The lacewings appear in many agroecosystems, preying several species of agricultural pests. They have great search capability, high voracity, high reproductive potential and are easily maintained in laboratory conditions. In laboratory rearing, to avoid problems in the mass production are recommended adjustments in the type and quality of prey to be used in order to obtain individuals with desirable characteristics. It is necessary special care with the laboratory populations, avoiding problems from inbreeding. Larvae were reared individually in Petri dishes (9.0 cm diameter) and fed with eggs of Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier, 1789) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), in the amount of 25 mg / larva, while the adults were kept in PVC cylindrical cages (10 cm x 30 cm). Thus, the study analyzed the influence of the size of the population of Chrysoperla externa (Hagen, 1861) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) on the pre-imaginal period (egg to adult) and reproductive capacity of this specie come from different populations and generations of laboratory. To this end, we used two populations, one of Jaboticabal (F8 and F21) and one of Piracicaba (F6 and F15), and subpopulations of 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 couples, analyzing the incubation of eggs and the number of eggs per female in each population, generation and subpopulation. The pre-imaginal period (egg to adult) and the number of eggs per female of C. externa are influenced by the generation and the number of founding individuals, being these parameters favored when laboratory populations are established with the largest number of couples.

The riparian forests, belonging to the permanent preservation areas, are of fundamental importance for the preservation of water quality and minimize the effects of erosion on soil and thus the sedimentation of river. The land use of these areas cause environmental risks, especially to water resources. The geospatial technologies are, in the current scenario, as a tool that shows the real situation of the area, identifying the critical points, thus contributing to better management of these areas. Therefore, this study aimed to establish a spatial study of APP of the Mossoró river in urban area of municipal district of Mossoró, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, identifying the main causes of degradation and it's consequences to environment, especially the water resource, through geoprocessing's techniques. Geographic Information System (GIS) were used to spatially delimitate the area and image processing. Deforested areas comprised 310 ha, being more concentrated among the East-West Bridge and Barrocas's dam. Edification areas were more concentrated in Santa Luzia's Island and between Castelo Branco and Jerônimo Rosado's Bridges, occupying 78 ha. The areas covered by vegetation comprised 70 ha, which more concentrated in the area of Genesio' dam. There was enough sources of water pollution, especially domestic sewage.

The shortage of animal feed during the dry season has led to the development of food handling techniques that are efficient and sustainable for farmers and ranchers. The research aimed to evaluate the chemical composition, voluntary intake and digestibility of faveleira (Cnidoscolus phyllacanthus (Muell. Arg.) Pax et K. Hoffman), to supply the sheep provided as in the form of hay. Five castrated 18 months old sheeps with a mean age of 18 months old with and initial average weight of 31.75 kg ± 1.08 were evaluated, using the conventional method of total collection of feces. The hay was made naturally in sunny area, the forage being harvested in areas of caatinga at the IPA¿s Sertânia Experimental Station belonging to the Agronomic Institute of Pernambuco/IPA. The faveleira hay results of chemical analysis percentages were: 92.95 dry matter (DM); 89.28 organic matter (OM); 13.48 crude protein (CP); 3.52 ether extract (EE); 41.42 does not extract nitrogen (NEN); 41.92 neutral detergent fiber (NDF); 26.71 acid detergent fiber (ADF) and 30.36 non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC). The voluntary intake of DM, CP, TDN, NDF, ADF and NFC, expressed in g kg-1 PV0, 75 were (93.14, 12.52, 56.06, 39.04; 24.88 and 28.28), respectively. The digestibility percentages were: 63.66 (MS); 66.06 (MO); 74.52 (PB); 36.44 (EE); 74.32 (ENN); 57.32 (NDF); 54.77 (FDA) and 56.91 (NFC). These results show that the faveleira hay could be a viable alternative to dietary supplementation of sheep during the dry season to semiarid of Brazil.

