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Copyright of Chinese Journal of Applied Entomology is the property of Chinese Journal of Applied Entomology, Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

[Objective] The study aimed to understand the relationship between the diversity of the surface arthropod groups and the damage of Soplwra rrworcrofiiana Shrubs at different altitudes. [Method] The trapping method was used to investigate the surface arthropods in the S. moorcroftiana Shrubs from June to September 2018, and the five- point sampling method was used to sample the pods in the S. moorcroftiana Shrubs. Relative abundance, group richness, surface arthropod fun ctional energy group, Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Pielou uniformity index, Simpson dominance and similarity index Cody index and Sorensen index were used for analysis. [Result] The experiment collected a total of 2899 individuals of surface arthropods in different heights of S. rrworcroftiana Shrubs, involving 5 families, 18 orders and 74 families. Among them, Araneida, Diptera and Coleoptera were the dominant groups. These three orders contained 16, 13 and 12 families, respectively, accounting for SS. 4 % of all constituent families, Thysanoptera, Archaeognatha, Scorpionidae and Lithobiomorpha were rare groups, which contained only 0. 69% of the total number of individuals. [Conclusion] Different altitudes had an impact on the surface arthropod Soren sen index and Cody index. The similarity of surface arthropods between altitude 3 and altitude 1 was low, and there were few common surface arthropod groups. There were similar parts of the surface arthropod groups. Among the three types of surface arthropod communities in the sandy algae shrubs at different altitudes, the herbivorous and predatory surface arthropod groups are the dominant groups, while the omnivorous surface arthropod groups were the disadvantaged groups. The surface arthropods at different altitudes have different degrees of damage to the seeds and pods in the S. moorcroftiana Shrubs at different altitudes. Within a certain altitude range, the lower the altitude, the smface arthropods in the S. moorcroftiana Shrubs affected the pods and had the more severe damage to seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objectives] To clarify the community characteristics and stability of arthropods in maize fields adjacent to different crops. [Methods] The number of arthropod species in maize fields was systematically sampled with traps and visual observation in maize fields adjacent to three different crops; coffee plantations, rice fields, plum orchards, and in a maize monoculture. [Results] A total of 294 species of arthropods were collected, belonging to 4 classes, 12 orders and 87 families. Compared to the monoculture, the richness, diversity and evenness of arthropods in maize fields adjacent to different crops was higher, but dominance was lower. Different adjacent crops could be ranked with respect to the richness, diversity and evenness of arthropods in maize fields as follows: coffee > rice > plum > maize monoculture. The ranking of different adjacent crops on the Nn/Np, Nd/Np, Sn/Sp and Sd/Sp values of maize fields was the same, however, their ranking with respect to the stability index (ds/dm value) of maize fields was: coffee < rice < plum < maize monoculture. Maize fields adjacent to coffee plantations had the most stable arthropod communities and maize monocultures the least stable. [Conclusion] Planting maize adjacent to different crops can increase the stability of arthropod communities in maize fields; maize fields adjacent to coffee plantations have the most stable arthropod community structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of different arrangements of grasses, flowering plants（Asteraceae）, and legume crops on the number and diversity dynamics of arthropod communities was determined in a tea orchard in Xupingsi Village, Tanjiawan Town, Yunyang District, Shiyan City, Hubei Province. For this, 4 treatments were established：Natural grasses（CK）, ryegrass+white clover（EZ）, ryegrass+white clover+bluegrass+ red clover（SZ）, and ryegrass+white clover+bluegrass+red clover+purple fescue+hairy raccoon+cosmos+zinnia（BZ）. The community composition and dynamics of richness index, divesity index, and evenness index of arthropods were determined. The results showed that the arthropod community composition in the tea orchard with different cover crops was similar to that in the tea orchard with CK, with the largest number of Diptera and the least number of Araneae insects. Compared with that in the CK, the number of Lepidoptera increased significantly under the different cover crop treatments（P<0.05）, but no significant difference was noted among the three treatments（P>0.05）. Homop tera insects increased significantly by 92.47%（P<0.05）under the SZ treatment. No significant differences in the number of individuals