eChapters

The cotton aphid: Aphis gossypii: Aphididae

Symptoms of Damage

Both nymphs and adults cause the damage by sucking the plant sap from shoot tips, pods and leaves. Severe infestation may result in complete drying of affected parts. Attacked leaves curl up, wither and fall. These are yellowish green or brown coloured aphids. The total life cycle from first instar nymph to adult occupies an average of 8-10days. It reproduces parthenogenetically and viviparously. The female may produce 10-30 young ones in a life span of 10-12 days. The nymphs transform into adult in 5-8 days after passing through four moults. 

Organic material especially, seeds, grains, leaves, fruits and nuts contain prominently three groups of compounds. They are carbohydrates, proteins and fats/oils, mostly in that order. They also contain 3-5% minerals and smaller quantities of vitamins and other minor constituents. Cereal grains contain more of carbohydrates while oilseeds and nuts contain more oil. Tree nuts and even oilseeds may contain 30-50% protein while cereal grains contain 5-8% protein only. The starch and sugar contents of oilseeds may be less than 10% while the oil content of cereal grains ranges around 5%. The actual content and the composition of these groups of compounds really account for their quality as well as commercial value.

Purpose: The estimation of total soluble constituents gives the approximate amount of water soluble substance present in the sample. Among the various soluble substances the amount of sugar is 80-85 percent. The TSS value is roughly considered to be the amount of sugar and soluble minerals present in fruits and vegetables. The total soluble solid content can be determined by hand refrectometer.

Material and equipments: Hand refrectometer, juice, muslin cloth or tissue paper and glass rod.

ABSTRACT

Insect societies such as those of ants, bees, wasps and termites are characterized by reproductive division of labour and cooperative brood care. Thus these societies consist of one or a smallnumber of reproductives (usually only queens but also kings in the case of termites) and a large number of sterile or nearly sterile workers

The condition is one of the most common pruritic skin disease caused by hypersensitivity reaction to the flea salivary antigens. Type I immediate hypersensitivity, type II delayed hypersensitivity and cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity to the flea salivary antigens have been recorded. Late phase IgG mediated reaction also caused in this condition. It occurs in dogs mostly between 1 and 3 years of age.

Class: Pentastomida

General characters

1. Usually, they are considered as aberrant arthropods as some authors suggest it to be related to annelids.

2. They are elongated, tongue like and transversely striated or sometimes, deeply ringed giving beaded appearance especially at the anterior end.

3. Two pairs of strong hooked claws are present at anterior-ventral surface.

4. Eggs contain fully developed larvae when laid

8.1 Limitations

1. The research was limited to a specific geographic area.

2. The study was constrained by limitations in time and reSources.

3. The study relies on the subjective opinions of the participants, which may be influenced by their individual perspectives and biases, despite the researcher’s efforts to gather them as objectively as possible.

4. It would have been advantageous to include a broader range of relevant variables in the study.

5. A suitable statistical model could have been employed to provide thematic support for the behavior and functioning of the system.

6. The selection of variables could have been expanded by incorporating additional variables that would have demonstrated resilience in domain interactions.

Sex hormone plays a vital role in the occurrence of canine mammary cancer. It is well established that canine mammary cancer is sex-hormone dependent. The risk of developing canine mammary tumour is 0.05% if the dog is spayed before its first estrous and the risk of developing a mammary cancer is increased as the number of estrous cycle increases. Mammary cancer is often hormone responsive, since growth or regression of tumours can be modulated by suitable hormonal manipulations. Estrogen and Progesterone appear to be major hormones in regulation of mammary tumour development. It is also reported that about 40-50% malignant mammary tumour in the dog have either or both estrogen and progesterone receptors. Benign tumours in dogs have also female sex hormone receptors and they can be stimulated by hormonal cycling. Mammary carcinoma can be induced in male and female rodents by administration of estrogen. Transsexual males given high doses of estrogen to induce mammary development have developed mammary cancer. So measurement of different sex hormones or sex steroids is an essential step during any study related to development and efficacy of treatment of canine mammary cancer.

