Caenorhabditis nematodes colonize ephemeral resource patches in neotropical forests.

Factors shaping the distribution and abundance of species include life-history traits, population structure, and stochastic colonization-extinction dynamics. Field studies of model species groups help reveal the roles of these factors. Species of Caenorhabditis nematodes are highly divergent at the sequence level but exhibit highly conserved morphological uniformity, and many of these species live in sympatry on microbe-rich patches of rotten material. Here, we use field experiments and large-scale opportunistic collections to investigate species composition, abundance, and colonization efficiency of Caenorhabditis in two of the world's best studied lowland tropical field sites: Barro Colorado Island in Panamá and La Selva in Sarapiquí, Costa Rica. We observed seven species of Caenorhabditis, four of them known only from these collections. While these localities contain species from many parts of the phylogeny, both localities were dominated by globally distributed androdiecious species. We found that Caenorhabditis were able to colonize baits accessible only by phoresy, preferring to colonize baits making direct contact with the ground. We estimate founder numbers per colonization event to be low.

Ocnogyna mooseri, a new peculiar species from Libya (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae)

A new species of the genus Ocnogyna Graslin, [1837], O. mooseri sp. n. is described from north-eastern Libya. The female of the new species is fully winged but differs from all known species groups of Ocnogyna in a number of diagnostic features and is also externally reminiscent of Tajigyna gansoni Dubatolov, 1990 endemic to Tajikistan. The diagnostic comparison is made with the North African Ocnogyna advena (Fabricius, 1787) having externally similar males but brachypterous females and to the externally dissimilar Ocnogyna parasita (Hübner, 1790) species group having the most similar female genitalia structures.

Measuring dominance certainty and assessing its impact on individual and societal health in a nonhuman primate model: a network approach

The notion of dominance is ubiquitous across the animal kingdom, wherein some species/groups such relationships are strictly hierarchical and others are not. Modern approaches for measuring dominance have emerged in recent years taking advantage of increased computational power. One such technique, named Percolation and Conductance (Perc), uses both direct and indirect information about the flow of dominance relationships to generate hierarchical rank order that makes no assumptions about the linearity of these relationships. It also provides a new metric, known as ‘dominance certainty’, which is a complimentary measure to dominance rank that assesses the degree of ambiguity of rank relationships at the individual, dyadic and group levels. In this focused review, we will (i) describe how Perc measures dominance rank while accounting for both nonlinear hierarchical structure as well as sparsity in data—here we also provide a metric of dominance certainty estimated by Perc, which can be used to compliment the information dominance rank supplies; (ii) summarize a series of studies by our research team reflecting the importance of ‘dominance certainty’ on individual and societal health in large captive rhesus macaque breeding groups; and (iii) provide some concluding remarks and suggestions for future directions for dominance hierarchy research. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.

Supraspecific classification.

The definitions of genera and subgenera used in the classification of the Dacini have been in a continual state of change for over a century. The early definitions were based on often homoplasious morphological characters, some examples for the Oriental and Australian regions being Tryon (1927), Perkins (1937), Hardy (1951), May (1951) and Drew (1972). More recently revised subgeneric definitions for most species groups were published by Drew and Hancock (2016) and Hancock and Drew (2006, 2015, 2016, 2017a,b,c,d,e, 2018a,b,c, 2019), based on detailed analyses of dacine biogeography, host plant biology and morphology. This chapter discusses the evolutionary origins of the Dacini, the host plant and its influence on speciation in the Dacini.

Extensive species diversification and marked geographic phylogenetic structure in the Mesoamerican genus Stenopelmatus (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae: Stenopelmatinae) revealed by mitochondrial and nuclear 3RAD data