of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, and Araneae were noted among the different treatments（P>0.05）. The dynamics of diversity, evenness, and richness indices of arthropod communities in the tea orchard with different cover crops were basically the same; The richness index was the highest on August 26 and was higher in the tea orchard with different cover crops than in that with natural grasses on September 30. The arthropod community diversity index for EZ treatment, the diversity, richness, and evenness indices for SZ treatment, and the diversity and evenness indices for BZ treatment were significantly higher than those of the CK in the tea orchard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] The present paper aimed order to understand the composition of arthropod community and analyze the community structure, diversity and functional group structure in different months in the barley field of Linzhi,Tibet. [Method] Double diagonal five-point sampling method was used combined with artificial capture method and net capture method. Sampling identification and quantitative statistics of arthropods in winter barley field of farm of Tibet Agriculture and Animal Husbandly College were carried out. On that basis, the proportion and richness index, Shannon-wiener diversity index, Pielou evenness index, Berger-Parker dominance index, Association index and PC A components were calculated and analyzed. [Result] A total of 1973 arthropods were captured, belonging to 76 families, 12 orders and 2 classes. Coleoptera Coccinellidae and Homoptera Aphididae were dominant groups, accounting for 16.73 % and 40. 40 % of total arthropods, respectively. Curculionidae, Syrphidae, Chironomidae, Trichoceridae, Bibionidae, Drosophilidae, Tachinidae, Reduviidae, An-thocoridae, Lygaeidae, Rhopdae and Philodromidae were common species, accounting for 1.98 % , 1.27%, 1.06%, 1.37 % , 3. 35 % , 3. 75 % , 3. 65 % , 1.77 % , 1.27%, 1.42 % , 1.57% and 2. 94 % of the total population, respectively. There were 62 families of rare groups, accounting for 17.47 % of total arthropods. Diversity index, evenness index and dominance index were the highest in April, arthro-pod number was the highest in May and richness index was the highest in June. The similarities of arthropod groups were different in different months. [Conclusion] Aphids and ladybugs are dominant populations. The field arthropods of Linzhi barley in Tibet are composed of dominant, common and rare populations. The number of arthropods varied in different months. The number of individuals reached its maximum in May. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Southern Agriculture is the property of Journal of Southern Agriculture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of China Tropical Medicine is the property of China Tropical Medicine Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Soil fauna play an important role in key functions of ecosystem such as material cycling. Litter quality and microenvironment of different tree species may regulate soil fauna community structure. In this study, we investigated soil fauna community structure, the differences of taxonomic and functional groups, and the regulatory factors under eight dominant tree species in August 2022. We captured 567 soil fauna (except for termites and ants), belonging to 3 phyla, 10 classes, 26 orders, and 99 families, with Achipteriidae, Trygoniidae, Poduridae, and Isotomidae as the dominant species. Tree species significantly affected soil fauna abundance, following an order: Michelia macclurei > Elaeocarpus decipiens > Castanopsis carlesii > Cunninghamia lanceolata > Lindera communis > Schima superba > Pinus massoniana > Liquidambar formosana . However, the richness, evenness, and diversity of soil fauna under different tree species were significantly different. Richness and diversity of M. macclurei , C. lanceolatas soil fauna were relatively high, while L. formosana , C. carlesii were relatively low. The evenness of meso-microfauna of L. formosana was the highest, which was significantly higher than that of M. macclureis and E. decipiens . The evenness of macrofauna and total soil fauna was not significantly different among the eight tree species. In addition, the abundance of omnivores and herbivores soil fauna was relatively high under M. macclurei , but relatively low under E. decipiens . The abundance of saprophages and predators soil fauna of E. decipiens , M. macclurei was higher than L. formosana , while saprophages was mainly meso-microfauna. Results of redundancy analysis showed that litter N, C:N, and K were the main factors affecting soil fauna community structure. The results indicated that the tree species with thicker litter layer and higher N and K contents may be conducive to enhancing the diversity of soil fauna community and affecting the distribution of different functional groups, thus contributing to the maintenance of forest biodiversity.

