ABSTRACT
The tomato red spider mite Tetranychus evansi Baker et Pritchard occurs on solanaceous plants, and causes serious damage to a variety of crops in Africa and Europe. In 2001 this species was also found in Japan, on nightshade (Solanum nigrum L.), and its invasion to solanaceous of agricultural importance is feasible. To evaluate its potential severity as a pest, the present study assessed the life-history parameters, such as the rate of development and the intrinsic rate of natural increase (r(m)), on S. nigrum for T. evansi collected on seven sites worldwide. Increasing temperatures between 15 and 32.5°C significantly increased the developmental rate of the seven strains while immature developmental duration was about the same at 32.5-40°C. The rate of egg-to-adult development [(% hatch) × (% survival)] exceeded 88% at temperatures between 15 and 37.5°C. The lower thermal thresholds (LT) were 11.9-12.5°C for both egg-to-adult and egg-to-egg development. The optimum developmental temperatures ranged from 36.7 to 43.8°C and the upper developmental threshold (UT) ranged from 45.2 to 59.4°C. The r (m)-values became higher with temperature increasing from 15 to 35°C. The r (m)-values at 25°C ranged from 0.265 to 0.277 which are relatively high for species of the genus Tetranychus. These results indicate that T. evansi after invasion into Japan has the potential to become a serious pest on solanaceous crops, just the same as in Africa and Europe.
Subject(s)
Reproduction , Sexual Behavior, Animal , Temperature , Tetranychidae/physiology , Animals , Female , Male , Tetranychidae/growth & developmentABSTRACT
A retrospective multicentric study of 23 patients with stage IV-S neuroblastoma treated in 10 national Pediatric Surgery Departments between January 1988 and December 1992, is presented. All cases were classified as stage IV-S following staging criteria proposed by Evans et al. The age diagnosis was an average of 3 months. An acute clinical course was seen in 7 patients. Primary sites of the tumor were: adrenal gland in 6 patients (30.5%), abdominal paravertebral in 3 (13%) and unknown in 2 (9%). Distant tumor sites were: liver in 20 patients, bone marrow in 9, and skin in 5. There were not systematic therapeutic approach, in 16 cases (69%) the primary tumor was resected, 18 (78%) received chemotherapy, the liver was irradiated in 3 (13%), and 1 case (4%) received no treatment at all. One children died. The overall disease-free survival is 95.6% at 43 months post-diagnosis. A common treatment protocol is proposed, with systematic determination of N-myc oncogene which will indicate the appropriate therapy.
