Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.0608 Zoology

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 38
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Life history and behavior of Tamarixia triozae parasitizing the tomato-potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli
    (Elsevier B V) Chen C; He XZ; Zhou P; Wang Q
    Tamarixia triozae is an important primary parasitoid of the tomato-potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli, a serious cosmopolitan pest of solanaceous crops. However, without better information about its life history and behavior, it will be difficult to use this parasitoid in effective biological control programs. We carried out a series of experiments to characterize its parasitism, adult feeding, and oviposition behaviors and its sex allocation in response to different life stages of its host, and their fitness consequences. We show that T. triozae females fed on all host instars with a preference for mid-aged ones, and preferred to parasitize later instars, thus inflicting mortality on all instars simultaneously. Host feeding and parasitism peaked during the first week of female life and declined markedly after two weeks. Parasitoids allocated more fertilized eggs to older and larger nymphs, and super-parasitism declined with increasing host density. The oviposition rate of fertilized eggs peaked when females were four to five days old, with >90% of daughters produced during the first half of adult life. The body size and egg loads of progeny increased with increasing host instar at parasitism, demonstrating a positive relationship between the host size and offspring fitness.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Geochemical fingerprinting of Holocene tephras in the Willaumez Isthmus District of West New Britain, Papua New Guinea
    (The Australian Museum, 2021-05-12) Neall V; McGee L; Turner M; O'Neill T; Zernack A; Athens JS; Specht, J; Attenbrow, V; Allen, J
    Electron microprobe analyses were conducted on volcanic glasses extracted from Holocene tephra marker beds on the Willaumez isthmus in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea. These tephra beds are pivotal in the dating of a wide range of human artefacts and manuports found in the intervening buried soils, extending back over the last 40,000 years. Three major groups can be easily separated: W-K1 and 2; W-K3 and 4; and the Dakataua tephra. Of the remaining post-W-K4 tephras, most show slightly higher FeO and CaO and lower SiO2 contents than the W-K3 and 4 group, although there is some overlap. The combination of these geochemical data sets with the known stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates has helped resolve tephra correlation where these ashes become thin and less visually diagnostic or where pumice has been resorted and redeposited by the Kulu-Dulagi River.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Temperature but Not Photoperiod Can Predict Development and Survival of an Invasive Apple Pest
    (MDPI AG, 29/05/2023) He XZ; Wang Q
    The apple leaf-curling midge, Dasineura mali Kieffer (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), is an invasive pest of apple, and can contaminate fresh fruit for export, causing biosecurity problems. To provide crucial information for its pest risk analysis, forecast, and management, we investigated the effects of temperatures (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 °C) and daylengths (10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 h) on its development and survival. The midge eggs failed to hatch at 5 °C and larvae could not complete development at 10 °C. Pupation and emergence rates were significantly higher at 20 °C than at 15 °C and 25 °C. Daylength had no effect on these parameters. The low temperature threshold and thermal requirement to complete development from eggs to adults were 3.7 °C and 627 degree-days, respectively. The midge had a significantly lower thermal requirement for the completion of its lifecycle at 20 °C (614.5 degree-days) than at 15 °C (650.1 degree-days) and 25 °C (634.8 degree-days). The thermal model developed in this study provided accurate predictions of the number of D. mali generations and adult emergence time in each generation in different regions of New Zealand. We suggest that the model could be used to predict population dynamics of this pest in other parts of the world.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    First confirmed records of white-coat pups of the Endangered Caspian seal Pusa caspica on the coast of Iran
    (Cambridge University Press, 2023-04-26) Shirazi ASEA; Chilvers B
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Male larval experience of cues from adult rivals alters lifetime sperm investment patterns in a sperm heteromorphic moth, Ephestia kuehniella
    (Wiley, 11/05/2023) Liu J; He XZ; Wang Q
    Male animals may adjust their resource allocations for reproduction and other fitness functions in response to cues from rivals. For instance, adult males increase their investment in sperm for a higher paternity share when they perceive sperm competition risk in their surroundings. In nature, both juveniles and adults may coexist spatially and temporally. Yet, it is not clear how juvenile males of different ages respond to cues from adult rivals and fine-tune their lifetime investment in sperm production and ejaculation in any insect. Here we used the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella, which produces both fertile eupyrene and infertile apyrene sperm, to explore this question. We demonstrate that the late, but not early, instar larvae are sensitive to adult male cues. As a response, they produce more sperm before emergence and their resultant adults have shorter mating latency and ejaculate more sperm in the first few matings. When the juvenile stage produces more eupyrenes, the adult stops making these sperm, but regardless of the number of apyrenes produced during the juvenile stage, the adult continues to make them. These findings suggest that the number of permatogonia for eupyrenes may be limited and that for apyrenes may be flexible. Our results show that the insect does not trade off survival, mating frequency, body size, or testis size for sperm production in response to adult males during the larval stage. Knowledge created in the present study offers insight into the stage-dependent sensitivity of juvenile males to cues from adult rivals and subsequent lifetime resource allocations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Field Evaluation of the LuciTrap and the Western Australian Trap with Three Different Baits Types for Monitoring Lucilia cuprina and Lucilia sericata in New Zealand.
