247 articles
History of malaria
History of malaria: ancient fevers described by Hippocrates and Celsus; cinchona bark and 1820 quinine isolation; Laveran's 1880 parasite and Ross's 1897 mosquito discovery; DDT, the 1955 eradication campaign, and today's 263 million annual cases.
Housefly
Housefly (Musca domestica), a cosmopolitan Muscidae fly breeding in manure and garbage; mechanical vector of over 130 pathogens and notorious for rapid insecticide resistance; larvae also used in waste bioconversion.
Hover fly
The hover fly, also called a flower fly or syrphid fly, is a fly of the family Syrphidae that hovers in mid-air and mimics bees and wasps without stinging.
Hoverflies and humans
Hoverflies and humans describes how hoverfly adults pollinate over 70% of food crops while their larvae eat aphids, and how their bee mimicry causes needless killing.
Hoverflies of New Zealand
Hoverflies of New Zealand: the Syrphidae (ngaro paira) fauna, about 91 species across 16 genera, mixing endemics like Melangyna novaezelandiae and Melanostoma fasciatum with introduced Eristalis tenax and Merodon equestris; adults pollinate crops, larvae eat aphids.
Hoverflies of the Americas
Hoverflies of the Americas covers the hoverfly (flower fly) fauna of North and South America, with about 828 species north of Mexico and roughly 1,800 described Neotropical species.
Hoverfly larva
A hoverfly larva is the legless maggot stage of a hoverfly, feeding on aphids, decaying matter, plants, or ant nests, and valued in biological pest control.
Hoverfly mimicry and ecology
Hoverfly mimicry and ecology describes how the fly family Syrphidae mimics stinging bees and wasps through Batesian mimicry, and its members' roles as pollinators of crops and wildflowers.
Hoverfly morphology and identification
Hoverfly morphology and identification covers the anatomical characters used to identify hoverflies (Syrphidae), led by the spurious wing vein unique to the family, plus eye separation, wing venation, and the fused larval breathing tube.
Hoverfly regional checklists
Hoverfly regional checklists are curated, published inventories of the Syrphidae (hoverflies or flower flies) found in a defined country, island group, or province, with species-level nomenclature and vouchered records behind each entry.
Hoverfly taxonomy and systematics
Hoverfly taxonomy and systematics covers classification of Syrphidae, over 6,300 species in 200+ genera, four subfamilies (Microdontinae, Eristalinae, Syrphinae, Pipizinae), 16 tribes, and molecular phylogenies reshaping the family tree.
Hybotidae
Hybotidae: a worldwide family of predaceous dance flies (Diptera, Empidoidea), defined by a palpifer, fore tibial gland, bare laterotergite, and unbranched R4+5; subfamilies Hybotinae, Ocydromiinae, Tachydromiinae.
Imd pathway
Imd pathway: immune deficiency NF-κB signaling cascade in Drosophila, triggered by DAP-type peptidoglycan via PGRP-LC/LE, activating Relish to induce antimicrobial peptides against Gram-negative bacteria; homologous to mammalian TNFR signaling.
Inherited sterility in insects
Inherited sterility (F1 sterility), an SIT derivative for moth pests: partly irradiated, still-fertile released insects pass chromosome damage to highly sterile, male-biased offspring, allowing lower radiation doses than full sterilization.
Insect flight
Insect flight is the powered, flapping-wing flight of insects, driven by thoracic muscles. Insects were the first animals to evolve powered flight, with wingbeats up to 1,000 times per second.
Insect olfaction
Insect olfaction: chemical sensing via sensilla on antennae, odorant-binding proteins (~15 kDa), and OR-Orco tetrameric cation-channel receptors, driving combinatorial and pheromone labeled-line coding in the antennal lobe.
Insect repellent
Insect repellents are pesticides that make humans less attractive to biting insects rather than killing them. Key active ingredients include DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, and permethrin-treated clothing.
Keroplatidae
Keroplatidae, the predatory fungus gnats (Rondani, 1856), is a worldwide family of Diptera in Bibionomorpha with nearly 1,000 species in about 100 genera; web-spinning carnivorous larvae, exclusive dipteran bioluminescence, and a 2020 six-subfamily reclassification distinguish it.
Kimia
Kimia (Ridged Mosquito) is a valid mosquito genus, subfamily Culicinae, tribe Sabethini, named by Vu Duc Huong and Harbach in 2007 for five species formerly in Topomyia subgenus Suaymyia; type species K. decorabilis, larvae in bamboo, adults known only from reared specimens.
La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation
La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation, also called La Pedrera de Meià, a Barremian (about 130-125 Ma) lithographic limestone Konservat-Lagerstätte in Sierra del Montsec, Lleida, Catalonia, with Montsechia vidali, Noguerornis gonzalezi, and 112 holotypes.
Lauxaniidae
Lauxaniidae (Macquart, 1835) is a diverse family of small acalyptrate flies in the Lauxanioidea superfamily. It consists of 172 genera, 2,150 species, and is found globally.
Leaf miner
Leaf miners are insect larvae (beetles, flies, moths, sawflies; over 10,000 species) that feed inside leaf tissue between the epidermal layers, forming serpentine or blotch mines; major crop pests include Liriomyza and Phyllocnistis, with fossil mines known from the Early Triassic onward.
Leatherjackets as turf and crop pests
Leatherjackets, the gray-brown legless larvae of crane flies such as Tipula paludosa, are major pests of lawns, sports turf, and arable crops, feeding on roots and crowns.
Leptoconops
Leptoconops (black gnats) is a genus of diurnal, aggressively biting midges in Ceratopogonidae, subfamily Leptoconopinae, with seven subgenera; coastal and desert pests, rarely disease vectors, recently revised in Europe and India.
Limoniidae
Limoniidae, the short-palped crane flies, are a large Diptera family in Tipuloidea with four subfamilies and about 10,800 species; molecular studies show it is paraphyletic, and some classifications merge it into Tipulidae.
Lipoptena cervi
Lipoptena cervi, the deer ked (Pediculus cervi, Linnaeus 1758), is a wing-shedding hippoboscid fly parasitizing cervids, especially moose; Palearctic, spread to North America, bites humans, and carries detected zoonotic pathogens.
Liriomyza huidobrensis
Liriomyza huidobrensis (pea leafminer, serpentine leafminer), Blanchard 1926, Agromyzidae: polyphagous leafmining fly, native to South America (Peru origin), invasive in 30+ countries, quarantine pest, 365 host plant species.
Liriomyza sativae
Liriomyza sativae, the vegetable leafminer, is a polyphagous fly whose larvae tunnel leaves of vegetable and ornamental crops, native to the Americas and now invasive worldwide.
Liriomyza trifolii
Liriomyza trifolii, the American serpentine leafminer (Agromyzidae, Diptera), is a polyphagous invasive leafmining fly native to the Americas, a quarantine pest of vegetables and ornamentals, with a distinct pepper/tomatillo cryptic species.
List of Aedes species
List of Aedes species: Aedes Meigen, 1818, largest genus of mosquito tribe Aedini (932–969 species, 74 subgenera), including vectors Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus; covers taxonomy, vectors, invasive spread, regional checklists.