- by Kolics, E., Praphawilai, P., Chuttong, B., Poor, J., Kolics, B.The escalating threat of the ectoparasitic mite Tropilaelaps mercedesae requires novel control strategies for honey bee (Apis mellifera) health4. In this study, we provide the first evidence of the acaricidal efficacy of lithium chloride (LiCl) against this emerging parasite. Ex situ contact bioassays quantified the dose-response relationship, revealing a 12-hour LC50 of 45.9 mM. These results indicate that T. mercedesae is intrinsically more than 3.5 times more sensitive to LiCl than the widespread Varroa destructor. We translated these findings to […]
- by Fernandez-Bejarano, E., Nores Quesada, C., Serrulla Rech, F., Palacios Alberti, B., Martin Otero, J., Gonzalez-Fortes, G., Grandal-d'Anglade, A.The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) was historically native to the Iberian Peninsula, as evidenced by scarce paleontological records and sightings across northern Spain, dating from the Last Glacial Maximum until the 17th century. A novel and nearly complete skeleton of a medium-sized felid, morphologically identified as L. lynx, was recently recovered from Sima Topinoria in Picos de Europa (Cantabria, Spain). The present study aims to recover and analyze the full skeletal assemblage, establishing its chronological framework, taxonomic identification, and comparative […]
- by Kloepper, L. N., Fry, R. N., Maliszewski, O., Hahn, R. S., Simmons, J. A., Simmons, A. M.With the rise of accessible recording technology, passive acoustic monitoring can be an affordable and rapid way to assess species richness, even when individual animals cannot be captured due to regulatory or practical obstacles. Motivated by the relative lack of data and in partnership with the local populace, we recorded echolocation calls of freely-flying bats across six locations in rural western Uganda using opportunistic passive acoustic recordings. Frequency-modulated echolocation calls were recorded at all six locations, while constant-frequency calls were […]
- by Cucchi, T., Hays, L.-M., Veneziano, A., Michaud, M., Brassard, C., Arbogast, R.-M., Petrequin, P., Germonpre, M. B., Cregut-Bonnoure, E., Elleboudt, F., Czeibert, K., Garamszegi, L. Z., Kubinyi, E., Kolm, N., Csorgo, T., Joseph, J., Leroy, S., Guintard, C., Fusellier, M., Duchamp, C., Herrel, A., Koungoulos, L. G., Peachey, T. J., Scarsbrook, L., Frantz, L., Madurell-Malapeira, J., Ladeveze, S.The timing and causes of brain size reduction in domestic dogs remain uncertain. Using endocasts volume as a proxy for brain size, this study provides a first insight into long-term brain size evolution in the wolf-dog lineage. We compared endocranial volumes of 185 modern and 22 prehistoric wolves and dogs ranging from Western Europe to Australia, and spanning the Pleniglacial (35 Ky BP) to the Late Neolithic (5 Ky BP). Our results reveal that Pleistocene so called "protodogs" show no […]
- by Kostin, D. S., Martynov, A. A., Cherepanova, E. V., Yihune, M., Wale, M., Pavlickova, B., Bryja, J., Lavrenchenko, L. A.The genus Gerbillus represents an example of the successful Pleistocene radiation among rodents, leading to the emergence of almost 50 currently recognized species inhabiting Asia (from the Middle East to northwest India) and Africa (the Saharo-Sahelian region and eastern Africa). During the last two decades, multiple molecular phylogenetic studies helped to decipher the complex subgeneric structure of this speciose group. However, questions concerning the number of phylogenetic lineages (species) within the genus and their evolutionary relationships remained open, especially because […]
- by Hoitsy, M., Gal, J., Sos, E., Nagy, A., Hornok, S., Keve, G.Parasitic crustaceans represent a significant threat to both freshwater and marine aquaculture, with several families capable of inducing severe diseases with high mortality rates and therefore significant economic losses. Among them, isopods of the genus Braga (Cymothoidae) are haematophagous parasites of neotropical fish, causing anaemia, tissue damage, and mortality. Braga nasuta, endemic to Brazil, has been reported from various hosts, including ornamental species exported worldwide. During routine examination of imported cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi, Schultz, 1956), the authors detected that […]
- by Prezelj, T., Debes, P. V., Golobinek, R., Kralj-Fiser, S.Female-biased sexual size dimorphism (SSD), where females are larger than males, is widespread. While ultimate explanations for SSD are well established, the proximate developmental mechanisms remain poorly understood. Studying sex-specific growth trajectories to identify common vs. sex-specific growth periods is therefore key to uncovering when and how SSD emerges. Theory predicts that female-biased SSD may arise if females hatch larger, grow more rapidly, grow longer, or combine these pathways. We studied sex-specific growth trajectories in the African hermit spider, Nephilingis […]
