, soybean and bambara nut in order to gather information on possible stage control programme. A study was conducted on infested cowpea, soybean and bambara nut in storage between September and December, 2021. Twenty grams (20 g) each of the three legume seed types were weighed into 6.0 x 4.5 cm transparent plastic container with perforated lid and replicated five times. Using completely randomized design five pair of Callosobruchus maculatus adults (24 – 48 hrs old) were used to infest each of the five replicates. Daily Temperature and relative humidity were taken twice in a day. Variables such as fecundity, incubation period, eggs hatched percent, ovipositional preference, seed weight loss, seed damage including statistical analysis were determined. Results showed that cowpea seeds recorded the highest mean number of eggs (131.40 ± 17.95) laid followed by bambara nut (96.40 ± 15.76) and then soybean seeds recorded the least (72.00 ± 13.09). Mean incubation period is lowest in cowpea (3.40 ± 0.25) and highest in soybean (3.80 ± 0.38). The total hatchability being 8.07% (least) in soybean and 38.8% (highest) in cowpea. The mean larval to pupal period 26.00 ± 0.32, 26.40 ± 0.25 and 34.00 ± 0.32 are slightly varied. The mean percent adult emergence on cowpea was 50.80 ± 4.06 male to 49.20 ± 4.06 female, bambara nut had 59.10 ± 5.86 male to 40.90 ± 5.86 female, soybean had 35.30 ± 14.71 male to 64.70 ± 14.71 female. The mean percent weight loss are 19.60 ± 3.34, 9.60 ± 1.87 and 5.50 ± 1.73 for cowpea, bambara nut and soybean respectively. The daily mean minimum and maximum temperature and relative humidity are 31.8°C and 47.85%. This research shows that cowpea, bambara nut and soybean are susceptible host for C. maculatus multiplication and reproduction and the most vulnerable developmental stage is the larva stage. Hence the need to incorporate management approach against the insect pest.
The current population of India is almost 1.4 billion as based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data and equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population (Riggs et al., 2018; ...World Population Prospects 2019, 2019).The global population is expected to cross 10 billion by 2050 Rising population has led to increase food demand. To meet the food and nutrition needs of a growing population, a country requires a sustainable approach that put thrust on increasing productivity against the background of lower yields in a definite land. However, increase in food production faces with the ever-growing challenges especially the new area that can be increased for cultivation purposes is limited (Soheil et al., 2011; FAO, 2020). A high emphasis on achieving food grain self-sufficiency along with rapid population growth has compelled farmers to resort to the substantial use of pesticides. India comprises nearly 17% of the total world's population, but has just less than 2% of the total landmass, whose economy primarily depends on agriculture. Pesticides are widely used to guarantee increased crop production and meeting the constantly escalating food demand (Raza et al., 2019). In order to increase crop production, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, fertilizers and soil amendments are now being used in higher quantities than in the past (Gill & Garg, 2014; Riggs et al., 2018; Sharma et al., 2019).
The process of decision making is a complex procedure influenced by both external and internal conditions. Songbirds provide an excellent model to investigate the neural mechanisms of decision ...making, because females rely on acoustic signals called songs as important stimuli directing their mate choice. Previous experiments by our group and others have implicated secondary auditory brain sites in female evaluation of song quality. Recent pathway tracing experiments reveal a convergence of those sites onto a third area, the ventral portion of the intermediate arcopallium (AIV), suggesting that AIV may also play an important role in song evaluation and mate choice. Here we combined behavioral testing with lesion inactivation to investigate the role of AIV in song preference in female Bengalese finches (Lonchura striata domestica). Our results reveal that inactivation of AIV was associated with destabilization of rank ordering of song preferences. These data suggest a model in which the convergence of auditory activity in AIV plays an important role in female perception of song quality and production of courtship behaviors. Together with previous results that also demonstrate a role for the auditory areas that converge onto AIV, these findings extend the experimental tractability of this emerging animal model of sensory perception and decision making.
