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When compared with the unamended control, the developmental times of larvae, pupae, or entire immature stage were shorter on artificial diets amended with 3 or 6 mg/g (low and moderate concentrations) of amygdalin, whereas the developmental time increased on artificial diets amended with 48 mg/g (high concentration) of amygdalin. The unamended artificial diet (0 mg of amygdalin per g of diet) was the control, and then the mass fractions of amygdalin in the treatment artificial diets were 3, 6, 12, 24, and 48 mg of amygdalin per g of initial artificial diet. Larval Feeding on Diets and Developmental Times of Immature Stages B I Proportion of larvae feeding on diets. i b The proportion of larvae feeding on the artificial diets was not significantly affected by amygdalin concentrations ( I F i = 1.339, df = 5,35, I p i = 0.275) (Figure 1). [Extracted from the article]

Grapholita molesta (Busck) is a cosmopolitan fruit pest. The sex pheromones released by females have four components, namely (Z)‐8‐dodecenyl acetate (Z8–12:Ac), E8–12:Ac, (Z)‐8‐dodecen‐1‐ol (Z8–12:OH), and dodecanol (12:OH). This multichemical attractive system has been reported to induce various male behavioral responses, from arousal to directional flight, and enhance trapping. However, the specific male behaviors induced by individual component or component blend is unclear. This study investigated the effects of different combinations of these four components using electroantennogram, wind tunnel assays, and field tests on aspects of male behavioral performance. Our results showed that the (Z8–12:Ac + E8–12:Ac)‐ containing pheromones were mainly responsible for long‐distance detection and close‐distance location in males, including antennal detection of the stimulus, flight initiation, directional flight, and trapping. The addition of E8–12:Ac to Z8–12:Ac plays an important role in pheromone searching behavior of males in close range. The ternary component, Z8–12:Ac + E8–12:Ac + Z8–12:OH was crucial for capturing male moths, and 12:OH significantly increased the male catch. The addition of Z8–12:OH and 12:OH to Z8–12:Ac + E8–12:Ac plays an important role in completing the whole response sequence in field attraction. This study revealed that Z8–12:Ac + E8–12:Ac acts as a attractant to males, whereas Z8–12:OH, and 12:OH are the synergists that enhance male attraction in the sex pheromone blend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grapholita molesta (Busck) is a menacing pest of fruit trees worldwide. A mixture of glucose, acetic acid, ethanol, and water (GAEWM) has been widely used for monitoring or trapping G. molesta adults. Previous research has shown that acetic acid captures more moths compared to ethanol; however, the respective roles of acetic acid and ethanol in bisexual attraction remain unknown. This study investigated the olfactory behaviours of virgin females, virgin males, and gravid females to variations in nine concentration levels of acetic acid (A) and ethanol (E) for GAEWM using electroantennography, a wind tunnel experiment, and a field test. There was a significant dose‐dependent response by moths to the GAEWM lure variations that affected the range of lure detection and the probability of a moth being trapped. In contrast, adult sex and mating status had the strongest effect on the behaviours associated with flying close to the trap. For medium level dosages of A and E, one combination with acetic acid exceeding ethanol content (A > E; #3, A:E = 3:1) elicited antennal detection by the test adults, and upwind flight of the females. In another combination with ethanol predominating (E > A; #7, A:E = 1:3), the lured traps caught more males than control groups. For low dosages, with the acetic acid level equal to ethanol (A = E; #1, A:E = 1:1), females flew upwind, and virgin females flew around the lure. For high level dosages, with A > E (#6, A:E = 3:2), the antennae of gravid females and virgin males reacted to the lure. These results concluded that the acetic acid to ethanol ratios of either 3:1 or 1:3 in GAEWM has the potential to improve the attraction of both G. molesta sexes to traps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The short-lived polygamous moth Grapholita molesta (Busck) is an important fruit pest worldwide. Trapping males by synthetic female sex pheromones is not an effective reproductive control strategy. It is important to improve this technology by understanding the mating system of G. molesta. This study investigated mating opportunities and fertile egg production by altering the operational sex ratio, mating age, and male mating history in repeated single mating and multiple mating in the two sexes. Our results showed that the mating and reproductive parameters of virgin males were affected by the number and age of virgin females. Males preferred a female number ≤three-fifths of the male number or ≤2-day-old females, while they discriminated against a female number ≥three times of the male number or ≥5-day-old females. On the