We tested artificial diets for rearing the coconut hispine beetle, Brontispa longissima, a serious invasive pest of coconut (Cocos nucifera) in Southeast Asia. We examined three artificial diets that were identical except for their agar content. The survival rate from hatching to adult emergence was 26.0% when beetles were reared on a ‘soft diet’ (20 g/l agar), 16.0% on a ‘hard diet’ (40 g/l agar), and 41.0% on a ‘mixed diet’, in which the hard diet was used for the first instar and the soft diet for later instars. Females raised as larvae on the mixed diet and then as adults on the soft diet laid few eggs, which did not hatch. However, females reared on the mixed diet as larvae and then on fresh leaves as adults consistently laid eggs that hatched. We then examined the suitability of B. longissima larvae reared on the mixed diet as hosts for the larval parasitoid Asecodes hispinarum, a specialist parasitoid of this beetle. Of the oviposited hosts, 75.0% became mummified and 41.7% produced adult wasps. These results indicate that the mixed diet may be useful for rearing B. longissima larvae as hosts for the rearing of A. hispinarum.
The coconut hispine beetle,Brontispa longissimashows, aggregation in the field. To elucidate the effect of aggregation on larval developmental aspects, we examined the effects of larval density on various aspects of larval development and on survival rates. Recently we found thatB. longissimawas divided into two monophyletic clades by genetic analysis. Therefore, we also compared the results between two populations, from Ishigaki, Japan (ISH) and Papua New Guinea (PNG), which were representative of the two monophyletic clades ofB. longissima. In both ISH and PNG, the larval developmental period was shorter and the survival rate higher with rearing under high-density conditions than under isolated conditions. Similarly, fewer instars were required before pupation under high-density conditions than under isolated conditions.Brontispa longissimatherefore developed better under high-density conditions, and the trends in the density effect were similar between two monophyletic clades.
Thermodynamic properties of some selected even-even nuclei such as 56 Fe, 60 Ni, 98 Mo, and 116 Sn are studied within the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory at finite temperature (FTBCS) taking into account pairing correlations. The theory also incorporates the particle-number projection within the Lipkin-Nogami method (FTLN). The level densities are derived based on the statistical theory of the grand-canonical ensemble (GCE). The results obtained are compared with the recent experimental data by Oslo (Norway) group. It is found that pairing correlations have significant effects on nuclear level density, especially at low and intermediate excitation energies.
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