Copyright of Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology / Yingyong Shengtai Xuebao is the property of Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Collembola are among the most abundant and integral group in soil decomposers. They channel C and nutrients from basic food resources to higher trophic levels, and therefore play an irreplaceable role in the underground food web. Collembola community would be altered dramatically by increasing N and P deposition. However, we still know little about how Collembola respond to N and P inputs, which will largely retard our steps to understand the ecological functions of collembolans, material circulation and energy flow of the underground food web, and even C cycling in terrestrial ecosystem. The different classification rules for Collembola functional groups have led to poor comparability of research results in the literature. This review proposed three taxonomic criteria of Collembola and four common research means on trophic relationships, summarized the mechanisms underlying the responses of Collembola to N and P addition alone and coadded. Overall, Collembola generally shows a negative response to N addition namely community density decreases, while a positive response to P addition in most ecosystems. The situation was more complicated under the combined N and P application. In the future, the research of Collembola response to N and P deposition should focus on the scientific taxa of Collembola functional groups, improving the research methods of trophic structure of Collembola, and the mechanism underlying the impacts of N and P interaction on Collembola community.

In April, May, August, and October 2006, grid-based sampling method was adopted to investigate the diversity and abundance of arthropods on 50 islands in the Thousand-island Lake, with the effects of island area, island altitude, island shape, inter-island distance, and island-mainland distance on arthropod species richness analyzed. With the increase of island area, the richness of total arthropod species and that of the arthropod species with high-and low-dispersal ability all increased, and the relationships between island area and arthropod species richness corresponded to the classical island biogeography model. The island area, island altitude, and island shape had comprehensive effects on the arthropod species richness, while inter-island distance and island-mainland distance had less effects. The richness of total arthropod species had a significant positive correlation with island altitude and island shape, that of the arthropod species with high-dispersal ability was significantly positively correlated with island area and island altitude, while no significant relationship was observed between the richness of arthropod species with low-dispersal ability and the island characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the impacts of freeze-thaw intensity (-5-5 ℃, -10-5 ℃) and frequency (1, 5, 10, 15 times) on the community structure of soil arthropod in permafrost zone, Great Hing'an Mountains with the 5 ℃ as control. A total of 4198 individuals of soil arthropod were extracted, belonging to 4 classes, 9 orders, 24 families and 33 genera. The results showed that the number of individuals and groups of soil arthropod decreased significantly in the treatment with high frost intensity (-10-5 ℃), while the individuals of some taxa increased in the treatment with low frost intensity (-5-5 ℃) after the first freeze-thaw incubation. The group number, Margalef index and Shannon index decreased with the increases of freeze-thaw cycling times in low frost intensity treatment, while did not change regularly in high frost intensity treatment. Larva stage was a kind of survival strategy for arthropod to resist low temperature stress, with Acari showing stronger cold tolerance. Different responses of soil arthropod to freeze-thaw cycles, synergistic effect among species and soil environment were factors affecting the structure of soil arthropod community. This study could provide scientific data and theoretical basis for the research and conservation of soil arthropod diversity in the permafrost zone in mid-high latitudes.

In recent years, the area of herbal medicine planting is rapidly increasing. The effects of planting herbal medicines on soil invertebrate communities are still unclear. To reveal the effects of planting different herbal medicines on the soil microarthropod communities, soil microarthropods in two fields of planting Coptis chinensis and Paris polyphylla for 3-year and 5-year, respectively, were investigated in Pengzhou , Chengdu in July 2020. A total of 526 individuals of soil microarthropods were recorded and classified into 4 classes, 17 orders, 69 families, and 98 genera or taxonomic groups. The communities were dominated by Isotoma , Piatynothrus , Folsomia , and Paranura . The community structure of soil microarthropods differed obviously among the two herbal medicine fields, with the main influencing taxonomic groups of Proisotoma , Ocesobates and Epicridae. The total taxonomic group richness of soil microarthropods were richer in C. chinensis field than P. polyphylla field. There was no significant difference in the abundance and diversity index between the two fields. With the increases of cultivating years, the abundance of soil microarthropods in C. chinensis field declined significantly, and Shannon index increased significantly in P. polyphylla field. The redundancy analysis showed that the community structure of soil microarthropods was mainly affected by soil available N, pH, total K, and available K. It suggested that the effects of cultivating herbal medicines on soil microarthropod communities differed between herbal medicine species. Therefore, we recommended to intercrop C. chinensis and P. polyphylla for maintaining the stability of soil microarthropod diversity and promoting ecosystem function.

