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Agricultural dependency on insect-mediated pollination is increasing at the same time that pollinator populations are experiencing declines in diversity and abundance. Current pollinator research in agriculture focuses largely on diurnal pollinators, yet the evidence for pollination by moths and other nocturnal pollinators is growing. Apples are one of the most valuable and important fruits produced globally, and apple production is dependent on insect-mediated cross-pollination to generate a profitable crop. We examined contributions to apple production provided by nocturnal insects via an exclusion experiment. We compared the relative contributions to apple production provided by nocturnal and diurnal pollinators using fruit set, the likelihood of cluster pollination, and seed set. We found nocturnal pollinators capable of facilitating the production of as many apples at similar levels of pollination as diurnal pollinators. We further found evidence that nocturnal and diurnal pollinators pollinate synergistically, with pollination contributions being additive in one year of our study. Our research identifies significant contributions to apple production provided by nocturnal pollinators, which may interact with diurnal pollinators in ways that are currently unrecognized. Expansions of this research into additional pollinator-dependent crops and focused investigations on specific nocturnal insects will provide more accurate assessments of nocturnal-pollinator roles in agriculture and improve our overall understanding of pollination in agriculture.

Honey bees are the most important managed pollinators in commercial agriculture. Large irrigated mixed agricultural landscapes in the mid-south United States can be vital to maintaining commercial honey bee operations during times of prolonged nectar dearth, even if those crops are not dependent on bee pollinators. Severe declines in bee populations have generated concerns about the relationship of pesticide-treated seeds and crops and the health of honey bees. To investigate the role of pollen from seed-treated crops as a component of honey bee diet and pesticide contamination in pollen diet of honey bees from agricultural and urban landscapes, we monitored honey bee colonies in both agricultural and urban areas. Pollen collection began in mid-March, before seed-treated crops were planted, and continued through the end of August, after crops had ceased blooming. Pollen samples from returning bees were identified to determine the botanical origin of the bees’ pollen diet, and were also analyzed for pesticide contamination. Honey bees in the agricultural landscape visited crop sources only during the seasonal period of natural nectar dearth, when other wildflower sources were limited, and they encountered acutely toxic pesticide residues (above LD50) during this period. These bees also encountered toxic levels of herbicide on multiple occasions throughout the season, in pollen from non-crop plants. Bees in the urban area were also exposed to toxic levels of insecticides on several occasions. Urban bees were exposed to herbicides throughout the season, but not at concentrations approaching acute toxicity. Simultaneous exposure to multiple pesticides occurred at both sites on multiple occasions. The results underscore the need to conserve areas of habitat and forage for both wild and managed pollinators within both agricultural and urban landscapes.

This chapter relates how yellow fever continued to cause casualties during the US occupation after the Spanish-American War ended and how Major William Crawford Gorgas created a successful strategy to eliminate the disease from Cuba by attacking mosquito breeding sites. It goes on to tell the story of the plan to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, proposed earlier that century, with the Panama Railroad transporting military goods and soldiers, plus those seeking gold in California. A canal was proposed, but the first, French effort to build it cost hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of workers’ lives lost before capitulating to yellow fever in 1889. Subsequent US construction, begun in 1904, was soon threatened by disease. When Colonel Gorgas brought his yellow fever control plan to Panama he faced criticism from his superiors but gained the support of President Theodore Roosevelt. The chapter relates how his plan, though seemingly improbable, worked, defeating yellow fever, saving countless lives, and allowing the completion of the canal.

This chapter considers the five insects highlighted in this book and a common thread they all share, linked by the Silk Roads of Asia. All have had immeasurable impacts on human history, both positive and negative, though numerous other insect species also have stories to tell. As this chapter shows, the stories of all five insects in this book converge in their influence on the life and legacy of Napoleon, who wore silk clothes, was impacted by the diseases vectored by fleas and mosquitoes, and took honey bees as his emblem. The vectors of diseases were particularly impactful, and three species feature in decisive battles lost by Napoleon: fleas carrying plague defeated his expeditionary force in Egypt and Syria; mosquitos carrying yellow fever forced the withdrawal of French forces in Haiti; and human lice carrying typhus defeated the Grand Armée in Russia. Following their defeat and withdrawal from Haiti, the French sold their American land to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. As this chapter shows: never doubt for a moment that insects have shaped history in ways that are usually not seen.