Common name    :    English- Touch me not/sensitive plant
        Hindi- Lajwanti
        Odia- Lajakuli 
            
Family    :    Mimosaceae

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a common weed mostly found in roadsides, waste places, damp sites, agricultural lands etc. It is widely distributed throughout the better parts of India. (Fig. 63 a)

General Characters
It is a small prostrate or ascending herb with prickly stems and grows up to a height of 50 cm with a spread of 30 cm. The leaves are bipinnate, fern like and pale green, closing when disturbed. The flowers are pale pink or purple in colour, round to ovoid heads (8-10 mm in diameter) and the flower heads arise from the leaf axils. The plant bears flowers and fruits during August-May.

Shoot borer: Chilo infuscatellus : Pyralidae

This pyralid is more commonly known as a pest of sugarcane. Eggs are laid in batches on lower side of leaves.  The emerging larvae move down and cut a hole at the ground level and enters the stem.  Due to feeding of larva, the central shoot begins to wilt and dry causing dead heart. The yield of the crop is affected.New tillers may develop but will not have the physiological maturity and oil content at the time of harvest.

Object: To demonstrate the phenomenon of osmosis using potato osmoscope. 

Material required: A potato tuber, sugar solution, beaker, water, petridish, knife, measuring cylinder, and stand.

Theory: Osmosis is a phenomenon in which water molecules diffuse through the semi permeable membrane from region of its higher concentration to the region of lower concentration.

Principle: A weighed sample is dried in an oven at 60-70⁰C up to a period of time when weighing made at 2 hour intervals do not differ by more than 2-3 mg.

ABSTRACT

Malabar Spiny Dormouse (Platacanthomys lasiurus), the endemic rodent found in the Western Ghats of South India was studied in the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala, to determine the status, distribution, food and feeding of the species.

Depressed immune responses have been observed frequently in cancer patients. Cancer and other stress are known to affect different components of the immune system. Cancer treatment is relying mainly on surgery, anti-cancer chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Most chemotherapeutic agents are responsible to myeloid toxicity, which leads to leukemia and immunosuppression affecting both humoral and cell-mediated immunity. This is a very serious disadvantage of chemotherapy besides they are cytotoxic drugs.

Common name    :    English- Spanish cherry
        Hindi- Maulsari
        Odia- Baula
        
Family    :    Sapotaceae 

Habit & Distribution
The plant is a small tree (Fig. 64 a), frequently planted elsewhere also in gardens. It is distributed throughout India.

General Characters
It is a small tree with small shiny thick narrow, pointed leaves, straight trunk and spreading branches. The leaves are elliptic or oblong, 6.2-10 cm long. Flowers are small star shaped, white, yellowish white in color with a crown rising from the centre. The fragrance of flowers is very graciously scented. The fruit turns yellow-orange when ripens and are eaten fresh. The plant flowers during April-May and bears fruits during August-September.

Zero energy cool chamber : Zero energy cool chamber storage significantly delays the rate of increase in physiological loss of weight (PLW) of the fruits stored in cool chamber 30% (mango) to 70% (banana) lower than that of the fruits stored in ambient conditions. Cool chamber storage extended the storage life of mango by 3 to 6 days and that of banana by 5 to 8 days over those in ambient conditions.

Cabbage semilooper: Thysanoplusia orichalcea :Noctuidae

Eggs are laid singly on lower surface of leaves.  The emerging larvae feed as a scraper initially and then feed voraciously on the leaves. The larva is greenish and hence not easily noticed initially. But when patches of damage occur in the crop, examine for the larvae and remove and destroy all the larvae. Chemical control is not advisable, and spraying extracts of other aromatic plants can deter egg laying very well.

Object: To demonstrate the phenomenon of endosmosis and exosmosis by using grapes and raisins.

Material required: Grapes, raisins, beaker or petridish, water and sugar solution.

Purpose: The ash content of plants represents the deposition of minerals elements in the plant or in its parts. The value of ash content in the plant tissue indicates the health of the plant. Plant ash is also used both in qualitative and quantitative estimation of mineral elements.

Material and Equipments: Crucible, oven, chemical balance and weight box.