Bioactivity of essential oils from Croton grewioides and its major compounds: toxicity to soybean looper Chrysodeixis includens and selectivity to the predatory stink bug Podisus nigrispinus.

Natural biological control is a key factor that ensures the regulation of insect pest populations in agroecosystems. However, the indiscriminate use of pesticides has compromised this environmental service. Thus, the search for environmentally safe pesticides is an increasing requirement for sustainable food production.

Soldiers of the termite Nasutitermes corniger (Termitidae: Nasutitermitinae) increase the ability to exploit food resources.

The performance of eusocial insect colonies is optimized by the division of labor among castes. Throughout the evolution of termites, there was an evident increase in the proportion of soldiers in the colonies. In derived termite species, the soldiers have a crucial role in defense and the initial phases of foraging.

Sub-lethal effects of essential oil of Lippia sidoides on drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis (Blattodea: Termitoidea).

The drywood termite Cryptotermes brevis (Walker, 1853) (Kalotermitidae) is one of the most important wood structural pest in the world. Substances from the secondary metabolism of plants (e.g.

Allometric Scaling of Patrolling Rate and Nest Volume in Constrictotermes cyphergaster Termites: Hints on the Settlement of Inquilines.

Structural and functional traits of organisms are known to be related to the size of individuals and to the size of their colonies when they belong to one. Among such traits, propensity to inquilinism in termites is known to relate positively to colony size. Larger termitaria hold larger diversity of facultative inquilines than smaller nests, whereas obligate inquilines seem unable to settle in nests smaller than a threshold volume.

Acaricidal properties of vetiver essential oil from Chrysopogon zizanioides (Poaceae) against the tick species Amblyomma cajennense and Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Acari: Ixodidae).

Ticks are arthropods widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, which can transmit infectious agents also responsible for zoonoses. Excessive use of conventional acaricides has resulted in the onset of drug resistance by these parasites, thus the need to use alternative methods for their control. This study evaluated the acaricidal activities of Chrysopogon zizanioides (vetiver) essential oils containing different zizanoic and khuzimol (high and low acidity) acid concentrations on Amblyomma cajennense and Rhipicephalus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae).

Diet Segregation between Cohabiting Builder and Inquiline Termite Species.

How do termite inquilines manage to cohabit termitaria along with the termite builder species? With this in mind, we analysed one of the several strategies that inquilines could use to circumvent conflicts with their hosts, namely, the use of distinct diets. We inspected overlapping patterns for the diets of several cohabiting Neotropical termite species, as inferred from carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures for termite individuals. Cohabitant communities from distinct termitaria presented overlapping diet spaces, indicating that they exploited similar diets at the regional scale.