Big Fleas Have Little Fleas

by Davidson, Elizabeth W.

• ISBN13: 9780816526123
• ISBN10: 0816526125
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-10-30
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

"In this book, Elizabeth Davidson shares amazing stories about diseases of insects and other invertebrates important to people - and about the scientists who learned to use those diseases to control pests and create products beneficial to humans. Focusing on insect-microbial interactions crucial to public health, she tells detective stories ranging across global history, from the silkworm farms of nineteenth-century Japan to the research labs of modern America."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Elizabeth Davidson is a research professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
1 Pasteur, Silkworms, and the Germ Theory of Disease	3	(8)
2 Of Caterpillars and Crystals
BACTERIAL TOXINS AS INSECTICIDES	11	(17)
3 Out of Africa
BACI'ERIA AGAINST MOSQUITOES AND BLACKFLIES	28	(15)
4 The Virus That Cures
THE BACULOVIRUS GENE EXPRESSION SYSTEM	43	(17)
5 Scourge of the South Pacific
THE RHINOCEROS BEETLE	60	(8)
6 Bug against Bug
INVERTEBRATE ANTIBIOTICS	68	(15)
7 Saved by a Crab
LIMULUS AMOEBOCYTE LYSATE ASSAY	83	(6)
8 Sea Sickness
DISEASES OF EDIBLE SHELLFISH	89	(14)
9 Deadly Hitchhikers
CRUSTACEANS AND CHOLERA	103	(6)
10 Cloak and Dagger
NEMATODES AGAINST INSECT PESTS	109	(11)
11 Bad News for the Good Guys
DISEASES AND PARASITES OF BEES	120	(16)
12 The Mysterious Reappearing Fungus
GYPSY MOTH PATHOGEN	136	(12)
13 The Sixth Plague of Egypt
FUNGUS AND THE DESERT LOCUST	148	(11)
14 Ad Infinitum
INSECT SYMBIOTIC ORGANISMS	159	(17)
15 Postscript
LANDMARKS THAT TIE OUR STORIES TOGETHER	176	(9)
Suggested Readings	185	(6)
Illustration Credits	191	(2)
Index	193