- by Troya, A., Yumbay, A., Ilguan, E., Pazmino, A., Salazar, F., Donoso, D.We describe two new species of arboreal ants of the genus Cephalotes Latreille, 1802, from Ecuador: Cephalotes esthelae Ilguan & Troya, sp. nov. and Cephalotes sacha Yumbay & Troya, sp. nov. The former, a member of the grandinosus-group, was collected from lowland Choco and Amazonian forests, while the latter, belonging to the atratus-group, is an inhabitant of the Amazonian region, including Yasuni National Park. Diagnoses and detailed morphological descriptions of workers and soldiers are provided, illustrated by high-resolution images. Species […]
- by He, Y., Zhang, X., Xi, X., Yang, S., Cai, D., Zhan, X., Wang, D.Biodiversity loss has become a pressing issue, requiring effective conservation measures. Drawing lessons from successful examples is essential. The Crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), once critically endangered but now recovering through intensive conservation programs, provides an informative model for evaluating and improving conservation practices. Using 17 years of monitoring data from a captive population spanning eight generations, we applied quantitative genetic tools (Animal Model) to characterize individual growth and improve breeding success of this endangered species. We found that body weight […]
- by Tumanov, D.In this paper I present the results of the first faunistic investigation of the Sakhalin freshwater tardigrade fauna with the use of the integrative taxonomy. For the analysis, samples of bottom sediments were collected in several rivers of South Sakhalin. I found eight species belonging to three superfamilies of Eutardigrada. For most of those species I obtained data on mitochondrial COI gene and on 18S rRNA, 28 rRNA and ITS-2 sequences in addition to the morphological analysis using light and […]
- by Tsvetkova, A., Tumanov, D.In this paper we describe Testechiniscus sp. nov., a new tardigrade species from Novaya Zemlya, Russia, using data from morphological and morphometric analyses conducted with the use of light and scanning electron microscopy, as well as from genetic analysis based on four molecular markers (three nuclear: 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, ITS-1, and one mitochondrial: COI). A comprehensive differential diagnosis is provided. Upon examination of both new and the type species we describe internal leg plates as a new character for […]
- Phylogenomics of Rhinogobius gobies reveal northern-southern divergence and trait evolution in Chinaby Liu, S., Xue, Q., Hu, Y., Hu, J., Pan, Y., Bu, Y., Wang, J., Xia, J., Li, C.The goby genus Rhinogobius represents a prominent radiation of freshwater fishes in East Asia, with China serving as its evolutionary hotspot harboring over 39 endemic species. Despite their ecological dominance in riverine ecosystems, phylogenetic relationships among mainland Chinese Rhinogobius species remain poorly resolved due to limited sampling and morphological conservatism, particularly in meristic traits traditionally used for classification. To address these knowledge gaps, we employed a nuclear gene enrichment approach to target 4,434 single-copy nuclear loci across 26 species spanning […]
- by Jayamanna Mohottige, M. J., Peel, E., Juhasz, A., Nye-Wood, M. G., Belov, K., Colgrave, M., Hogg, C. J.Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii), like all marsupials, give birth to altricial young. Here we employ proteomic analysis to identify components of devil pouch secretions (red oil) that may contribute to offspring survival and development. Proteins were extracted from 5 samples and analysed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Peptide-level evidence revealed proteins involved in a diverse set of immune pathways, including those mediating iron-ion transport, defence responses to bacteria, innate immune responses, and antigen processing. A core set of 200 proteins […]
- by Lardeux, F., Vasquez, D., Tejerina, R., Aliaga, C., Garcia, L., Torrez, L.Anopheles pseudopunctipennis is a neotropical malaria vector widely distributed from northern Argentina and Chile to the southern United States. At the larval stage, it is characterized by posterior-lateral caudal filaments, which vary markedly in length within the same samples in Bolivia, with some individuals displaying unusually long filaments. The coexistence of individuals with relatively long and relatively short filaments raises the question of whether at least two distinct populations could be differentiated based on caudal filament length. This study examined […]
