Spectral sensitivity of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) and their responses to light stimuli in laboratory and field experiments.

With increasingly fewer insecticides registered to control the larvae of pest click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae), integrative beetle management, including pheromone- and light-based trapping of adult beetles, must be explored as an alternative strategy. Here, we analyzed the spectral sensitivity and color preference of 9 elaterids across 6 genera in electrophysiological recordings and in behavioral bioassays. In electroretinogram recordings (ERGs), dark-adapted beetles were exposed to narrow wavebands of light in 10-nm increments from 330 to 650 nm.

Mosquito biology: Scents and selectability.

Malaria-transmitting mosquitoes are skilled human hunters, selectively choosing their prey based on a complex array of sensory cues. A new study unveils a distinct pattern of preference for human-associated olfactory cues that underlies the selective behavior of these mosquitoes.

Stable flies sense and behaviorally respond to the polarization of light.

Insects use their polarization-sensitive photoreceptors in a variety of ecological contexts including host-foraging. Here, we investigated the effect of polarized light on host foraging by the blood-feeding stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, a pest of livestock. Electroretinogram recordings with chromatic adaptation demonstrated that the spectral sensitivity of stable flies resembles that of other calyptrate flies.

Measuring Mosquito Spectral Sensitivity Using Electroretinograms.

Mosquitoes use a variety of cues to locate resources in the world around them, including olfactory, thermal, and visual stimuli. Understanding how mosquitoes perceive these stimuli is important for understanding and investigating mosquito behaviors and mosquito ecology. Specifically, mosquito vision can be studied in many ways, including by using electrophysiological recordings from their compound eyes.

Mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) Vision and Associated Electrophysiological Techniques.

Mosquitoes are considered the world's deadliest animal because of the pathogens they spread. Additionally, they are an unbearable nuisance in many areas. Visual stimuli play an important role in the mosquito life cycle, helping them find vertebrate hosts, floral nectar, and oviposition sites.

Approach trajectory and solar position affect host plant attractiveness to the small white butterfly.

While it is well documented that insects exploit polarized sky light for navigation, their use of reflected polarized light for object detection has been less well studied. Recently, we have shown that the small white butterfly, Pieris rapae, distinguishes between host and non-host plants based on the degree of linear polarization (DoLP) of light reflected from their leaves. To determine how polarized light cues affect host plant foraging by female P.

Polarized light sensitivity in is dependent on both color and intensity.

There is an ever increasing number of arthropod taxa shown to have polarization sensitivity throughout their compound eyes. However, the downstream processing of polarized reflections from objects is not well understood. The small white butterfly, , has been demonstrated to exploit foliar polarized reflections, specifically the degree of linear polarization (DoLP), to recognize host plants.

Multimodal and multifunctional signaling? - Web reduction courtship behavior in a North American population of the false black widow spider.

Males of widow spiders courting on the web of females engage in web-reduction behavior which entails excising a section of the web, bundling it up, and wrapping it with their silk. Males of the false black widow spider, Steatoda grossa, in European populations also produce stridulatory courtship sound which has not yet been studied in their invaded North American range. Working with a North American population of S.

Polarization of foliar reflectance: novel host plant cue for insect herbivores.

Insect herbivores exploit plant cues to discern host and non-host plants. Studies of visual plant cues have focused on colour despite the inherent polarization sensitivity of insect photoreceptors and the information carried by polarization of foliar reflectance, most notably the degree of linear polarization (; 0-100%). The of foliar reflection was hypothesized to be a host plant cue for insects but was never experimentally tested.

Ultraviolet inflorescence cues enhance attractiveness of inflorescence odour to Culex pipiens mosquitoes.

Inflorescence patterns of ultraviolet (UV) absorption and UV-reflection are attractive to many insect pollinators. To understand whether UV inflorescence cues affect the attraction of nectar-foraging mosquitoes, we worked with the common house mosquito, Culex pipiens and with two plant species exhibiting floral UV cues: the tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, and the common hawkweed Hieraciumm lachenalii. Electroretinograms revealed that Cx.

Compound eyes of the small white butterfly Pieris rapae have three distinct classes of red photoreceptors.

The two subspecies of the small white butterfly, the European Pieris rapae rapae and the Asian P. r. crucivora, differ in wing colouration.

How flies are flirting on the fly.

Background: Flies have some of the most elaborate visual systems in the Insecta, often featuring large, sexually dimorphic eyes with specialized "bright zones" that may have a functional role during mate-seeking behavior. The fast visual system of flies is considered to be an adaptation in support of their advanced flight abilities. Here, we show that the immense processing speed of the flies' photoreceptors plays a crucial role in mate recognition.