Three new species of Scolytoplatypus Schaufuss from China, and notes on the movement and functions of the prosternal processes (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae).

Three new species from China (Yunnan), Scolytoplatypus costatus Gebhardt Beaver, S. geminus Gebhardt Beaver and S. peniculatus Gebhardt Beaver, are described and compared with related species of the genus.

MRI-based brain volumes of preterm infants at term: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: MRI allows a detailed assessment of brain structures in preterm infants, outperforming cranial ultrasound. Neonatal MR-based brain volumes of preterm infants could serve as objective, quantitative and reproducible surrogate parameters of early brain development. To date, there are no reference values for preterm infants' brain volumes at term-equivalent age.

How can two soft bodied animals be precisely connected? a miniature quick-connect system in the slugs, Arion lusitanicus and Arion rufus.

Among stylommatophoran gastropods, many species have simplified or reduced their copulatory organs, for example, within the Arionidae, many species lack penes. In this study, I ask two questions 1) How are soft bodied slugs which do not possess a penis connected during copulation? and 2) Is there a mechanical isolating barrier between related sympatric slug species? Observations on the mating behavior and the functional morphology of the distal genital apparatus were made in a mixed population of Arion lusitanicus and Arion rufus. The investigated Arion species exhibit an elaborate copulation process with a quick genital coupling.

A hairy business-periostracal hair formation in two species of helicoid snails (gastropoda, stylommatophora, helicoidea).

In molluscs, the calcareous shell is covered externally by a thin organic layer, the periostracum. The periostracum of some pulmonate species is of special taxonomic interest because it bears distinct microscale architectures. Where and how these structures are formed is as yet unknown.

Active camouflage with lichens in a terrestrial snail, Napaeus (N.) barquini Alonso and Ibáñez, 2006 (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Enidae).

Napaeus barquini Alonso and Ibáñez, 2006, from La Gomera, Canary Islands, lives most commonly on open rock faces covered with crustose lichens. In living specimens, the surface of the shell is covered with a lichen layer that is arranged in the form of protuberances, thereby considerably altering the appearance of the shell. Some of these protuberances may even extend beyond the tip of the shell.