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The masked birch caterpillar, Drepana arcuata, provides an excellent opportunity to study mechanisms mediating developmental changes in social behaviour. Larvae transition from being social to solitary during the 3 rd instar, concomitant with shifts in their use of acoustic communication. In this study we characterize the transcriptome of D. arcuata to initiate sociogenomic research of this lepidopteran insect. We assembled and annotated the combined larval transcriptome of "social" early and "solitary" late instars using next generation Illumina sequencing, and used this transcriptome to conduct differential gene expression analysis of the two behavioural phenotypes. A total of 211,012,294 reads generated by RNA sequencing were assembled into 231,348 transcripts and 116,079 unigenes for the functional annotation of the transcriptome. Expression analysis revealed 3300 transcripts that were differentially expressed between early and late instars, with a large proportion associated with development and metabolic processes. We independently validated differential expression patterns of selected transcripts using RT-qPCR. The expression profiles of social and solitary larvae revealed differentially expressed transcripts coding for gene products that have been previously reported to influence social behaviour in other insects (e.g. cGMP-and cAMP-dependent kinases, and bioamine receptors). This study provides the first transcriptomic resources for a lepidopteran species belonging to the superfamily Drepanoidea, and gives insight into genetic factors mediating grouping behaviour in insects.

The masked birch caterpillar, Drepana arcuata (Lepidoptera: Drepanidae) is an excellent model for studying vibratory communication and sociality in larval insects. Vibratory communication occurs throughout development, but the functions of signals are reported to change as larvae change from gregarious to solitary lifestyles. To better understand the sensory ecology of these caterpillars, it is important to study their life history. Here, we describe the morphological and behavioral characteristics of larvae by confirming the number of instars, identifying their distinguishing morphological features, and noting changes in feeding and shelter construction. Five instars were confirmed based on the number of head capsules collected for individuals throughout development, and by using Dyar’s rule, which predicts the number of instars based on geometric growth patterns of head capsules. Frequency distributions of head capsule widths showed five separate peaks, indicating that this is a useful parameter for distinguishing between instars. Other morphological features including body length, shape, and banding patterns of head capsules, and morphology of thoracic verrucae are helpful in distinguishing among instars. Feeding behavior changes from leaf skeletonization in first and second instars to leaf cutting in fourth and fifth instars, with third instars transitioning between these feeding styles as they grow. Early instars typically construct communal silken shelters whereas late instars live solitarily in leaf shelters. These results provide essential life history information on the masked birch caterpillar that will enable future investigations on the proximate and ultimate mechanisms associated with social behavior and communication in larval insects.

Background: Uterine fibroid is the most common pelvic tumor in women of reproductive age and are asymptomatic in at least 50% of affected women. Various risk factors are associated with development of uterine fibroids during this reproductive age. The present study established various associated risk factors increases the prevalence of uterine fibroid among reproductive age group and clinical symptoms burden of diagnosed case.Methods: A cross sectional study design was used to collect samples for a period of six months in an OPD basis. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the 362 sample of reproductive age group (15-45 years) women in a tertiary care hospital, Southeastern India. Women diagnosed with uterine fibroid by ultrasonography were included as cases. Symptomatic features and associated risk factors of UF were collected through structure interview schedule.Results: Point prevalence of uterine fibroid among women in reproductive age group during the period of six months was 20%. Majority of them were in the age group of 30-39 years. Demographic factor such as overweight and obesity and consume dairy products daily has increased the prevalence of UF, whereas use of oral contraceptive pills and normal BMI had inverse relationship with UF risk. Most of the cases reported of having menstrual disturbances like heavy bleeding, passes blood clots during menstruation, prolonged period, urinary symptoms and pressure symptoms were considered independent predicting factors for the occurrence of uterine fibroid.Conclusions: Uterine fibroid is more prevalent among women of reproductive age causing various bleeding and renal symptoms that can have negative impact on quality of women’s life.

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