Padrões morfológicos na venação alar de espécies de Tetragona Lepeletier & Serville, 1828 do grupo clavipes (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)

Tetragona Lepeletier & Serville, 1828 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) is a genus of stingless bees widely distributed in Brazil. It has 15 species distributed in the Neotropics, from Mexico to Uruguay, nine of which are found in Brazil. However, Tetragona elongata (Lepeletier & Serville, 1828), a species known only from the Southeast region and which had been synonymized with Tetragona clavipes (Fabricius, 1804), was revalidated without any justification. The aim of this study was to test whether the morphometrics analysis of the wings is efficient in the diagnosis of the species of this genus, in addition to testing the validity of the revalidation mentioned above. This technique was applied by accessing the right forewings of 660 workers of T. clavipes, T. elongata e T. quadrangula (Lepeletier, 1836), from five Brazilian collections. For the geometric morphometric analysis, 12 landmarks were selected. The software MorphoJ version 1.6 was used to do Discriminant Function analysis (1000 replications) and Canonical Variation Analysis (CVA). Between T. clavipes and T. elongata, there was a 100% variance between species (canonical variation analysis), suggesting that it may be an indication of speciation. Even though T. elongata has been revalidated, it still has overlapped with T. clavipes, which indicates to be the same species. Taxonomic studies are needed to synonymize them.

Chiropteran Composition and Morphometric Analysis of Ptenochirus Jagori in Caraga State University, Caraga Region, Philippines

Due to potential and present ecological alteration in roosting sites and food source areas in neighboring vicinity of Caraga State University in Caraga Region, Philippines, unsettled progression of bats are documented through wing variation analysis and fluctuating asymmetry (FA). Twenty-one (21) collected samples of Ptenochirus jagori (Greater Musky Fruit Bat) yields asymmetry of 90.6396%, affecting landmarks of the elbow (landmark 1), carpals (landmark 2), metacarpals (landmark 3, 4, and 10), and phalanges’ fingers (landmarks 5, 6, 11, and 12). Wing variation (landmark-based) analysis suggested significant skewness on both elbows and metacarpals of wings. Wider shape deformation is on the rightwing, and a narrower one was analyzed on the left. Nonetheless, even though similar alteration is present between both wings, Canonical Variation Analysis (CVA) suggests no significant difference in the deformations of histogram analysis.

A new species of genus Psalidodon Eigenmann, 1911relatedto the P. paranae complex (Characiformes Characidae) fromUpper Paranaíba river basin, Brazil, supported by genetic andmorphometric data

The genus Psalidodon Eigenmann, 1911 (Characiformes Characidae) is a fish group with great diversity, expressed at the chromosomal, genetic and taxonomic level. The genus is markedby events of allopatric and vicariant evolution, by the formation of complexes of species andby wide geographical distribution. Both in these fish and other organisms, the association ofstudies with molecular markers and geometric morphometric techniques are useful in delimitingsignificantly evolutionary units (ESU). In this work, we performed maximum likelihood esti-mates (MLE) from mitochondrial Cyt b gene sequences and canonical variables (CVA) from13 landmarks in eight populations of P. aff. paranae Eigenmann, 1914. The analysis of Max-imum likelihood resulted in the structuring of populations in two different clades, one of whichwas composed only of individuals from a small population inhabiting a stream with approxi-mately two km of length, demonstrating their clear distinction from the other populations. Theanalysis of canonical variation demonstrated the complete structuring of this population, andthe position of each clade in the morpho-space was congruent with the topography observedin the MLE. Based on the results found, the existence of a new endemic species of the genusPsalidodon is evident.

Volume, energy and generalized energy of unit vector fields on Berger spheres: stability of Hopf vector fields

We study to what extent the known results concerning the behaviour of Hopf vector fields, with respect to volume, energy and generalized energy functionals, on the round sphere are still valid for the metrics obtained by performing the canonical variation of the Hopf fibration.

Volume, energy and generalized energy of unit vector fields on Berger spheres: stability of Hopf vector fields

We study to what extent the known results concerning the behaviour of Hopf vector fields, with respect to volume, energy and generalized energy functionals, on the round sphere are still valid for the metrics obtained by performing the canonical variation of the Hopf fibration.