Insects are seldom mentioned in history texts, yet they significantly shaped human history. The Silken Thread: Five Insects and Their Impacts on Human History tells the stories of just five insects, tied together by a thread originating in the Silk Roads of Asia, and how they have impacted our world. Silkworms have been farmed to produce silk for millennia, creating a history of empires and cultural exchanges; Silk Roads connected East to West, generating trade centers and transferring ideas, philosophies, and religions. The western honey bee feeds countless people, and their crop pollination is worth billions of dollars. Fleas and lice carried bacteria that caused three major plague pandemics, moved along the Silk Roads from Central Asia. Bacteria carried by insects left their ancient clues as DNA embedded in victims’ teeth. Lice caused outbreaks of typhus, especially in crowded conditions such as prisons and concentration camps. Typhus aggravated the effects of the Irish potato famine, and Irish refugees took typhus to North America. Yellow fever was transported to the Americas via the trans-Atlantic slave trade, taking and devaluing the lives of millions of Africans. Slaves were brought to the Americas to reduce labor costs in the cultivation of sugarcane, which was itself transported from south Asia along the Silk Roads. Yellow fever caused panic in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s as the virus and its mosquito vector was moved from the Caribbean. Constructing the Panama Canal required defeating mosquitoes that transmitted yellow fever. The silken thread runs through and ties together these five insects and their impacts on human history.

This chapter reviews the role of expanding sugarcane plantations throughout the Caribbean in the movement of slaves, mosquitoes and disease, as world empires jockeyed for dominance in world sugar markets. It relates how increased sugarcane production and exports to Europe led to increased importation of slaves to work the fields. As the African embarkation point of slaves moved north to the Slave Coast, yellow fever and the mosquito Aedes aegypti came into play, though when England banned slaveholding, sugar production shifted to the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico and Cuba. The brief Spanish-American War of 1898, over control of Cuba, cemented the fame of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt but resulted in more deaths from yellow fever than combat, with the outbreak continuing during the post-war occupation of Cuba. Serendipity played a significant role in the subsequent discovery of the cause of the disease, connecting the Yellow Fever Commission, led by Major Walter Reed, with Cuban physician, Dr. Carlos Finlay, whose early experiments pointed to mosquitos and others while a series of experiments by Reed's team showed Aedes aegypti was the vector.

This chapter explores the complex interactions among mammal hosts, insect vectors, bacteria and even amoebae implicated in the movement of the plague around the world. As it shows, trying to find the cause for the three plague pandemics is similar to the way a television detective solves a murder mystery. While the third pandemic established the roles of rats, rat fleas, and bacteria, that explanation has been incorrectly applied to explain the first two pandemics. The chapter shows how bacterial DNA collected from the teeth of 6th-Century plague victims, exhumed 1,400 years later, established greater understanding of the rate and geographic extent of the plague's spread. It goes on to relate how the age-old conclusions that brown rats were disease reservoirs and their fleas were vectors have been reconsidered, assigning rats and fleas specific roles and recognizing that humans and human lice as host and vector are more consistent with the plague’s rapid spread. Using clues from hosts and vectors to solve the mystery requires investigators to be like detectives.

This chapter reviews how silk, the fabric of royalty, begins as threads of sticky secretions from a moth’s salivary glands—moth spit, in other words. But not just any moth, the domestic silkworm, the result of centuries of selective breeding of the ancestral wild silk moth. As the chapter explains, silk is produced today in much the same way as it was thousands of years ago when Chinese households formed a network of producers. It also shows how silk, although just one fabric with a long history, was for centuries reserved for royalty. Its beauty and appeal led to uses that ranged from robes created for emperors to serving as currency, literally worth its weight in gold and used to pay for both fealty and extortion. The story of silk is the story of humanity.

This chapter focuses on yellow fever, which inspired dread in the United States when epidemics occurred in the 1700s and 1800s. The 1878 epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee, triggered an exodus from the city of frightened people who often took the disease with them and resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 people in the southern United States. As the chapter relates, the cause of the disease was unknown at the time, bringing fear and ineffective attempts to prevent or cure it. An early effort in biowarfare even attempted, unsuccessfully, to use clothing soiled by yellow fever victims to infect President Abraham Lincoln. The chapter goes on to describe how yellow fever, classified as a flavivirus, is transmitted by Aedes aegypti, both native to East Africa. Yellow fever arrived in the Americas because of a sequence of unlikely events that allowed the mosquito, virus, and susceptible victims to be transported to there on slave ships, a sequence traceable to the Silk Roads.

