Week 8 - Bugs as Bombs, Entomological Evangelisms Flashcards
Bugs as Bombs: Key Points
- Which principles used by insects in general and social insects in particular influenced warfare
- What principle do bee-boles make use of?
- In the Vietnam War: Cu Chi what principle was used against US troops
- In which way did the hessian fly undermine the Americans in the revolutionary war?
Attributes of insects that model warfare (3)
- Spears (stings/weapons)
- Poison (venom/bombs&poisons)
- Discipline (such as with social insects
Stinging insect Order
Hymenoptera
Alogenic
Producing pain (venom)
Reasons wasps and ants use venom
Food gathering and defense
Reasons bees use venom
Defense only
The original “cluster bomb”
Social insects - lots of individuals in a compact space
Medieval bio-warfare
- Bee skeps kept in bee boles behind castle walls, then thrown onto attackers over the wall.
Vietnam bio-warfare (in Cu Chi)
- Viet cong used booby traps attached to wasps nests, which would break the nests open, and attack the soldiers who would then stumble into additional booby traps that would kill them
When were Hessian flies used as bio-warfare?
American Revolutionary War
What is a Hessian and what were they used for?
- A native from the Hesse state of Germany.
- Hired as mercenaries in the Revolutionary War.
- Spread Hessian flies as bio-warfare
What is a Hessian fly?
Order Diptera, a gall midge that lays eggs in stems of wheat. Larvae feed on the stem, killing the plant.
Key Points: Gypsy Moths in Paradise
- Ballooning
- Sexual dimorphism
- What preventative measure is most effective for a pest such as Gypsy Moths (GM)
- What is the biggest behavioral difference between GM and Asian GM (AGM)
GM is a native of?
Eurasia
GM Taxonomy
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Lymantridae
Genus: Lymantria
Species: dispar (L.)
GM are hemi- or holometabolous?
Holometabolous (egg-larvae-pupae-adult)
Herbiverous
Leaf eater in larval stage
Univoltine
Producing one brood per season
Sexual dimorphism
Genders are different colors/appearance
GM dimorphism (male vs. female)
Males are brown, females are white
Phototatic
The movement of an organism or a cell toward or away from a source of light.
- positive = towards the light; negative = away from the light
Geotactic
The movement of a motile (mobile) organism toward or away from a gravitational force
- positive = towards it (down); negative = away from it (up)
GM larvae phototactic movement
Positive
GM larvae geotactic movement
Negative
Ballooning
An organism is dispersed by being blown around by threads it creates on the wind
Effective preventative measure(s)
- Quarantines (limiting wood movement)
* Pathogens (Bt - takes multiple applications, Streptococcus faecalis, nucleopolyhedrosis virus (“Gypchek”))
Oregon’s GM control program
- Quarantine
- Public education
- Pesticidal intervention
- Mass trapping
- Identification of human immigration (?)
Why quarantine?
Natural spread is slower than actual spread - due to human influence
Asian (Eurasian) Gypsy Moth
Same species as Gypsy Moth but different race/sub-species/bio-type
AGM differences over GM
- Females can fly 20-30 miles (GM females can’t fly far)
- Prefer conifers (GM prefer oaks)
- Difficult to tell difference between the two races
Key Points: Trade and Pests
- ID 3 species: Colorado Potato Beetle (CPB), Spotted-winged Drosophila/Vinegar Fly (SWD), Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB)
- What is the underlying reason why problems like CPB develops
- Which of the 3 species above switched hosts
- Which species attacks small fruit
- Which species affects fruits, veges, and nurseries
Colorado Potato Beetle (CPB) (and potato) History
- Originated in Mexico, feeding on burweeds
- Burweeds were carried north into US on cattle introduced by the Spanish, seeds picked up by bison which carried the seeds further north (in Great Plains by 1820)
- Potatoes brought to England around 1580. Seed stock sent from Ireland to US in 1719.
- (Hypothesis) CPB encountered potatoes around 1820
- 1859 made switch to potatoes
- 1875 CPB crossed to England and spread throughout Europe
Mexican PB vs. American PB
- Mexican: Eat burweed, yellow larvae
* American: Eat potatoes, red larvae
Why did CPB switch from burweed to potatoes?
Found a dominant gene in the potato-eating beetles for eating potatoes.
What is the underlying reason for problems like the CPB?
Partly genetics, but mostly due to anthropocentric reasons - people moving biomass around the globe where they didn’t evolve.
CPB ID
- Red larvae
- Feeds on potatoes
- Eggs laid on underside of leaves (about 20)
- Adults have brown head and thorax with black spots, black and white striped wings
SWD host plants in PNW
blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and cherries
SWD (Drosophila suzukii) History
- A pest throughout Asia, discovered in 1919 in Japan
- First in CA in 2008
- In PNW in 2009
SWD current spread
- West coast and FL
SWD ID
- Lays eggs in fruit
- sort of fruit-fly-like with black spot on wings (can have multiple spots/mottled wings)
- Large red eyes
BMSB host plants
- Fruits, veges, nurseries
BMSB spread
- currently scattered lightly through Midwest, West, and both coasts
BMSB ID
- Looks like a soldier bug; has black patch at base of back
