daniela lupi | Università degli Studi di Milano - State University of Milan (Italy) (original) (raw)

Papers by daniela lupi

In a period characterized by great losses of Apis mellifera L. colonies, it is necessary to provi... more In a period characterized by great losses of Apis mellifera L. colonies, it is necessary to provide sources of nectar in areas where nectariferous plants are few in the pre-wintering period. The research has been focused on the observation of honeybee activity from September to late October on flowers of Phacelia tanacetifoliia intentionally sown in July. Results of flying activity in relation to temperature, blossoming period, and nectar foraging are reported

Hymenoptera Vespoidea can represent a risk for humans in populated areas as they frequently nest ... more Hymenoptera Vespoidea can represent a risk for humans in populated areas as they frequently nest near houses, within walls, or on trees in public parks. Moreover, their abundance can result in adverse encounters with people. In the present work we investigated the presence of Vespoidea in a racecourse in the city of Milan (northern Italy). In the past, the presence of nests of Vespula germanica under the ground has caused harm to humans and horses. The survey was conducted from May to October 2016 using 28 TAP TRAP\ua9 baited with beer and checked every 15 days. Specimens of only three species, V. germanica, Vespa crabro and Polistes gallicus, were captured in the period. Many V. crabro were captured on each monitoring date; in comparison, the other two species were very low. No V. gemanica nest were found in the proximity of the traps. The presence of many burrows due to voles in the area that could facilitate the settlement of V. germanica, causing problems to horses and people, should be taken in account to limit the settlement of this species

The European pet food market is the second largest in the world with an estimated value of US$21.... more The European pet food market is the second largest in the world with an estimated value of US$21.5 billion. Approximately 8.59 million reptile and amphibian pets are kept across Europe and a thriving and well established industry rears the live feeder insects for insectivorous species. Two popular groups of feeder insects are locusts and crickets, and substantial quantities of organic waste are generated in their production consisting of frass, exuviae and uneaten food. Here we investigated the use of a saprophagous fly species, Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), the black soldier fly (BSF), as a bioaccumulator to recapture the nutrients in this waste with potential applications in the pet food, animal feed, or biofuel industries. BSF larvae were reared on four experimental diets consisting of the waste from either cricket farming, or locust farming. These were used either unmodified or finely chopped, and the Gainsville diet was used as a control giving five conditions. Trial substrates were given to young handling larvae ad libitum and maintained in a climate chamber. The suitability of these diets for rearing BSF was demonstrated by a low mortality rate, not significantly affected by diet, and the successful emergence of adults from all conditions. BSF larvae reared on cricket waste reached a significantly higher weight than those reared on the locust and control diets. Diet did not significantly affect time taken to reach the prepupal stage, except in chopped locust condition which took more days. We conclude that the waste from farming locusts and crickets represents a suitable substrate for rearing H. illucens, potentially establish a circular nutrient economy in the rearing of insects for the live pet food market

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2020

Explanations for the highest levels of sociality typically invoke the concept of inclusive fitnes... more Explanations for the highest levels of sociality typically invoke the concept of inclusive fitness. Sclerodermus, a genus of parasitoid hymenopterans, is quasi-social, exhibiting cooperative brood care without generational overlap or apparent division of labour. Foundress females successfully co-exploit hosts that are too large to suppress when acting alone and the direct fitness benefits of collective action may explain their cooperation, irrespective of kinship. However, cooperation in animal societies is seldom free of conflicts of interest between social partners, especially when their relatedness, and thus their degree of shared evolutionary interests, is low. We screened components of the life-history of Sclerodermus brevicornis for effects of varying co-foundress number and relatedness on cooperative reproduction. We found that the time taken to paralyse standard-sized hosts is shorter when co-foundress number and/or relatedness is higher. This suggests that, while females mu...

Sustainability

The opportunity to introduce Phacelia tanacetifolia is still being debated, even if the species i... more The opportunity to introduce Phacelia tanacetifolia is still being debated, even if the species is already employed, as it is often sown in rotational set-aside schemes or to support pollinators. Therefore, we need further evidence on its effects on the environment and its attractiveness towards pollinators. This work aims at confirming its appeal towards the honeybee in a mixed agricultural and urban environment in the north of Italy, during late spring and early autumn flowering. We assessed flowering characteristics and honeybee visitation rates by employing observational plots; we recorded resource preferences and behaviours by focal observations and video records; finally, we annotated other flower visitors. Each plant is characterised by one or more flowering stems on which not all flowers open at the same time: an increased number of flowers is, therefore, due to an increase in the number of available flowering stems. Honeybees were highly interested in lacy phacelia resource...