other hand, the mating and reproductive parameters of virgin females were affected by repeated single mating and especially multiple mating under different male mating histories. Females preferred once-mated males and discriminated against virgin males. These results indicated that mating systems including more and older virgin females for virgin males and different virgin males for virgin females may be suitable for suppressing G. molesta populations. Hence, these results revealed that preventing mating of virgin adults by synthetic female sex pheromones should be most effective in controlling G. molesta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrast and linewidth, which depend on the microwave (MW) and light powers, are critical for optimizing magnetometer sensitivity based on high-density nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. Therefore, the tradeoff between laser and MW powers can be adjusted to optimize the contrast and linewidth extracted from the magnetic resonance. In this paper, we developed a pulsed electron spin resonance (ESR) measurement to enhance the magnetic field sensitivity of an NV magnetic sensor with high-density NV centers in diamond by narrowing the linewidth while keeping the contrast almost constant. Furthermore, for a wide range of experimental settings of MW and light powers in the continuous-wave (CW) method, the contrast and linewidth always increase with increasing MW power. However, by using a simple pulsed ESR sequence based on the repetitive excitation of NV centers, linewidth broadening under relatively high MW power is avoided. The magnetic field sensitivity reaches less than by eliminating the power broadening of the linewidth of ESR, which is one third of that achieved using CW measurements. Finally, the possibility of enhancing magnetic-field sensitivity utilizing the light-narrowing effect is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of temperature on negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond is interesting owing to their high precision and high spatial resolution. In addition, this thermal effect has many applications, such as in magnetic imaging, materials science, and fundamental physics. Temperature sensitivity varies for different magnetic field directions. In this letter, a temperature working range of 260–500 K and sensitivity of 10 mK/√Hz were achieved. This could be a novel approach to study the thermal processes and thermodynamics of nanostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For oligophagous insects, larval performance is very important to evaluate host suitability in host use. However, key indices among all performance traits including survival, development, and fecundity of the adult insect to predict host suitability are not clear. To investigate the key performance indices, we observed the performance of an oligophagous moth Grapholita molesta (Busck) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), a pest mainly damaging rosaceous plants, on three apple varieties, three peach varieties, and three pear varieties in the laboratory by placing its eggs on fruits. The moth's fitness was evaluated by the intrinsic rate of increase at fruit variety- and species-level variability. Our results showed that the preovipositional period of female moths and longevity of male moths were the indices primarily predicting intrinsic rates of increase for fruit variety and for fruit species. However, the preovipositional period of female moths was different at species-level variability but not at variety-level variability, whereas the longevity of male moths was not different at variety- or species-level variability. These results revealed that preovipositional period of female moths was a key predictor for host suitability in G. molesta. This study highlighted that gravid females may be a principal indicator in host resource optimization for oligophagous insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Oriental fruit moth (OFM) is a cosmopolitan borer pest. Adults migrate among peach, pear or apple orchards. However, the association of female oviposition with larval fitness over seasonal variation of fruit species have not been reported. This study investigated female oviposition and larval fitness during four sampling months of peach, apple and pear related with maturity. Infested fruits were investigated in three orchards. These results showed that females laid fewer eggs on apple than peach or pear in June and July, but not May and August. Fitness index of larvae on pear was lower than peach or apple in May, June and August, except for July. In June, larvae failed completely to bore into pear. The ranking of infestation ratio was peach orchard (from June to July) > pear orchard (July onward) > apple orchard (late June onward). Based on the above results, peach (June and July) and pear (July and August) were more suitable than apple (June, July and August), whereas peach (May), apple (May) and pear (May and June) were unsuitable for OFM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]