The first report of the genus and species of Capsus cinctus (Hem.: Miridae) from Iran

During 2005, a survey was conducted on the Miridae fauna of Urmia region and environs and a large number of species belonging to this family were collected. Among them, 19 specimens were identified as Capsus cinctus (Kolenati), which the genus and species is the first report for Iran. The identification was confirmed by R. Linnavuori, Finland. The species was collected on weeds, especially Bromus sp. in June

GC/MS analysis of the essential oils of Cupressus arizonica Greene, Juniperus communis L. and Mentha longifolia L.

ABSTRACT. The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from Cupressus arizonica Greene, Juniperus communis L. and Mentha longifolia L. were determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) analysis. The chemical composition of the essential oils were identified by GC/MS. Eicosane (27.4%), umbellulone (13%) and α-pinene (10.51%) were the major components of C. arizonica oil; sabinene (32%), limonene (26%) and bornyl acetate (7.4%) were the major components of J. communis oil and pulegone (26%), L-menthone (13.4%) and cis-para-menthan-3,8-diol (10.2%) were the major components of M. longifolia oil. The percentage of monoterpenes in the three essential oils was compared. The percentage of monoterpenes in C.arizonica is about 5.2%, J. communis 46%, and M. longifolia is 50.1%. The percentage of terpenes in C. Arizonica (16.3%), J. communis (5.2%) and M. longifolia (9.3%) were reported. But the percentage of cyclic monoterpenes in C. arizonica is about 6%, J. communis 26.1%, and M. longifolia is 3%. Monoterpenes are the most components that make up essential oils.               KEY WORDS: Cupressus arizonica, Juniperus communis, Mentha longifolia, Essential oil, Chemical composition Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2019, 33(3), 389-400.DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v33i3.

A study on the abundance and species diversity of cynipid wasps (Hym.: Cynipidae) in West Azerbaijan province, Iran

The induced galls by oak gall wasps were collected from various oak forests of Iranian province of West Azerbaijan in the regions of Ghabre-Hossein, Mir-Abad, Vavan, Shalmash, Rabat and Dar-Ghabr during from April to November 2009. The optimum number of samples was found to be 40 oak trees. In each tree, as a sampling unit, all of the existing galls were counted. The species richness of oak gall wasps in the West Azerbaijan province was measured and the parameters such as Simpsonâs, Shannonâs H', and Sorensen similarity indexes were calculated. In this study, 35 species of oak gall wasps on the oak tree species of Quercus infectoria, Q. brantii and Q. libani were identified. Most galls were observed on Q. infectoria. All of the collected oak gall wasp species belonged to the genera Andricus Hartig, Cynips L., Neuroterus Hartig, Biorhiza Westwood, Pseudoneuroterus Kinsey, Chilaspis Mayr and Aphelonyx Mayre. The genus Andricus included 23 species of oak gall wasps. The highest Simpson and Shannon indexes were recorded for the spring galls of Mir-Abad and for the fall galls of Ghabre-Hossein and Dar-Ghabr regions. The Sorensen similarity index reached its peak for the spring galls (sexual generation of oak gall wasps) of Ghabre-Hossein and Mir-Abad and for the fall galls (asexual generation of oak gall wasps) of Ghabre-Hossein and Dar-Ghabr. The distribution of oak species and subspecies, and geographical and climatic aspects are believed to be among the key factors for the species diversity of oak gall wasps

Biology and demography of Trissolcus basalis (Hym.: Scelionidae) on eggs of two different hosts

A study was taken up to investigate the biological and population attributes of Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) on eggs of Eurygaster integriceps Puton (EI) and Graphosuma lineatum (L.) (GL). First, immature development, time of adult eclosion, offspring sex ratio and rate of emergence were recorded by random selection of 25 parasitized egg masses of each host (350 eggs with 0-4 h old) separately at 25 ± 0.5 °C, 65 ± 5% RH and 16: 8 L: D. In addition, percent parasitism, immature survival rate, adult longevity and first 10 days fecundity of females were calculated using 25 newly emerged pairs (0-4 h) confined in tubes and provided with two masses of respected host eggs daily under the same conditions till they died. Results revealed that T. basalis males had significantly shorter development period (11.75 ± 0.058 and 12.57 ± 0.96 d on EI and GL eggs, respectively) compared to that of females (12.62 ± 0.06 and 13.72 ± 0.69 d on eggs of EI and GL, respectively). Similarly, it was noticed that malesâ longevity (54.72 ± 1.63 d) on EI eggs was significantly higher compared to their sibling females (43.16 ± 2.045 d) and male and female wasps on GL eggs which had significantly shorter longevity. In general, T. basalis reared on EI eggs had significantly longer oviposition period (39 ± 1.79 d), higher fecundity (292.4 ± 11.14 egg/female) and greater % parasitism (84.09 ± 1.56%) when compared with those on GL eggs. Moreover, immature survival rate was 82 and 64 % for wasp reared on EI and GL eggs, respectively. Finally, rm, λ and R0 were 0.316 and 0.224 d-1, 1.372 and 1.252 d-1 and 118.5 and 51.08 f/f/gen for wasps on EI and GL eggs, respectively. The population age distribution demonstrated that, totally, 95-98 and 2-5 % of the population were immature and adult stages for both hosts

Initial and delayed mortality of Rhyzopertha dominica (Col.: Bostrichidae) and Tribolium castaneum (Col.: Tenebrionidae) adults exposed to Silico-Sec® formulation of diatomaceous earth

Efficacy of temperature and exposure interval on the toxicity of Silico-Sec®, a diatomaceous earth formulation, was determined on 7-14 days old adults of Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) and Tribolium castaneum Herbst under laboratory conditions at 22, 27, 32 ºC and 65 ± 5% R.H. Insects were exposed for 8-72 hours to diatomaceous earth at the rate of 10 g/m2 on a filter paper inside plastic Petri dishes separately. Then the initial mortality was counted and, to determine delayed mortality, live individuals were held for a week in clean Petri dishes without food at the same conditions of previous experiment. LT50 values of initial mortality for R. dominica were 21, 12 and 9 hours at 22, 27, 32 ºC, respectively, and in the case of T. castaneum, they were 52, 27 and 18 hours at the same temperatures. The LT50 values indicated that R. dominica was more sensitive to Silico-Sec® than T. castaneum under identical conditions. Results indicated that the initial mortality of both species was significantly lower at 22 ºC in comparison with 27 and 32 ºC, and a direct relationship between temperature and exposure period was observed. Mortality percentage of both storage pests was higher after a week than initial mortality. Therefore, Silico-Sec® can be recommended as a structural treatment of stored grain facilities

RIT2 Polymorphisms: Is There a Differential Association?

Neurological disorders include a wide variety of mostly multifactorial diseases related to the development, survival, and function of the neuron cells. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been extensively studied in neurological disorders, and in a number of instances have been reproducibly linked to disease as risk factors. The RIT2 gene has been recently shown to be associated with a number of neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and autism. In the study reported here, we investigated the association of the rs12456492 and rs16976358 SNPs of the RIT2 gene with PD, essential tremor (ET), autism, schizophrenia (SCZ), and bipolar disorder (BPD; total of 2290 patients), and 1000 controls, by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. Significant association was observed between rs12456492 and two disorders, PD and ET, whereas rs16976358 was found to be associated with autism, SCZ, and BPD. Our findings are indicative of differential association between the RIT2 SNPs and different neurological disorders. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York