Soil fauna are important regulators of litter decomposition and nutrient transformation. Nitrogen deposition and rainfall changes driven by global changes could affect litter decomposition by changing environment and soil faunal community. Different mesh size (2 mm and 0.01 mm) litter bags were used to explore how soil meso- and micro-fauna contribute to decomposition of Stipa breviflora litter under nitrogen deposition and rainfall changes. The experiment followed split-plot design, with rainfall change (natural rainfall, CK; rainfall addition 30%, W; rainfall reduction 30%, R) as the main trement and nitrogen addition (0, N 0 ; 30, N 30 ; 50, N 50 ; 100 kg·hm -2 ·a -1 , N 100 ) as the sub-treatment. The results showed that: 1) Rainfall change significantly affected litter decomposition rate, which was increased by rainfall addition. Moreover, litter decomposition rate was accelerated with increasing nitrogen addition rates. Litter residual rate decreased gradually with increasing N addition, and got to the highest in N 100 . Litter decomposition rate decreased first and then increased, and peaked in N 50 in rain reduction and natural rainfall treatment. There was no significant interactions between rainfall change and nitrogen addition in affecting litter decomposition. 2) During the whole decomposition process, a total of 1577 soil meso- and micro-fauna were captured, belonged to 1 phyla, 3 classes, 13 orders (including suborders) and 49 families. The dominant groups were Acarina, Coleoptera larvae, and Collembola. Nitrogen addition significantly increased abundance and group numbers of soil meso- and micro-fauna. 3) The litter mass residue rate was significantly negatively correlated with abundance and group numbers of soil meso- and micro-fauna. The contribution rate of soil meso- and micro-fauna to litter decomposition increased with increasing rainfall. In summary, soil meso- and micro-fauna had a positive effect on decomposition of Stipa breviflora litter in desert steppe. Their contribution to litter was promoted by the enhancement of soil mesofauna abundance and group under rainfall and nitrogen addition. Excessive nitrogen would inhibit soil meso- and micro-fauna community and group density when water was insufficient, and would thus weaken the function of soil mesofauna to litter decomposition.

Three compounds, including scolosprine C(1), uracil(2) and hypoxanthine(3), were isolated and purified from the ethyl acetate fraction of centipede by silica gel normal-phase column chromatography, reversed-phase medium pressure preparation chromatography, and high-pressure semi-preparative HPLC. The structure was elucidated through a combination of spectroscopic analyses [such as nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR) and mass spectrometry(MS)] and literature review. Among them, compound 1 was a new quinoline alkaloid. In previous reports, we have described the isolation and structure elucidation of one new and two known quinoline alkaloids. In this paper, we would report the isolation and structure elucidation of scolosprine C in detail.

We investigated the community structure of ground-active arthropods as well as vegetation and soil properties in Caragana shrub plantations under grazing and exclosure management across spring, summer and autumn in Yanchi County of Ningxia in northern China. The aim of this study was to uncover the responses of ground-active arthropods in shrub plantations to grazing management in desertified regions. The results showed that: 1) plant height, soil fine sand content, and soil electrical conductivity were significantly lower, whereas soil bulk density and coarse sand were significantly higher in shrub plantations under grazing than exclosure. 2) There were 40 families from 13 orders captured. The dominant groups included Formicidae and Tenebrionidae families, which comprised 68.75% of the total individuals. There were four common groups occupying 20.82% of the total individuals. The remaining 34 groups were relatively rare, only accounting for 10.44% of the total. Across the three seasons, the composition of ground-active arthropod community was significantly different between grazing and exclosure, which indicates the sensitivity and adaptability of ground-active arthropods to environmental changes including grazing management and seasonal changes. 3) There was a significant effect of grazing on total abundance of ground-active arthropods in shrub plantations, with significantly higher values under grazing than under exclosure. There was no significant effect of grazing management on group richness and diversity of ground-active arthropods in shrub plantations. 4) There was a correlation of total abundance, evenness index and the Simpson index with plant abundance, vegetation height, soil moisture, soil pH and electrical conductivity. There was a significant correlation of the Shannon index with vegetation height, soil moisture and soil fine sand. Plant density, and soil pH, soil moisture and soil temperature were the key factors driving the structure of ground-active arthropod communities in shrub plantations under gra-zing management across seasons based on the partial RDA results. It was concluded that the variations of plant height, soil pH, soil moisture and soil temperature under grazing management could result in different ground-active arthropod taxon to changing habitats. The conservation effect of shrub on ground-active arthropod could reduce the negative impacts of grazing. Spring grazing could enhance ground-active arthropod abundances in shrub plantations. It was necessary to pay attention to prevention of insects which are caused by spring grazing in shrub plantations.

