In search of alternatives for conventional pesticides, plant essential oils have been widely investigated. Effects of essential oils of Artemisia aucheri Boiss (Asteraceae), Salvia bracteata L. (Lamiaceae) and Nepeta cataria L. (Lamiaceae) were tested against first instar larvae, egg hatching and oviposition rate of CALLOSOBROCHUS MACULATUS F. Experiment was carried out at 30 ±2° C and 60 ± 5% R. H. under dark condition adopting a complete randomized block design. For each essential oil, six concentrations with six replications were tested. Increasing the essential oil concentration increased the effects of essential oils on eggs; first instar larvae and oviposition rate. The maximum concentration of essential oils (0.56 ml/cm3) of A. aucheri, S. bracteata and N. cataria caused, 100, 91.66 and 95% mortality of eggs and 100, 98.33 and 96.66% mortality of first instar larvae, respectively. All the three tested plant essential oils reduced the oviposition rate of adults significantly. The highest concentration (0.37 m/cm3) of essential oils of A. aucheri, S. bracteata and N. cataria lead to ovipositin deterrency, with a deterrence of 100, 96.78 and 97.14%, respectively. LC50 values indicated that essential oil of A. aucheri with 0.055 and 0.042 ml/cm3 against eggs and first instar larvae was more effective than the essential oil in other plant species. It was found that plant essential oils particulary A. aucheri could be used as either a safe pesticide or model for new synthetic pesticides to control store pests.

Black-tailed toad agama (Phrynocephalus MACULATUS MACULATUS) is one of the rare diurnal lizards belonging to Agamidae family that have been distributed in deserts and sandy areas in central and southern parts of Iran. This research was conducted in order to the study of sexual dimorphism in this species from April to August, 2013. Totally, 30 adult specimens including 15 males and 15 females were collected from four stations: Hasan Abad, Aliyan, Saleh Abad and Yazdan Abad in southern parts of Damghan County in daily patrols by hand. Results of present study showed that males and females of this species are not significantly different in body weight, body length, tail length, head length, head width, right and left supralabial and infralabial scales, and scales around the mid- body (p<0.01). Also, no significant differences were observed in body coloration and shape and arrangement of scales in both sexes. Therefore, there is no sexual dimorphism in the studied characters in Phrynocephalus MACULATUS MACULATUS in this area.

Contact toxicity and persistence of essential oils from Foeniculum vulgare Mill. (Apiaceae), Teucrium polium Boiss. (Lamiaceae) and Satureja hortensis L. (Lamiaceae) were investigated against the adults of cowpea seed beetle, CALLOSOBROCHUS maculates at 28±2 °C and 60±5% R.H. under dark condition. Essential oils were obtained by hydro-distillation using a clevengertype apparatus. Contact toxicity was studied against one-day-old adult of C. MACULATUS with six concentrations at 24 hours exposure time. The persistence of insecticidal activity of essential oils was examined for a period of 30 h at the LC99 level. The results of contact toxicities showed that the mortality of adults increased with oil concentration. Males were more susceptible to essential oils than females. The essential oil of F. vulgare proved to be most toxicant with the LC50 values of 390.38 and 513.46 ml m-2 against males and females, respectively. The LC50 values of S. hortensis oil were 535.69 and 640.99 ml m-2 and the counterpart values of T. polium oil were 1263.09 and 1469.72 ml m-2 against males and females, respectively. The results of persistence test of oils revealed that essential oil of S. hortensis was the most persistent and essential oil of T. polium was the least persistent. The persistence of S. hortensis oil could be attributed to its high proportion of oxygenated compounds compared to other oils. The present study demonstrated that these essential oils could be used as appropriate alternatives to control cowpea seed beetle.

