Marine Flora and Fauna of the Northeastern United States Echinodermata: Crinoidea

The crinoid fauna of the continental margin (0-1500 m) of northeastern North America (Georgia to Canada) includes 14 species in 13 genera and 5 families. We introduce the external morphology and natural history of crinoids and include a glossary of terms, an illustrated key to local taxa, annotated systematic list, and an index. The fauna includes 2 species found no further south than New England and 8 that occur no further north than the Carolinas and Blake Plateau. Comactinia meridionalis (Agassiz) is the only species commonly found in shallow water «50 m). No taxa are endemic to the area. (PDF file contains 34 pages.

Alien invaders in Hawaii: prospects for remediation using biological control.

In this short paper I will review both the positive and negative factors affecting the prospects for biological control in Hawaii, and will give some concrete recommendations for improving these prospects given intelligent prioritization of available funding

A Survey for Potential Biocontrol Agents of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Thailand

Scientific note.Limited investigations on parasitoids of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), infesting five species of Cucurbitaceae and seven species of Solanaceae were conducted in Thailand to determine natural occurrence of biological control agents. Fruit samples were collected during January-February 1996, and tephritid puparia were imported into the State of Hawaii Quarantine Facility for fly and parasitoid emergence. Cucumis sativus L., Luffa acutangula (L.), and Momordica charantia L. were commonly infested by B. cucurbitae. Bactrocera tau (Walker) was dominant only in L. acutangula. Infestation of ripe, cultivated fruit of M. charantia was 72.3 B. cucurbitae/kg fruit and parasitoids were pre-dominantly Psyttalia fletcheri (Silvestri) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), with parasitization rates up to 12.4%. Bactrocera cucurbitae infesting M. charantia in northern Thailand yielded an unidentified Aceratoneuromyia species, (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae). Unlike other eulophids that attack B. cucurbitae, which require the presence of P. fletcheri in the same puparium to suppress host immunity, this parasitoid was able to develop alone. Average fecundity was 135 offspring/ female and mean parasitoids /host puparium was 21.1. It was also developed in the laboratory on the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), with an average life span of 23 d in both host species. Six species of solanaceous fruit were mainly infested by Bactrocera latifrons (Hendel), with infestation rates ranging from 4 to 17 flies/kg fruit. Psyttalia fletcheri and unidentified opiine, Bitomus species, eclosed from B. latifrons infested bird chili, Capsicum frustescens L. Only Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. produced B. cucurbitae, lightly parasitized by P. fletcheri

Free-flight Performance of 16-inch-diameter Supersonic Ram-jet Units II : Five Units Designed for Combustion-chamber-inlet Mach Number of 0.16 at Free-stream Mach Number of 1.60 (units B-1, B-2, B-3, B-4, and B-5) /c Wesley E. Messing and Scott H. S

Free-flight performance of five 16-inch-diameter ram-jet units was determined over range of free-stream Mach numbers of 0.50 to 1.86 and gas total-temperature ratios between 1.0 and 6.1 Time histories of performance data are presented for each unit. Correlations illustrate effect of free-stream Mach number and gas total-temperature ratio on diffuser total-pressure recovery, net-thrust coefficient, and external drag coefficient. One unit had smooth steady burning throughout the entire flight and encountered a maximum free-stream Mach number of 1.86 with a net acceleration of approximately 4.2 g's

Oviposition of the invasive two-spotted leafhopper on an endemic tree: Effects of an alien weed, foliar pubescence, and habitat humidity

The two-spotted leafhopper, Sophonia rufofascia (Kuoh and Kuoh), is an exotic pest from South-East Asia that attacks a wide variety of plant species in Hawaii. Myrica faya Aiton is an aggressive exotic weed that displaces and excludes native plants in Hawaiian forests. It has been argued that because of the high nutritional quality of its foliage, M. faya might facilitate leafhopper invasion of native Hawaiian ecosystems that were originally dominated by the endemic tree Metrosideros polymorpha (Gaudichaud). In the present study, we quantified suitability of M. faya and M. polymorpha as ovipositional hosts for S. rufofascia. Overall, leafhoppers preferred to deposit their eggs into the foliage of M. faya. M. faya presence in the area did not affect leafhopper oviposition on M. polymorpha. Foliar pubescence provided good protection of hirsute morphotypes of M. polymorpha. At the same time, glabrous M. polymorpha morphotypes were quite suitable for leafhopper oviposition. There was no difference in the abundance of leafhopper eggs along a precipitation gradient. Our results confirm that invasion of native Hawaiian forests by the weed M. faya will facilitate their invasion by S. rufofascia. Because of the broad host range characteristic of the two-spotted leafhopper, this build-up may adversely affect a number of endemic plant species growing in native forests

