Foraging activity and cast composition of the harvester termite, Anacanthotermesochraceuswere studied during 2015-2017 years at Ismailia Governorate. Results revealed the presence of two peaks per year. The first and higher one occurred in March with total number of 373 and 557 individuals caught in 105 traps, representing 13.37 and 20.99 %, during 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 respectively. The second and lower peak occurred in September with total numbers of 34 and 174 individuals caught in 105 traps, representing 1.3 and 6.55%, during both years, respectively. The effect of weather factors (i.e. mean temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar radiation and rain fall) was determined using multiple regressions. Results showed highly significant effect in the first year. Multiple regression values explained 77.04% of foraging activity (P= 0.0001). In the second year regression analysis was mostly significant. Multiple regressionexplained61.26% of foraging activity (P= 0.0001). The average percentages of different castes of A. ochraceus were 67.1, 32.7, 0.18 and 0.0 % for workers, nymphs, soldiers and alates during the first year, respectively. Related values were 72.97, 26.65, 0.226 and 0.15 %, respectively in the second year. The food consumption was recorded as 1967.49 and 1651.35 gm in both years, representing 77.16 and 78.22 %,respectively of the offered food. The rate of food consumption during 1 st year was 15.63 g/m 2 or 65.687

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Five insect growth regulators (IGR's) were tested to increase the susceptibility of the cotton leaf worm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to its homologous nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpliMNPV). Spodoptera littoralis MNPV was tested alone or in combination with IGR's at LC 10 level against second instar larvae of the pest. An increased infection rate was detected in the mixture containing SpliMNPV+IGRs in the case of using Chlorfluazuron, Flufenoxuron, Triflumuron, Hexaflumuron or Teflubenzuron at 10%. The LC 50 value for the virus alone treatment was 1x10 7 PIB ' s reduced to 4.3x10 6 , 9.9x10 4 , 4.9x10 4 , 3.1x10 5 and 1.69x10 6 PIB ' s, with the five IGR's, respectively.

Five insect growth regulators (IGR's) were tested for increasing the susceptibility of the cotton leaf worm, Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to its homologous nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpliMNPV). S. littoralis MNPV was tested alone or in combination with IGR's at LC 10 level against the 2 nd instar larvae of the pest. An increased viral infection rate was detected in the mixture treatment in the case of using Chlorfluazuron, Flufenoxuron, Triflumuron, Hexaflumuron or Teflubenzuron at 10%. The LC 50 value of the virus alone treatment 1x10 7 PIB's was reduced to 4.3x10 6 , 9.9x10 4 , 4.9x10 4 , 3.1x10 5 and 1.69x10 6 PIB's, with the tested five IGR's, respectively. It was observed that Flufenoxuron and Triflumuron mixtures slightly prolongated larval duration compared either untreated control or IGR's alone treatments. The highest rate of decrease in the pupation percentage (47%) was recorded in case of Triflumuron mixed with SpliMNPV followed by Flufenoxuron and Chlrofluazuron mixes. On the other hand there is no significance difference in pupal weight for all treatments. Changes Adult longevity was increased for all treatments compared to untreated control. Addition Flufenxuron (LC 10) to SpliMNPV (LC 50) showed histopathological effects to mid gut e.g. loss of the compact appearance of the muscularis layer, vaculation and exfoliation of the columnar cells.

Background The genetic diversity is naturally occurring in baculovirus population, which may affect the potency of the bio-agent. The Spodoptera littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus is a promising bio-control agent that can be used to control the cotton leafworm, S. littoralis in Egypt. This study described the virulence and genetic variability of 3 S. littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus isolates named Cab2, P2 and P3 previously recovered from diseased S. littoralis larvae of cabbage, pepper and eggplant cultivation fields. Results The viral genomic DNA restriction analysis using PstI and ScaI endonucleases showed identical Pst1 restriction pattern of 10 fragments in both Cab2 and P3 isolates, while there are 7 extra fragments present in P2 isolate of about 25, 19.8, 15, 14, 11, 9 and 6.7 (kbp). On the other hand, the restriction pattern using ScaI revealed 10 common fragments in all three isolates, in addition to an extra marker fragment of about 25 kb in P3 isolate absent in both P2 and Cab3 isolates. The phylogenetic analysis of the partial nucleotide sequence of the polyhedrin gene confirmed an extensive degree of co-linearity among the genomes of the 3 tested isolates, with pairwise sequence identities of 97.04% with S. littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus isolate A26-5 (Acc. No. AY706717). The median lethal concentration (LC50) value revealed that Cab2 had the best virulence toward the first instar of S. littoralis larvae with LC50 value of 1.59 × 104 Obs/ml compared to the virulence recorded by P3 and P2 which were 1.23 × 106 and 2.7 × 104 OBs/ml, respectively. The median survival time (LT50) value of Cab2 isolate was the highest speed of treated larval mortality with 120 hpi compared to P2 and P3, which recorded 132 hpi for both isolates. Conclusions Although all three S. littoralis nucleopolyhedrovirus isolates showed considered genotypic variation and insecticidal activity against S. littoralis larvae, the variant Cab2 showed the highest virulence and speed mortality against the first instar larvae of S. littoralis. The new variant proved to possess promising insecticidal properties for the development of virus-based biopesticide for the control of S. littoralis population in Egypt.