Agro-ecosystem is an important component of terrestrial ecosystems and it is one of the key areas of global ecological and environmental studies. A 16 hm 2 permanent plot in black soil cropland was built to study the community structure of soil biodiversity in typical black soil region in Northeast China. Pitfall trap was used to investigate the ground-dwelling soil macro-arthropods from August to October 2015 in accordance with the three crop growth stages: whirling stage, silking stage, and milk stage. A total of 5284 ground-dwelling soil macro-arthropods belonging to 47 species were captured sorted into 3 classes, 12 orders, 32 families. 3 dominant groups and 11 common groups were found. Phytophages and Omnivores were dominant groups. The individuals and species numbers of ground-dwelling soil macro-arthropods had significant changes with the vegetative growth period. The maximum values of the Shannon index, Margalef index, Pielou index of soil macro-arthropods all appeared in September, but the maximum dominant index appeared in August. From the variation coefficient (CV) and spatial interpolation of different species, it could be seen that there was heterogeneity in the horizontal direction of the ground-dwelling soil macro-arthropod communities. Regarding the relationships between the ground-dwelling soil macro-arthropod communities and soil environmental factors including soil pH, soil organic matter, total nitrogen and soil water content, the bivariate correlation analysis showed there was no significant correlation between them. Results of canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) further indicated that the dominant and common groups were adaptable to environmental factors and widely distributed in the study area. The results showed that the species richness of ground-dwelling soil macro-arthropods was very high in cropland, and the dynamic of soil arthropod's composition and spatial distribution pattern in diffe-rent crop growth stages were significantly changed. It was indicated that biodiversity plot monitoring of black soil cropland had become important means to solve the formation and maintenance mechanism of soil fauna community through large-scale and long-term investigation.

As the important driving factors of global change, changing precipitation and nitrogen (N) deposition play a key role in affecting our terrestrial ecosystem. However, most previous stu-dies focused on the aboveground plant community. The soil fauna, especially the ground-active arthropods were poorly understood. Using field manipulative experiment, this paper studied the effects of increased precipitation and N deposition on the soil ground-active arthropods in an old-field ecosystem of the Huanghuihai Plain. The results showed that the increased precipitation significantly enhanced the soil arthropods population density and the number of groups by 66.9% and 27.8%, respectively. Nitrogen deposition had minor effect on soil arthropods population density and number of groups, but significantly increased the formicidae and decreased the collembolans. Our results indicated the changing precipitation was the more important factor than the N deposition to restructure the soil surface arthropod community by increasing soil moisture and stimulating plant growth in the old-field of north China plain.

When the genetically modified soybean is planted in the field, the expression product of exogenous gene could be exposed in the soil ecosystem and bring potential risk to the soil fauna, with the form of leaves and other debris. A few of genetically modified soybeans developed by China independently were used in our study as materials. They were Phytophthora-resistant soybean harboring hrpZm gene (B4J8049), leaf-feeding insect-resistant soybean harboring Cry1C gene (A2A8001) and Leguminivora glycinivorella-resistant soybean harboring Cry1Iem gene (C802). By feeding Folsomia candida with the three genetically modified soybeans for continuous 60 days, the surviving rate, reproductive rate and changes on the body length of F. candida were studied. The results showed that all the three genetically modified soybeans of B4J8049, A2A8001 and C802 had no significant adverse effects on the growth of F. candida, as an environmental indicator organism. It was initially inferred that they were environmentally safe under short-term exposure, which provided basic data of ecological safety for their wide cultivation.

Objective: To study the taxonomy and distribution of Chinese medicinal centipedes., Methods: The species of Chinese medicinal centipedes were investigated in the light of their morphology. According to the feature of life, the distribution of centipedes were explored., Results: There were 12 centipede species in China, and seven of them were used for medical, the species could be effectively distinguished by the identification key. It was suggested that their characteristics were related to the climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, altitude and air pressure., Conclusion: The distribution of medicinal centipede is characteristics of "three river system distribution belts" and "three geographical distribution areas". The results provide the basis for the development and application of medicinal centipedes in China.