This chapter reviews the history of the human disease popularly known as plague, which has caused three major pandemics in the past two millennia, focusing on the most recent pandemic and the discovery of the insect that transmitted the disease. It begins with the Third Pandemic started in 1855, which began in Yunnan Province in southwestern China, an area rich in geological and biological diversity. Infections increased as the disease slowly spread to Hong Kong, where it reached epidemic levels in 1894. From there, maritime trade on steamships carried the plague to India, Australia, and then worldwide, to Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The chapter describes how, while the pandemic raged, scientists investigated the cause of the disease, learning that bacteria carried by Oriental rat fleas and rats were responsible. This pandemic killed at least 15 million people, mostly in India, and continued for nearly a century.

This chapter relates the history of sugar, a thread that links the Silk Roads, Portuguese sailors, Atlantic islands, endangered seals, the African slave trade, and yellow fever, all because of our physiological need for glucose, which we satisfy with sugar. The chapter tells how from its origin in Southeast Asia, sugarcane, later called “Creole cane” and processing technology moved along the Silk Roads to Western Asia, then to Mediterranean islands. To begin with, Portuguese colonists transformed the Atlantic island of Madeira into a large sugar producer using slave labor until ecological and economic collapse forced production to move to São Tomé, using Angolan slave labor. After Portugal discovered Brazil, colonists took sugarcane with them, creating large plantations and initiating the enslavement and trans-Atlantic movement of millions of Africans. As the chapter shows, sugar production moved into the Caribbean and Central America, and African slave ships inadvertently carried yellow fever and yellow fever mosquito to the Americas.

This chapter describes two pandemics, separated by nearly a millennium, that raged through Asia and Europe in the 6th and 14th Centuries. The second plague pandemic, the Black Death, is better known than its predecessor, the Justinianic Plague. As the chapter relates, the causes of these pandemics were not known at the time, but both were spread along the Silk Roads from the deserts in Central Asia, through Constantinople, and then to Europe. It outlines the stories told about and explanations for both pandemics, which either are scarce or come from second-hand reports, and shows that because the cause was not known, preventative methods were largely ineffective, cruel, or even bizarre. Each of the two pandemics killed tens of millions of people–estimates of numbers vary widely. Finally, the chapter relates how the roles of insects as disease vectors were not understood until the 20th Century, and only then came the recognition that the plague pandemics differed and could not be called just the Plague.

This chapter introduces the early history of silk. The fabric was known about in Europe since the 1st Century BCE, but what it came from or how it was made were unknown, with early Romans thinking silk grew on plants or was the downy surface of leaves. As the chapter shows, the closely guarded secret eventually became known in Japan, Korea, and India, but the monopoly on Chinese silk making was only broken when the process made its way to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, where silk making flourished. Later moves to Italian cities, and France produced different silk patterns. In France, the Jacquard loom was developed, using punch cards to weave repeatable patterns, a technology later adapted for collecting and sorting data in the US census. Modern computers and cell phones can be traced to the refinement of punch cards from the Jacquard loom, used to weave silk from the domestic silkworm.

This chapter shows how in early antiquity the universal appeal of silk spread across Eurasia through a trade network known as the Silk Roads. Silk inspired the economic exchange of trading goods, which produced a network of trade centers and cities. The value of silk was so great that traders endured harsh conditions as they passed through the great mountain ranges of the Tien Shan, Karakorams, and Hindu Kush and skirted inhospitable deserts, such as the Taklamakan and Gobi. Caravanserais, rest stops along the Silk Roads, allowed travelers to exchange ideas and innovations and created awareness of different cultures and religions. The product of the domestic silkworm figured prominently in the development of dominant Central and Western Asian empires and Chinese dynasties and produced significant historical figures, such as Timur and Mongol leader, Genghis Khan. As this chapter shows, that rich, arcane history developed because of the domestic silkworm.

This chapter considers arthropod-borne diseases, which will affect nearly everyone in some way. Viruses transmitted by mosquitos include Zika virus and those causing West Nile, dengue, Rift Valley, and yellow fevers. Other diseases transmitted by insects include malaria, typhus, and plague. Some diseases, such as plague, are zoonotic—diseases that naturally occur in wildlife, but are transmitted to and kill humans. The chapter also reviews efforts to eliminate or reduce the incidence of plague epidemics, some of which generated large-scale projects, such as the Soviet Anti-Plague Institute, that sought unsuccessfully to eradicate rodents and their fleas over a broad area, while others tried to use plague as a bioweapon. The 20th-Century Japanese bioweapon program, called Unit 731, used insects as vectors to initiate epidemics of plague, cholera, and dysentery, killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians during the Sino-Japanese War and World War II.

