INTRODUCTION
Cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne F (Col.: Anobiidae) is a cosmopolitan stored product insect pest (Rees, 2004). The female beetles are found to deposit about 100 eggs loosely on commodities which hatch between 6- 10 days in territory weather conditions (Cabrera, 2007). The beetles that emerge as adult are capable of flight and do not feed as adult but create holes in the product to locate a suitable oviposition site (Papadopoulou, 2006). The shortest development period from egg to adult stage is 26 days at 30°C and 70 % relative humidity (Rees, 2004) (in what product?)
The cigarette beetle is one of the most common household insect that causes damage to stored products such as dried materials of animal and vegetable origin, nuts, herbs, spices, grains and grain products etc. They usually feed heavily at the larval stage (Cabrera, 2007). The insects are also found to develop favourably on root and tuber crops such as cassava, yam, cocoyam and sweet potato mostly in the dried or processed state for storage (Adebayor, 2002). The insect usually infest and contaminates stored products with their cocoons and body parts when they die, thereby reducing the qualitative and quantitative value of the stored product which makes it undesirable for human consumption (Buss and Fasulo, 2006). The rate of development of the cigarette beetle is dependent on the food source and environmental factors such as temperature and relative humidity (Rees, 2004). The longest developmental stage is usually recorded at the larval stage where most feeding is done; the longevity of the adult insect is usually dependent on the type and quantity of food consumed during the larval stage (Papadopoulou, 2006; Mahroof and Phillips, 2008).
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...e damage to dried yam by Araecerus fasciculatus. Tropical Stored Products Information.49,3-7.
Onwueme, I. C., Sinba, T. D. (1991). Field crops production in Tropical Africa. Principles and practices.CTA, Ede, The Netherlands publishers (480pp), 265-275.
Papadopoulou, S. C. (2006). Observations of the mating behavior of Lasioderma serricorne (F.) adults and experiments on their nutritional requirements in dried tobacco. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 60(4): 291-296.
Rees, D. (2004). Insects of Stored Products.CSIRO Publishing,Collinwood. Australia.
Rhine, J. J, Stapples, R. (1968). Effect of high amylase field corn on larval growth and survival of five spp. Of stored grain insects. Jnl Econ., 16, 280-282
Roland, J. R. J. (1993). Dry land farming in Africa. The Macmillan press Ltd. London .pp.292-294.
Wrigley, G. (1988). Coffee. AICTA, Longman. Singapore. 221pp
To conduct the experiment, the beetles were massed, then attached to a petri dish with a 30 centimeter piece of dental floss. The beetle’s mass was the independent variable. Afterwards, the floss was tied to the beetle’s midsection with a slip knot. Then, the beetle was placed on a piece of fabric with the petri dish attached to it. As soon as the beetle was able to move with one paperclip inside the petri dish, more were added, one by one, until it could not move any further. After the beetle could not pull any more, the paperclips were massed and the results were recorded. The dependent variable was the mass that the beetles could pull. No control group was included in this experiment.
In conclusion, the suffering from malnutrition as well as the lack of education in rural Africa are spotlighted in both Dettwyler and Lee’s books. Both anthropologists give an insight into the true nature of the many problems faced by the people and how they confront life and death in a completely foreign manner. Even though both areas suffer from similar problems, steps are slowing being taken in the right direction to help educate people by setting up programs and making better schools. Although both the societies and their issues differ greatly, both are advancing toward similar solutions.
Somalia is one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries (Campbell). Because of the Civil War, which broke out in 1991, much of Somalia’s economy has been devastated. The war left many homeless and drove them to raise livestock as a means of survival. The economy used to be based on exports of cattle, goats, and bananas but as of early 1992 much of the economic trade had come to a halt. Now the economy is primarily based on the raising of livestock, which accounts for 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Alhaus). Due to overgrazing, soil erosion, and the clearing away of many trees, Somalia has very few natural resources, which have not been exploited.
Ree, Bill. "Pecan Insect Pests." Pecan Kernel. Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. http://pecankernel.tamu.edu/pecan_insects/pests/index.html.
Smith, R.H. (1963). Toxicity of pine resin vapors to three species of Dendroctonusvbark beetles. Journal of Economic Entomology 56: 827-831
In his book “Cattle Brings Us to Our Enemies”, McCabe does a 16-year stint in East Africa, specifically in Northern Kenya, doing research on the Turkana. He does this through STEP, the South Turkana Ecosystem Project. In “Cattle Bring Us to Our Enemies”, McCabe follows four families through his years in Kenya and notes how they live in a very demanding environment. He uses ecological data to analyze how and why the Turkana people make decisions about their everyday life. McCabe focuses on four main areas of study: how the Turkana survive and adapt to a stressful environment by nomadic pastoralism, how the techniques used to extract resources and manage livestock modify the environment, the effects of the environmental and cultural practices have on
Forensic entomology can be broken down into three areas: medico-legal, urban, and stored product pests. Urban entomology involves insects that affect houses, buildings, and other human based environments. Stored pest entomology involves insects infesting stored goods such as food and clothing. In this paper, medico-legal entomology will be the focus as it is the type of entomology that entomologists use to utilize insects to solve criminal cases, (Houck and Siegel. Entomology).