Non-cropped habitat in farm landscape plays a significant role in biodiversity, the functions of arable land and crop yields. This study focused on Shenbei New District in Shenyang City of Liaoning Province in Northeast China, which was a typical area with contradiction between biodiversity conservation and the high demand of agricultural production in the process of urbanization. Information entropy model, hand-picking and Baermann method were used for survey and identification of arthropods and nematodes in soils in urban suburban (US), urban fringe area (UFA) and rural area ( RA). The cooperative relations between the number of soil animals and types, structure as well as the total amount of non-cropped habitat were investigated in these three types of areas using linear regression. Our results showed that the area of single patch in non-cropped habitat was smaller than one hectare in Shenbei New District, and the types and the proportion of non-cropped habitat patches were increasing along with the increase of their distance to the urban center. But the proportion of non-cropped habitats areas appeared under an inverted U-type change. The proportion of non-cropped habitat patches was from 8.6% to 27.8%. The individual number of soil animals showed the U-type trend, while their species number changed irregularly. The individual number of soil animals increased with the increase of the proportion of non-cropped habitat patches in RA and US. There was no obvious correlation between the individual number of soil animal and the proportion of non-cropped habitat patches in UFA. The individual number of soil animals decreased with the increase of the proportion of non-cropped habitats areas. There was no cooperative relation in the proportion of non-cropped habitats and the number of soil animal species.

In order to understand the relationship between litter decomposition and soil fauna diversity during snow cover season, litterbags with plant debris of Actinothuidium hookeri, Cystopteris montana, two representative understory plants in the alpine timberline ecotone, and their mixed litter were incubated in the dark coniferous forest, timberline and alpine meadow, respectively. After a snow cover season, the mass loss and soil fauna in litterbags were investigated. After decomposition with a snow cover season, alpine meadow showed the highest mass loss of plant debris in comparison with coniferous forest and timberline, and the mass loss of A. hookeri was more significant. The mixture of two plants debris accelerated the mass loss, especially in the timberline. A total of 968 soil invertebrates, which belonged to 5 classes, 10 orders and 35 families, were captured in litterbags. Acarina and Collembola were the dominant groups in plant debris. The numbers of individuals and groups of soil faunal communities in litter of timberline were higher than those of alpine meadow and dark coniferous forest. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicated that the groups of soil animals were related closely with the average temperature, and endemic species such as Isoptera and Geophilomorpha were observed only in coniferous forest, while Hemiptera and Psocoptera only in.the alpine meadow. The diversity of soil faunal community was more affected by plant debris varieties in the timberline than in the coniferous forest and alpine meadow. Multiple regression analysis indicated that the average temperature and snow depth explained 30.8% of the variation of litter mass loss rate, soil animals explained 8.3%, and altogether explained 34.1%. Snow was one of the most critical factors impacting the decomposition of A. hookeri and C. montana debris in the alpine timberline ecotone.

In order to study the function of soil microfauna and its responses to environmental changes, we used metagenome analyses of the 18S rDNA gene region to identify differences in microfauna diversity and community structure among fifteen soil samples belonging to five different Cunninghamia lanceolate plantations. The plantations were located in Youxian County, Hunan Province in central China. The trees in these plantations were of different ages (3, 13, and 26 years) and belonged to different ecological successions (first, second, and third successions). The total dataset comprised 94922 high quality sequences with an average length of 436 bp. The dominant taxonomic groups across all samples were Chordata, Annelida, Arthropoda, Nematoda, Rotifera and Platyhelminthes with each accounting for 60.8%, 24.0%, 7.4%, 3.6%, 1.5% and 1.2% of the sequences, respectively. There were significant differences in ACE index and Shannon index among the five plantations. The lowest diversity of soil microfauna was in the 13-year old plantation of the first ecological succession. The correlation analysis showed that both ACE and available potassium concentration were negatively correlated to the Chaol index. However, there were no significant correlations between the Shannon, Simpson indices and the physical-chemical properties of soil. Overall, the Jaccard's similarity coefficient was less than 0.4 among samples at each site, and significant differences were found among plantations.

