Two Records of Intestinal Myiasis Caused by Ornidia obesa and Hermetia illucens in Hawaii

Intestinal myiasis caused by Ornidia obesa and Hermetia illucens is not common, especially for O. obesa. This is the first report of of intestinal myiasis caused by these two species in Hawaii

Effect of the Guppy, Poecilia reticulata, on Oviposition of Culex quinquefasciatus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Many mosquito species avoid oviposition sites infested with predators of their progeny. We investigated whether the guppy Poecilia reticulata Peters affected the oviposition site selection of natural blood-fed gravid Culex qinque- fasciatus Say females in both the laboratory and field. In the laboratory, there was no significant difference between the average numbers of egg rafts laid by Cx. qinquefasciatus females on water with fish and without fish. In the field, there was no significant difference between the average numbers per night of gravid Cx. qinquefasciatus females collected from gravid traps with fish and without fish. Our investigation shows that natural blood-fed gravid Cx. quinquefasciatus does not avoid oviposition sites with P. reticulata. The phenomenon of absence or very low number of mosquito larvae in some water habitats in the presence of P. reticulata is discussed

Ectoparasitic Arthropods Occurring on Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus Collected from Two Properties on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii (Acarina, Siphonaptera, and Anoplura)

Scientific note.A survey of ectoparasites occurring on rats was carried out from August 2006 through February 2007 on two properties on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. From the property in Liliha, a total of 167 Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, were examined. Two species of fleas and four species of mites were collected: oriental rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis, tropical rat mite, Ornithonyssus bacoti, domestic rat mite, Laelaps nuttalli, spiny rat mite, Laelaps echidninus, and house mouse mite, Allodermanyssus sanguineus. From the property in Aiea, a total of 80 black rats, Rattus rattus, were examined. One species of flea, one species of louse, and two species of mites were collected: cat flea, C. felis, sucking louse, Polyplax spinulosa, tropical rat mite, O. bacoti, and house mouse mite, A. sanguineus. This is the first record of the house mouse mite, A. sanguineus, from Hawaii. Ornithonyssus bacoti and A. sanguineus were the predominant species of mites that infested both rodent species. The occurrence of other ectoparasites on the rats caught from the two sites may be affected by different rodent host and other environmental factors

Enhancing Revenue in College Sport Events by Practicing Yield Management and E-commerce

Many colleges and universities have been facing increasingly tight budgets in recent years and have been struggling to provide more funding for their own athletic programs. In some cases, specific sport programs of a college or university have had to be terminated due to lack of monies appropriated from the central administration. Yield or revenue management is a method of assigning capacity or inventory to meet demand in such a way to maximize revenue. This paper examines the feasibility and discusses the benefits of applying yield management via e-commerce to increase surplus/decrease deficit in those college sport programs where paid tickets are required for admissions, including, but not limited to, football and basketball games

Discovering Efficient Keywords – An Exploratory Study on Comparing the Use of ChatGPT and Other Third-party Tools

ChatGPT has become a popular keyword discovery tool since it was introduced to the market in late 2022. This study is to compare the effectiveness of this new keyword discovery tool and Spyfu, a widely used third-party tool. The comparison aims to examine which tool is more effective in discovering efficient keywords. The keyword efficiency scores are defined and calculated by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on historical data from a specific period of time. Both ChatGPT and a third-party tool (Spyfu) provide two lists of top keywords with Broad Match and Modified Broad Match. It is found that about forty percent of Spyfu recommended keywords turn out to be efficient, while less than twenty percent of the keywords generated by ChatGPT are efficient. The results of the study indicate that ChatGPT is not as effective in discovering efficient keywords compared to Spyfu. However, ChatGPT is found to be highly effective in predicting search trends and identifying long-tail keywords and query questions that are specific and targeted to the users' needs. A combination of both tools may provide the best results for keyword discovery and strategy fine-tuning

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

Mosquito Surveillance Program Using Ovitraps Detected Aedes aegypti at the Honolulu International Airport in 2012

mosquito surveillance program using ovitraps at the Honolulu In- ternational Airport (HIA), Hawaii, USA May 2010 to June 2012 revealed that A. albopictus egg counts fluctuated over time during the surveillance program and the highest oviposition was observed from February to May 2011 and the lowest was from September to November 2011. Positive correlations found between a given week’s rainfall and egg counts 1 and 2 weeks later suggested that rainfall triggered the hatching of eggs which were laid before the rainfall, rather than di- rectly stimulating adult oviposition. In January and June 2012, Aedes aegypti was discovered from a small vegetated area located between terminals for out-of-state and within-state flights. This species had not been confirmed present on Oahu at least since 1948. This finding has led us to intensify our surveillance program at the airport, with the hope that we would improve our understanding of the nature of mosquito introductions at this important port of entry for the Hawaiian Islands