Abstract: Efforts to recycle organic waste using black soldier fly (BSF) larvae into high-quality alternative proteiningredients in animal feeds and organic fertilizers have gained momentum worldwide. However, thereis limited information on waste manipulation to increase nutrient retention for enhanced larval perfor-mance and frass fertilizer quality. In the present study, brewer’s spent grain with a carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 11 (control) was amended with sawdust to obtain substrat...
Abstract: The spotted wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, is an insect pest of soft-skinned fruit, native to Eastern Asia. Since 2008, a world-wide dispersal of D. suzukii is seen, characterized by the establishment of the pest in many Asian, American and European countries. While the potential for invasion of continental Africa by D. suzukii has been predicted, its presence has only been shown for Morocco in Northern Africa. Knowledge about a possible establishment in other parts...
Abstract: Pollinators use multiple cues whilst foraging including direct cues from flowers and indirect cues from other pollinators. The use of indirect social cues is common in social insects, such as honeybees and bumblebees, where a social environment facilitates the ability to use such cues. Bumblebees use cues to forage on flowers according to previous foraging experiences. Flowers are an essential food source for pollinators but also pose a high risk of parasite infection through the s...
Abstract: Field trapping experiments investigated the response of the pollen beetle Astylus atromaculatus to visual and olfactory cues during a 3-year period, 1999–2001. The visual preference of the pollen beetle was determined using yellow, white, blue, green and red water traps. The yellow trap was most attractive, capturing 56% of the total beetles trapped, with 30% caught by the blue and white traps, while 14% was caught by the red and green traps. The response of the beetle to olfacto...
Abstract: The prey choice behavior and predatory strategies of two East African assassin bugs, Scipinnia repax (Stäl 1961) and Nagusta sp. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), were investigated in the field and the laboratory. Both of these species are from the subfamily Harpactorinae and specialize in eating spiders. They prey especially often on social jumping spiders (Salticidae) that build nest complexes (nests connected by silk) in vegetation near the shoreline of Lake Victoria. Both reduviid spec...
Abstract: Female-biased sex ratios in Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus) (family Nymphalidae, subfamily Danainae, tribe Danaini) populations are attributed to the action of an endosymbiotic ‘male-killer’ bacterium of the genus Spiroplasma. In stark contrast to the extensive geographic range of their host, the Spiroplasma appears to be restricted to East Africa, where four African D. chrysippus subspecies exist sympatrically and form a hybrid zone. In this study, specimens collected at three sa...
Abstract: A survey of the abundance of larvae and pupae of Gonometa postica Walker and their host plants....(continue from the attached pdf)
Abstract: The Commercial Insects Projector the International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Icipe is investigating beekeeping with stingless bees, meliponiculture....(continue from the attached pdf)
Abstract: Evaluation of raw silk produced in location S1 (laboratory) and S2 (field) was assessed during long rains (LR) and short rains (SR), using...(continue from the attached pdf)
Abstract: Honey bee colony infection by the small hive beetle (SHB) is associated with fermentation of hive materials. Pollen, beetles and robbing bees ( ten of each) ......
Abstract: Abstract Under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) countries have sovereign rights over their genetic resources. Agreements governing the access to these resources and the sharing of the benefits arising from their use need to be established between involved parties [i.e. Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)]. This also applies to species collected for potential use in biological control. Recent applications of CBD principles have already made it difficult or impossible to col...
Abstract: Previous studies had demonstrated stage differentiation in the cohesion (aggregation) pheromone systems of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria. In laboratory arena, the nymphal and adult stages responded aggregatively to their own pheromone, but dispersed evenly within the arena in the presence of the other. In the present study, we explored the effects of longer-term contact of field gregarious hopper bands and laboratory crowd-reared nymphs with the major constituent of the ...
Abstract: Fourth instar Bombyx mori silkworm larvae were fed on mulberry leaves to which royal jelly had been added. The impact on the larval, cocoon, shell and pupal weight, shell ratio percentage, filament length and weight, and the number of breaks during reeling were examined. The results indicate that royal jelly-enhanced diet significantly increased larval, cocoon and pupal weights, but had no significant effect on shell weights and denier. Similarly filament length, weight and filamen...
Abstract: We studied the ovary structure and initial stages of oogenesis in 15 representatives of several dermapteran taxa, including the epizoic Arixeniina. In all examined species, the ovaries are meroisticepolytrophic.The ovaries of the basal taxa (‘Pygidicranidae’, ‘Diplatyidae’, and Labiduridae) are composed of elongated ovarioles, attached to short lateral oviducts. In these groups, ovarioles contain several (more than 30) ovarian follicles in a linear arrangement. In the Euder...
Abstract: In East Africa, insect farming is a rapidly growing business providing access to ‘climate-smart’ protein, other nutrients, and income. With the continental drive to transform existing food systems that are becoming continuously unsustainable due to scarcity of arable land and water, and high ecological imprint, insect farming for food and feed with circular economy potential has gained remarkable interest. In this review, we report on the recent research trends on key substrate...