A semi-synthetic chickpea flour based diet for long-term maintenance of laboratory culture of helicoverpa armigera

Artificial rearing of insects in the laboratory is a pre-requisite for undertaking studies on insecticide/ biopesticide bioassays, and evaluation of germplasm, segregating breeding material, mapping populations, and transgenic plants for resistance to insects. For successful rearing of insects in the laboratory, there is need for standardizing a semi-synthetic diet that supports survival and development of the insect for several generations. We tested different semi-‘synthetic diets for rearing the legume pod borer, Helicoverpa armigera for two generations under laboratory conditions. All the semi-synthetic diets tested supported the growth and development of H. armigera up to adult emergence, but there were significant differences in survival and development and fecundity on different diets. The highest larval survival was observed in the wheatgerm based diet in first (97.5%) and second generation (93.5%), followed by chickpea based modified diet (93.75% survival in both the generations). The lowest larval weights (270.7 and 283.7 mg) were recorded in the tapioca granules diet in 1st and 2nd generation, respectively. The adult emergence ranged from 68.7 to 83.3%, and 60.4 to 81.2% in the 1st and 2nd generation, respectively. Least fecundity was observed in the tapioca granules based diet (422 and 603 eggs per female) in both the generations, but the differences were not significant. Complete or partial replacement of agar-agar with tapioca granules was not suitable for use in artificial diets. The results indicated that modified chickpea flour based diet was quite appropriate for rearing H. armigera under laboratory condition

Spectral and single crystal X-ray structure of 4-(4′-methyl) benzylidene amino-5-phenyl-3-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole and its antimicrobial activity

1565-1570 4-(4′-Methyl) benzylidene amino-5-phenyl-3-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole (MBPMT) has been synthesized and characteri­zed by elemental analyses, IR, UV, 1H and 13C NMR, DEPT, mass and XRD studies. The study of single crystal X-ray diffraction pattern of 4-(4′-methyl) benzylidene amino-5-phenyl-3-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole (MBPMT) reveals the presence of N—H· · ·S and C—H· · ·S intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions. Equilibrium studies have been carried out with the MBPMT to determine the dissociation constant in 70% v/v dioxan-water medium at 303 K and 0.1 M (KNO3) ionic strength which indicate the presence of one dissociable proton corresponding to thiol group. The antimicrobial activity of MBPMT in DMSO medium is also assessed. </smarttagtype

Spectroscopic properties of MO-WO

ESR, IR, optical absorption and photoluminescence spectra of Ho3+ doped tungsten phosphate glasses modified with three different modifier oxides viz., PbO, ZnO and CaO have been studied. The ESR spectral studies indicate tungsten ions are present in W5+ state in all the three glasses with the highest concentration in CaO modified glasses. From the measured intensities of various absorption bands of these glasses, the Judd-Ofelt (JO) parameters $\Omega_2$, $\Omega_4$ and $\Omega_6$ have been evaluated. The JO theory could successfully be applied to characterise the absorption and luminescence spectra of these glasses. From this theory various radiative properties like radiative transition probabilities, A, branching ratios, $\beta_r$, the radiative lifetimes, $\tau_R$, and the emission cross-sections, σE, for various emission levels of Ho3+ in these glasses have been determined and reported. An attempt has also been made to throw some light on the environment of Ho3+ ions in all the three glasses

Crystal growth and characterization of gamma-glycine grown from potassium fluoride for photonic applications

Single crystals of γ-glycine, an organic nonlinear optical material have been synthesized in the presence of potassium fluoride (KF) by slow evaporation technique at ambient temperature. The size of the grown crystal is up to the dimension of 12 mm × 10 mm × 8 mm. The γ-phase was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder XRD and the FTIR analysis. Optical absorption spectrum reveals that the grown crystal has good optical transparency in the entire visible region with an energy band gap of 5.09 eV, which is an essential requirement for a nonlinear optical crystal. Thermal stability of the grown γ-glycine crystal was determined using the thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analyses. The NLO activity of γ-glycine was confirmed by the Kurtz powder technique using Nd:YAG laser and the grown crystal exhibits high relative conversion efficiency when compared to potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP)