The Long horned beetles ( Cerambycidae: Coleoptera) with new records from Pakistan

The longhorn beetles belongs to family Cerambycidae. The beetles are present in almost all ecosystems, except the ocean and Polar Regions. They are most the important biological control agents into agro-ecosystems. The beetles help in the biological control they eat extensive assortments of tree dwelling, soil dwelling insects and also eat caterpillars, maggots, aphids, bug, ants, wasp. Long horned beetles were gathered from different sites (agricultural fields and their surrounding vegetation) of district Naushahro Feroze with insect net (7.79 cm in diameter and 49.9 cm in length) and hand picking. A of 234 specimens were captured from October 2018 to July 2019. The material was identified into 07 species out of 06 genera. Of which Batocera rubus (Linnaeus, 1758), New Record from Sindh, Batocera rufomaculata (Charles De Geer, 1775), New Record from Sindh, Apriona cinerea (Chevrolat, 1852), New Record from Sindh, Archopalus exoticus (Sharp, 1905), New Record from Pakistan Macrotoma crenata (Fabricius, 1801), New Record from Pakistan, Prionus corpulantus (Bates, 1878) New Record from Sindh, Dorysthenes hugelii (Redtenbacher, 1848), New Record from Pakistan. The highest ratio of specimens were recorded from Mehrabpur and lowest ratio of specimens were recorded from Moro.

Factors Affecting the Reproduction and Mass-Rearing of Sclerodermus brevicornis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), a Natural Enemy of Exotic Flat-Faced Longhorn Beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae)

Many species of long-horned beetles are invasive pests causing significant economic damage in agro-forestry systems. They spend the majority of their life-cycle concealed inside natural wood or wooden packaging materials and are largely protected from adverse environmental conditions and pesticide sprays. Biological control via parasitoid natural enemies including members of the bethylid genus Sclerodermus, has proven effective against some long-horned beetles that are invasive in China. In Europe, the biocontrol potential of native Sclerodermus species is being evaluated with a view to developing efficient mass-rearing techniques and then actively deploying them against invasive Asian beetles. Here, we continue evaluations of S. brevicornis by establishing that groups of females that have already reared offspring to emergence are capable of reproducing subsequent hosts and by evaluating the lifetime reproductive capacity of individual females provided with successive hosts. Additionally, we assess the laboratory shelf-life of adult females stored for different times at different temperatures including cold storage, and then assess the post-storage reproductive performance of groups of females provided with a single host. We found that adult female longevity declines with increasing storage temperature and that most aspects of subsequent performance are negatively affected by high temperatures. The adaptability to low temperature storage enhances the suitability of S. brevicornis to mass-rearing programs and thus biocontrol deployment.

Completely engaged three-dimensional mandibular gear-like structures in the adult horned beetles: reconsideration of bark-carving behaviors (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae)

Adult horned beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae) such as Trypoxylusdichotomus (Linnaeus, 1771) exhibit bark-carving behaviors to feed on tree sap, in part by using small projections of the clypeus. However, in the present experiments, adult horned beetles (T.dichotomus and Dynasteshercules (Linnaeus, 1758)) used their mandibles and not the projections of the clypeus to carve bark. Our findings show the presence of completely engaged mandibular interlocking, gear-like surface structures in molar areas that guide mandible opening and closure, and lead to completely synchronous movements of adult horned beetle mandibles. Three-dimensional shapes of these mandibular gear-like structures are complex and remained in contact after the death of a beetle. Moreover, adult horned beetles often performed bark-carving behaviors using only the mandible of one side, suggesting that the primary role of the mandibular gear-like structure is to prevent breakage of the mandible by transmitting load from one mandible to the other. Among the 22 Dynastinae and 16 other beetle species examined (not Dynastinae), the gear-like structure was found in all the Dynastinae species and in no other species.

doublesex regulates sexually dimorphic beetle horn formation by integrating spatial and temporal developmental contexts in the Japanese rhinoceros beetle Trypoxylus dichotomus

