How long do whirligig mites live? A survey of lifespan in Anystidae (Acari: Trombidiformes)

The Anystidae are a family of over 100 species of predatory mites commonly seen in soils and on plants worldwide. A few species of genus Anystis have potential as biocontrol agents against some insect and mite pests. Herein I provide a review of the lifespan of the Anystidae as part of a series on the lifespans in the Acari. The full life cycle in this family includes six immature stages (the egg, prelarva, larva, protonymph, deutonymph and tritonymph) and adult males/females. Life history data are only available for a few species. Developmental times from eggs to adults (44 to 82 days at 21 or 22 °C) were reported for three Anystis species. The total lifespan was measured for only one species (Anystis agilis): 66 days at 21 °C. There are two to three generations per year for Anystis species in the field. Summer aestivation was reported for Anystis baccarum, either as eggs or tritonymphs; aestivating tritonymphs may have a developmental time and total lifespan of over 200 and 300 days, respectively.

Life histories of 9,488 bird and 4,865 mammal species

I use 56,214 life history data to estimate equilibrium life history models for birds and mammals with body mass estimates. Missing parameters were estimated by allometric correlations at the lowest taxonomic level (genus, family, order, class) with data. The estimation is optimised to predict the existing data, with precision estimated separately for the different taxonomic levels of the estimator. This provides complete life history models for 9,488 species of birds, and 4,865 species of mammals. Each model includes estimates of metabolism, net assimilated energy, individual growth, mortality, fecundity, age of reproductive maturity, generation time, life span, home range, population density, biomass, population consumption, and a relative measure of intra-specific interactive competition, providing 387,531 parameter estimates in total.

Outsourcing for How Long? Factors and Duration of Employing Foreign Live-in Domestic Helpers

A remarkable rise in outsourcing domestic labor has been well documented, but the scope of the existing studies is limited. This study aims at investigating the factors and duration of using live-in domestic help in Hong Kong. The study also aims at disentangling the cross-sectional patterns in using paid domestic help into two different patterns: differential risks in the transition into the practice and the differential risks in the transition out from the practice. This study analyzes retrospective life-history data from a representative household survey ( N = 2003). Discrete-time logit models were employed. The results show that employing live-in helpers is a stable practice that could last for more than a decade. Yet, the factors for using and ending the practice are different. The results show that the flexible outsourcing framework could satisfactorily explain the families employing live-in helpers but is less applicable in explaining the duration of the practice.

A review of the black species of Cyclocephala Dejean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) from Colombia

The black species of the genus Cyclocephala Dejean (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini) from Colombia are reviewed. I define species groups based on the morphology of adults, re-describe those species occurring in Colombia, describe two new species (Cyclocephala santandereana new species and Cyclocephala arhuacana new species), list the species reported for Colombia, provide a key to identify groups and the species within each group, and present species distribution and life history data. This review includes the Cyclocephala cribrata species group previously defined with C. boucheri Dechambre, C. carbonaria Arrow, C. cribrata Burmeister, C. dechambrei Dupuis, C. boliviana Dechambre, C. dilatata (Prell), C. ergastuli Dechambre, C. latipennis Arrow, C. marqueti Dechambre, C. proxima Dechambre, C. rogerpauli Moore, Branham, & Cave, and C. variolosa Burmeister. The Cyclocephala fasciolata species group contains C. abrelata Ratcliffe & Cave, C. brevipennis Endrödi, C. fasciolata Bates, C. melane Bates, and Cyclocephala santandereana new species. The Cyclocephala ligyrina species group has C. arhuacana new species, C. dalensi Ponchel, C. dyscinetoides Dechambre, C. endroedyyoungai Endrödi, C. kaszabi Endrödi, C. ligyrina Bates, Cyclocephala nigerrima Bates, C. rufa Endrödi, and C. scarabaeina (Gyllenhal). Cyclocephala carinatipennis Martínez & Morón is proposed as a new junior synonym of C. rufa Endrödi. A larva of the Cyclocephala cribrata species group is described for the first time. An analysis of the characters of the adults and the described larva of the species group is performed to imply phylogenetic implications. New country records of C. dalensi and C. marqueti are recorded for Colombia.

Life histories of three Serrulinini species (Stylommatophora: Clausiliidae) from Georgia kept under laboratory conditions

The Serrulinini, a small relict group of clausiliids occurring in coastal regions of the Black and Caspian Seas and the Caucasus, are currently classified within the Phaedusinae, however paraphyletic origin of the Serrulinini is also widely debated with Pontophaedusa funiculum (Mousson) being most phylogenetically distinct from other taxa. As life history data may have taxonomical value, we conducted long-term observations in laboratory culture to assess reproductive modes, fecundity and growth pattern of three serruline species. Caspiophaedusa perlucens (O. Boettger) and Pravispira semilamellata (Mousson) produced partly calcified eggs with regular, spiral arrangement of crystals; their juveniles hatched after 17–18 days; the generation time was long and significantly exceeded one year. P. funiculum laid heavily calcified, elongated eggs. The incubation time in P. funiculum varied depending on the humidity, with a tendency towards short embryo-retention. The generation time in P. funiculum was one year. In all the studied species, egg calcification differed from the pattern common for other oviparous Phaedusinae which produce partly calcified eggs with homogeneous distribution of crystals. The calcite crystal distribution in the egg membranes reported here for the Serrulinini suggests some potential of these characters in phylogenetic context.

