Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) has been gaining recognition as a promising proximal and remote sensing technique for crop drought stress detection. A modelling approach accounting for the treatment effects on the stress indicators’ standard deviations was applied to proximal images of oilseed rape—a crop subjected to various HSI studies, with the exception of drought. The aim of the present study was to determine the spectral responses of two cultivars, ‘Cadeli’ and ‘Viking’, representing distinctive water management strategies, to three types of watering regimes. Hyperspectral data cubes were acquired at the leaf level using a 2D frame camera. The influence of the experimental factors on the extent of leaf discolorations, vegetation index values, and principal component scores was investigated using Bayesian linear models. Clear treatment effects were obtained primarily for the vegetation indexes with respect to the watering regimes. The mean values of RGI, MTCI, RNDVI, and GI responded to the difference between the well-watered and water-deprived plants. The RGI index excelled among them in terms of effect strengths, which amounted to $-0.96[-2.21,0.21]$ and $-0.71[-1.97,0.49]$ units for each cultivar. A consistent increase in the multiple index standard deviations, especially RGI, PSRI, TCARI, and TCARI/OSAVI, was associated with worsening of the hydric regime. These increases were captured not only for the dry treatment but also for the plants subjected to regeneration after a drought episode, particularly by PSRI (a multiplicative effect of $0.33[0.16,0.68]$ for ‘Cadeli’). This result suggests a higher sensitivity of the vegetation index variability measures relative to the means in the context of the oilseed rape drought stress diagnosis and justifies the application of HSI to capture these effects. RGI is an index deserving additional scrutiny in future studies, as both its mean and standard deviation were affected by the watering regimes.

The young larvae of insects living on dry food produce large amounts of water by the metabolic combustion of dietary lipids. The metabolic production of water needed for larval growth, previously known as hypermetabolic responses to juvenile hormone (JH), is associated with a 10- to 20-fold increase in the rate of O₂ consumption (10,000 µl O₂/g/h in contrast to the usual rate of 500 µl O₂/g/h). Growing and moulting larvae are naturally hypermetabolic due to the endogenous release of JH from the corpora allata. At the last, larval-pupal or larval-adult moult there is no JH and as a consequence the metabolic rate is much lower and the dietary lipid is not metabolized to produce water but stored in the fat body. At this developmental stage, however, a hypermetabolic response can be induced by the exogenous treatment of the last larval instars with a synthetic JH analogue. In D. vulpinus, the JH-treated hypermetabolic larvae survive for several weeks without moulting or pupating. In T. castaneum and G. mellonella, the JH-treated hypermetabolic larvae moult several times but do not pupate. All these larvae consume dry food and the hypermetabolic response to JH is considered to be a secondary feature of a hormone, which is produced by some subordinated endocrine organ. The organ is most probably the controversial prothoracic gland (PG), which is a typical larval endocrine gland that only functions when JH is present. According to our hypothesis, PG activated by JH (not by a hypothetical PTTH) releases an adipokinetic superhormone, which initiates the conversion of dietary lipid into metabolic water. This type of metabolic combustion of dietary lipid produces large quantities of endothermic energy, which is dissipated by the larvae in the form of heat. Thermovision imaging revealed that the body of hypermetabolic larvae of G. mellonella can be as hot as 43?C or more. In contrast, the temperature of "cold" normal last instar larvae did not differ significantly from that of their environment. It is highly likely that thermovision will facilitate the elucidation of the currently poorly understood hormonal mechanisms that initiate the production of metabolic water essential for the survival of insects that live in absolutely dry conditions.

Glyphosate is an herbicide that is used worldwide with potential environmental risks to nontarget organisms. We applied an age–stage, two-sex life table approach to assess the sublethal effects of short-term oral exposure to a glyphosate-based herbicide on the life table parameters and biocontrol potential of Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Aphids (Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) (Sternorrhyncha: Aphididae)) treated with herbicide (an isopropylamine-salt of glyphosate) at low recommended, maximum recommended, and double the maximum recommended concentration for agricultural situations, and untreated controls were offered to the fourth instar of H. axyridis for 24 h. Development, consumption, and fecundity were measured daily until death. We detected minor differences in the hatching rate and mean generation time, whereas the longevity, fecundity, net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of increase, finite rate of increase, and consumption were unaffected across treatments. We conclude that biocontrol potential of H. axyridis was not affected by acute oral intoxication by a glyphosate-based herbicide during the larval stage for 24 h under the study design.

Until now, there has been no record of Liotrophon punctulatus (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) presence in the anthropogenic environment of mills, bakeries or pasta factories. This is the first report of the species parasitizing Ephestia kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae. The host/parasitoid interaction was validated under laboratory conditions where fourth or fifth instar larvae of Ephestia kuehniella were provided ad libitum to L. punctulatus females. After two filial generations emergence, the validation process was considered to confirm the interaction. Keywords: Liotrophon punctulatus, Parasitoid, Ephestia kuehniella