Taking the 6-, 15-, 24- and 36-year-old Caragana intermedia shrubs in desert steppe as a subject, an investigation on soil properties and ground arthropod community was carried out under the shrub and in the open to probe into the assemblage effect of ground arthropod community in desert steppe shrubs with different ages. The results were as follows: 1) In the 6-year-old shrubland, significant differences were only found in soil physical properties (soil texture, soil moisture and electrical conductivity) between the microhabitats under shrub and in the open. Beginning from the 15-year-old shrubland, however, soil organic matter and nutrition (N, P) increased significantly. 2) A total of 27 groups were captured in the studied sites which dominated by Carabidae, Tenebrionidae and Formicidae. From 6- to 15-year-old shrubland, the number of dominant groups decreased while that of common groups increased for the ground arthropod community under the shrub. From 15- to 24- and 36-year-old shrubland, the difference between the microhabitats under the shrub and in the open decreased firstly, and then increased. Some special groups appeared under the shrub in the 36-year-old shrubland, and dung beetles became dominant. 3) In the 6- and 24-year-old shrublands, there were no significant differences in group richness, abundance, and diversity index between the microhabitats under the shrub and in the open. As for the 15- and 36-year-old shrublands, however, significant differences were observed. 4) The shrub age had a stronger effect on the distribution of ground arthropods living under the shrubs compared to that in the open. The changes in soil texture, pH and electrical conductivity could significantly influence on the distribution of ground arthropods under the shrub, also in the open to some degree. It was suggested that the development of shrubland had strong impact on assemblage effect of ground arthropods, which was closely correlated with the stand age and would affect the recovery of sandy grassland ecosystems.

Investigations on structure of arthropod community in peach gardon were conducted with the principal component analysis, the optimal sorting method and fuzzy clustering analysis. The results showed that more obvious main factors and temporal patterns exist in the community. Dealing with the population dynamics of 55 species of arthropods by fuzzy clustering analysis and taking lambda = 0.47, we divided the community into four stages. The number of pests and their natural enemies was divided into three parts by the optimal sorting method. The dominant species of pests and their natural enemies were demonstrated by the principal component analysis.

Based on the systematical investigation of population dynamics of predacious ladybird in different cotton agroecosystem, the energy flow for predacious ladybirds was analyzed by the way of ecological energetic. The biological control efficiency of ladybirds was compared in different planting-time and inter-crop cotton agroecosystems using available date on the prepapers of ladybird ingestion to pest production. The results showed that the ingestion of predacious ladybirds were 26.45-70 kJ.m-2 yr.-1, accounting for 28.30-47.88% of all predacious natural enemies in different cotton agroecosystems. The biological control efficiency of ladybirds to aphids were 5.07-12.85%, which was decreased in inter-crop cotton agroecosystems and the ecosystems with the delay of planting-time. It is suggested that the ladybirds play the important role of potential biological control in cotton agroecosystems.

A case of Armillifer agkistrodontis disease was reported. Armillifer agkistrodontis is a species of the Armillifer genus of the Linguatulida order and parasitizing agkistrodon acutus. According to literature reviewed, there has been no report of this disease caused by infection of Armillifer agkistrodontis in human being prior to this case all over the world. The clinical features of this disease are long-term high fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, mild anemia, hepatosplenomegaly, eosinophilia in bone marrow and blood and multiple polyps in the whole colon. The pathologic features of the liver biopsy was degeneration and necrosis of hepatocytes and obvious infiltration of eosinophils. This disease should be differentiated from several other diseases which can also cause hepatomegaly, long-term high fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Mebendazole is an effective medication for this disease, but the long term effect of praziquantel is not certain. It is necessary to make further studies on the epidemiology, etiology, pathology, natural history, clinical features, diagnosis, differential diagnosis and therapy of this disease.

Our experiment has shown that the aqueous extract of Centipede can markedly decrease the contents of lipid peroxide in the serum as well as lipofuscin in the liver tissues and brain tissues of rats, enhances the activity of superoxide dismutase in erythrocyte and glutathione in blood, but has no action on the lipofuscin in the heart. In addition, the extract is able to increase the weight of spleen and thymus.