Journal of Applied Ecology

Kinship among interacting individuals is often associated with sociality and also with sex ratio ... more Kinship among interacting individuals is often associated with sociality and also with sex ratio effects. Parasitoids in the bethylid genus Goniozus are sub-social, with single foundress females exhibiting post-ovipositional maternal care via short-term aggressive host and brood defence against conspecific females. Due to local mate competition (LMC) and broods normally being produced by a single foundress, sex ratios are female biased. Contests between adult females are, however, not normally fatal and aggression is reduced when competing females are kin, raising the possibility of multi-foundress reproduction on some hosts. Here we screen for further life-history effects of kinship by varying the numbers and relatedness of foundresses confined together with a host resource and also by varying the size of host. We confined groups of 1 to 8 Goniozus nephantidis females together with a host for 5+ days. Multi-foundress groups were either all siblings or all non-siblings. Our chief ex...

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2020

Sclerodermus brevicornis is a parasitoid that exhibits cooperative multi-foundress brood producti... more Sclerodermus brevicornis is a parasitoid that exhibits cooperative multi-foundress brood production. Prior work showed that the time lag to paralysis of small-sized hosts is shorter when co-foundress relatedness is higher and predicted that the greater risks and greater benefits of attacking larger hosts would combine with co-foundress relatedness to determine the limits to the size of a host that a female is selected to attack as a public good. It was also predicted that the time to host attack would be affected by an interaction between host size and relatedness. Here, we show empirically that both host size and kinship affect S. brevicornis reproduction and that they interact to influence the timing of host attack. We also find effects of co-foundress relatedness after hosts have been suppressed successfully. A public goods model using parameters estimated for S. brevicornis again suggests that selection for individual foundresses to attack and, if successful, to share hosts will...

Studies on the biology of geranium bronze butterfly were conducted in Milan (nothern Italy) on Pe... more Studies on the biology of geranium bronze butterfly were conducted in Milan (nothern Italy) on Pelargonium spp. from April to the end of December, observing directly the presence of adult, larvae eggs or damage. To test the susceptibility to the attack of the butterfly, 40 different ornamental geraniums were used (see the table): 10 cvs of zonal pelargoniums (Pelargonium × hortorum); 3 cvs of ivy-leafed pelargoniums (P. peltatum); 3 cvs of regal pelargoniums (P. × domesticum); and 16 species or cvs of scented-leafed pelargoniums. The plants were exposed to the pest from the end of May to the end of September, in two different localities. The plants were observed every week, and data on damage and their symptomatology were collected. Different cvs of Pelargonium Larvae on cv Lady plymouth

Molecules, 2022

The present work aimed to characterize the molecular relationships between structure and function... more The present work aimed to characterize the molecular relationships between structure and function of the seed storage protein β-vignin, the vicilin storage protein of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata, l. Walp) seeds. The molecular characterization of β-vignin was carried out firstly by assessing its thermal stability, under different conditions of pH and ionic strength, by thermal shift assay (TSA) using SYPRO Orange fluorescent dye. Secondly, its aggregation propensity was evaluated using a combination of chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques. Two forms of β-vignin were considered: the native form purified from mature quiescent seeds, and a stable breakdown intermediate of 27 kDa produced while seeds germinate. TSA is a useful tool for determining and following over time the structural changes that occur to the protein during germination. The main result was the molecular characterization of the 27 kDa intermediate breakdown polypeptide, which, to the best of our knowledge, has n...

Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) were surveyed across three horticultural farms, inserted in a peri-u... more Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) were surveyed across three horticultural farms, inserted in a peri-urban contest, in the Po plain in Lombardy (Northern Italy) from April 2003 to March 2005. Their biodiversity was estimated using pitfall traps. A total of 1341 specimens, 45 genera and 76 species were collected during the sur- vey. Most of the species detected have already been recorded as frequent in other European agricultural fields. The rove beetle assemblage displayed the dominance of Drusilla canaliculata (Fabricius, 1787), Atheta aeneicollis (Sharp, 1869), Atheta triangulum (Kraatz, 1856) and Omalium caesum Gravenhorst, 1806, contributing to over half of the total number of the specimens detected. Land use seemed to have a significant effect on the number and composition of the species. Riassunto - I Coleotteri Stafilinidi di tre aziende orticole lombarde. Sono illustrati i risultati di un'indagine condotta dall'aprile 2003 al marzo 2005 volta a stimare la composizione dei...

