Population Growth Parameters of Fed Single-Aphid Diets of or .

Life tables are an important tool to forecast the performance of biological control agents used in pest management programs, and they are often assessed in terms of population growth. In the present study, the suitability of the aphids Scopoli and (Sulzer) for the ladybird predator Mulsant was assessed for the first time. For this, we evaluated and compared the life history traits of immature individuals and adults of the predator fed single-aphid diets and the consequences of the single-aphid diets for the demographic parameters.

Maternal and larval niche construction interact to shape development, survival, and population divergence in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus.

Through niche construction, organisms modify their environments in ways that can alter how selection acts on themselves and their offspring. However, the role of niche construction in shaping developmental and evolutionary trajectories, and its importance for population divergences and local adaptation, remains largely unclear. In this study, we manipulated both maternal and larval niche construction and measured the effects on fitness-relevant traits in two rapidly diverging populations of the bull-headed dung beetle, Onthophagus taurus.

When mother knows best: A population genetic model of transgenerational versus intragenerational plasticity.

Many organisms exhibit phenotypic plasticity; producing alternate phenotypes depending on the environment. Individuals can be plastic (intragenerational or direct plasticity), wherein individuals of the same genotype produce different phenotypes in response to the environments they experience. Alternatively, an individual's phenotype may be under the control of its parents, usually the mother (transgenerational or indirect plasticity), so that mother's genotype determines the phenotype produced by a given genotype of her offspring.

Subsocial Neotropical Doryphorini (Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae): new observations on behavior, host plants and systematics.

A summary of literature, documented observations and field studies finds evidence that mothers actively defend offspring in at least eight species and three genera of Neotropical Chrysomelinae associated with two host plant families. Reports on three Doryphora species reveal that all are oviparous and feed on vines in the Apocyanaceae. Mothers in the two subsocial species defend eggs and larvae by straddling, blocking access at the petiole and greeting potential predators with leaf-shaking and jerky advances.