This chapter considers human lice, which have been parasites of humans throughout all human history and transmit a deadly bacteria that has killed millions. Analyzing lice genetics tells of divergence of humans from other apes and when humans began to wear clothing. Human body lice live in clothing and infest people only to feed. Lice spread easily among people in crowded situations and transmit bacteria causing diseases, such as typhus. The chapter relates how lice-transmitted typhus caused jail fever in early England, resulting in the deaths of more prisoners than the death penalty. Lice and typhus worsened the Irish Great Famine, as the disease killed thousands of Irish emigrating to the United States on “coffin ships.” Epidemics of typhus were prevalent in wartime, killing troops in both World War I and World War II as well as civilians in Nazi concentration camps and the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II and immediately after. Post-war use of DDT averted typhus epidemics in Europe and Japan.

This chapter relates the history of the well-known Western honey bees Apis mellifera, just one of 20,000 species of bees. It relates how honey bees originated in Asia, where they nested in tree cavities, from which humans robbed honey. Beekeeping arose as a mutualistic relationship, providing shelter for bees in exchange for consistent access to their products and was prominent in ancient Egypt, from where the practice moved to Western Asia and Europe. Honey bees were taken to North America in 1622 by colonists needing pollinators of food crops. The chapter explains the major roles honey bees play as pollinators of crops, enabling a diversity of food in modern diets and providing billions of dollars in economic benefit. Uniting flowering plants with pollinators means we raise honey bees as six-legged livestock, manipulating and moving the bees to meet human needs. Honey bees face modern threats, and threats to bees are threats to our food supply.

After years of not engaging in policy affecting entomology and entomologists, the Entomological Society of America (ESA) has developed a set of coordinated initiatives to have the Society and its members become engaged in science policy activities. From its beginnings as a mere commitment to development of a program, the ESA’s science policy program has become robust and active, including engaging an advocacy firm to represent ESA and guide Society initiatives and training, and developing a Science Policy Fellows program with selected fellows representing all parts of the membership, to creating a ‘tiered agenda’, with priorities stated for key issues. Here, we recount some of the history of ESA’s advocacy efforts and highlight the value of the ESA as an advocate, providing policy makers with timely and reputable evidence-based information, while developing engaged members to become future Society leaders.

Each year, temperate deciduous forests produce a layer of litter comprised primarily of leaves. Two common and diverse taxa found in the litter layer are ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) and ground spiders (Araneae: Gnaphosidae). We collected and identified these groups on a monthly basis from April 2014 to March 2015 at 4 sites in Northwest Arkansas to determine their abundance and diversity across the following 3 variables: season, litter depth, and site location. A total of 480 litter samples and 208 pitfall-trap samples were collected and processed. These samples resulted in 645 carabids representing 47 species and 421 gnaphosids representing 15 species. Statistical analyses detected significant differences in species richness, average number of individuals, and species diversity of gnaphosids among sites. In contrast, leaf-litter depth had no significant effect on the number of individuals collected, species richness (except at one site), or species diversity of carabids and gnaphosids. Both carabids and gnaphosids were most abundant and diverse during the spring.

Tumor hypoxia may play a fundamental role in determining the radiotherapy outcome for several cancer types. Functional imaging with hypoxia specific radiotracers offers a way to visualize and quantify regions of increased radioresistance, which may benefit from dose escalation strategies. Conversion of the uptake in positron emission tomography (PET) images into oxygenation maps offers a way to quantitatively characterize the microenvironment. However, normalization of the uptake with respect to a well-oxygenated reference volume (WOV), which should be properly selected, is necessary when using conversion functions. This study aims at assessing the sensitivity of quantifying tumor oxygenation based on

