An assessment was made of the biological control potential of mud loaches, Misgurnus mizolepis, toward Culex pipiens molestus, in laboratory condition and septic tank and rainwater storage tank (RST) systems. Results were compared with those of temephos 20% emulsifiable concentrate (EC) and Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI). In the laboratory tests, all M. mizolepis survived on waters from the settling tank of aerobic septic tank (AST), sump tank of AST, and RST. However, all M. mizolepis died within 3 h after introduction in the settling tank and sump tank waters of anaerobic septic tank (AnAST). Gill or dorsal fin inflammation was detected in the dead mud loaches. M. mizolepis consumed an average of 968–1087, 901–986, and 993–1087 of 1500 third instars of Cx. p. molestus in AST settling tank, AST sump tank, and RST waters, respectively. In the AST and RST systems, predation of Cx. p. molestus by mud loaches at a release rate of 900 larvae/fish resulted in complete mosquito control from the first wk after treatment through the end of the survey period for 16 wk. The average mosquito reduction rates by temephos 20% EC and BTI treatments were 28.6 and 2.1% 2 wk post-treatment, respectively. Mud loaches merit further study as a potential biological control agent for the control of mosquito populations in light of global efforts to reduce the level of highly toxic synthetic insecticides in the aquatic environment.

Five field-collected populations (TR-CP, UR-CP, JR-CP, GR-CP, and BR-CP colonies) of northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens pallens, identified by polymer chain reaction (PCR) were tested for susceptibility to 10 different insecticides by direct-contact mortality bioassay in comparison with an insecticide-susceptible KS-CP strain. Marked regional variations of insecticide susceptibility were observed. Extremely high to high levels of resistance were obtained: bifenthrin, resistance ratio (RR) = 1–520; β-cyfluthrin, RR = 16–397; α -cypermethrin, RR = 9–343; deltamethrin, RR = 1–40; etofenprox, RR = 2–42; permethrin, RR = 2–12; chlorpyrifos, RR = 2–675; fenitrothion, RR = 0.5–364; and fenthion, RR = 2–360. All of the colonies were susceptible to one or more of the insecticides examined. These results indicate that careful selection and rotational use of these insecticides should result in continued satisfactory control against field populations of northern house mosquito.

The production of hybrid onion (Allium cepa L.) seed is economically feasible using systems of cytoplasmic-genic male sterility(CMS). The identification of cytoplasm types might be helpful to development of sterile and maintainer lines. Due to this reason, a knowledge of the cytoplasm type is essential for hybrid breeding in onion. Especially, due to the biennial generation time of onion, to distinguish of onion cytoplasm type in individual plant may be helpful to reduce the efforts in a breeding program, when new sterile lines and the corresponding maintainer lines be developed. In our study, we applied the PCR-marker (orfA-501) to identify the cytoplasmic genotypes of collected 100 accessions of bulb onion. Among accessions, S-cytoplasm was found in 57 accessions. Nineteen accessions possessed only N-cytoplasm and twenty four accessions possessed both S- and N-cytoplasm.