The village of Umuofia in the late 19th century to the turn of the 20th century was the setting for Achebe’s book, Things fall apart. The Igbo people were a superstitious people who centered a good portion of their lives harvesting yams. In fact, Ondo, Kevers, & Dommes (2013) stated that “yams (Dioscorea spp.) are tuber crops used as staple food in Africa because of their nutritional value and that the genus Dioscorea belongs to the Dioscoreaceae family and comprises approximately 600 species, mainly distributed in subtropical and temperate areas of Africa” (p. 653). Underdeveloped countries such as Africa rely heavily on nutritional crops to feed their people. Without these tropical growing yams, alternate food sources would have to be found.
World Food Programme. (2013). Comprehensive food security and vulnerability analysis (CFSVA): Uganda. Retrieved from http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp256989.pdf
Many aphid species are partners in mutualistic relationships with several ant taxa (Flatt and Weisser 2000). The degree of this mutualism can be either obligate or facultative depending on several ecological and physiological factors (Stadler and Dixon 2005). Aphids produce nourishing, sugar-rich honeydew which ants can procure by stroking the aphids’ anus or nectar organ with their antennae (Yao and Akimoto 2001). In return, ants offer the aphids protection from predators and parasitoids (Yao and Akimoto 2001). Ants also can perform hygienic services for the aphid colony by removing exuviae and excrement which decreases the risk of fungal growth (Detrain et al. 2010). Honeydew-collecting ants involved in these interactions include the subfamilies Formicinae and Dolichoderinae, as well as several species in the Myrmica and Tetramorium genera of the Myrmicinae subfamily (Stadler and Dixon 2005).
Forensic entomology is the study of insects and arthropods and their relation to a criminal investigation. Forensic entomology can determine the postmortem interval (PMI) or how long since the descendants’ death, whether the body has been moved since expiring, and what injuries may have been sustained (Ryan, 2011). When decomposition begins, insects establish a colony to lay eggs on the remains; these eggs will hatch into larvae that will eat the human organs and tissues. Forensic entomologists can determine the specific insects present in the body and estimate how long a body has been left exposed by examining the stage of development of the fly larvae; however, these findings are not always plausible. The fly larvae look and act different at each stage of development. The time required for stage development is not only affected by environmental influences such as geographical location, climate, and weather conditions, but also by type of insect. The forensic entomologist must consider these conditions when estimating the postmortem interval. Knowledge of insects, their life cycles, and their habits make entomological evidence a priceless tool for an investigation. Forensic entomology has proved its significance in a number of cases; though circumstances such as weather, temperature, and time of year clearly affect the development of insect infestation, and the expert must keep these in the forefront of his/her mind (Innes, 2000).
Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa), ectotherms that were easily observable and subjectable to habituation, were used to compare differences in standard metabolic rates between organisms. The hypothesis is that the habituated G. portentosa will have a lower weight specific metabolic rate than the non-habituated G. portentosa. To measure metabolic rates of habituated and non-habituated cockroaches that were either male or female, the cockroaches were put into a flow meter apparatus that calculated the amounts of CO2 they gave off during respiration. The mean weight specific metabolic rate for the habituated males was 2.00 x 10-3 +- 1.08 x 10-3 (ml x CO2)/(g x min) and for the non-habituated males the mean was 2.40
Founou-Tchuigoua, Bernard Food self-sufficiency: Crisis of the collective ideology African agriculture: The critical choices. United Nations University Press (1990) ISBN 0-86232-798-9
Any insect that is caught by hand or not by any of the above mentioned collecting methods is considered to have been singled and should be placed in an appropriate labeled jar with ethyl acetate
On September 11, 2007, Guam’s first Coconut Rhino Beetle, or Orcytes rhinoceros, was discovered on Tumon Bay, Guam near a wedding chapel (Moore). Unlike other beetles that appear quite sluggish and only feed on grass, such as the South African Beetle, the Rhino Beetle is very powerful (Hungay 314). A group of these beetles are able to feed off all the palms of a palm tree, until there is nothing left but the branch. The adults attack the trees, and the grubs—or maggots—live in the dead palm trees (Miller). This is a disaster for the tourist industry on Guam. This same beetle caused a problem in Palau in the 1940s, and still is. It wiped out fifty percent of the main island’s palm trees, and in some of Palau’s smaller islands, the beetles have wiped out the trees all together. Not only are palm trees expensive to buy and maintain, they are also the main attraction of an island that relies on tourism. And ...