Interactions among seed-feeding insects are well noted in the literature, with many of these interactions being asymmetrical and causing a disadvantage for one of the species involved. While often effective, the use of the cumulative stress approach to biological control (where multiple natural enemy species are released) may increase the risk of interaction, which may lead to less effective biological control programs. Spotted knapweed ( Centaurea stoebe ssp. micranthos (Gugler) Hayek) is an invasive plant that causes damage in rangelands and pastures. In Arkansas, two biological control agents for spotted knapweed, Larinus minutus Gyllenhal and Urophora quadrifasciata Meigen, are established. Both species attack the capitula of spotted and diffuse knapweeds. There is potential for interactions between these species, and this could affect the efficacy of the biological control program. To evaluate these potential interactions, we collected spotted knapweed capitula weekly from three sites in Arkansas from 2010 to 2012. Capitula were monitored for emergence of L. minutus and U. quadrifasciata , and the effect on seed reduction was analyzed. Over all three years, L. minutus and U. quadrifasciata were present in 35.8% (492) and 22.8% (313) of the capitula, respectively. We determined that the occurrences of L. minutus and U. quadrifasciata were not independent of each other, and that L. minutus is more effective at reducing spotted knapweed seed production than U. quadrifasciata within individual capitula . Seed production in capitula with both natural enemies present was no different from capitula with L. minutus.

Bioenergy crop models predict harvestable biomass using known variables, and illustrate key parameters that determine the crop yield. We developed a model, using the systems software STELLA, to provide a conceptual representation of Miscanthus × giganteus crop system and understand various parameters and their influence on the growth and loss of harvestable biomass. Using data from four locations, we developed a model and used it to predict yields comparable to reported biomass production from Champaign, IL, thus validating the model structure. Sensitivity analyses of model variables suggested that solar radiation, rainfall, temperature, soil water holding capacity, solar energy interception and conversion efficiency, evapotranspiration, crop coefficient, irrigation and harvest date significantly influenced the predicted harvestable biomass. The flexible STELLA platform also allows the stakeholders to expand and modify the model to incorporate additional variables if required and ultimately enables informed decision-making for bioenergy crop production at any location.

Spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe ssp. micranthos (Gugler) Hayek) is an invasive plant from Eurasia that degrades pastures and rangelands in the western United States and Canada. A biological control program for spotted and diffuse (C. diffusa Lamarck) knapweeds was initiated in the 1960s, with 13 species of insects introduced and established in the United States and Canada. The program has largely been considered a success and Larinus minutus Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is considered to be one of the key agents responsible for the reduction of knapweeds. Spotted knapweed expanded its range into the southeastern United States, but biological control was not used against the weed in this region until recently. Larinus minutus were released in 6 counties in Arkansas from 2008 through 2012. Weekly sweep-net sampling to monitor weevil activity showed establishment of the weevils in 5 counties. The numbers of L. minutus captured at each site increased from 2010 to 2012. Larinus minutus in Arkansas was univoltine and sex ratios were 1:1, except during flowering, when the proportion of females captured increased. Eggs were not present in females until 1 week after flowering of spotted knapweed.

101 The word “biodiversity” is used often in science, policy discussions, and writings, and the subject is incorporated into the curricula of many science classes. In many cases, biodiversity is considered to be something that happens “somewhere else,” such as in neotropical rain forests. On the contrary, biodiversity is everywhere, or nearly so: clearly, some areas have greater biodiversity; some less. The extent of diversity often goes unnoticed by the casual observer. Even our own backyards in the populated, temperate world hold more species than many of us would anticipate. The desire to convey the importance of biodiversity close to home gave rise to the concept of a “BioBlitz.” A BioBlitz is an assessment of the biodiversity of a specified place at a specified time. BioBlitz organizers form teams of specialists and non-specialists to count all the species (or morphospecies, for poorly known taxa) within a defined time period, usually 24 hours. BioBlitzes have several purposes. They increase public awareness, help to inform decision makers, habitat managers, and planners about the biodiversity of a specific area, and generate data that can be useful in planning and land management. BioBlitzes can also excite the next generation of scientists as they partner scientists with the public. The first recorded BioBlitz occurred at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, DC, in 1996. That initial effort yielded approximately 1,000 species within a 24-hour period. Since then, blitzes have been organized in at least 20 states in the U.S., as well as countries worldwide, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, Trinidad & Tobago, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., BioBlitzes are conducted at various national, state, and local levels. The National Park Service is What Is the Value of Your Insect Collection?