The family Nymphaeaceae is represented by aquatic rhizomatic herbs, rooted in the substrate, with floating long petiolate leaves. Its flowers are solitary, and anthesis can be nocturnal and diurnal, pollinated by beetles. The family has six genus, of which Nymphaea and Victoria occurs in the neotropical region. Victoria predominates in the Brazilian Amazon and Pantanal and the Nymphaea is represented by 18 species distributed throughout the country. The floristic study included the analysis of specimens collected on expeditions and materials deposited in Herbariums, in a total of 69 specimens. The identification was made by consulting specific bibliography. The information obtained enabled the preparation of an identification key, illustrations of important morphological characters, significant as evidence Taxonomy, commentaries on the geographical distribution and discussion of relevant issues to taxons identification. For the state of Ceará were found six species: N. amazonum, N. pulchella, N. Jamesoniana, N. lasiophylla, N. lingulata, N. rudgeana and N. tenerinervia. The last two populations presented only in coastal environments. N. lingulata, N. pulchella and N. Jamesoniana presented records in the arid region, in interior of the State. N. amazonum and N. lasiophylla have a wide distribution, being present in the coastal zone to the interior. N. lasiophylla was the most frequent species. Knowledge about the Flora of the State of Ceará contribute to future projects for the conservation and management of temporary and permanent aquatic environments that occur in the Brazilian semiarid.

This paper aimed to investigate the factors of influencing milk consumers of Natal city, state of Rio Grande do Norte, in their buying decision. The methodology was a descriptive and exploratory type Survey, with 385 questionnaires applied on the four geographical areas of Natal city. Sample size was found according to the county inhabitant number, and survey was applied through questionnaire applied at randomized suburbs, streets and houses from four geographical city zones. The statistical analyses were: descriptive analysis, comparison test of means and Cluster analysis. Results were that milk quality had high average, in contrast with the price and brand which had the lowest ones. Milk quality and image of the store were the factors most stable for the consumer make its purchase decision, while price and brand were those of least importance. Comparisons among variables showed significance (P<0,05) except for price importance, visual appearance, no product on the market shelves, easy of buying and product status. As conclusion, milk quality is the main factor for consumers to make a decision to purchase milk, whereas price and brand were of least importance.

The objective of this research was to evaluate the color of tomatoes coated with different concentrations of pectin during storage at room temperature. Were used tomatoes with color greenish-pink divided into four lots: uncoated tomatoes (CT) and covered with biofilms with 2% (P2), 5% (P5) and 8% (P8) of solution of pectin. Initially it was evaluated the rind of tomatoes, then these were cut in half and it was evaluated the pulp (fleshy part), subsequently the two parts of tomatoes were processed in a blender to yield the processed pulp, which also was evaluated. Evaluations were done at 0, 2, 4, 7, 11 and 16 days storage with analysis of luminosity (L*), intensity of red (+a*) and intensity of yellow (+b*) in portable spectrophotometer. It was observed in all treatments that the rind and the fleshy and processed pulp showed a reduction in the values of L*. At the end of the storage, the treatment CT showed the highest values +a* for the rind and the fleshy and processed pulp, followed of the treatments P2, P5 and P8, respectively. The values of +b* decreased in the rind and in processed pulp of the CT and P2 treatments, but increased in the P5 and P8 treatments. It is concluded that the use of edible coatings pectin is effective to retard development of coloration typical of ripe tomato, results to be associated with the evaluation of physical and chemical parameters for a respect to retardation of the ripening.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the no-preference for feeding and biological aspects of Spodoptera eridania fed on cowpea cultivars BR17 Gurgueia, BRS Urubuquara, BRS Nova Era, Sempre Verde, BRS Milênio and BR3 Tracuateua. In free-choice test, leaf discs were placed in Petri dishes where one third instar larvae per cultivar was released, whereas in no-choice test one leaf disc was placed per Petri dish where one caterpillar per cultivar was released, evaluating their attractiveness after 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60, 120, 360 and 720 minutes, as well as the leaf area consumed. Randomized blocks and complete randomized blocks design were used for free-choice and no-choice tests, respectively, with six treatments and 10 replications. The evaluation of the biological parameters of S. eridania was carried out in Petri dishes where recently hatched caterpillars were transferred in the proportion of one per dish, and the leafs of the cultivars were offered to them during the whole larval period, and we evaluated: periods and viabilities of larvae and pupae, overall viability, weight of larvae and pupae, sex ratio, longevity and overall cycle. Complete randomized design was used with six treatments and 30 replications. In no- preference for feeding free-choice test the cultivars Sempre Verde and BR17 Gurgueia were the most and the least consumed, respectively. Regarding the effects of cowpea cultivars on larval viability we can infer that BRS Urubuquara and Sempre Verde show antibiosis-type resistance to S. eridania.

