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The heavy metal zinc (Zn) is known to be transmitted in the food chain; however, the effect of Zn stress on beans and herbivorous insects is largely unclear. This study aimed to investigate the resistance of broad bean plants to Zn stress and the consequent changes in their physiological and biochemical metabolism by simulating heavy metal pollution in soil. Simultaneously, the effects of aphid progeny treated with different Zn concentrations on the expression of carbohydrate and related genes were analyzed. The results showed that Zn had no effect on the germination rate of broad beans, but other effects mainly manifested as follows. (1) Chlorophyll content decreased. (2) The total soluble sugar and Zn content in stems and leaves increased with increasing Zn content. (3) The proline content first increased and then decreased with increasing Zn content. (4) The height of the seedlings indicates that low concentrations promote growth and high concentrations inhibit growth. In addition, only the first-generation fecundity decreased significantly when aphids fed on heavy metal broad beans. Continuous high Zn levels increase the trehalose content of aphid F1 and F2, while F3 decreases. These results can not only provide a theoretical basis for exploring the impact of soil heavy metal pollution on ecosystems but also preliminarily evaluate the possibility of broad beans as a means of pollution remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various features of the atmospheric environment affect the number of migratory insects, besides their initial population. However, little is known about the impact of atmospheric low-frequency oscillation (10 to 90 days) on insect migration. A case study was conducted to ascertain the influence of low-frequency atmospheric oscillation on the immigration of brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. The results showed the following: (1) The number of immigrating N. lugens from April to June of 2007 through 2016 mainly exhibited a periodic oscillation of 10 to 20 days. (2) The 10-20 d lowfrequency number of immigrating N. lugens was significantly correlated with a low-frequency wind field and a geopotential height field at 850 hPa. (3) During the peak phase of immigration, southwest or south winds served as a driving force and carried N. lugens populations northward, and when in the back of the trough and the front of the ridge, the downward airflow created a favorable condition for N. lugens to land in the study area. In conclusion, the northward migration of N. lugens was influenced by a low-frequency atmospheric circulation based on the analysis of dynamics. This study was the first research connecting atmospheric low-frequency oscillation to insect migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two series of isostructural lanthanide coordination complexes, namely, LIFM-42(Ln) (Ln=Eu, Tb, Gd, in which LIFM stands for the Lehn Institute of Functional Materials) and LIFM-43(Ln) (Ln=Er, Yb), were synthesized through the self-assembly of an excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) ligand, 5-[2-(5-fluoro-2-hydroxyphenyl)-4,5-bis(4-fluorophenyl)-1H-imidazol-1-yl]isophthalic acid (H 2 hpi2cf), with different lanthanide ions. In the coordination structures linked by the ligands and oxo-bridged Ln III 2 clusters (for LIFM-42(Ln) series) or isolated Ln III ions (for LIFM-43(Ln) series), the ESIPT ligand can serve as both the host and antenna for protecting and sensitizing the photoluminescence (PL) of Ln III ions. Meanwhile, the -OH⋅⋅⋅N active sites on the ligands are vacant, which provides availability to systematically explore the PL behavior of Ln complexes with ESIPT interference. Based on the accepting levels of different lanthanide ions, energy transfer can occur from the T 1 (K*) or T 1 (E*) (K*=excited keto form, E*=excited enol form) excited states of the ligand. Furthermore, the sensitized lanthanide luminescence in both visible and near-infrared regions, as well as the remaining K* emission of the ligand, can be modulated by the ESIPT responsiveness to different solvents, anions, and temperature., (© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) is a migratory rice pest that periodically erupts across Asia, and early immigration is an important cause of its outbreak. The early immigration of S. furcifera into southern China shows evident annual fluctuations. In the spring of 2012, the huge size of the immigrant population and the large number of immigration peaks were at levels rarely seen prior to that year. However, little research has been done on the entire process of round-trip migration to clarify the development of the population, the long-distance migration and the final eruption. In this study, the light-trap data for S. furcifera in southern China and Vietnam in 2011-2016 were collected, and the trajectory modeling showed that the early immigrants to southern China came from the northern and central Vietnam, Laos, and northeastern Thailand. Analysis of the development of the population, the migration process and meteorological factors revealed the reasons for the huge size of the early immigration: 1) the expansion of the source area could be seen as a precondition; 2) the large size of the returned population in the last autumn and the warm temperature of southern Vietnam and Laos in the last winter increased the initial populations; 3) the sustained strong southwest winds were conducive to the northward migration of the population during the major immigration period in early May. Therefore, the large-scale immigration of S. furcifera to southern China in the spring of 2012 resulted from the combined effects of several factors involved in the process of round-trip migration., (© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)