The emerging bioeconomy offers numerous potential benefits, including development of carbon-neutral energy sources, energy independence, production of novel bioproducts, and renewal of rural economies. Aside from the benefits, the emerging bioeconomy is likely to result in the single largest reconfiguration of the agricultural landscape since the advent of industrial agriculture. The scale and pace of this revolution pose significant challenges for sustainable bioeconomic development. We present and explore some of the key ecological and environmental challenges of one aspect of the bioeconomy — biofuel production. In assessing these challenges, we highlight the inadequacy of seeking simplistic solutions. We identify the need for a multidimensional approach to addressing these challenges. We propose that the framework of ‘biocomplexity’ enables such a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary consideration of biofuel production. Integration of such a systems approach to biofuel development, with a more-inclusive public engagement process, would be beneficial within a triple bottom line context.

We studied effects of fertilization and time of cutting on the regeneration of cutleaf teasel (Dipsacus laciniatus L.) at the Mascoutin Recreation Area at Clinton Lake, Dewitt County, Illinois, for two growing seasons. D. laciniatus is an exotic European invasive species that infests natural habitats across much of the United States and southern Canada. We established fourteen 5.0-m × 5.0-m paired plots, seven fertilized and seven unfertilized. Each set of paired plots was assigned one of seven cutting treatments, including no cutting, or one of six cutting times from 3 June to 10 August 2002. We measured stem height, number of heads per individual plant, number of seeds per head, and seed viability. We found no significant difference between plant heights or number of heads per individual in fertilized versus unfertilized plots. Reproductive success significantly increased when D. laciniatus had more time to grow after cutting. If cutting occurred before flower buds opened in early July, no sig...

Periodic sweep-net sampling and capitula sampling were conducted between April and October 2007 to determine the seasonal phenology of Urophora quadrifasciata (Meigen) (Diptera: Tephritidae) on spotted knapweed, Centaurea stoebe subsp. micranthos (Gugler) Hayek (Asteraceae), in the Arkansas Ozarks of the United States of America. Urophora quadrifasciata produces up to three generations in Arkansas, rather than being bivoltine as in the northern United States of America. The first, second, and third generations of U. quadrifasciata reached peak adult numbers around 26 May, 29 June, and 27 July, respectively. Males tended to emerge earlier than females but the female:male ratio was approximately 1:1 for most of the season. The majority of the offspring of the three generations emerged between June and October, while approximately 38% entered diapause and emerged as adults in April-June of the following year; 3.4 ± 0.1 (mean ± SE) (range 1–12) flies emerged from each infested capitulum. The absence of other, competing knapweed biological control agents as well as very low rates of parasitism, mild weather conditions, and a longer knapweed growing season likely contributed to the adaptation and establishment of U. quadrifasciata on spotted knapweed in Arkansas.

We evaluated the potential for competition between the exotic ichneumonid parasitoid Pimpla disparis Vierick and the native ichneumonid Itoplectis conquisitor Say, in the form of multiparasitism and destructive host feeding, by examining how previous oviposition experience influenced host selection. Both species commonly attack the host species, bagworm, Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis (Haworth) (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), in central Illinois. We used in our study adult female parasitoids that were naive, had previously oviposited into hosts that contained heterospecifics, or had oviposited into hosts that initially were unparasitized. Naive parasitoids of both species were disinclined to oviposit into hosts that already were parasitized by heterospecific larvae, suggesting that female parasitoids could detect the larvae. However, parasitoids with prior oviposition experience were less selective and oviposited into hosts that already were parasitized and unparasitized hosts. Female P. disparis and I. conquisitor probed parasitized hosts more frequently than unparasitized hosts. Adult female parasitoids of both species rarely directly fed on hosts, but those that did preferred to feed on hosts that already were parasitized. For both parasitoid species, the first larva to colonize a multiparasitized host was the most likely to survive to adulthood.

Galerucella calmariensis (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) has become an effective biological control agent for purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). A male-produced aggregation pheromone was recently identified in this mostly univoltine beetle, and attractiveness to both sexes was demonstrated in the spring, when overwintered adults reproduce. Nothing was known about whether the pheromone functioned for the summer generation, when some of the beetles may undergo a brief reproductive period before entering diapause. Our results showed that both sexes of the beetles responded strongly to synthetic pheromone during summer, and males collected in the field during early summer and held under the prevailing photoperiod were able to emit pheromone. These males mated readily with field-collected females, and fertile eggs were laid, indicating a reproductive role for the pheromone during early summer. Males emitted pheromone well only when fed L. salicaria. Adult beetles were able to persist on marginal hosts such Salix interior and Rosa spp., but almost no pheromone was detected. Emission ceased and resumed as host access changed, even after a long interruption. Attractiveness of L. salicaria foliage was investigated. Six “green-leaf” volatiles were identified that were readily sensed by beetle antennae, but a preliminary synthetic blend of these was not attractive in the field. A model is presented for pheromone-mediated host colonization after dispersal, and relationships among pheromone biology, diapause, photoperiod, and host quality are discussed. Practical uses for the pheromone are noted, and new information is given about longevity of pheromone lures.

