Bombyx mori Nucleopolyhedrovirus p26 Is Associated with Viral Late Stage Replication.

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) p26 is conserved among all Lepidoptera baculoviruses that have been completely sequenced thus far, and some baculoviruses even have two copies of p26, which suggested that p26 may play an important role in the virus infection cycle. This study aimed to characterize BmNPV p26. We found that BmNPV p26 transcripts were detectable as early as 3 h post-infection (hpi), and the transcript levels rapidly increased starting from 12 hpi. Western blot analysis using an anti-p26 polyclonal antibody demonstrated that the corresponding protein was also detectable from 6 hpi in BmNPV-infected cell lysates. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that p26 was mainly dispersed in the infected cell cytoplasm, whereas the over-expressed fusion protein EGFP-p26 also accumulated in the nucleus. These results indicated that p26 is an early BmNPV gene and has functions both in the cytoplasm and the nucleus. RNAi-based knockdown of p26 could produce infectious virus and normal-appearing virions but decreased budded virus (BV) production in BmNPV-infected cells at 72 hpi. Moreover, the results of further quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) analysis indicated that the gp64 and p74 transcripts levels decreased significantly. These results indicated that BmNPV p26 may be associated with BmNPV replication during the late infection stage.

Precise Analysis of Gallium Isotopic Composition by MC-ICP-MS.

Though an isotope approach could be beneficial for better understanding the biogeochemical cycle of gallium (Ga), an analogue of the monoisotopic element aluminum (Al), the geochemistry of Ga isotopes has not been widely elaborated. We developed a two-step method for purifying Ga from geological (biological) samples for precise measurement of Ga isotope ratio using multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Ga was thoroughly separated from other matrix elements using two chromatographic columns loaded with AG 1-X4 and Ln-spec resin, respectively. The separation method was carefully calibrated using both synthetic and natural samples and validated by assessing the extraction yield (99.8 ± 0.8%, 2SD, n = 23) and the reproducibility (2SD uncertainty better than 0.05‰, n = 116) of the measured isotopic ratio (expressed as δ71Ga). The validation of the whole protocol, together with instrumental analysis, was confirmed by the investigation of the matrix effect, the result of a standard addition experiment, and the comparison of Ga isotope measurement on two mass spectrometers-Nu Plasma II and Neptune Plus. Although the measurements using the sample-standard bracketing (SSB) correction method on both instruments resulted in identical δ71Ga values for reference materials, the modified empirical external normalization (MEEN) method gave relatively better precision compared to SSB on Neptune. Our preliminary results showed large variation of δ71Ga (up to 1.83‰) for 10 standards, with higher values in industrially produced materials, implying potential application of Ga isotopes.

Two new species of Encarsia Förster (Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae) and first description of the male E. plana Viggiani & Ren from China.

Two new species of Encarsia Förster (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) are described from China, Encarsia floralis Wang, Huang & Polaszek, sp. nov. and Encarsia maculiformis Wang, Huang & Polaszek, sp. nov., and the male of Encarsia plana Viggiani & Ren (1987) is newly described.

Three new species of Baeoentedon Girault (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) from China, with the first record of whitefly host association (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae).

Three new species of Baeoentedon Girault (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) are described from China, Baeoentedon balios Wang, Huang & Polaszek sp. nov., Baeoentedon bouceki Wang, Huang & Polaszek sp. nov. and Baeoentedon virgatus Wang, Huang & Polaszek sp. nov. Both female and male of Baeoentedon balios were reared from the whitefly Pealius spina (Singh) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) on the bodhi tree Ficus religiosa L. (Urticales: Moraceae). The male and the whitefly host association of Baeoentedon are recorded for the first time. A key is also provided to females of the world species of the genus.

Three new species of Coccobius Ratzeburg (Hymenoptera, Aphelinidae) and redescription of C. abdominis Huang and C. furviflagellatus Huang from China.

Three new species of Coccobius Ratzeburg (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) are described from China, Coccobius bimaculatus Wang, Huang & Polaszek sp. nov., Coccobius jinshanensis Wang, Huang & Polaszek sp. nov. and Coccobius leptocerus Wang, Huang & Polaszek sp. nov. Coccobius abdominis Huang 1994 and Coccobius furviflagellatus Huang 1994, originally described in Chinese, are redescribed in English and illustrated by macrophotography based on newly collected material. All five species were reared from Diaspididae (Hemiptera) scale insects on bamboo. Both the male of C. furviflagellatus and the diaspidid host association of C. abdominis and C. furviflagellatus are recorded for the first time.

[Parasitic functional response of Coccobius azumai Tachikawa (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) to Hemiberlesia pitysophila Takagi (Homoptera: Diaspididae)].

With female Hemiberlesia pitysophila adult as the host, this paper studied the parasitic functional response of Coccobius azumai in laboratory. The results showed that the response of C. azumai fitted Holling Type II equation, and was affected by temperature and the densities of host and parasitoid. At the same temperature, the number of parasitized host increased with increasing host density. At 15 degrees C-25 degrees C, the parasitized number increased with temperature; while at 25 degrees C-35 degrees C, it was in adverse. There was a stronger intraspecific interference in the parasitic functional response of C. azumai, i.e., the number of parasitized host decreased with increasing C. azumai density. The relationship between searching efficiency (E) of C. azumai and its density (P) could be well simulated as E = 0.1659P(-0.5597) by Hassell (1969) model E = QP(-m) and as E = 0.1437T/ [1 + 0.2691 (P -1)] by Beddington (1975) model E = aT/[1 + bt(w) (P-1)].