The Science of Rijāl as a Method in the Study of Hadiths

Abstract

Plant-derived pyrrolizidine alkaloids play an important role in the biology of the salt marsh moth, Estigmene acrea (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). They are phagostimulants for larvae and they stimulate the growth and development of adult male androconial organs called coremata. In this study, we have shown that the pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline N-oxide (MNO) fed to larvae also affects the courtship behavior of adult males. Males fed a diet containing MNO display their coremata while males fed on the same diet without alkaloid rarely display. This explains why it has been difficult to replicate field observations of the “lekking” behavior of this species in the laboratory where animals are frequently raised on commercially available diets devoid of alkaloids. Corematal inflation was observed in isolated males and in laboratory leks. The effect of larvae feeding on pyrrolizidine alkaloid on the reproductive behavior of adults suggests that this substance may modify the development of the moth's nervous system and contribute to their unusual dual mating strategies. MNO was also shown to be an adequate precursor for the production of the courtship pheromone hydroxydanaidal.

DNA Barcodes for Nearctic Auchenorrhyncha (Insecta: Hemiptera)

“…The only broad surveys are those of Kamitani [18], who provided DNA barcodes for 45 species of Japanese Cicadellidae, Cryan and Svenson [19] who included COI sequences for 80 species as part of their investigation of family-level relationships among Cercopoidea, and Lin & Wood [20] in a study of tribal relationships and the evolution of maternal care in Membracinae. In addition, several genus-level or species-group phylogenetic analyses and investigations of population variation have included all or part of the barcode region [21]–[32] providing intensive within-species replication. Two other studies employed COI barcodes to identify cicadellid prey items [33]–[34] while Le Roux and Rubinoff [35] used COI sequences to help determine the source of a leafhopper adventive to Hawaii.…”

Vision-mediated exploitation of a novel host plant by a tephritid fruit fly

“…It is conceivable that, once the fruits were located, chemical cues associated with the novel host may have induced females to lay eggs, leading to successful larval development. Whether papaya fruit contain oviposition stimulants [36] is not known; but current successful exploitation of this resource [18], [25], suggests that no repellents or deterrents are present on or in the ripe papaya fruit.…”

“…Bactrocera (Zeugodacus) cucurbitae [17] (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is an invasive herbivore that is distributed widely in temperate, tropical, and sub-tropical regions of the world [18]. Although the host range of B .…”

Plant Water Stress Affects Interactions Between an Invasive and a Naturalized Aphid Species on Cereal Crops

“…A diverse community of economically important cereal aphids occurs sympatrically in wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) fields throughout the rainfed agricultural regions of the Pacific Northwest United States (PNW; Schotzko and Bosque-Pérez 2000, Bosque-Pérez et al 2002, Qureshi and Michaud 2005). These include multiple naturalized species such as Rhopalosiphum padi L. (bird cherry-oat aphid), Sitobion avenae F. (English grain aphid), Schizaphis graminum (Rondani) (greenbug), Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko) (Russian wheat aphid), and a recently detected exotic grass aphid, Metopolophium festucae (Theobald) subspecies cerealium (Halbert et al 2013).…”

“…Studies evaluating interactions between sympatrically occurring aphids colonizing the same plant are few (Qureshi and Michaud 2005), and interactions between herbivores are seldom considered in the context of simultaneously occurring plant stress from abiotic factors such as drought. Here, we designed experiments to examine interactions between M. festucae cerealium and R. padi , a widespread cereal aphid species naturalized in the PNW.…”