The substantial difference in ionic concentration and osmotic pressure between marine and freshwater environments creates a barrier to dispersal that relatively few metazoan lineages have been able ...to cross during the evolution of life on earth. Only about half of animal phyla have representatives in both marine and freshwater environments. Even within the phyla that contain freshwater species there are often large clades that continue to be exclusively marine. Interestingly, though, among some of the clades with freshwater species, this transition has occurred repeated. In order to begin to better understand the mechanisms that have allowed some marine lineages to colonize freshwater environments, I investigated the role of gene duplications in this process. First, using published annelid genomes I compared the gene copy number of the Na+/K+-ATPase alpha subunit gene family, the plasma membrane Ca2+ ATPase (PMCA) gene family, and the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ (SERCA) gene family between marine and freshwater species. I also used gene tree/species tree reconciliation to infer the time of those duplication events. There was a burst of duplications of the Na+/K+-ATPase alpha subunit gene that coincides with the colonization of freshwater habitats by annelids. The evidence of such a burst of duplications for the PMCA or SERCA gene families is inconclusive. Next, in order to increase the sample size and look for more gene families that were involved in the transition to freshwater habitats I downloaded 11 genomes from spiralian animals. I looked for specific gene families that showed a significant increase in size in freshwater species compared to marine species and identified the Na+/K+-ATPase alpha subunit gene family among others. I also used GO enrichment analysis to determine which GO terms were overrepresented in gene families that expanded along freshwater lineages and found terms related to ion transfer to be most common. Finally, I examined available mollusk genomes to compare size of the gene families of interest from the spiralian analyses between marine and freshwater mollusk species. I again found the Na+/K+-ATPase alpha subunit gene family to show a significant increase in size in the freshwater species. How marine animals were able to colonize freshwater habitats is one of the great questions in metazoan evolution and this work represents an important early step in understand this process.
Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) are apex predators that were first introduced into Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Utah-Wyoming in 1979 and have been self-sustaining since 1989. However, our understanding ...of their trophic ecology and subsequent effects on other fish species within this reservoir is limited. I assessed feeding dynamics of Lake Trout through traditional diet analyses and stable isotope analyses of muscle and liver tissues, and compare these outputs to patterns of Lake Trout growth rates and size structure. By integrating Lake Trout feeding dynamics with population demographics, I infer potential impacts of Lake Trout predation on prey fish. Lake Trout consumed a wide breadth of prey items across their ontogeny, but consumed a higher proportion of fish as their length increased. Stable isotope analyses suggested a higher reliance on fish prey than was described by stomach content analysis; however, estimates of feeding dynamics were comparable across methods. Growth models suggest that Lake Trout exhibited two distinct growth trajectories which indicate a divergent foraging strategy among individuals. I conclude that Lake Trout predation could be an important driver of game and non-game fish populations. While more information is needed, results suggest current length class definitions used for Lake Trout harvest regulations may not reflect observed ecological breakpoints. Further research such as bioenergetics modeling and fishing related mortality estimates are needed to fully understand ecological dynamics of this apex predator within Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
Biodiversity refers to a variety and abundance of life in given area. Among the types of diversity, species diversity is the most common usage of diversity, which pertains to the number of species ...found in given areas (Gray 1997). The species diversity comprises many levels of variation, which are ranged from genus to ecosystems level. The oceans cover more than 71 percent of the earth, which provides up to more than 99 percent of the space available for life in the ecosystem. Marine ecosystems are extraordinarily diverse in all aspects; it varied from genetic to taxonomic to ecological level (Ray & Grassle 1991). According to Dulvy et al. (2003) within the fish population there is a high genetic diversity was present and that may be helpful them to protect them against various environmental stresses and the spread of diseases. There are 31,362 distinct fish species reported globally (William et al. 2010). According to the IUCN (2008) there were about 1,275 species of fishes reported as threatened fishes on earth i.e. Red list species. In India total 2,358 number of finfishes were recorded and among them 877 species are fresh water, while 113 species are brackish water and 2,358 are marine species (Ayyappan et al. 2011). The taxonomy of the fish fauna of India has been described by Day (1878), Jordhan (1895), Axelord and Schultz (1905), Jinghran (1975) and Whiteland and Talwar (1976). It is estimated that the fish fauna of India comprises 2546 species belonging to 969 genera and 254 families (ZSI, 1991). Some isolated studies were carried out by few workers in post independence era in Gujarat. Ranade in 1952 published a checklist of freshwater fishes of Baroda district. In 1973, Ramachandran published a list of marine and freshwater fishes of Gujarat. Later on identification and description of marine and freshwater fishes have been carried out by the Gujarat Fisheries Aquatic Science Research Institute. In 1979 Patel and Chhaya published a field key to the identification of fishes in Gujarat.