Purpose To evaluate the role of hypoxia positron emission tomography (PET) using [ 18 F]fluoroazomycin-arabinoside (FAZA) in head and neck cancer for radiation treatment planning using intensity-modulated radiotherapy and dose painting. Methods and Materials Eighteen patients with advanced squamous cell head and neck cancer were included. Both FAZA-PET and axial CT were performed using mask fixation. The data were coregistered using software based on mutual information. Contours of tumor (primary gross tumor volume, GTV/CT-P) and lymph node metastases (GTV/CT-N) were outlined manually, and FAZA standardized uptake values (SUVs) were calculated automatically. The hypoxic subvolume (GTV/PET-FAZA) having at least 50% more FAZA uptake than background (mean SUV) neck muscle tissue was contoured automatically within GTV/CT-P (GTV/PET-FAZA-P) and GTV/CT-N (GTV/PET-FAZA-N). Results The median GTV/PET-FAZA-P was 4.6 mL, representing 10.8% (range, 0.7–52%) of the GTV/CT-P. The GTV/PET-FAZA-P failed to correlate significantly with the GTV/CT-P ( p = 0.06). The median GTV/PET-FAZA-N was 4.1 mL, representing 8.3% (range, 2.2–51.3%) of the GTV/CT-N. It was significantly correlated with the GTV/PET-N ( p = 0.006). The GTV/PET-FAZA-P was located in a single confluent area in 11 of 18 patients (61%) and was diffusely dispersed in the whole GTV/CT-P in 4 of 18 patients (22%), whereas no hypoxic areas were identified in 3 of 18 patients (17%). The GTV/PET-FAZA-N was outlined as a single confluent region in 7 of 18 patients (39%), in multiple diffuse hypoxic regions in 4 of 18 patients (22%), and was not delineated in 7 of 18 patients (39%). Conclusion This study demonstrates that FAZA-PET imaging could be used for a hypoxia-directed intensity-modulated radiotherapy approach in head and neck cancer.

Purpose: 130-nm albumin–bound paclitaxel (nab-paclitaxel) is a novel solvent-free albumin-bound paclitaxel, designed to avoid solvent-related toxicity. Nab-paclitaxel has been successfully introduced into the clinic but its radiation-enhancing potential has not yet been evaluated. We conducted a preclinical evaluation of the radiation-modulating effects of nab-paclitaxel in tumor and normal tissues. Experimental Design: Mice bearing syngeneic ovarian or mammary carcinomas were treated with nab-paclitaxel, radiation, or combination of both. Nab-paclitaxel was administered at 90 mg/kg, 1.5 times the maximum tolerated dose for solvent-based paclitaxel. End points were antitumor efficacy (growth delay, radiocurability, and cellular effects) and normal tissue toxicity (gut and skin). Results: Nab-paclitaxel showed single-agent antitumor efficacy against both tumor types and acted as a radiosensitizer. Combined with radiation, nab-paclitaxel produced supra-additive effects when given before radiation. Nab-paclitaxel significantly increased radiocurability by reducing the dose yielding 50% tumor cure (TCD50) from 54.3 to 35.2 Gy. Tumor histology following nab-paclitaxel treatment was characterized by pronounced necrotic and apoptotic cell death and mitotic arrest. Nab-paclitaxel did not increase normal tissue radioresponse. Conclusions: Nab-paclitaxel exhibited strong antitumor efficacy against both tumors as a single agent and it improved radiotherapy in a supra-additive manner. These improved effects were achieved without increased normal tissue toxicity to either rapidly or slowly proliferating normal tissues although the drug dose was 1.5 times higher than the maximum tolerated dose of solvent-based paclitaxel. These preclinical findings show that combining nab-paclitaxel with radiotherapy would improve the outcome of taxane-based chemoradiotherapy. This novel taxane is thus a good candidate for testing in clinical chemoradiotherapy trials.