Advance on the biology, behaviour ecology and management of the coffee white stem borer, Xylotrechus quadripes Chevrolat, 1863 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

The coffee white stem borer, Xylotrechus quadripes Chevrolat, 1863 (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) – here removed from the synonymy with X. javanicus (Laporte & Gory, 1841) – is the most notorious pest in Arabica coffee plantations in many southeast Asian countries. It can cause damage up to 80% in various gardens. The borer is reported on 16 different host plants other than coffee. The severity of the pest was more commonly recorded on the Arabica coffee than on other species. More pest intensity on the coffee may be due to its innate evolutionary relation compared to other host plants. Studies revealed that the borer is more specific and attracted to the volatile of coffee plants but it is still needs a strong supporting data. Some of the behavioural and ecological-adaptations of borers leads to avoid predation and chemical-pesticides reaching them. Hence, no single method gives perfect control of this pest; therefore, harmonic use of different tools such as cultural, mechanical, physical, bio-control and chemical methods are the best way to combat this pest. Though the pest is economically important, the information on chemical and ecological behaviour, host plant resistance and recent advancements in the pest management are scanty. The present article is an endeavour to shed a light on biology, behaviour, host selection and management of X. quadripes with multiple instances, that will give a new avenue for the researchers to work on the least concerned fields to develop strong management practice and alert against future pest outbreak

Retained intrauterine foetal bones: a rare cause of secondary infertility leading to diagnostic dilemma

The presence of intrauterine bone fragments is rare. These patients may present with pelvic pain, dysmenorrhoea, abnormal uterine bleeding and secondary infertility. We present a case of a 36-year old woman complaining of dysfunctional uterine bleeding with secondary infertility of six years duration.Detailed history, pelvic ultrasonography, hysteroscopy and histopathological examination of the hysteroscopically evacuated uterine cavity fragments were performed. Morphological examination revealed interesting presence of some tiny bony chips along with endometrial tissue. Intrauterine retained foetal bony chips due to previous medical termination of pregnancy was identified to be the cause of secondary infertility in the present case. Our case reiterates the importance of analyzing detailed clinical history in the evaluation of patients with secondary infertilit

Physical properties, crystal and magnetic structure of layered Fe 1.11 Te 1- x Se x superconductors

The physical and structural properties of Fe1.11Te and Fe1.11Te0.5Se0.5 have been investigated by means of X-ray and neutron diffraction as well as physical property measurements. For the Fe1.11Te compound, the structure distortion from a tetragonal to monoclinic phase takes place at 64 K accompanied with the onset of antiferromagnetic order upon cooling. The magnetic structure of the monoclinic phase was confirmed to be of antiferromagnetic configuration with a propagation vector k = (1/2, 0, 1/2) based on Rietveld refinement of neutron powder diffraction data. The structural/magnetic transitions are also clearly visible in magnetic, electronic and thermodynamic measurements. For superconducting Fe1.11Te0.5Se0.5 compound, the superconducting transition with T (c) = 13.4 K is observed in the resistivity and ac susceptibility measurements. The upper critical field H (c2) is obtained by measuring the resistivity under different magnetic fields. The Kim's critical state model is adopted to analyze the temperature dependence of the ac susceptibility and the intergranular critical current density is calculated as a function of both field amplitude and temperature. Neutron diffraction results show that Fe1.11Te0.5Se0.5 crystalizes in tetragonal structure at 300 K as in the parent compound Fe1.11Te and no structural distortion is detected upon cooling to 2 K. However an anisotropic thermal expansion anomaly is observed around 100 K