The caatinga vegetation has many physiognomies and in a general way is degraded by human pressure, so it is important to characterize phytosociologically its various facies. This study aimed to characterize the composition and structure of the woody component of a relatively homogeneous remnant of caatinga vegetation in semiarid region of Paraiba, in a region locally called as Seridó. We sampled all shrub-tree species, alive or dead, still foot, with basal circumference > 10 cm (at 30 cm from the base) and total height > 1m. Ten plots of 20 x 20 m were allocated, randomly distributed across the study area. The total density was 1622.5 ind./ha, distributed in 21 species, 21 genera and 11 botanical families. The main species, according to the index of importance value were Poincianella pyramidalis (Tul.) L.P. Queiroz, Aspidosperma pyrifolium Mart., Commiphora leptophloeos (Mart.) J.B. Gillett and Anadenanthera colubrina (Vell.) Brenan. Despite being an area that is considered well preserved within the region, the studied community has a high density of individuals with small diameter shafts (D0,3 ¿ 6 cm) (63%). The Shannon index (3.38) may be considered medium and the Pielou equability (0.85) indicates floristic heterogeneity of the shrub-arboreal component. The floristic composition and species richness are similar to those found in other studied areas of the region, except by the high abundance of Commiphora leptophloeos and Amburana cearensis (Allemão) A.C. Sm.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the biological aspects of Plutella xylostella and Trichogramma pretiosum in eggs of the F2 generation of P. xylostella under the influence of Bacillus thuringiensis in laboratory conditions. The experiment was conducted in the Laboratório de Biologia and Criação de Insetos of Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias de Jaboticabal - UNESP reen collars contaminated with strains and commercial product based on B. thuringiensis in the laboratory. The eggs obtained from the F2 generation of P. xylostella evaluated the biological parameters of T. pretiosum. It was observed that some biological characteristics of P. xylostella showed changes by the treatment with B. thuringiensis. The viability of the larvae and pupae stages, pupae weight were the biological parameters more influenced by treatments, with values significantly reduced when compared to control. However, the larvae length and pupae stages and sex ratio were similar in all treatments, with no significant biological variations. Thus, this bacterium isolated from this behavior may provide greater exposure of larvae to other natural enemies as well as generation of adults less viable, which makes them potential programs in pest control, since the interaction of the methods of control is one of the main ways to enhance the biological control of insect pests. It was observed sublethal effects on P. xylostella biology, and B. thuringiensis negative influence on the parasitism capacity and emergency of T. pretiosum.

The search for new antimicrobial agents from plants is intense due to the increasing resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to synthetic products. Moreover, the long term use of pesticides cause negative impacts to society and the environment due to pollution caused by chemical waste. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effect of Lippia sidoides and Piper aduncum oils, carnauba wax and dextrin to control stem-end rot of mango. Fruits of mango cv. Kent were inoculated with suspensions of 106 (conidia/mL) of Lasiodiplodia theobromae or Botryosphaeria dothidea, and after 24 hours there were applied the treatments. The experiment was organized on a completely randomized design with three replications and the experimental unit was composed of a tray containing six fruits. After eight days in cold storage (10 ± 2 º C) the fruits were placed for five days at room temperature (25 ± 2 º C) when were evaluated daily for the disease severity. The best treatments were Lippia sidoides and Piper aduncum oils that showed specificity to control stem-end rot caused by L. theobromae and B. dothidea on mango.