International Journal of Agriculture Innovations and Research, 2015

As both climate and food can affect insect development, in order to deep the knowledge on Psacoth... more As both climate and food can affect insect development, in order to deep the knowledge on Psacothea hilaris hilaris (Pascoe) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae) biology, four treatments were tested to evaluate the effects of diet composition and temperature on some biological traits of this longicorn beetle. P. h. hilaris survival, pre-imaginal developmental traits, adult size, sex-ratio, longevity, fecundity and duration of the oviposition period have been examined in order to evaluate the direct influence of the diet on larvae as well as the effect of pre-imaginal feeding on adult performances. Treatments investigating the maximum rearing temperature and the diet with the lowest content of mulberry showed the lowest rate of larval survival and adult longevity. Despite no variation in adult body size was estimated in relation to preimaginal rearing condition, significant differences were observed in adult performances: fecundity and oviposition behaviour were significantly higher at 25°C compared to 30°C, but no differences were recorded on the pre-oviposition period.

Simple Summary Multi-stress conditions are considered the most putative cause of honeybee decline... more Simple Summary Multi-stress conditions are considered the most putative cause of honeybee decline. The ongoing reduction of domestic and natural pollinators is considered a very severe signal of the current loss of biodiversity, and it requires a broad research effort to clarify the causes. In this research, the combined effects of two possible stress sources for bees, pesticides and electromagnetic fields (multi-stress conditions) were analyzed by a field trial. After one year of monitoring, a complex picture of several induced effects was present, especially in the multi-stress site, such as disease appearance (American foulbrood), higher mortality in the underbaskets (common to pesticide-stress site), behavioral alterations (queen changes, excess of both drone-brood deposition and honey storage) and biochemical anomalies (higher ALP activity at the end of the season). The multi-stress site showed the worst health condition of the bee colonies, with only one alive at the end of th...

In a period characterized by great losses of Apis mellifera L. colonies, it is necessary to provi... more In a period characterized by great losses of Apis mellifera L. colonies, it is necessary to provide sources of nectar in areas where nectariferous plants are few in the pre-wintering period. The research has been focused on the observation of honeybee activity from September to late October on flowers of Phacelia tanacetifoliia intentionally sown in July. Results of flying activity in relation to temperature, blossoming period, and nectar foraging are reported

Hymenoptera Vespoidea can represent a risk for humans in populated areas as they frequently nest ... more Hymenoptera Vespoidea can represent a risk for humans in populated areas as they frequently nest near houses, within walls, or on trees in public parks. Moreover, their abundance can result in adverse encounters with people. In the present work we investigated the presence of Vespoidea in a racecourse in the city of Milan (northern Italy). In the past, the presence of nests of Vespula germanica under the ground has caused harm to humans and horses. The survey was conducted from May to October 2016 using 28 TAP TRAP\ua9 baited with beer and checked every 15 days. Specimens of only three species, V. germanica, Vespa crabro and Polistes gallicus, were captured in the period. Many V. crabro were captured on each monitoring date; in comparison, the other two species were very low. No V. gemanica nest were found in the proximity of the traps. The presence of many burrows due to voles in the area that could facilitate the settlement of V. germanica, causing problems to horses and people, should be taken in account to limit the settlement of this species

The European pet food market is the second largest in the world with an estimated value of US$21.... more The European pet food market is the second largest in the world with an estimated value of US$21.5 billion. Approximately 8.59 million reptile and amphibian pets are kept across Europe and a thriving and well established industry rears the live feeder insects for insectivorous species. Two popular groups of feeder insects are locusts and crickets, and substantial quantities of organic waste are generated in their production consisting of frass, exuviae and uneaten food. Here we investigated the use of a saprophagous fly species, Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), the black soldier fly (BSF), as a bioaccumulator to recapture the nutrients in this waste with potential applications in the pet food, animal feed, or biofuel industries. BSF larvae were reared on four experimental diets consisting of the waste from either cricket farming, or locust farming. These were used either unmodified or finely chopped, and the Gainsville diet was used as a control giving five conditions. Trial substrates were given to young handling larvae ad libitum and maintained in a climate chamber. The suitability of these diets for rearing BSF was demonstrated by a low mortality rate, not significantly affected by diet, and the successful emergence of adults from all conditions. BSF larvae reared on cricket waste reached a significantly higher weight than those reared on the locust and control diets. Diet did not significantly affect time taken to reach the prepupal stage, except in chopped locust condition which took more days. We conclude that the waste from farming locusts and crickets represents a suitable substrate for rearing H. illucens, potentially establish a circular nutrient economy in the rearing of insects for the live pet food market

