The spine armament of the legs as an important means for the characterisation of the genera of Corydiinae and their relationships (Blattodea, Corydiidae).

The Palaearctic species of Corydiinae having no apical spine on the femora of the frontleg (48 species distributed to the genera Heterogamisca, Heterogamodes, Hemelytroblatta, Leiopteroblatta, Mononychoblatta, Nymphrytria, Psammoblatta) were studied in mainly three characters: tibia armament, features of the right phallomere, and distribution of bristles on the subgenital plate. The results suggest considerable changes in the classification with now 5 genera and several subgenera: (1) Heterogamodes with subgenera Heterogamodes, Heterogamisca, and Atuberculoblatta subgen. nov.

Revision of the genus Luridiblatta (Blaberoidea, Ectobiidae, Ectobiinae).

The present paper deals with the revision of Luridiblatta a genus having an almost circum-mediterranean distribution. The genus contains 10 species of which 7 are new; they can be aligned to 3 species-groups: the longitubulata-group with the species L. longitubulata sp.

Cockroach (Blattodea, Blaberoidea) fauna of the Maltese Islands, with descriptions of two new species.

Cockroach (Blattodea, Blaberoidea) fauna of the Maltese Islands. Hitherto seven species of cockroaches were known from the Maltese Archipelago (Schembri 1980): four of them are synanthropic species introduced by man: Blatta orientalis, Blattella germanica, Periplaneta americana and Supella longipalpa; the remaining three are indigenous species: Ectobius kraussianus, Loboptera decipiens and Polyphaga aegyptiaca. The earlier reports almost exclusively concern the largest island Malta; only one report (L.

First and second COVID-19 waves in Brazil: A cross-sectional study of patients' characteristics related to hospitalization and in-hospital mortality.

Background: Background The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was more aggressive in Brazil compared to other countries around the globe. Considering the Brazilian peculiarities, we analyze the in-hospital mortality concerning socio-epidemiological characteristics of patients and the health system of all states during the first and second waves of COVID-19.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study of hospitalized patients with positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil.

Biomechanics of tendrils and adhesive pads of the climbing passion flower Passiflora discophora.

The climbing passion flower Passiflora discophora features branched tendrils with multiple adhesive pads at their tips allowing it to attach to large-diameter supports and to flat surfaces. We conducted tensile tests to quantify the performance of this attachment system. We found that the force at failure varies with substrate, ontogenetic state (turgescent or senescent), and tendril size (i.

Revision of the genus Dziriblatta/ Chopard, 1936 (Blattodea, Ectobiidae, Ectobiinae). III. The species of the subgenus Dziriblatta/.

The present paper is the third part of a revision of the genus Dziriblatta and treats the nominal subgenus Dziriblatta and its species. The subgenus contains 10 species of which 8 are new to science. The species can be distributed to two species groups: the bolivari-species group with Dz.

Revision of the genus Dziriblatta Chopard, 1936 (Blattodea, Ectobiidae, Ectobiinae). II. The species of the subgenera Pauciscleroblatta and Monoscleroblatta.

The present paper is a continuation of the revision of the genus Dziriblatta started with definition and description of the nine subgenera of the genus (Bohn 2019). In that first part of the revision usually only one species of each subgenus was described; the remaining species should be treated in following papers of which this contribution is the first dealing with the species of the subgenera Pauciscleroblatta (6 species) and Monoscleroblatta (4 species). Five species are new to science: Dziriblatta (Pauciscleroblatta) cyprica, spec.

Revision of the genus Dziriblatta Chopard, 1936 (Blattodea, Ectobiidae, Ectobiinae) from North Africa, Spain, and the Macaronesian islands. I. The nine subgenera of the genus.

An initial contribution to the revision of the genus Dziriblatta Chopard, 1936a, formerly synonymized erroneously with Lobolampra Houlbert, 1927, is presented. The species of the genus, hitherto placed in the subgenera Phyllodromica, Arbiblatta Chopard, 1936a and Lobolampra Houlbbert, 1927, of the genus Phyllodromica Fieber 1853, are distributed on the northern Macaronesian Islands, in southern Spain, North Africa, and the Near East (Israel, Cyprus). The genus is divided into nine new subgenera: Autumnoblatta subgen.

Straightforward and precise approach to replicate complex hierarchical structures from plant surfaces onto soft matter polymer.

The surfaces of plant leaves are rarely smooth and often possess a species-specific micro- and/or nano-structuring. These structures usually influence the surface functionality of the leaves such as wettability, optical properties, friction and adhesion in insect-plant interactions. This work presents a simple, convenient, inexpensive and precise two-step micro-replication technique to transfer surface microstructures of plant leaves onto highly transparent soft polymer material.

Fauna Europaea - Orthopteroid orders.

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all extant European terrestrial and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at the level of countries and major islands (west of the Urals and excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project comprises about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. Fauna Europaea represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education.

Chemical disguise of myrmecophilous cockroaches and its implications for understanding nestmate recognition mechanisms in leaf-cutting ants.

Background: Cockroaches of the genus Attaphila regularly occur in leaf-cutting ant colonies. The ants farm a fungus that the cockroaches also appear to feed on. Cockroaches disperse between colonies horizontally (via foraging trails) and vertically (attached to queens on their mating flights).

