Current status of the oak gallwasp (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini) fauna of the Eastern Palaearctic and Oriental Regions.

Cynipid gallwasps comprise 1364 species worldwide, predominantly in temperate regions of the Holarctic. The vast majority of recorded species are from the Nearctic and the Western Palaearctic, both of which are long-standing centers of research on the taxonomy and biology of this group. In contrast, the Eastern Palaearctic and the Oriental Region faunas are much less studied, but potentially extremely rich.

Tournament ABC analysis of the western Palaearctic population history of an oak gall wasp, Synergus umbraculus.

Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is a powerful and widely used approach in inference of population history. However, the computational effort required to discriminate among alternative historical scenarios often limits the set that is compared to those considered more likely a priori. While often justifiable, this approach will fail to consider unexpected but well-supported population histories.

New species of cynipid inquilines of the genus Saphonecrus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini) from the Eastern Palaearctic, with a re-appraisal of known species world-wide.

Fifteen new species of cynipid inquilines, Saphonecrus chinensis Tang & Schwéger, S. gilvus Melika & Schwéger, S. globosus Schwéger & Tang, S.

New species of cynipid inquilines of the genus Synergus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini) from the Eastern Palaearctic.

Eight new species of cynipid inquilines, Synergus abei Melika & Schwéger, S. belizinellus Schwéger & Melika, S. changtitangi Melika & Schwéger, S.

Utilizing descriptive statements from the biodiversity heritage library to expand the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology.

Hymenoptera, the insect order that includes sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants, exhibits an incredible diversity of phenotypes, with over 145,000 species described in a corpus of textual knowledge since Carolus Linnaeus. In the absence of specialized training, often spanning decades, however, these articles can be challenging to decipher. Much of the vocabulary is domain-specific (e.

The description of Alloxysta chinensis, a new Charipinae species from China (Hymenoptera, Figitidae).

A new figitid species, Alloxysta chinensis Fülöp & Mikó sp nova, based on females, is described from China and South Korea. The functional morphology and the phylogenetic implication of some anatomical structures frequently used in Charipinae and the validity of the genus Carvercharips is discussed. This manuscript is the first of its kind linking descriptive terminology to Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology classes, which provides persistent links to definitions for terms used within this manuscript.

A conserved gene cluster as a putative functional unit in insect innate immunity.

The Nimrod gene superfamily is an important component of the innate immune response. The majority of its member genes are located in close proximity within the Drosophila melanogaster genome and they lie in a larger conserved cluster ("Nimrod cluster"), made up of non-related groups (families, superfamilies) of genes. This cluster has been a part of the Arthropod genomes for about 300-350 million years.

Phylogeny and DNA barcoding of inquiline oak gallwasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) of the Western Palaearctic.

We examine phylogenetic relationships within the Synergus complex of herbivorous inquiline gallwasps (Hymenoptera; Cynipidae; Synergini) associated with cynipid host galls on oak, a biologically diverse group whose genus-level morphological taxonomy has long been considered stable but whose species level taxonomy is problematic. We incorporate data for over 70% of recognised Western Palaearctic species in five morphology-based genera (Ceroptres, Saphonecrus, Synergus, Synophrus, Ufo), comprising sequence for two mitochondrial loci (coxI, cytb) and one nuclear locus (28S D2). In particular, we assess the evidence for monophyly of two long-established, morphology-defined sections within the genus Synergus that differ in a range of biological traits.

Whom do the sparrows follow? The effect of kinship on social preference in house sparrow flocks.

Non-aggressive social interactions between group-mates, e.g. maintenance of spatial proximity or activity synchrony are basic elements of a species' social structure, and were found to be associated with important fitness consequences in group-living animals.

Evolution of genes and repeats in the Nimrod superfamily.

The recently identified Nimrod superfamily is characterized by the presence of a special type of EGF repeat, the NIM repeat, located right after a typical CCXGY/W amino acid motif. On the basis of structural features, nimrod genes can be divided into three types. The proteins encoded by Draper-type genes have an EMI domain at the N-terminal part and only one copy of the NIM motif, followed by a variable number of EGF-like repeats.

T2prhd: a tool to study the patterns of repeat evolution.

Background: The models developed to characterize the evolution of multigene families (such as the birth-and-death and the concerted models) have also been applied on the level of sequence repeats inside a gene/protein. Phylogenetic reconstruction is the method of choice to study the evolution of gene families and also sequence repeats in the light of these models. The characterization of the gene family evolution in view of the evolutionary models is done by the evaluation of the clustering of the sequences with the originating loci in mind.

Molecular study of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonizing the sporophyte of the eusporangiate rattlesnake fern (Botrychium virginianum, Ophioglossaceae).

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi colonizing the sporophytes of the eusporangiate rattlesnake fern (Botrychium virginianum, Ophioglossaceae) in its Hungarian population were investigated in the present study. Different regions of the nrRNA gene complex were analyzed using two different primer sets. These produced similar results for the detected AM fungi phylotypes.

Short tandem repeat data analysis in a Mongolian population.

Fifteen somatic (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, VWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818, FGA) and five Y-chromosome (DYS19, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393) short tandem repeat (STR) system analyses were carried out in a Mongolian population in order to define the possible relationship between Mongolians and old Hungarian population. For STR data analysis the Microsoft Excel-PowerStats program was used. Inter-population data analysis was performed with Arlequin Software ver.