    (15/09/2021) Brett P; Lawrence K; Kenyon P; Gedye K; Pomroy W
    Flytraps can be used on farms to monitor the populations of primary strike flies (Lucilia cuprina and Lucilia sericata) and, hence, offer a view regarding the incidence of flystrike on sheep. This study aimed to contrast the specificity and effectiveness of the LuciTrap with its combination of three chemical lures (Lucilures) and the Western Australian Trap with three bait types (LuciLure, Sheep liver with 30% sodium sulphide and squid). A mean model and rate model were fitted to the data. The mean model showed no difference (p > 0.05) in the mean weekly catch for L. cuprina between the Western Australian Trap with LuciLures and the Western Australian Trap baited with sheep liver with 30% sodium sulphide (p < 0.05). Whereas, for L. sericata, no difference (p > 0.05) was found between the Western Australian Trap with LuciLures, the Western Australian Trap baited with sheep liver with 30% sodium sulphide and the LuciTrap. The rate model illustrated that the Western Australian Trap with sheep liver with 30% sodium sulphide and LuciTrap did not differ (p > 0.05) for L. cuprina and L. sericata. Combined, these results indicate that New Zealand farmers can use either the LuciTrap or the Western Australian Trap with sheep liver with 30% sodium sulphide to monitor these target species.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Resource allocation strategies for survival and reproduction by an invasive pest in response to intermittent fasting
    (Oxford Acadmic, 6/09/2022) Ristyadi D; He XZ; Wang Q
    Intermittent fasting (IF) is a type of dietary restriction that involves fasting periods in intervals, which has been used as a strategy to improve health and extend longevity. Regular fasting is common during the process of biological invasions in nature. Yet, it is not clear how invasive animals adjust their resource allocations to survival and reproduction when periodical starvation occurs. Here, we used Tetranychus ludeni, a haplodiploid spider mite and an important invasive pest of horticultural crops around the world, to investigate the effects of IF on its life history strategies. We show that IF increased the longevity in females but not in males probably because of differences in resource storage, metabolic rate, and mating cost between sexes. In response to IF, females traded off fecundity and egg size but not the number of daughters for longevity gain, suggesting that T. ludeni females can adjust their life history strategies for population survival and growth during invasion process. Eggs produced by fasted females realized the same hatch rate and resultant young had the same survival rate as those by unfasted ones. In addition, IF had transgenerational maternal effects which prolonged offspring development period. We suggest that the longer immature developmental period can increase the body size of resulting adults, compensating egg size loss for offspring fitness. Our findings provide insight into resource allocations as responses to fasting, knowledge of which can be used for evaluation of pest invasions and for management of animal survival and reproduction by dietary regulations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The short-lived neon damsel Pomacentrus coelestis: implications for population dynamics.
    (2017-05) Kingsford MJ; O'Callaghan MD; Liggins L; Gerlach G
    Daily increments of Pomacentrus coelestis, an abundant and well-studied fish, were validated for the life of the fish and depending on the location, age-maxima were estimated to be 127-160 days on reefs separated by tens to hundreds of kilometres on the Great Barrier Reef. This contrasts with congeners and other damselfishes that live for 5 years or more. Otoliths of P. coelestis were thinner and had different patterns of banding when compared with relatively long-lived congeners. It is suggested that banding patterns in P. coelestis may be related to patterns of maturation and spawning. The consequences of a short life would have a great influence on the population dynamics of this widespread species. Further, the demographics and habitat preferences of this species suggest rapid colonization and establishment of breeding populations that would quickly change the relative abundance of sympatric fishes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Felis catus papillomavirus type 2 virus-like particle vaccine is safe and immunogenic but does not reduce FcaPV-2 viral loads in adult cats
    (Elsevier BV, 2019-07) Thomson NA; Howe L; Weidgraaf K; Thomas DG; Young V; Ward VK; Munday JS
    Felis catus papillomavirus type 2 (FcaPV-2) commonly infects the skin of domestic cats and has been associated with the development of skin cancer. In the present study, a FcaPV-2 virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine was produced and assessed for vaccine safety, immunogenicity, and impact on FcaPV-2 viral load. This is the first report of the use of a papillomavirus VLP vaccine in domestic cats. The FcaPV-2 VLP vaccine was given to ten adult cats that were naturally infected with FcaPV-2, and a further ten naturally infected cats were sham vaccinated as a control group. The rationale for vaccinating cats already infected with the virus was to induce neutralizing antibody titers that could prevent reinfection of new areas of skin and reduce the overall viral load, as has been demonstrated in other species. Reducing the overall FcaPV-2 viral load could reduce the risk for subsequent PV-associated cancer. The vaccine in this study was well-tolerated, as none of the cats developed any signs of local reaction or systemic illness. In the treatment group, the geometric mean anti-papillomavirus endpoint antibody titers increased significantly following vaccination from 606 (95% CI 192-1913) to 4223 (2023-8814), a 7.0-fold increase, although the individual antibody response varied depending on the level of pre-existing antibodies. Despite the immunogenicity of the vaccine, there was no significant change in FcaPV-2 viral load in the treatment group compared to the control group, over the 24 week follow-up period. A possible reason is that FcaPV-2 was already widespread in the basal skin layer of these adult cats and so preventing further cells from becoming infected had no impact on the overall viral load. Therefore, these results do not support the use of a FcaPV-2 VLP vaccine to reduce the risk for PV-associated cancer in cats in which FcaPV-2 infection is already well established. However, these results justify future studies in which the vaccine is administered to younger cats prior to FcaPV-2 infection becoming fully established.