Effect Of Host Plant On The Fecundity Of Spittlebug Deois Flavopicta Stal (homoptera: Cercopidae): Implications On Population Dynamics

The spittlebug Deois flavopicta Stal (Hom.: Cercopidae) occurs naturally on native grasses in Central Brazil in low population densities. After the introduction of African grasses, mainly of the genus Brachiaria, for cattle raising, D. flavopicta began to produce population outbreaks and became a pest. Two studies were conducted, aiming to estimate the effects of a native and an exotic host plant on the fecundity of this insect. Females of D. flavopicta maintained during the adult stage on Brachiaria ruziziensis produced more eggs and lived longer than those maintained on Axonopus marginatus (a native grass widely distributed in Brazil), independently of the host plant on which the nymphs were reared. Due to the severe damage produced by adult D. flavopicta on the host plant, the effect of insect density on its own reproductive capacity was evaluated in oviposition cages containing plants of B. ruziziensis, standardized in height and stem number. Densities of one, two, three, four and six couples with virgin females were evaluated. Population densities of three couples, equivalent to 150 adults/m2, or higher decreased insect's fecundity. These results contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms that determine low levels of spittlebug populations in the native grasses and promote population outbreaks in introduced ones.304547552Begon, M., Mortimer, M., (1986) Population Ecology: A Unified Study of Animals and Plants. 2nd Ed., , Oxford, Blackwell, 220pBerryman, A.A., The theory and classification of outbreaks (1987) Insect Outbreaks, pp. 3-28. , P. Barbosa & J.C. Schultz (eds.), New York, Academic Pres, 578pBoddey, R.M., Victoria, R.L., Estimation of biological nitrogen fixation associated with Brachiaria and Paspalum grasses using 15N labelled organic matter and fertilizer (1986) Plant Soil, 90, pp. 265-313Cavalcante, P.B., Contribuição ao estudo dos corpos silicosos das gramíneas amazônicas (1968) Botânica, 30, pp. 1-26Döbereiner, J., Pedrosa, F.O., (1987) Nitrogen-fixing Bacteria in Nonleguminous Crop Plants, , New York, Spring-Verlag, 155pFontes, E.M.G., Pires, C.S., Sujii, E.R., Mixed risk-spreading strategies and the population dynamics of a brazilian pasture pest, Deois flavopicta (Homoptera: Cercopidae) (1995) J. Econ. Entomol., 88, pp. 1256-1262Ferrufino, A., Lapointe, S.L., Host plant resistance in Brachiaria grasses to the spittlebug Zulia colombiana (1989) Entomol. Exp. Appl., 51, pp. 155-162Haukioja, E., Effects of food and predation on population dynamics (1993) Caterpillars: Ecological and Evolutionary Constraints on Foraging, pp. 425-447. , N.E. Stamp & T.M. Casey (eds.), New York, Chapman and Hall, 587pHewitt, G.B., Enviromental factors affecting spittlebug egg survival during the dry season in Central Brazil (1986) Pesq. Agropec. Bras., 21, pp. 1237-1243Hewitt, G.B., Nilakhe, S.S., Enviromental factors affecting the survival of eggs and early instar nymphs of spittlebugs Zulia entreriana and Deois flavopicta during the rainy season in central Brazil (1986) An. Soc. Entomol. Brasil, 15, pp. 61-76Klink, C.A., Effects of clipping on size and tillering of native and African grasses of Brazilian savannas (the cerrado) (1984) Oecologia, 70, pp. 365-376Kuo, J., Fox, E., MacDonald, S., (1992) Sigmastat: Statistical Software for Working Scientist. User's Manual, , San Francisco, Jandel ScientificMelo, L.A.A., Silveira Neto, S., Villa Nova, N.A., Reis, P.R., Influência de elementos climáticos sobre a população de cigarrinhas das pastagens (1984) Pesq. Agropec. Bras., 19, pp. 9-19De Menezes, M., El Khadi, M.K., Pereira, J.M., Ruiz, M.A.M., (1983) Bases para O Controle Integrado Das Cigarrinhas-das-pastagens Na Região Sudeste Da Bahia, , CEPLAC-CEPEC, Ilhéus, 33pMilanez, J.M., Parra, J.R.P., Menezes, M., Influência de alguns fatores climáticos nas flutuações populacionais de Zulia entreriana (Berg, 1879) e Deois flavopicta (Stal, 1854) nas regiões de Nova Odessa e Piracicaba, Estado de São Paulo (1981) Rev. Theobroma, 11, pp. 219-228Oomen, P.A., A population study of the spittle bugs Aeneolamia occidentalis (Walk.) and Prosapia simulans (Walk.) (Homoptera: Cercopidae) in Mexican Pangola pastures (1975) Z. Ang. Entomol., 79, pp. 225-238Pacheco, J.M., (1981) Aspectos Da Biologia e Ecologia de Deois Flavopicta (Stal, 1854) (Homoptera: Cercopidae) Na Região de São Carlos, , Tese de doutorado, UFSCa, São Paulo, 111pPires, C.S.S., Sujii, E.R., Fontes, E.M.G., Tauber, C.A., Tauber, M.J., Dry-season dormancy in eggs of Deois flavopicta (Homoptera: Cercopidae): Roles of temperature and moisture in nature (2000) Environ. Entomol., 29, pp. 714-720Pires, C.S.S., Price, P.W., Fontes, E.G., Preference performance linkage in the neotropical spittlebug Deois flavopicta, and its relation to the phylogenetic constraints hypothesis (2000) Ecol. Entomol., 25, pp. 71-80Pires, C.S.S., Price, P.W., Oliveira, R.C., Distribution of the spitttlebug Deois flavopicta (Homoptera: Cercopidae) on wild and cultivated host species (2000) An. Soc. Entomol. Brasil, 29, pp. 401-412Raven, J.A., Phytophages of xylem and phloem: A comparison of animal and plant sap-feeders (1983) Adv. Ecol. Res., 13, pp. 135-234Sanders, C.J., Knight, F.B., Natural regulation of the aphid Pterocomma populifoliae on bigtooth aspen in northern lower Michigan (1968) Ecology, 49, pp. 234-244Sendulsky, T., Labouriau, L.G., Corpos silicosos de gramíneas dos Cerrados - I (1966) An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc., 38, pp. 159-185Stoporoli-Neto, A., Pacheco, J.M., Motta, L., Pavan, C., Métodos de obtenção de ovos de cigarrinhas-das-pastagens Deois spp. (Homoptera: Cercopidae) (1985) Rev. Bras. Entomol., 29, pp. 523-533Sujii, E.R., Garcia, M.A., Fontes, E.M.G., Carvalho, V., Efeito da temperatura e umidade sobre o término diapausa de ovos e densidade populacional da cigarrinha-das-pastagens, Deois flavopicta (Stal) (Homoptera: Cercopidae) (1995) An. Soc. Entomol. Brasil, 24, pp. 465-478Sujii, E.R., (1998) Modelagem e Simulação Da Dinâmica Populacional Da Cigarrinha-das-pastagens, Deois Flavopicta (Homoptera: Cercopidae), , Tese de doutorado, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, 239pThompson, V., Spittlebug indicators of nitrogen-fixing plants (1994) Ecol. Entomol., 19, pp. 391-398Valério, J.R., Spittlebugs: Important pasture pests in Brazil (1988) Tymbal, 12, pp. 14-1