Genetic architecture and lifetime dynamics of inbreeding depression in a wild mammal

Inbreeding depression is ubiquitous, but we still know little about its genetic architecture and precise effects in wild populations. Here, we combine long-term life-history data with 417 K imputed SNP genotypes for 5952 wild Soay sheep to explore inbreeding depression on a key fitness component, annual survival. Inbreeding manifests in long runs of homozygosity (ROH), which make up nearly half of the genome in the most inbred individuals. The ROH landscape varies widely across the genome, with islands where up to 87% and deserts where only 4% of individuals have ROH. The fitness consequences of inbreeding are severe; a 10% increase in individual inbreeding FROH is associated with a 60% reduction in the odds of survival in lambs, though inbreeding depression decreases with age. Finally, a genome-wide association scan on ROH shows that many loci with small effects and five loci with larger effects contribute to inbreeding depression in survival.

Phylogeny, Phenology, and Foraging Breadth of Ashmeadiella (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Ashmeadiella Cockerell (Megachilidae: Osmiini) is a bee genus endemic to North America, with greatest richness in arid and Mediterranean regions of the southwestern United States. Species relationships of Ashmeadiella were last analyzed in the 1950s, when Robert Sokal and Charles Michener developed a novel statistical clustering method for classification called numerical taxonomy. To revisit the taxonomic groups they established, we built a molecular phylogeny including all five subgenera. Furthermore, we assembled life history data to lay the foundation for future conservation programs for these bees. We chose three aspects of bee biology that can inform conservation strategies: documenting periods of the year adult bees are flying, assembling data for the flowers each species visits, and compiling the localities and ecoregions where each species is reported. Our results suggest that some Ashmeadiella species may need to be synonymized and that the subgenera should be revised due to non-monophyly. We therefore propose synonymizing the subgenera Cubitognatha and Chilosima with Arogochila. Biological data from published collection records reveal that adult flight periods range from a few months to 11 mo; most species utilize floral resources from multiple plant families; and, over half of the species have ranges extending into the Mojave Desert.

The implications of vehicle collisions for the Endangered endemic Zanzibar red colobus Piliocolobus kirkii

Roads affect wildlife in a variety of negative ways. Road ecology studies have mostly concentrated on areas in the northern hemisphere despite the potentially greater impact of roads on biodiversity in tropical habitats. Here, we examine 4 years (January 2016–December 2019) of opportunistic observations of mammalian roadkill along a road intersecting Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park, Unguja, Zanzibar. In particular, we assess the impact of collisions on the population of an endemic primate, the Endangered Zanzibar red colobus Piliocolobus kirkii. Primates accounted for the majority of roadkill in this dataset. Monthly rainfall was not associated with roadkill frequency for mammals generally, nor for the Zanzibar red colobus. No single age–sex class of colobus was found dead more often than expected given their occurrence in the local population. The overall effect of roadkill on colobus populations in habitats fragmented by roads is unknown given the lack of accurate, long-term life history data for this species. Our findings suggest that mortality from collisions with vehicles in some groups of colobus is within the range of mortality rates other primates experience under natural predation. Unlike natural predators, however, vehicles do not kill selectively, so their impact on populations may differ. Although a comparison with historical accounts suggests that the installation of speedbumps along the road near the Park's entrance has led to a significant decrease in colobus roadkill, further actions to mitigate the impact of the road could bring substantial conservation benefits.

Optimal immune specificity at the intersection of host life history and parasite epidemiology

Epidemiology and life history are commonly hypothesized to influence host immune strategy, and the pairwise relationships between immune strategy and each factor have been extensively investigated. But the interaction of these two is rarely considered, despite evidence that this interaction might produce emergent effects on optimal immune strategy. Here we investigate the confluence of epidemiology and life history as it affects immune strategy through a demographically-framed model of sensitivity and specificity in parasite recognition and response. We find that variation in several different life history traits associated with both reproduction and longevity alters optimal immune strategies – but the direction and magnitude of these effects depends on how epidemiological risks vary across life. Drawing on published life history data, we also find that our predictions apply across chordate taxa. Our results shed light on the complex interactions shaping immune strategy and may prove valuable in interpreting empirical results in ecoimmunology.