The interactions that an individual has with its environment can impact the physical traits and behaviors of both that individual and its offspring. This phenotypic plasticity can influence the ...evolution of a population, or the relationships between species. Such is the case when organisms use cues from their environment to develop more effective defenses against predation. Currently, we do not have a consistent record of what factors are most influential in these effects or understand the mechanisms behind them, especially in hermaphroditic species. In this study, I investigated how the morphology and behavior of a hermaphroditic pond snail, Physa acuta, is affected by parental exposure to a predator cue, and how those effects differed based on the exposure of mothers versus fathers and the timing of those exposures. Two generations of snails were bred and raised in the laboratory. The parental F1 generation was exposed to one of three treatments: control cue, early exposure to a predator cue, or late exposure to a predator cue. The F2 generation was raised without exposure to a predator cue, then underwent two anti-predator behavior experiments once sexually mature. The behavioral trials assessed a snail’s predator avoidance behavior when exposed to a predator cue, and the latency trials quantified if there was a difference in how quickly a snail exhibited this behavior, if at all, when exposed to a predator cue versus a control cue. I obtained soft body mass, shell mass, and shell morphometric data on both the F1 and F2 generations at sexual maturity. I found that the exposure of a parent to a predator cue affected some aspects of the phenotypes of their offspring. The timing of exposure had some effect on overall shell shape, but I found no apparent evidence for differences between maternal and paternal effects. My results indicate that exposure to a predator cue is the main factor contributing to both within-generation and transgenerational effects. Maternity or paternity and timing have less influential roles in plasticity, but effects may be revealed under more specific conditions such as when environmental information passed down from the parents is corroborated by the experiences of offspring.
Deepwater Etelis snappers economically and culturally support fisheries in Hawai’i and throughout the Indo-Pacific. In Hawai’i, Etelis coruscans (“onaga”) and Etelis carbunculus (“ehu”) are the most ...abundantly harvested in the Deep 7 Bottomfish Complex, therefore it is important to understand genetic connectivity to make proper management implementations. In addition, understanding their origins will provide further information on how to ensure sustainable stocks within Hawai’i waters. Previous studies have shown that Johnston Atoll is the gateway for marine species to colonize the Hawaiian Archipelago. An alternative route is that marine species can colonize from the west, essentially Japan. To resolve population structure and the origin of the Hawaiian cohorts, we used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to assess E. coruscans (N = 59) and E. carbunculus (N = 55), sampled from Japan, Johnston Atoll (nearest habitat south of Hawai’i), the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). Johnston Atoll samples were excluded from E. carbunculus. For both species, Japan was significantly differentiated with pairwise FST values for MHI and NWHI, and there was non-significant FST values between MHI and NWHI. Etelis coruscans showed no significant FST values between Johnston and MHI/NWHI. STRUCTURE plot of Etelis coruscans showed no genetic clustering, indicating larval exchange from both locations, Japan and Johnston Atoll. STRUCTURE plot of E. carbunculus showed clear population distinction between Japan and Hawaiian Islands, therefore we can tentatively suggest larval exchange between Johnston Atoll and Hawaiian population. To explore this idea further, future studies should focus sampling effort on Johnston to accurately make this suggestion. Management implications and strategies are needed to ensure long term sustainability of these populations of deepwater Etelis snappers. The indeterminate origin of the Hawaiian population may indicate that gene genealogies (i.e. phylogeography) are more appropriate than allele frequencies (SNPs) in resolving colonization routes.