Status Report Of The Schenberg Gravitational Wave Antenna

Here we present a status report of the Schenberg antenna. In the past three years it has gone to a radical upgrading operation, in which we have been installing a 1K pot dilution refrigerator, cabling and amplifiers for nine transducer circuits, designing a new suspension and vibration isolation system for the microstrip antennas, and developing a full set of new transducers, microstrip antennas, and oscillators. We are also studying an innovative approach, which could transform Schenberg into a broadband gravitational wave detector.3631Aguiar, O.D., (2002) Class. Quantum Grav., 19, p. 1949Aguiar, O.D., (2004) Class. Quantum Grav., 21, pp. S457Aguiar, O.D., (2005) Class. Quantum Grav., 22, pp. S209Aguiar, O.D., (2006) Class. Quantum Grav., 23, pp. S239Aguiar, O.D., (2008) Class. Quantum Grav., 25, p. 114042Costa, C.A., (2008) Class. Quantum Grav., 25, p. 184002Johnson, W.W., Merkowitz, S.M., (1993) Phys. Rev. Lett., 70, p. 2367Coccia, E., Lobo, J.A., Ortega, J.A., (1995) Phys. Rev. D, 52, p. 3735Thorne, K.S., (1978) Phys. Rev. Lett., 40, p. 667Tobar, M.E., Ivanov, E.N., Blair, D.G., (2000) Gen. Rel. Grav., 32, p. 1799De Waard, (2005) Class. Quantum Grav., 22, pp. S215Vinet, J.-Y., (2010) Research in Astron Astrophys., 10, p. 956Costa, C.A., Aguiar, O.D., Magalhães, N.S., (2004) Class. Quantum Grav., 21, pp. S827Forward, R.L., (1971) Gen. Rel. Grav., 2, p. 149Eardley, D.M., Lee, D.L., Lightman, A.P., Wagoner, R.V., Will, C.M., (1973) Phys. Rev. Lett., 30, p. 884Bianchi, M., Coccia, E., Colacino, C.N., Fafone, V., Fucito, F., (1996) Class. Quantum Grav., 13, p. 2865Andrade, L.A., (2009) Microwave and Optical Tech. Lett., 51, p. 1120Furtado, S.R., (2012), in preparationIvanov, E.N., Hartnett, J.G., Tobar, M.E., (2000) IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr., 47, p. 1526Pimentel, G.L., (2008) J. Phys. Conf. Series, 122, p. 012028Aguiar, (2009) Int. J. Modern Phys. D, 18, p. 2317Furtado, S.R., (2009), Ph.D. Thesis at INPE, not publishedBraginsky, V.B., Vorontsov, Y.I., Thorne, K.S., (1980) Science, 209, p. 547Thorne, K.S., The Quantum Limit for Gravitational-Wave Detectors and Methods of Circumventing It (1979) Sources of Gravitational Waves, p. 49. , ed. L L Smarr, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, US