The biology of the predator complex of the filbert aphid, Myzocallis coryli (Goetze), in western Oregon

Commercial filbert orchards throughout the Willamette Valley were surveyed for natural enemies of the filbert aphid, Myzocallis coryli (Goetze). A large number of predaceous insects were found to prey upon M. coryli, particularly members of the families Coccinellidae, Miridae, Chrysopidae, Hemerobiidae, and Syrphidae. Also, a parasitic Hymenopteran (Mesidiopsis sp.) and a fungal pathogen (Triplosporium fresenii) were found to attack this aphid species. Populations of major predators were monitored closely during 1981 to determine phenology and synchrony with aphid populations and to determine their relative importance. Adalia bipunctata, Deraeocoris brevis, Chrysopa sp. and Hemerobius sp. were found to be extremely well synchronized with aphid population development cycles. Laboratory feeding trials demonstrated that all 4 predaceous insects tested (Deraeocoris brevis, Heterotoma meriopterum, Compsidolon salicellum and Adalia bipunctata) had a severe impact upon filbert aphid population growth. A. bipunctata was more voracious than the other 3 species, but could not live as long in the absence of aphid prey. Several insecticides were tested both in the laboratory and field to determine their relative toxicity to filbert aphids and the major natural enemies. Field tests showed Metasystox-R to be the most effective against filbert aphids, while Diazinon, Systox, Zolone, and Thiodan were moderately effective. Sevin was relatively ineffective. All insecticides tested in the field severely disrupted the predator complex. Laboratory tests showed all insecticides to be very toxic to Adalia bipunctata and Deraeocoris brevis, although Zolone caused a significantly lower mortality. Samples from a block of trees sprayed twice with Sevin showed higher aphid numbers late in the season than a comparable unsprayed block. This is interpreted as an indication that many aphid problems in commercial orchards are induced by insecticide disruption of natural biological control. Possible solutions to this problem are discussed

Responses to ethanol in C57BL/6 versus C57BL/6 × 129 hybrid mice

Although genetic background alters responses to ethanol, there has not yet been a methodical quantification of differences in ethanol-related behaviors between inbred and hybrid mice commonly used in gene-targeting studies. Here, we compared C57BL/6NTac × 129S6/SvEvTac F1 hybrid mice (B6129S6) with C57BL/6NTac inbred mice (B6NT), and C57BL/6J × 129X1/SvJ (B6129X1) and C57BL/6J × 129S4/SvJae F1 hybrids (B6129S4) with C57BL/6J mice (B6J), in five commonly used tests: continuous access two-bottle choice drinking, intermittent limited-access binge drinking, ethanol clearance, ethanol-induced loss of the righting reflex, and conditioned place preference (CPP) for ethanol. We found that inbred B6J and B6NT mice showed greater ethanol preference and consumption than their respective hybrids when ethanol was continuously available. Within the intermittent limited-access drinking procedure, though all lines showed similar intake over eight drinking sessions, the average of all sessions showed that B6NT mice drank significantly more ethanol than B6129S6 mice. In addition, B6J mice consumed more ethanol than B6129X1 mice, although they drank less than B6129S4 mice. No differences in ethanol LORR duration were observed between inbred and hybrid mice. Although ethanol clearance was similar among B6J mice and their respective hybrids, B6NT mice cleared ethanol more rapidly than B6129S6 mice. All lines developed CPP for ethanol. Our findings indicate that it may not be necessary to backcross hybrids to an inbred B6 background to study many ethanol-related behaviors in gene-targeted mice

Natural enemies of Myzocallis coryli (Hom.: Aphididae) in Oregon hazelnut orchards

Fifty-five species of aphidophagous predators were found in a survey of the hazelnut orchards of western Oregon. Important predators of the filbert aphid, Myzocallis coryli (Goetze), include: Adalia bipunctata (L.), Cycloneda polita Csy. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae); Deraeocoris brevis (Uhler) (Hemiptera: Miridae); and species of Hemerobius and Chrysopa (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae and Chrysopidae).One parasitoid, Mesidiopsis sp. (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) was found to attack the aphid. In addition, one pathogenic fungus, Triplosporium fresenii (Nowakowski) Batko (Entomophthorales: Entomophthoraceae) was found to cause an epizootic in an orchard with a high aphid density