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2020

Explanations for the highest levels of sociality typically invoke the concept of inclusive fitnes... more Explanations for the highest levels of sociality typically invoke the concept of inclusive fitness. Sclerodermus, a genus of parasitoid hymenopterans, is quasi-social, exhibiting cooperative brood care without generational overlap or apparent division of labour. Foundress females successfully co-exploit hosts that are too large to suppress when acting alone and the direct fitness benefits of collective action may explain their cooperation, irrespective of kinship. However, cooperation in animal societies is seldom free of conflicts of interest between social partners, especially when their relatedness, and thus their degree of shared evolutionary interests, is low. We screened components of the life-history of Sclerodermus brevicornis for effects of varying co-foundress number and relatedness on cooperative reproduction. We found that the time taken to paralyse standard-sized hosts is shorter when co-foundress number and/or relatedness is higher. This suggests that, while females mu...

Sustainability

The opportunity to introduce Phacelia tanacetifolia is still being debated, even if the species i... more The opportunity to introduce Phacelia tanacetifolia is still being debated, even if the species is already employed, as it is often sown in rotational set-aside schemes or to support pollinators. Therefore, we need further evidence on its effects on the environment and its attractiveness towards pollinators. This work aims at confirming its appeal towards the honeybee in a mixed agricultural and urban environment in the north of Italy, during late spring and early autumn flowering. We assessed flowering characteristics and honeybee visitation rates by employing observational plots; we recorded resource preferences and behaviours by focal observations and video records; finally, we annotated other flower visitors. Each plant is characterised by one or more flowering stems on which not all flowers open at the same time: an increased number of flowers is, therefore, due to an increase in the number of available flowering stems. Honeybees were highly interested in lacy phacelia resource...

Journal of Applied Ecology

Kinship among interacting individuals is often associated with sociality and also with sex ratio ... more Kinship among interacting individuals is often associated with sociality and also with sex ratio effects. Parasitoids in the bethylid genus Goniozus are sub-social, with single foundress females exhibiting post-ovipositional maternal care via short-term aggressive host and brood defence against conspecific females. Due to local mate competition (LMC) and broods normally being produced by a single foundress, sex ratios are female biased. Contests between adult females are, however, not normally fatal and aggression is reduced when competing females are kin, raising the possibility of multi-foundress reproduction on some hosts. Here we screen for further life-history effects of kinship by varying the numbers and relatedness of foundresses confined together with a host resource and also by varying the size of host. We confined groups of 1 to 8 Goniozus nephantidis females together with a host for 5+ days. Multi-foundress groups were either all siblings or all non-siblings. Our chief ex...

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2020

Sclerodermus brevicornis is a parasitoid that exhibits cooperative multi-foundress brood producti... more Sclerodermus brevicornis is a parasitoid that exhibits cooperative multi-foundress brood production. Prior work showed that the time lag to paralysis of small-sized hosts is shorter when co-foundress relatedness is higher and predicted that the greater risks and greater benefits of attacking larger hosts would combine with co-foundress relatedness to determine the limits to the size of a host that a female is selected to attack as a public good. It was also predicted that the time to host attack would be affected by an interaction between host size and relatedness. Here, we show empirically that both host size and kinship affect S. brevicornis reproduction and that they interact to influence the timing of host attack. We also find effects of co-foundress relatedness after hosts have been suppressed successfully. A public goods model using parameters estimated for S. brevicornis again suggests that selection for individual foundresses to attack and, if successful, to share hosts will...