Due to the high speed and accuracy of intelligent pest detection in warehouse products, in this study, the detection of chickpea fourpoint beetle pest was simulated by image processing technique using artificial neural networks. To prepare the images, a glass box was prepared and the chickpea seeds were placed in the center of the box. The light was then illuminated from all six sides and photographed with a digital camera from all sides. The image properties were then extracted by Wavelet Gabor using MATLAB software and applied to the ANN as training data. To train the network, 69 images of chickpeas damaged and 59 healthy chickpeas were used. Then, to evaluate the network, a set of data that did not play a role in network training as test data was applied to the network and its results were evaluated. In this study, Perceptron and Elman neural networks were used which had better results than Elman network. The proposed method was able to detect the high rate of damaged with 6. 17% non-detection error and 4. 86% error-detection error. After image processing by the neural network and detection of damage points, the amount of crop damage was also calculated. For this purpose, the level of detected damage was calculated and divided by the area of total area of chickpea seed and percentage of damage. After identifying the injury sites, the damage was estimated 2. 3% in the studied images.

In order to find recyclable, environment friendly and easy accessible insecticides, the essential oils of three plant species including Mentha aquatica L., M. piperita L. and Anethum graveolens L. were used against the eggs of Callosobruchus MACULATUS. The experiment was conducted in 6 replications using a completely randomized design of factorial experiment. The essential oils were prepared by water distillation method. Experiment was carried out at 30±2oC and 60±5% R. H. under dark condition. Results show that all three plant essential oils reduced percentage of egg hatching significantly. At the concentration of 37.03 ml/l essential oils of M. aquatica, M. piperita and A. graveolens caused 100, 100 and 92.73% mortalities of eggs, respectively. Values of 50% lethal concentration on eggs were 2.628, 3.806 and 4.468 ml/l for M. aquatica, M. piperita and A. graveolens, respectively.

The persistence effects of Silica Nanoparticles (SNPs), namely, Nanosav and Aerosil®, were evaluated on several pulses for controlling Callosobruchus MACULATUS (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). For this purpose, one kg of each pulse was treated with four concentrations (50, 100, 200, and 300 mg kg-1) of each SNPs. The sampling was tested after 0, 2, 4, and 6 months’ storage period following the treatment. Adults were introduced to these samples and the number of dead adults was counted 1, 2, and 4 days after the exposure to the treated pulses. The percentage decrease in F1 progeny was calculated 42 days later. The mortality was 100% in black gram, cowpea, green gram, and chickpea when treated at a concentration of 300 mg.kg-1 of both SNP formulations in 0-month post-treatment four days after the exposure. No progeny was observed in lentil treated with 300 mg kg-1 of Nanosav in 0-month post-treatment. Another experiment was conducted to calculate SNPs adherence to the seeds. The highest adherence was on the black gram with 86 and 99.5%, in Nanosav and Aerosil®, respectively. Our results indicated that two SNPs had insecticidal activity against C. MACULATUS and can be used effectively in integrated pest management program of C. MACULATUS in stored pulses.