Evolutionary origins of the placental expression of chromosome 19 cluster galectins and their complex dysregulation in preeclampsia.

Introduction: The dysregulation of maternal-fetal immune tolerance is one of the proposed mechanisms leading to preeclampsia. Galectins are key regulator proteins of the immune response in vertebrates and maternal-fetal immune tolerance in eutherian mammals. Previously we found that three genes in a Chr19 cluster encoding for human placental galectin-13 (PP13), galectin-14 and galectin-16 emerged during primate evolution and may confer immune tolerance to the semi-allogeneic fetus.

Measuring air layer volumes retained by submerged floating-ferns Salvinia and biomimetic superhydrophobic surfaces.

Some plants and animals feature superhydrophobic surfaces capable of retaining a layer of air when submerged under water. Long-term air retaining surfaces (Salvinia-effect) are of high interest for biomimetic applications like drag reduction in ship coatings of up to 30%. Here we present a novel method for measuring air volumes and air loss under water.

Surface microstructures of daisy florets (Asteraceae) and characterization of their anisotropic wetting.

The surface microstructures on ray florets of 62 species were characterized and compared with modern phylogenetic data of species affiliation in Asteraceae to determine sculptural patterns and their occurrence in the tribes of Asteraceae. Their wettability was studied to identify structural-induced droplet adhesion, which can be used for the development of artificial surfaces for water harvesting and passive surface water transport. The wettability was characterized by contact angle (CA) and tilt angle measurements, performed on fresh ray florets and their epoxy resin replica.

Ants swimming in pitcher plants: kinematics of aquatic and terrestrial locomotion in Camponotus schmitzi.

Camponotus schmitzi ants live in symbiosis with the Bornean pitcher plant Nepenthes bicalcarata. Unique among ants, the workers regularly dive and swim in the pitcher's digestive fluid to forage for food. High-speed motion analysis revealed that C.

Plant surfaces with cuticular folds are slippery for beetles.

Plant surfaces covered with three-dimensional (3D) waxes are known to strongly reduce insect adhesion, leading to slippery surfaces. Besides 3D epicuticular waxes, cuticular folds are a common microstructure found on plant surfaces, which have not been quantitatively investigated with regard to their influence on insect adhesion. We performed traction experiments with Colorado potato beetles on five plant surfaces with cuticular folds of different magnitude.

Circadian and seasonal rhythms of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding in Beijing.

Objective: To investigate the circadian and seasonal patterns in the presentation of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB) in Beijing, China.

Methods: Medical records of the Beijing Emergency Medical Service System (EMSS) for 1 August 2005 to 31 July 2007 were reviewed; all patients diagnosed with AUGIB were included in the study.

Results: 2580 patients were recorded in the EMSS system with a diagnosis of AUGIB during the study period.

Hierarchically sculptured plant surfaces and superhydrophobicity.

More than 400 million years of evolution of land plants led to a high diversity of adapted surface structures. Superhydrophobic biological surfaces are of special interest for the development of biomimetic materials for self-cleaning, drag reduction, and energy conservation. The key innovation in superhydrophobic biological surfaces is hierarchical sculpturing.

A primate subfamily of galectins expressed at the maternal-fetal interface that promote immune cell death.

Galectins are proteins that regulate immune responses through the recognition of cell-surface glycans. We present evidence that 16 human galectin genes are expressed at the maternal-fetal interface and demonstrate that a cluster of 5 galectin genes on human chromosome 19 emerged during primate evolution as a result of duplication and rearrangement of genes and pseudogenes via a birth and death process primarily mediated by transposable long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs). Genes in the cluster are found only in anthropoids, a group of primate species that differ from their strepsirrhine counterparts by having relatively large brains and long gestations.

Harmless nectar source or deadly trap: Nepenthes pitchers are activated by rain, condensation and nectar.

The leaves of Nepenthes pitcher plants are specialized pitfall traps which capture and digest arthropod prey. In many species, insects become trapped by 'aquaplaning' on the wet pitcher rim (peristome). Here we investigate the ecological implications of this capture mechanism in Nepenthes rafflesiana var.

Cloning, sequencing, structural and molecular biological characterization of placental protein 20 (PP20)/human thiamin pyrophosphokinase (hTPK).

Full-length cDNAs of placental protein 20 (PP20) were cloned by screening a human placental cDNA library, which encode a 243 amino acid protein, identical to human thiamin pyrophosphokinase (hTPK) as confirmed by protein sequence analysis. Genomic alignment showed that the PP20/hTPK gene contains 9 exons. It is abundantly expressed in placenta, as numerous EST clones were identified.

Insect aquaplaning: Nepenthes pitcher plants capture prey with the peristome, a fully wettable water-lubricated anisotropic surface.

Pitcher plants of the genus Nepenthes have highly specialized leaves adapted to attract, capture, retain, and digest arthropod prey. Several mechanisms have been proposed for the capture of insects, ranging from slippery epicuticular wax crystals to downward-pointing lunate cells and alkaloid secretions that anesthetize insects. Here we report that perhaps the most important capture mechanism has thus far remained overlooked.