Studies on the biology of geranium bronze butterfly were conducted in Milan (nothern Italy) on Pe... more Studies on the biology of geranium bronze butterfly were conducted in Milan (nothern Italy) on Pelargonium spp. from April to the end of December, observing directly the presence of adult, larvae eggs or damage. To test the susceptibility to the attack of the butterfly, 40 different ornamental geraniums were used (see the table): 10 cvs of zonal pelargoniums (Pelargonium × hortorum); 3 cvs of ivy-leafed pelargoniums (P. peltatum); 3 cvs of regal pelargoniums (P. × domesticum); and 16 species or cvs of scented-leafed pelargoniums. The plants were exposed to the pest from the end of May to the end of September, in two different localities. The plants were observed every week, and data on damage and their symptomatology were collected. Different cvs of Pelargonium Larvae on cv Lady plymouth

Molecules, 2022

The present work aimed to characterize the molecular relationships between structure and function... more The present work aimed to characterize the molecular relationships between structure and function of the seed storage protein β-vignin, the vicilin storage protein of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata, l. Walp) seeds. The molecular characterization of β-vignin was carried out firstly by assessing its thermal stability, under different conditions of pH and ionic strength, by thermal shift assay (TSA) using SYPRO Orange fluorescent dye. Secondly, its aggregation propensity was evaluated using a combination of chromatographic and electrophoretic techniques. Two forms of β-vignin were considered: the native form purified from mature quiescent seeds, and a stable breakdown intermediate of 27 kDa produced while seeds germinate. TSA is a useful tool for determining and following over time the structural changes that occur to the protein during germination. The main result was the molecular characterization of the 27 kDa intermediate breakdown polypeptide, which, to the best of our knowledge, has n...

Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) were surveyed across three horticultural farms, inserted in a peri-u... more Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) were surveyed across three horticultural farms, inserted in a peri-urban contest, in the Po plain in Lombardy (Northern Italy) from April 2003 to March 2005. Their biodiversity was estimated using pitfall traps. A total of 1341 specimens, 45 genera and 76 species were collected during the sur- vey. Most of the species detected have already been recorded as frequent in other European agricultural fields. The rove beetle assemblage displayed the dominance of Drusilla canaliculata (Fabricius, 1787), Atheta aeneicollis (Sharp, 1869), Atheta triangulum (Kraatz, 1856) and Omalium caesum Gravenhorst, 1806, contributing to over half of the total number of the specimens detected. Land use seemed to have a significant effect on the number and composition of the species. Riassunto - I Coleotteri Stafilinidi di tre aziende orticole lombarde. Sono illustrati i risultati di un'indagine condotta dall'aprile 2003 al marzo 2005 volta a stimare la composizione dei...

International Journal of Agriculture Innovations and Research, 2015

As both climate and food can affect insect development, in order to deep the knowledge on Psacoth... more As both climate and food can affect insect development, in order to deep the knowledge on Psacothea hilaris hilaris (Pascoe) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae) biology, four treatments were tested to evaluate the effects of diet composition and temperature on some biological traits of this longicorn beetle. P. h. hilaris survival, pre-imaginal developmental traits, adult size, sex-ratio, longevity, fecundity and duration of the oviposition period have been examined in order to evaluate the direct influence of the diet on larvae as well as the effect of pre-imaginal feeding on adult performances. Treatments investigating the maximum rearing temperature and the diet with the lowest content of mulberry showed the lowest rate of larval survival and adult longevity. Despite no variation in adult body size was estimated in relation to preimaginal rearing condition, significant differences were observed in adult performances: fecundity and oviposition behaviour were significantly higher at 25°C compared to 30°C, but no differences were recorded on the pre-oviposition period.

Simple Summary Multi-stress conditions are considered the most putative cause of honeybee decline... more Simple Summary Multi-stress conditions are considered the most putative cause of honeybee decline. The ongoing reduction of domestic and natural pollinators is considered a very severe signal of the current loss of biodiversity, and it requires a broad research effort to clarify the causes. In this research, the combined effects of two possible stress sources for bees, pesticides and electromagnetic fields (multi-stress conditions) were analyzed by a field trial. After one year of monitoring, a complex picture of several induced effects was present, especially in the multi-stress site, such as disease appearance (American foulbrood), higher mortality in the underbaskets (common to pesticide-stress site), behavioral alterations (queen changes, excess of both drone-brood deposition and honey storage) and biochemical anomalies (higher ALP activity at the end of the season). The multi-stress site showed the worst health condition of the bee colonies, with only one alive at the end of th...