Food web responses to augmenting the entomopathogenic nematodes in bare and animal manure-mulched soil.

Factorial treatments of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) and composted, manure mulches were evaluated for two years in a central Florida citrus orchard to study the post-application biology of EPN used to manage the root weevil, Diaprepes abbreviatus. Mulch treatments were applied once each year to study the effects of altering the community of EPN competitors (free-living bactivorous nematodes) and antagonists (nematophagous fungi (NF), predaceous nematodes and some microarthro-pods). EPN were augmented once with Steinernema riobrave in 2004 and twice in 2005. Adding EPN to soil affected the prevalence of organisms at several trophic levels, but the effects were often ephemeral and sometimes inconsistent. EPN augmentation always increased the mortality of sentinel weevil larvae, the prevalence of free-living nematodes in sentinel cadavers and the prevalence of trapping NF. Subsequent to the insecticidal effects of EPN augmentation in 2004, but not 2005, EPN became temporarily less prevalent, and fewer sentinel weevil larvae died in EPN-augmented compared to non-augmented plots. Manure mulch had variable effects on endoparasitic NF, but consistently decreased the prevalence of trapping NF and increased the prevalence of EPN and the sentinel mortality. Both temporal and spatial abundance of NF were inversely related to the prevalence of Steinernema diaprepesi, whereas Heterorhabditis zealandica prevalence was positively correlated with NF over time. The number of weevil larvae killed by EPN was likely greatest in 2005, due in part to non-target effects of augmentation on the endemic EPN community in 2004 that occurred during a period of peak weevil recruitment into the soil.

Incidence of Endemic Entomopathogenic Nematodes Following Application of Steinernema riobrave for Control of Diaprepes abbreviatus.

Control of Diaprepes abbreviatus by endemic and exotic entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) was monitored during 2000-2001 in two citrus orchards in central Florida (Bartow and Poinciana). Caged sentinel insect larvae were buried beneath citrus trees for 7 days at 1 to 2-month intervals from April to October each year. At Bartow, the survey occurred in experimental plots that were (i) not treated with commercial EPN, (ii) treated twice annually since 1998 with commercially formulated Steinernema riobrave, or (iii) treated twice annually with S. riobrave and liquid fertilization (15 times/year) occurred in place of dry fertilizer (3 times/year) used in the other treatments. Four endemic EPN species, in addition to S. riobrave, were recovered from the sandy soil at Bartow: S. diaprepesi, Heterorhabditis zealandica, H. indica, and H. bacteriophora. Mean insect mortality in control plots was 39.4% (range = 13% to 74%), with seasonal maxima in May to July each year. Endemic EPN were recovered from 55% (range = 22% to 81%) of the cadavers each month. Total numbers of endemic EPN recovered in all plots during 2 years were directly related to the numbers of adult weevils (D. abbreviatus and Pachnaeus litus) captured in modified Tedder's traps and inversely related to recovery of S. riobrave. Insect mortality was higher and cadavers containing endemic EPN were more numerous in untreated control plots than in S. riobrave-treated plots, except during months in which S. riobrave was applied. In treated plots, endemic EPN were recovered from cadavers at twice the rate of S. riobrave. Suppression of endemic EPN in plots treated with S. riobrave, combined with inferior persistence by the introduced species, may have attenuated the net efficacy of S. riobrave against D. abbreviatus. In contrast, H. indica was the only endemic nematode recovered from the sandy clay loam soil at Poinciana, where the average mortality of D. abbreviatus was 12% (range 3% to 20%) and incidence of H. indica did not exceed 8%. Results of these surveys suggest that the regional patterns in the abundance and damage to citrus caused by D. abbreviatus in Florida are regulated by endemic EPN and other soilborne enemies of the weevil.

A review of the literature and a normative study of accommodative facility.

Although many different authors have proposed accommodative facility standards, there is little agreement as to what should constitute "normal" accommodative facility. To establish a norm, 100 adult subjects were tested using a vectographic viewing device which was placed 40 cm from 20/30 letters. The letters were viewed alternately with +/- 2.00 D lenses, first monocularly, and then binocularly. The subjects were screened and known to be nonpresbyopic, nonstrabismic, corrected to 20/30 monocularly, and with adequate binocularity. The study found a mean accommodative facility of 11.59 OD, 11.09 OS, and 7.72 cpm binocularly. These findings can be used as a clinical guide by which to evaluate a patient's accommodative facility findings.

Evaluation of teratogenic potential codeine sulfate in CF-1 mice.

The most prominent defect of codeine sulfate, 100 mg/kg sc, was delayed ossification of the supraoccipital bone, paws, xiphoid, and sternebrae as well as other sternebral defects such as checkerboard sternebrae and polysternebrae. Although these anomalies were similar to the minor defects seen in the fetuses of morphine sulfate-treated mice, the major anomalies such as exencephaly, cryptorchid testes, and rib and vertebral fusions produced by morphine were not present in the fetuses of mice challenged with codeine. Thus, codeine sulfate appears to be less teratogenic than morphine sulfate. A review of the incidences of the various defects in mice treated on a single day with codeine showed that there was a range of days on which the mouse fetus was susceptible to codeine's teratogenic effects, with the most critical days of gestation being Days 8-10. Furthermore, a comparison of the defects that occurred in those treated on both Days 8 and 9 with the defects that occurred in those treated on a single day of gestation reveals an additive or cumulative teratogenic response to codeine.