Introduction: Insect pests of stored products are responsible for considerable economic losses to stored grains. In many storage systems, fumigants are the most economical and convenient tool for managing stored-grain pests not only for their ability to kill a broad spectrum of pests but also for their easy penetration into the commodity while leaving minimal residues. There are major setback to use the synthetic insecticides including the risk to the consumer, high cost of procurement, effects on non-targeted, as well as development of pest resistant strains and toxic residue in crops. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop economic, safe and environmental friendly fumigant alternatives. Recent studies has been indicated that plant secondary metabolites that may significantly affect plant resistance to parasites. Many researchers have studied insecticidal and oviposition deterrent effects of plant materials and have reported some compounds as appropriate agents in controlling pest infestation in stored products. In comparison with chemical pesticides, plant materials are less harmful not only to the environment but, in most cases, to humans and at times, may be used in treating human diseases as well. The present study was performed to evaluate the fumigant toxicity of dried leaf powders from nine medicinal plants against cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus MACULATUS (F. ) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). Materials And Methods: The individuals of C. MACULATUS was obtained from laboratory stock cultures maintained in the Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran. The beetles were reared on cowpea seeds and one to three-day-old male and female adults were used for bioassay tests. Plant materials: The fresh leaves of Chamaemelum nobilis L., Thymus serpyllum L. and Ferulago angulate (Schlecht) Boiss. were collected from Sephid Kouh in west Khorramabad. The aerial parts of Achillea millefolium L., and Mentha pulegium L. were collected from 30km north of Khoramabad and Anethum graveolens L. and Ocimum basilicum L. were collected from Serab-Changai farms, Khoramabad. Collected leaves were shadow dried under good ventilation and milled into fine powder using electric blender. Powders of two common spices, Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume and Zingiber officinale Rosc were purchased from local market in Khorramabad. Inhalation toxicity-Tests: Fumigant toxicity of the botanical powders was tested against 1-3 days old adults of C. MACULATUS. 10 adults of C. MACULATUS was placed inside glass vials (volume: 100 ml) without considering the sex ratio. Since, according to the trial experiment, fumigant toxicity of the studied botanical powders significantly differed, therefore, different concentrations were prepared. This experiment was carried out in completely randomized design with five replicates incubated in the dark at 30± 2° C and 65± 5% RH. After 48 h of exposure period, the number of dead and live insects in each bottle was counted. Insects were considered whether they were dead if they could not move their appendages. Insect mortality percentage was calculated using the Abbott correction formula for natural mortality in untreated controls. Data were transformed to reduce variance heterogeneity. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance followed by Duncan test to estimate statistical differences between means. Based on the mortality data obtained from different concentrations, LC50 values were determined using POLO-PC program. Oviposition deterrence was studied with two pairs of new adults beetles treated with different concentrations of botanical powders. After five days, number of eggs was recorded in treatments and control and oviposition deterrence was calculated as follows: Oviposition deterrence = (1–NEt / NEc)100 Where: Nt = Number of eggs in treatment Nc = Number of eggs in control Results And Discussion: Results showed that all the tested plant powders showed insecticidal and oviposition deterrent activity against C. MACULATUS. M. pulegium powder showed the strongest insecticidal activity against cowpea weeviland at the concentration of 1 g/lair caused 96% mortality of this pest. The LC50 values estimated for the plants, M. pulegium, C. zeylanicum, Z. officinal and O. basilicum were 0. 31, 2. 47, 4. 01 and 4. 81 g/lair, respectively. Powders of M. pulegium, Z. officinale and C. zeylanicum at concentration of 1 g/lair caused 91. 74, 90. 08 and 90. 25% oviposition deterrent of C. MACULATUS, respectively. Overall, the powder of these plants, especially M. pulegium, could be recommended as low-risk and inexpensive pesticides in rural areas. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that all the botanical powders exhibited insecticidal activity and oviposition deterrent against the C. MACULATUS. The results indicated that the powder of M. pulegium (LC50 = 0. 34 μ L/Lair) is the most toxic plant powder against C. MACULATUS.

Chemical composition and insecticidal activity and repellency of essential oils from Ferula gummosa Boiss., Cuminum cyminum L., Carum carvi L. and Pelargonium roseum Willd. against the adults of Callosobruchus MACULATUS (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) were studied. The gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), bioassays, and olfactometer were respectively used to identify the components and determine the fumigant toxicity (in 50 mL vials containing 20 adult insects) and repellency of the essential oils. The main compounds of the essential oils were β-pinene (35. 2%), α-pinene (9. 4%), ρ-cymene (8. 5%), and terpinene-4-ol (8. 5%) for F. gummosa, cuminaldehyde (46. 6%), ρ-cymene (18. 4), γ-terpinene (12. 2%) and α-terpinene-7-al (8. 1%) for C. cyminum, carvone (46. 2%), ρ-cymene (14. 0%) and γ-terpinene (8. 3%) for C. carvi, and β-citronellol (47. 3%) and citronellyl formate (13. 2%) for P. roseum. The fumigant toxicity of C. carvi and C. cyminum essential oils against C. MACULATUS was higher than the other two essential oils, and the repellent activity was observed for all essential oils tested against this pest. The repellency percentage of P. roseum, F. gummosa, C. cyminum and C. carvi essential oils was calculated as 41. 66, 64. 70, 70. 17, and 66. 29%, respectively. The results indicated that these essential oils could be considered as an effective alternative to control C. MACULATUS and possibly other storage coleopteran pests.