Many scarab beetles have sexually dimorphic exaggerated horns that are an evolutionary novelty. Since the shape, number, size, and location of horns are highly diverged within Scarabaeidae, beetle horns are an attractive model for studying the evolution of sexually dimorphic and novel traits. In beetles including the Japanese rhinoceros beetle Trypoxylus dichotomus, the sex determination gene doublesex (dsx) plays a crucial role in sexually dimorphic horn formation during larval-pupal development. However, knowledge of when and how dsx drives the gene regulatory network (GRN) for horn formation to form sexually dimorphic horns during development remains elusive. To address this issue, we identified a Trypoxylus-ortholog of the sex determination gene, transformer (tra), that regulates sex-specific splicing of the dsx pre-mRNA, and whose loss of function results in sex transformation. By knocking down tra function at multiple developmental timepoints during larval-pupal development, we estimated the onset when the sex-specific GRN for horn formation is driven. In addition, we also revealed that dsx regulates different aspects of morphogenetic activities during the prepupal and pupal developmental stages to form appropriate morphologies of pupal head and thoracic horn primordia as well as those of adult horns. Based on these findings, we discuss the evolutionary developmental background of sexually dimorphic trait growth in horned beetles.Author Summary:Beetle horns are highly enriched in a particular family Scarabaeidae, although the shape, size and number of horns are diversified within the group. In addition, many scarab beetle horns are sexually dimorphic. It has been questioned how a particular group of beetles has originated and diversified evolutionary novel horns. Here we found the exact time when morphological sexual dimorphism of horn primordia appeared, estimated the onset of the developmental program for sexually dimorphic horn formation driven by Doublesex, and revealed that Doublesex regulates different aspects of cell activities of horn primordia depending on the spatiotemporal contexts. Our study provides our understanding regarding regulatory shifts in these mechanisms during the evolution of sexually dimorphic traits in horned beetles.

Differences in abundance and diversity of diurnal invertebrates among three Fijian forests, and a comparison of two trapping methods for rapid assessments

Apart from some high-profile exceptions (e.g. charismatic long-horned beetles), the ecology and conservation of Fijian invertebrates have received little research attention, and their potential as biodiversity surrogates or indicators is poorly understood. We surveyed diurnal terrestrial invertebrates within three Fijian forest types (lowland, upland, and coastal) using Malaise traps and beating trays to compare invertebrate abundance and diversity among forests. We also evaluated the efficiency of the two trapping methods for rapid invertebrate assessments. Overall, we collected 2584 invertebrates representing 321 morphospecies within 22 arthropod orders. We found significant differences in the abundance and diversity of invertebrates among forest sites for beating-tray samples, but not for Malaise-trap samples. Upland forest had the greatest diversity (Simpsons diversity index, D = 0.98); coastal forest recorded the lowest diversity (D = 0.14), but the greatest abundance of invertebrates. Several orders of invertebrates were relatively abundant across sites and traps (i.e. had high sampling reliability; they included Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera), so could be targeted as surrogates for broader biodiversity sampling. Given the urgency with which baseline data are needed across the South Pacific, invertebrate sampling provides a rapid biodiversity assessment tool, including for working in remote areas with few resources.

Hedgehog signaling enables nutrition-responsive inhibition of an alternative morph in a polyphenic beetle

The recruitment of modular developmental genetic components into new developmental contexts has been proposed as a central mechanism enabling the origin of novel traits and trait functions without necessitating the origin of novel pathways. Here, we investigate the function of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, a highly conserved pathway best understood for its role in patterning anterior/posterior (A/P) polarity of diverse traits, in the developmental evolution of beetle horns, an evolutionary novelty, and horn polyphenisms, a highly derived form of environment-responsive trait induction. We show that interactions among pathway members are conserved during development of Onthophagus horned beetles and have retained the ability to regulate A/P polarity in traditional appendages, such as legs. At the same time, the Hh signaling pathway has acquired a novel and highly unusual role in the nutrition-dependent regulation of horn polyphenisms by actively suppressing horn formation in low-nutrition males. Down-regulation of Hh signaling lifts this inhibition and returns a highly derived sigmoid horn body size allometry to its presumed ancestral, linear state. Our results suggest that recruitment of the Hh signaling pathway may have been a key step in the evolution of trait thresholds, such as those involved in horn polyphenisms and the corresponding origin of alternative phenotypes and complex allometries.