The Jerusalem cricket subfamily Stenopelmatinae is distributed from south-western Canada through the western half of the United States to as far south as Ecuador. Recently, the generic classification of this subfamily was updated to contain two genera, the western North American Ammopelmatus, and the Mexican, and central and northern South American Stenopelmatus. The taxonomy of the latter genus was also revised, with 5, 13 and 14 species being respectively validated, declared as nomen dubium and described as new. Despite this effort, the systematics of Stenopelmatus is still far from complete. Here, we generated sequences of the mitochondrial DNA barcoding locus and performed two distinct DNA sequence-based approaches to assess the species’ limits among several populations of Stenopelmatus, with emphasis on populations from central and south-east Mexico. We reconstructed the phylogenetic relationships among representative species of the main clades within the genus using nuclear 3RAD data and carried out a molecular clock analysis to investigate its biogeographic history. The two DNA sequence-based approaches consistently recovered 34 putative species, several of which are apparently undescribed. Our estimates of phylogeny confirmed the recent generic update of Stenopelmatinae and revealed a marked phylogeographic structure within Stenopelmatus. Based on our results, we propose the existence of four species-groups within the genus (the faulkneri, talpa, Central America and piceiventris species-groups). The geographic distribution of these species-groups and our molecular clock estimates are congruent with the geological processes that took place in mountain ranges along central and southern Mexico, particularly since the Neogene. Our study emphasises the necessity to continue performing more taxonomic and phylogenetic studies on Stenopelmatus to clarify its actual species richness and evolutionary history in Mesoamerica.

Redefinition of Liroetis, with descriptions of two new species and an annotated list of species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Galerucinae)

The genus Liroetis Weise, 1889 is redefi ned. The following new synonymies are established: Liroetis Weise, 1889 = Siemssenius Weise, 1922, syn. nov. = Pseudoliroetis Laboissière, 1929, syn. nov. = Zangia Chen, 1976, syn. nov. Consequently, the following new combinations are proposed: Liroetis coeruleus (Jiang, 1990) comb. nov.; Liroetis latispinus (Chen, 1976) comb. nov.; Liroetis nigricollis (Jiang, 1990) comb. nov.; Liroetis pallidulus (Jiang, 1990) comb. nov. (all from Zangia); Liroetis nigropictus (Fairmaire, 1889) comb. nov. (from Leptarthra); Liroetis cheni (Lee, 2016) comb. nov.; Liroetis elongatus (Kimoto, 1977) comb. nov.; Liroetis jeanvoinei (Laboissière, 1929) comb. nov.; Liroetis jungchani (Lee, 2016) comb. nov.; Liroetis liui (Lee, 2016) comb. nov.; Liroetis metallipennis (Chûjô, 1962) comb. nov.; Liroetis modestus (Weise, 1922) comb. nov.; Liroetis nigriceps (Laboissière, 1929) comb. nov.; Liroetis rufi pennis (Chûjô, 1962) comb. nov.; Liroetis sulcipennis (Zhang & Yang, 2008) comb. nov.; Liroetis tsoui (Lee, 2016) comb. nov.; and Liroetis yuae (Lee, 2016) comb. nov. (all from Siemssenius). Two new species, Liroetis aurantiacus sp. nov., from continental South East Asia, and L. baolocanus sp. nov., from Vietnam, are described. A new substitute name, Liroetis medvedevi nom. nov., is proposed for L. nigricollis Medvedev, 2009 preoccupied by L. nigricollis (Jiang, 1990). The following new synonyms are established: Liroetis aeneipennis Weise, 1889 = L. tiemushannis Jiang, 1988, syn. nov.; Liroetis ephippiatus Laboissière, 1930 = Zangia signata Jiang, 1990, syn. nov. = L. postmaculatus Lopatin, 2004, syn. nov.; Liroetis leechi Jacoby, 1890 = L. verticalis Jiang, 1988, syn. nov.; Liroetis nigricollis (Jiang, 1990) = L. unicolor Zhang, Li & Yang, 2008, syn. nov.; Liroetis reitteri (Pic, 1934) = Pseudoliroetis trifasciata Jiang, 1992, syn. nov. The spelling of Liroetis tiemushannis Jiang, 1988 is fixed using the First Reviewer Principle. Species of Liroetis are divided into five species-groups based on the combination of the following characters: presence/absence of border on anterior pronotal margin, width/length ratio of pronotum, structure of aedeagus, presence/absence of metatibial spur. The established groups are: the aeneipennis group, the aurantiacus group, the flavipennis group, the fulvipennis group, and the grandis group. The gender of Liroetis is masculine.

