Moth species richness in an upland tropical rainforest: A citizen scientist assisted study

Diversity studies on moths in Australia are rare, presenting various shortfalls in knowledge that impedes and understanding of their biodiversity values and their conservation. In particular, the Wet Tropics of Australia deserves attention, given the paucity of systematic moth surveys in the region and its World Heritage Area status. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a study to observe moths on 191 nights over a main one-year survey period at an upland rainforest locality, and uploaded all observations on iNaturalist. We also compiled other incidental observations in the general locality by other observers and observations outside the survey period. In total, we document 4,434 observations of moths represented by 1041 distinct moth morphospecies. Of these, 703 are formally named species of moths, 146 to genus and 255 to higher taxonomic designations above genus level. Despite the rather intensive main survey effort, our results suggest that we have yet to reach a plateau in documenting the moth species richness of the locality. Using this study as a model, we show that the iNaturalist platform serves as an effective means to document and digitally curate biodiversity values at a locality, whilst providing complete data transparency and enabling broader community engagement of citizen scientists. We recommend the use of iNaturalist for future moth inventories, and as a resource for follow up meta-analyses of regional moth diversity and distributions.

Effect of replacing surface with underground rubbish containers on urban House Sparrows Passer domesticus

Urbanisation processes are increasing worldwide at surprising rates affecting wildlife in many ways: changing habitat structure, reducing resources, and modifying the distribution, composition and abundance of local biota. In different countries, urban waste collection techniques are evolving and surface rubbish containers (neighbourhood receptacles for temporarily storing anthropogenic household waste located above-ground on the streets) are being replaced with underground ones (metal boxes with steel chutes that fed into large underground containers) to improve sanitation measures, to avoid bad smells and waste scattering by animals. We aimed to detect if House Sparrows were more abundant close to surface rubbish containers than close to the underground ones. We recorded an abundance index of House Sparrows during two visits in winter 2018–2019 to point counts located in groups of both container types (80 and 85 groups of underground and surface containers, respectively) in eight towns of Eastern Spain. We modelled the abundance index according to rubbish container type, and 14 other environmental variables at four scales: container, nearest buildings, near urban features, and general locality features using GLMMs. House Sparrows were more abundant close to surface than to underground rubbish containers, which may be linked with higher food debris availability. The presence of other urban features (bar terraces, private gardens, mature trees) interacting with the rubbish containers also influenced the abundance of House Sparrows. The replacement of above-ground rubbish containers with underground ones may deprive House Sparrows resources, which could lead to the decline of this species, especially in urban areas with little green cover.

An analysis of the locality of binary representations in genetic and evolutionary algorithms

Mutation and recombination operators play a key role in determining the performance of Genetic and Evolutionary Algorithms (GEAs). Prior work has analyzed the effects of these operators on genotypic variation, often using locality metrics that measure the sensitivity and stability of genotype-phenotype representations to these operators. In this paper, we focus on an important subset of representations, namely nonredundant bitstring-to-integer representations, and analyze them through the lens of Rothlauf’s widely used locality metrics. Our main research question is, does strong locality predict good GEA performance for these representations? Our main findings, both theoretical and empirical, show the answer to be negative. To this end, we define locality metrics equivalent to Rothlauf’s that are tailored to our domain: the point locality for single-bit mutation and general locality for recombination. With these definitions, we derive tight bounds and a closed-form expected value for point locality. For general locality we show that it is asymptotically equivalent across all representations and operators. We also reproduce three established GEA empirical results to understand the predictive power of point locality on GEA performance, focusing on two popular and often juxtaposed representations: standard binary and binary-reflected Gray.

