Abstract: Light trapping is an important tool for monitoring insect populations. This is especially true for biting Diptera, where light traps play a crucial role in disease surveillance by tracking the presence and abundance of vector species. Physiological and behavioural data have been instrumental in identifying factors that influence dipteran phototaxis and have spurred the development of more effective light traps. However, the development of less attractive domestic lights has received comparatively little interest but could be important for reducing interactions between humans and vector insects, with consequences for reducing disease transmission. Here, we discuss how dipteran eyes respond to light and the factors influencing positive phototaxis, and conclude by identifying key areas for further research. In addition, we include a synthesis of attractive and unattractive wavelengths for a number of vector species. A more comprehensive understanding of how Diptera perceive and respond to light would allow for more efficient vector sampling as well as potentially limiting the risk posed by domestic lighting.
Abstract: This experiment was conducted in the area of Punjab Agriculture Research Station (PARS) and Chak No.33 JB Faisalabad to evaluate the response insects to varying wavelengths of light. During experiment, lights of six different colors (blue, green, yellow, red, black and white) were tested. All lights were arranged in a line on agriculture land, close to Faisalabad Airport. Tree rows/blocks, forest nursery, fruit garden, wheat, maize and fodder crops were the main vegetative covers in the vicinity. Each selected color light was properly projected on 1 m^2
vertical screen (made of white cotton fabric) placed one meter high above the ground. All lights were kept on simultaneously for half an hour and the insects attracted on both sides of the screens were collected in tubs containing soapy water. At the end of experiment, the collection was shifted to properly labeled storage bottles for counting and identification into respective orders. The
highest number of insects was observed in container placed under black light (ultraviolet light), while the lowest in that of red light. Similarly, the common insect orders frequented among all color lights were Diptera, Coleoptera and
Lepidoptera respectively. The experimental results indicated that insects are attracted in more number on lights with short wavelengths and high frequencies and vice a versa.
vertical screen (made of white cotton fabric) placed one meter high above the ground. All lights were kept on simultaneously for half an hour and the insects attracted on both sides of the screens were collected in tubs containing soapy water. At the end of experiment, the collection was shifted to properly labeled storage bottles for counting and identification into respective orders. The
highest number of insects was observed in container placed under black light (ultraviolet light), while the lowest in that of red light. Similarly, the common insect orders frequented among all color lights were Diptera, Coleoptera and
Lepidoptera respectively. The experimental results indicated that insects are attracted in more number on lights with short wavelengths and high frequencies and vice a versa.
Keywords: Animals; Insects; Faisalabad; Pakistan; Diptera; Coleoptera; Lepidoptera
Abstract: Bioluminescence, the creation and emission of light by organisms, affords insight into the lives of organisms doing it. Luminous living things are widespread and access diverse mechanisms to generate and control luminescence. Among the least studied bioluminescent organisms are phylogenetically rare fungi—only 71 species, all within the ∼9,000 fungi of the temperate and tropical Agaricales order—are reported from among ∼100,000 described fungal species. All require oxygen and energy (NADH or NADPH) for bioluminescence and are reported to emit green light (λmax 530 nm) continuously, implying a metabolic function for bioluminescence, perhaps as a byproduct of oxidative metabolism in lignin degradation. Here, however, we report that bioluminescence from the mycelium of Neonothopanus gardneri is controlled by a temperature-compensated circadian clock, the result of cycles in content/activity of the luciferase, reductase, and luciferin that comprise the luminescent system. Because regulation implies an adaptive function for bioluminescence, a controversial question for more than two millennia, we examined interactions between luminescent fungi and insects. Prosthetic acrylic resin “mushrooms,†internally illuminated by a green LED emitting light similar to the bioluminescence, attract staphilinid rove beetles (coleopterans), as well as hemipterans (true bugs), dipterans (flies), and hymenopterans (wasps and ants), at numbers far greater than dark control traps. Thus, circadian control may optimize energy use for when bioluminescence is most visible, attracting insects that can in turn help in spore dispersal, thereby benefitting fungi growing under the forest canopy, where wind flow is greatly reduced.