Review of the genus Oncocephala Agassiz 1846 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Oncocephalini) in Africa, excluding Madagascar

The genus Oncocephala Agassiz, 1846 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Oncocephalini) is reviewed for Africa, except Madagascar. Twenty-four species are treated. Two new synonyms were proposed, Oncocephala kolbei Gestro, 1899a is synonymized with O. promontorii Péringuey, 1898 and O. scabrosa Gestro, 1905 is synonymized with O. severinii Gestro, 1899(1901). Six new species are proposed: Oncocephala susanstainesae Calcetas, Staines & Adorada sp. nov. from Namibia, Oncocephala deleoni Calcetas, Staines and Adorada sp. nov. from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Oncocephala camachoi Calcetas, Staines & Adorada sp. nov. from Cameroon, Oncocephala eborai Calcetas, Staines & Adorada sp. nov. from Equatorial Guinea, Oncocephala dimaculanganae Calcetas, Staines & Adorada sp. nov. from Cameroon and Oncocephala demesai Calcetas, Staines and Adorada sp. nov. from Togo. Oncocephala methneri Uhmann, 1928 and O. madoni Pic, 1941 are treated as incerte sedis. The genus Oncocephala in Africa is divided into seven species groups (Gestroi, Perrieri, Insignis, Senegalensis, Promentorii, Cuneata and Angusticollis) based on the similarity of their elytral characters. A key to the species groups and species of Oncocephala is provided.

The genus Oligonychus Berlese (Acari, Prostigmata, Tetranychidae): taxonomic assessment and a key to subgenera, species groups, and subgroups

A comprehensive taxonomic assessment of the most agriculturally important and highly diverse spider mite genus, Oligonychus Berlese (Acari: Tetranychidae) was performed. The sub-generic division, species groups, doubtful species, species complexes and the interpretation of a key generic character are discussed. Based on the orientation of the male aedeagus, only two subgenera, namely Oligonychus Berlese (aedeagus downturned) and Reckiella Tuttle & Baker (aedeagus upturned), are valid in the genus Oligonychus. The subgenera Homonychus Wainstein, Metatetranychoides Wainstein, and Wainsteiniella Tuttle & Baker are considered to be synonyms of the subgenus Oligonychus, whereas the subgenus Pritchardinychus Wainstein is proposed as a synonym of the subgenus Reckiella. Moreover, based on female morphological characters, four species groups (coffeae, exsiccator, iseilemae, and peruvianus) and 11 species subgroups (aceris, biharensis, coffeae, comptus, exsiccator, gossypii, iseilemae, peruvianus, pritchardi, smithi, and subnudus) are suggested in the subgenera Oligonychus and Reckiella. Fourteen Oligonychus species are proposed as species inquirendae, and potential cryptic species complexes in the genus Oligonychus are briefly highlighted. It is agreed that the clunal seta h1 is always absent, while the para-anal setae h2 and h3 are always present in the genus Oligonychus. A key to subgenera, species groups, and species subgroups of the genus Oligonychus is provided.

Three new species of Metrocoris Mayr, 1865 (Heteroptera: Gerridae) from India and establishment of species groups

Three new species of Metrocoris, namely Metrocoris issaci sp. nov., Metrocoris josephi sp. nov. and Metrocoris latus sp. nov., are described from Meghalaya, India. Four new species groups are recognised in Metrocoris, namely the Metrocoris coxalis group, Metrocoris latus group, Metrocoris monticola group and Metrocoris nepalensis group. All except the M. latus group are erected from the M. compar group. Metrocoris issaci sp. nov. and M. josephi sp. nov. belong to the M. coxalis group and M. latus sp. nov. forms a monotypic group. Metrocoris issaci sp. nov. can be distinguished by the hind coxal process of female reaching half the length of hind trochanter; M. josephi sp. nov. can be distinguished by the medium-sized hind coxal process reaching only to the subbasal region of the hind trochanter and M. latus sp. nov. can be distinguished by the presence of broad parameres and conical pygophore of the male. Metrocoris dinendrai Basu, Polhemus & Subramanian, 2016, is synonymized with M. compar (White, 1883) and a redescription of M. compar is provided. Detailed illustrations of all the new species and M. compar are given.