The taxonomy and distribution of rare or uncommon species of Albatrellus in western North America

Habitat data, although sparse, and occurrence are summarized for nine rare or uncommon species of Albatrellus. Significant range extensions are Albatrellus avellaneus in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington, Albatrellus caeruleoporus in California, British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington, Albatrellus dispansus in Washington, Albatrellus ellisii in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming, Albatrellus flettii in Alaska, Alberta, northern British Columbia, Idaho, New Mexico, and Wyoming, Albatrellus subrubescens in Alberta, California, Northwest Territories, and Washington, Albatrellus syringae in North America (Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, and Yukon Territory). Three additional collections of Albatrellus skamanius bring the total known collections of the species to four; all are from the same general locality. A key to the western species, emphasizing features of fresh basidiomes, is included. The basidiome features of these species are supplemented with data from additional collections. Spore sizes in several species are more critically defined. Amyloidity occurred in basidiospores and (or) hyphae of A. avellaneus, Albatrellus affin. cristatus, A. ellisii, A. flettii, A. skamanius, and A. subrubescens. Key words: systematics, ecology, Basidiomycetes, conservation, biodiversity, fungi.

Occurrence of the chimaeroid Ischyodus bifurcatus Case in the Cusseta Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Campanian) of western Georgia and its distribution

We described a Late Cretaceous fish fauna from the Campanian-age Blufftown Formation in western Georgia (Case and Schwimmer, 1988), including 15 selachian taxa and 8 osteichthyans; however, at that time no chimaeras had been found in the region. A well-preserved specimen of Ischyodus bifurcatus Case, 1978, was subsequently collected from the same general locality described in the above study, but in the immediately superjacent Cusseta Formation. This is a note of the new occurrence of this fish and a summary of its known geographic and stratigraphic distribution (Appendix).

Interaction of Kaolinite with Calcite on Heating: III. Effect of Different Kaolinites

The degree of distortion of the calcite endotherm on differential thermal analysis (DTA) curves for kaolinite-calcite mixtures depends on the kaolinite sample used as well as on the factors previously established. Although no two of the ten kaolinite samples employed, even if from the same general locality, produced identical effects under all experimental conditions, a general relationship between locality of origin and degree of distortion was noted. The crystalline species detected in the products of heating, after standing in air at room temperature, included portlandite, calcite, aragonite, vaterite and the high-temperature phases gehlenite, α′-Ca2SiO4, and 12CaO. 7Al2O3. The actual species present again depended on the kaolinite sample. Although the results cannot be directly related to the volatiles evolved along with water on dehydroxylation of the different kaolinites, a tentative explanation is offered on the basis of the effects of the volatiles on the surfaces of the particles present.

Racial Differences Between North American and European Forms of Balanus Balanoides

After transplantation and acclimatization of populations of the barnacle Balanus balanoides from the coast of New England to the Menai Straits, differences in breeding behaviour persisted over a period of from 4 to 18 months. The two populations are believed to belong to distinct physiological races.The New England populations fertilized 1½–3 weeks in advance of adjacent British populations.Embryonic development in the post-cleavage stages of the New England population proceeded in vitro at about twice the rate of the development of the British population, under identical conditions.The volume of the eggs of the New England population was 1.3–1.6 times as great as the volume of the eggs of the British specimens.Both populations, when growing in British waters, liberated their nauplii in March at a time which coincided with the beginning of the vernal plankton increase in the locality. The embryos of the American population had therefore remained in the mantle space for a much longer period than had those of the British specimens and for a longer period than that reported for New England populations in their native habitat.In B. balanoides the time of fertilization and rate of development may be genetically adapted in each general locality so that the embryos reach full term before the plankton increase is due. The actual time of liberation is then mediated by the hatching substance in response to prevailing food conditions.If the B. balanoides population of the Western Atlantic area as a whole belongs to a physiological race distinct from that of the Eastern Atlantic, and responding differently to temperature levels at the breeding season, there is no reason to expect any close correlation in respect of environmental conditions between the southern limits of the species in Europe and in America.

Techniques for Rearing Ips De Geer (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

The genus Ips in North America contains several groups of closely related species which are at present poorly defined. Morphological characters alone do not provide an adequate basis for deciding whether some of the forms are specifically distinct or represent mere variations which may occur in the same general locality or even in the same brood. The extent of this variation can be determined only by breeding isolated pairs through successive generations combined with biological studies in the field. The present article describes techniques for rearing successive generations of Ips in the laboratory.