- by Katzke, J., Hita Garcia, F., Loesel, P. D., Azuma, F., Farago, T., Aibekova, L., Casadei-Ferreira, A., Gautam, S., Richter, A., Toulkeridou, E., Bremer, S., Hamann, E., Hein, J., Odar, J., Sarkar, C., Zuber, M., Boomsma, J. J., Feitosa, R. M., Schrader, L., Zhang, G., Csosz, S., Dong, M., Evangelista, O., Fischer, G., Fisher, B. L., Florez-Fernandez, J. A., The GAGA Consortium,, Garcia, F., Gomez, K., Grasso, D. A., De Greef, S., Guenard, B., Hawkes, P. G., Johnson, R. A., Keller, R. A., Larsen, R. S., Linksvayer, T. A., Liu, C., Matte, A., Ogasawara, M., Ran, H., Rodriguez, J., Schifani, E.The big data era in biology is underway, but the study of organismal form has been slow to capitalize on advances in imaging and computation. Modern imaging can digitize whole organisms, but low throughput has limited the effort to document morphological diversity. Within the open science initiative Antscan, we applied high-throughput synchrotron X-ray microtomography to capture phenotypes across a diverse and ecologically dominant insect group — ants. We provide 2193 whole-body 3D ant datasets from 792 species to broadly cover […]
- by Poliserpi, M. B., Fernandez-Vizcaino, E., Brodeur, J.Thiamethoxam (TMX) is a neonicotinoid insecticide widely used for seed treatment in agriculture. Birds can be exposed to TMX by ingesting unburied seeds after sowing. This study evaluated the toxicological effects of such an exposure scenario in a common farmland passerine Agelaioides badius. Birds were subjected to a 21-day dietary exposure of TMX-treated seeds at 0 (control), 0.027 (low), 0.33 (medium), and 4.3 (high) g TMX/kg seed (N=8 per group), representative of typical agricultural practices. A dose-dependent increase in seed […]
- by Fernandez Vizcaino, E., Molero-Baltanas, R., Carbonell, J. A., Gaju-Ricart, M., Camacho, A.Measuring behavioural and physiological thermal limits is crucial to understanding how they interact with the environment under a climate change scenario. We experimentally assessed the effects of acclimation on sequentially measured voluntary (VTmax), critical (CTmax), and upper thermal limit (UTL) limits in the Mediterranean silverfish Sceletolepisma guadianicum. Individuals were acclimated for six days at either 25{degrees}C (n=32) or 35{degrees}C (n=29) and heated at [~]0.5{degrees}C min-1, and VTmax, CTmax, and lethal limits were recorded. S. guadianicum exhibited some of the highest […]
- by Denagde, R. T., Nuguse, M.Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is a key species in aquaculture but faces challenges related to premature sexual maturity and prolific breeding. This study investigated the effects of dietary papaya seed powder (PSP) on growth performance, reproductive parameters, and survival of Nile tilapia under controlled laboratory conditions. Juvenile fish were fed diets containing 0 (control), 2, 4, and 6 g PSP/kg feed. Results demonstrated that moderate PSP inclusion (4 g/kg, T2) significantly enhanced growth, feed conversion efficiency, and survival rate (90%), […]
- by Iwasa-Arai, T., Linse, K., Andrade, S. C. d. S., Giribet, G.Peracarida is a large group containing twelve orders of brooding crustaceans, including the large orders Amphipoda, Isopoda, Tanaidacea and Cumacea, and a series of smaller orders, some restricted to isolated habitats. The relationships of Peracarida have been disputed and no attempt has been made to use extensive taxon sampling with a modern genetic approach. Here we present a novel probe set of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) developed for peracarids to investigate higher-level relationships using newly collected Antarctic material and collection-based specimens. […]
- by Uchida, T., Yamashita, H., Shimada, G., Kawamitsu, M., Shoguchi, E., Shinzato, C.Giant clams are representative bivalves in coral reef ecosystems that host photosynthetic dinoflagellates extracellularly and rely on their photosynthates, functioning as "solar-powered animals." Unlike corals, which harbor intracellular dinoflagellates, molecular mechanisms and evolutionary history underlying this symbiosis remain largely unknown. Here, we integrated chromosome-scale genome assembly, transcriptome profiling, and bleaching experiments involving Tridacna crocea to explore the genetic basis of extracellular symbiosis. Signals associated with sterol transport by Niemann-Pick disease type C2 (NPC2) transporters and carbon-concentrating mechanisms suggest that giant […]
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