Inter-laboratory comparison of plant volatile analyses in the light of intra-specific chemodiversity.

Introduction: Assessing intraspecific variation in plant volatile organic compounds (VOCs) involves pitfalls that may bias biological interpretation, particularly when several laboratories collaborate on joint projects. Comparative, inter-laboratory ring trials can inform on the reproducibility of such analyses.

Objectives: In a ring trial involving five laboratories, we investigated the reproducibility of VOC collections with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and analyses by thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS).

Two new species of the bee-mimicking genus Mallophora (Diptera, Asilidae) from Colombia.

Mallophora Macquart, 1834 is a bee-mimicking genus of Asilidae, which has more than 50 described species in the Neotropical Region. Examination of specimens of this genus from Colombia indicate that there are two undescribed species based on the structure of the hind leg of males. Here we describe Mallophora gauteovan sp.