Race biology.

Background: The founders of Hereditas envisioned that race biology would be a major subject that had social applications with utmost importance in the near future. Anthropometrics was in this context understood to be the pure and eugenics the applied science. Sweden had a long tradition in physical anthropometry.

A tale of two papers.

Two papers published in HEREDITAS between 1921 and 1939 show how the attitude towards race biology changed in the course of the interwar period in the Nordic countries. In the early 1920s race biology was seen to constitute a legitimate science. Ordinary human genetics prevailed, however, over race biology already in the very beginning on the pages of HEREDITAS.

Chromosome evolution in Neotropical butterflies.

We list the chromosome numbers for 65 species of Neotropical Hesperiidae and 104 species or subspecies of Pieridae. In Hesperiidae the tribe Pyrrhopygini have a modal n = 28, Eudaminae and Pyrgini a modal n = 31, while Hesperiinae have n = around 29. Among Pieridae, Coliadinae have a strong modal n = 31 and among Pierinae Anthocharidini are almost fixed for n = 15 while Pierini vary with n = 26 as the most common chromosome number.

Chromosomal evolution in the South American Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea).

We give the haploid chromosome numbers of 173 species or subspecies of Riodinidae as well as of 17 species or subspecies of neotropical Lycaenidae for comparison. The chromosome numbers of riodinids have thus far been very poorly known. We find that their range of variation extends from n = 9 to n = 110 but numbers above n = 31 are rare.

Ecotype differentiation in the face of gene flow within the diving beetle Agabus bipustulatus (Linnaeus, 1767) in northern Scandinavia.

The repeated occurrence of habitat-specific polyphyletic evolved ecotypes throughout the ranges of widely distributed species implies that multiple, independent and parallel selection events have taken place. Ecological transitions across altitudinal gradients over short geographical distances are often associated with variation in habitat-related fitness, these patterns suggest the action of strong selective forces. Genetic markers will therefore contribute differently to differences between ecotypes in local hybrid zones.

Chromosomal evolution in the South American Nymphalidae.

We give the chromosome numbers of about 80 species or subspecies of Biblidinae as well as of numbers of neotropical Libytheinae (one species), Cyrestinae (4) Apaturinae (7), Nymphalinae (about 40), Limenitidinae (16) and Heliconiinae (11). Libytheana has about n=32, the Biblidinae, Apaturinae and Nymphalinae have in general n=31, the Limenitidinae have n=30, the few Argynnini n=31 and the few species of Acraeni studied have also mostly n=31. The results agree with earlier data from the Afrotropical species of these taxa.

Asexuality alone does not explain the success of clonal forms in insects with geographical parthenogenesis.

Asexual forms of invertebrates are relatively common. They are often more successful than their sexual progenitors. Especially in insects, the pattern called geographical parthenogenesis shows that asexuality is important in speciation and ecological adaptation.

Electrophoretic evidence for disomic inheritance and allopolyploid origin of the octoploid Cerastium alpinum (Caryophyllaceae).

The mode of inheritance of six enzyme markers in the octoploid alpine plant Cerastium alpinum was analyzed. Offspring from crosses between heterozygotes showed fixed heterozygosity at malate dehydrogenase-2, phosphoglucoisomerase-2, triosephosphate isomerase-2, and triosephosphate isomerase-3. Phosphoglucomutase-1 also showed fixed heterozygosity except in offspring from one cross.

Enzyme activities and alcohol tolerance in isofemale lines of Drosophila melanogaster originating from different habitats.

Enzyme activity variation was studied in a Drosophila melanogaster population from two villages (Tiszafüred and Tiszaszolos) in Hungary. Two habitats (distillery and farmyard) were sampled in both villages and 8-9 isofemale lines were established from each sample with a total of 35 lines. The activities of ADH, alphaGPDH, IDH and 6PGDH were determined on starch gel after electrophoresis in 10 F1 females of each of the 35 isofemale lines.

Structure of variation in enzyme activity in natural Drosophila melanogaster populations.

Enzyme activity variation was assessed in several isofemale lines originating from two Hungarian Drosophila melanogaster populations. Samples from each population were taken from from two villages; 8-9 isofemale lines were established from each village. The activities of ADH, alphaGPDH, IDH and 6PGDH were determined in the adults (in the F1 generation) and in the larvae (in the F3 generation) as well.

MODE OF SWARMING IN RELATION TO REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION IN MAYFLIES.

Mayfly males swarm, that is they fly in a fixed pattern by a specific object, the swarm marker. Females orientate to the same markers. Leptophlebia marginata mayflies were observed to orientate to two kinds of objects in a single locality in central Finland: to trees and to horizontal pale objects on the ground; when dispersed or moved to the other type of marker, they returned to their former orientation.

THE EFFECT OF SERPENTINE ON THE POPULATION STRUCTURE OF SILENE DIOICA (CARYOPHYLLACEAE).

Serpentine soils are rich in heavy metals and have a distinctive flora. Silene dioica is a member of the Scandinavian serpentine plant community but is also widespread outside serpentine soils. To study the population genetic consequences of serpentine stress and the origin and evolution of serpentine populations we analyzed the isozyme genetic structure of S.