Week 9 - Insects and Law, Communication, and Agriculture Flashcards
Key Points: Insects and Law
- What is Oregon’s State Insect?
- Why is fender’s blue and Oregon Silverspot endangered status ironic?
- What are the functions of APHIS and EPA?
- Define forensic entomology?
- Give 3 ways in which FE can solve a case
Oregon state insect
Oregon swallowtail butterfly
Papilio oregonus
What does the CITES treaty stand for?
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
What is the CITES treaty?
International treaty to regulate international trade in endangered species (plants and animals). Signed by US in 1975.
When was the Endangered Species Act passed?
1973 (Dec 28)
What is the Endangered Species Act?
US law to regulate the import, export, sale, transport, or possession of endangered species
What are 2 endangered insect species in Oregon?
- Fender’s blue and Oregon Silverspot butterflies
Irony of the endangered species in Oregon?
Endangered due to no-burn policies which are resulting in less prairie habitat as trees encroach.
What does APHIS stand for?
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
What does APHIS do?
Regulate the transport (import and export) of insects.
Goals of APHIS
- Protect against unauthorized entry of pests into the country
- Coordinate and control region-wide pest-control programs
How APHIS implements its goals
- Quarantines
- Port of entry inspections
- Logistical assistance in control programs
When was the EPA established?
1970
When was the Federal Pesticide Act?
1978
What is forensic entomology?
The use of insects and other arthropods that inhabit decomposing remains to aid legal investigations
FE and murder cases
- Time of death
- Location of death
- If corpse was moved after death
FE and controlled substances
Help determine origin of the substances
Insect evidence: winter gnats
Important in the winter
Insect evidence: soldier flies
Found late in the decomposition process
Insect evidence: humpbacked flies
Important in buried bodies. Some species can burrow to a depth of 50cm over 4 days.
Insect evidence: blowflies
One of the first to arrive
Insect evidence: flesh flies
One of the first to arrive
Insect evidence: rove beetles
Arrive a few hours after death
Insect evidence: Dermestids
Feed on dry skin and hairs (when body is dry)
Insect evidence: Hister beetles
Found in stages of decay
Insect evidence: carrion beetles
Feed on maggots and carrion
Insect evidence: mites
Found under bodies in soil in seepage area
How insects are used with Post Mortem Interval
- Type of insect
* Stage of development
How insects are used regarding location of murder
- Species present
* Finding an insect not normally found at body site suggests it has been moved
How insects are used regarding drugs
- Can be sequestered from insects on the body
Key Points: Insect Communication
- What is the difference between semiochemicals and pheromones
- Describe two modes of action of pheromones
- How can sex pheromones improve our food quality
- Name 3 pheromones and how they work
- Define Intra specific and Interspecific
- How does an HIPV work
3 types of semiochemicals
- Kairomones
- Allomones
- Pheromones
Kairomone attributes
- Advantage to the receiver
* Inter-species specific
Allomones
- Advantage to the sender
* Inter-species specific
Pheromones
Intra-specific
What are pheromones?
A chemical signal released outside the body of the producer that affects the physiology or behavior of a receiving individual of the same species.
How are pheromones produced?
- From exocrine glands
- Produced in liquid form
- Can be released as streams, droplets, thin films, aerosols
- Creates “active space”
Pheromone modes of action: Releasers
Has immediate effect on central nervous system and behavior of the receiving animal
Pheromone modes of action: Primers
Triggers a chain of psychological-developmental events that can take days-weeks before a response is seen
5 types/classes of pheromones
- sex
- trail
- alarm
- aggregation
- “social”
Sex Pheromones: function and details
- Function: gender attraction
- Usually females calling to males, sometimes males calling to females
- Rarely are attractants released by both genders
Sex Pheromones: human uses
- Chemistry known for hundreds of species
- Uses: insect monitoring and control (male confusion)
(* Side-effect: spraying/using pest pheromones can attract some predator species, furthering the effects of the control)
How pheromones affect food quality (and example)
- Using pheromones instead of pesticides improves the quality of our food.
- Vine mealybug (native of Mediterranean, spreading through CA) controlled by spraying vines with sex pheromone. Males can’t find females, so less pesticide needs to be used on those plots.
Trail Pheromones: function and details
- Function: orientation to and from the nest along foraging trails
- Common in social insects such as ants and termites, and also such as tent caterpillars
- Volatile (maintenance follows availability of the forage)
- Sources: tarsal glands, abdominal glands, venom
Alarm Pheromones: function and details
- Functions:
1) Defense (used to recruit nest-mates)
2) Dispersal (such as used by aphids) - Common in social insects and aggregate feeders
- Volatile
Aggregation Pheromones: function and details
- Functions:
- announces food sources to conspecifics
- can also be anti-aggregation when sufficient individuals are present
- Known in bark beetles and some desert grasshoppers
Conspecifics
Members of the same species
HIPV stands for
Herbivore Induced Plant Volatile
HIPV function
- Released by plants when herbivores feed on them
- Alerts natural enemies and increases bio-control
- Ex: winter green
Social Pheromones: function and details
- Function: Chemo-sterilization; suppresses ovarian development
- Best known in Hymenoptera, especially honey bees
- Known as the “Queen Substance”
- Excreted from the mandibular glands of a gyne
- When worker bees come into contact with the queen, the chemical is transmitted and sterilizes the workers
Gyne
Female queen bee?
Key Points: Insects and Agriculture
- What are the limitations of the wheat, rice, and corn paradigms
- What is the function of the clonal repositories?
- How important are pest insects in world food production?
- What are the attributes/problems of 1st world agriculture?
- How will the loss of pesticides affect our economy?
Biggest 3 of 29 major food crops
Wheat, rice, and corn
Function of clonal repositories
Store seed (germoplasm) stock as survival insurance against future disasters
Current world population
7+ billion
% of world population involved with food production
50%
% of world population inadequately nourished
20%-25%
% of world mortality rate related to malnutrition
33%
Problems with ag in developed world
- Overproduction of key crops, due to imbalance of subsidies and politics
- Specialization (mono-culture in companies and crops)
- elevated energy inputs: fertilizers and pesticides
- Low # of production farmers
Problems with ag in developing world
Famine, political instability
Primary causes of famine
- Climate (weather challenges)
- Soil fertility (soil erosion)
- Pests (20% crop losses)
Constraints to growth in ag
- Biological (affecting rice and corn in particular)
- Technological (resistance to GMOs)
- Societal (shift to urbanization, away from ag)
What makes an insect a pest?
- Conflicts with human interests such as
- growing plants
- storing food
- vectors of disease
- Ecosystem simplification (ecological instability)
- Transportation ease (intentional and unintentional)
- Human attitudes
American Indian Homily
One for the bug, one for the crow, one to rot, and 2 to grow (20% insect damage)
Impacts on Economy
- “Farming is big business, money is object, food is by-product”
- Insects compete with our pocketbooks, not just bellies
- Current thought: use fertilizers and pesticides or starve - N.E. Borlaug, founder of Green Revolution, Nobel laureate
- We will become significantly poorer without the use of chemical compounds
Zilberman, et al. (1991), Science
