A comparison of three strains of Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.) (Col., Silvanidae) on a temperature-moisture gradient

Effects of temperature, moisture and thermal acclimation on the biology of Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

“…This is an excellent example of factor interaction (Odum, 1971). Similar findings have been reported for several insect species which include the curculionids, Hypera postica (Sweetman, 1933) and Sitophilus granarius (Bailey, 1969;Howe and Hole, 1968;Robinson, 1925;Smerka and Hodson, 1959;Surtees, 1964b), the silvanid beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (Amos, 1968), the ptinid beetle, Ptinus tectus (Bentley, 1944), the flour beetles, Tribolium castaneurn (Howe, 1956) and T. con fus um (Howe, 1960;Wattsrs, 1966), the anobiid, Lasioderm serricorne (Lefkovitch and Currie, 1967), the dermestid beetle, Trogoderma granarium (Schwalbe et al, 1973;Yinon and Shulov, 1969), the noctuid pine looper, Bupalus piniarius (Klomp and Gruys, 1965) and the tortricid, Choristoneura fumiferana (Morris, 1965;Wellington, 1949), as well as the arachnids, Clubiona similis, Suophrys frontalis, Phrurolithus festivus and Stemonyphantes lineatus (Almquist, 1970), Theridion saxatile (Norgaard, 1956), the lycosid spiders, Pirata piraticus and Lycosa pullata (Norgaard, 1951), several species of linyphids, philodromids, tetragrathids and theridiids (Kirchner, 1973), the earth mite, Halotydeus destructor (Cloudsley-Thompson, 1964), and the centipedes, Scolopendra polymorpha and Lithobius sp. (Cloudsley-Thompson and Crawford, 1970).…”

“…As a result, water will evaporate from the surface of the insect along this gradient into the general atmosphere. , Under these conditions, the rate of evaporation is dependent upon the degree to which the evaporating surface (integument) is permeable to water and the temperature of the evaporating surface (Alexander and Ewer, 1958;Almquist, 1970;Amos, 1968;Arlian and Wharton, 1974;Cloudsley-Thompson, 1970;Flemister, 1964). Due to the small size of insects, the surface area through which evaporative water loss can take place is large in relation, to the quantity of bodily water that they contain.…”

“…Although mortality records are known for relatively few insect species (Amos and Morley, 1971), those that are available indicate that each species has a characteristic life span varies widely from one species to another. It is also important to keep in mind that the life span of insects under laboratory conditions is probably different from that found in the normal habitat of the species (Allee et al, 1949;Amos, 1968). Previous investigations on the life span of adult insects have confirmed the wide variations between species and also that there are differences as a function of sex (Park and Frank, 1948).…”

“…There has been an emphasis in recent years on studies concerning the biology and behavior of stored product insects and the effects of certain environmental factors on their survival capacity. Areas which have received the most atten tion with respect to temperature relations have included studies on temperature preferences in the sawtoothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (Amos, 1968(Amos, , 1969, the flour beetles of the genus Tribolium (Amos and Waterhouse, 1969;Grahm, 1958;Gray, 1948;Roth and Willis, 1950;Waterhouse et al, 1971; Willis and Roth, 1950), and the mealworm T.…”

Insect Infestation of Stored Oats in Florida and Field Evaluation of a Device for Counting Insects Electronically

“…Because insects show oriented responses to temperature and moisture gradients (Amos 1968, Amos and Waterhouse 1969, Arbogast and Carthon 1972, Perttunen 1972, Arbogast 1974 and to the distribution of dockage (foreign material, broken grain, and Þne farinaceous material) (McGregor 1964), we would expect these to be among the major factors determining insect distribution in stored grain. Contour analysis of trap catches indicated that, at their highest population levels, beetles were concentrated along the wall of the bin from northwest to east (Fig.…”