New findings of terrestrial arthropods from the Azorean Islands.

The knowledge on taxonomic diversity of arthropods is key to better understanding the biodiversity patterns and processes and guiding sustainable conservation strategies and practices. In the Azores, terrestrial arthropods are relatively well-inventoried following the publication of comprehensive checklists that have been regularly updated. Nevertheless, every year, new species are found as a result of new arrivals to the Archipelago and from addressing specific taxonomic lacunae.

No sex-dependent mortality in an amphibian upon infection with the chytrid fungus, .

One of the major factors driving the currently ongoing biodiversity crisis is the anthropogenic spread of infectious diseases. Diseases can have conspicuous consequences, such as mass mortality events, but may also exert covert but similarly severe effects, such as sex ratio distortion via sex-biased mortality. Chytridiomycosis, caused by the fungal pathogen (Bd) is among the most important threats to amphibian biodiversity.

From darkness to twilight: Morphological divergence between cave and surface-subterranean ecotone species.

Subterranean and surface habitats are in stark contrast in several environmental factors. Therefore, adaptation to the subterranean environment typically impedes the (re)colonisation of surface habitats. The genus includes amphipod crustaceans that primarily occupy subterranean habitats.

Sports and exercise-related smartphone use is antagonistic to hedonic use in regular exercisers: A cross-sectional study examining the roles of exercise frequency and duration.

Background: Hedonic smartphone use has been associated with dependence and addiction studied under the umbrella term Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU). Research usually explores total screen time as an index of PSU. A few studies suggest that exercise is inversely related to smartphone use time.

Food density drives diet shift of the invasive mysid shrimp, .

Understanding the diet preferences and food selection of invasive species is crucial to better predict their impact on community structure and ecosystem functioning. , a Ponto-Caspian invasive mysid shrimp, is one of the most successful invaders in numerous European river and lake ecosystems. While existing studies suggest potentially strong trophic impact due to high predation pressure on native plankton communities, little is known of its food selectivity between phyto- and zooplankton, under different food concentrations.

The estimation of additive genetic variance of body size in a wild passerine is sensitive to the method used to estimate relatedness among the individuals.

Assessing additive genetic variance is a crucial step in predicting the evolutionary response of a target trait. However, the estimated genetic variance may be sensitive to the methodology used, e.g.

Broadly sympatric occurrence of two thief ant species (Latreille, 1798) and (Arakelian, 1991) in the East European Pontic-Caspian region (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) is disclosed.

This paper presents numeric morphology-based evidence on the broadly overlapping distribution of two thief ant species (Latreille, 1798) and (Arakelian, 1991) in the East European Pontic-Caspian region. The paper integrates two autonomous data collections and independent analyses performed by different researchers, using different equipment, considering different character combinations, and evaluating partially different samples. Five type series, the neotype series of (Latreille 1798) and the type series of (Nylander, 1849), S.

Comment on "Human-directed attachment behaviour in wolves suggests standing ancestral variation for human-dog attachment bonds".

In their recent paper, Hansen Wheat et al. (, 2022, , e9299) claimed that hand raised 23-week-old wolves showed the same attachment behaviour towards their handler in the Strange Situation Test (SST) (, 1969, , 111) as dogs. At first glance, their results seem to contradict previous findings that domestication caused a unique change in social-affiliative behaviours in dogs (, 2005, , 1367).

Genomic analysis reveals complex population structure within the smooth newt, , in Central Europe.

Species with wide-range distributions usually display high genetic variation. This variation can be partly explained by historical lineages that were temporally isolated from each other and are back into secondary reproductive contact, and partly by local adaptations. The smooth newt () is one of the most widely distributed amphibians species across Eurasia and forms a species complex with a partially overlapping distribution and morphology.

East-facing has maximal number and mass of kernel-filled seeds: Seed traits versus head orientation.

After anthesis, the majority of mature sunflower () inflorescences face constantly East, which direction ensures maximal light energy absorbed by the inflorescences in regions where afternoons are on average cloudier than mornings. Several theories have tried to explain the function(s) of this eastward orientation. Their common assumption is that eastward facing has certain advantages for sunflowers.

Optimal prey for red fox cubs-An example of dual optimizing foraging strategy in foxes from a dynamic wetland habitat.

The red fox () is the most abundant mesopredator in the Central European region. Detailed knowledge about their feeding behavior is important both from ecological and wildlife management reasons. Food choices of foxes are poorly predictable in high-biodiversity marshlands.

Comparing ant morphology measurements from microscope and online AntWeb.org 2D z-stacked images.

Unprecedented technological advances in digitization and the steadily expanding open-access digital repositories are yielding new opportunities to quickly and efficiently measure morphological traits without transportation and advanced/expensive microscope machinery. A prime example is the AntWeb.org database, which allows researchers from all over the world to study taxonomic, ecological, or evolutionary questions on the same ant specimens with ease.

Removal and identification of external protein corona members from RBC-derived extracellular vesicles by surface manipulating antimicrobial peptides.

In the last years, extracellular vesicles (EVs), secreted by various cells and body fluids have shown extreme potential in biomedical applications. Increasing number of studies suggest that a protein corona could adhere to the surface of EVs which can have a fundamental effect on their function, targeting and therapeutical efficacy. However, removing and identifying these corona members is currently a challenging task to achieve.

Formerly considered rare, the ant species (Mayr, 1855) can be commonly detected using citizen-science tools.

Citizen science is a valuable tool for monitoring different species, especially in cases concerning truly rare and difficult-to-detect species where time-consuming field studies are limited and long-term research projects are uncertain. To better understand the distribution of the rarely collected (Mayr, 1855) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Hungary, we obtained the occurrence data with photos uploaded by non-professionals to the page of the largest Hungarian Facebook group dealing with ants and a citizen-science website dealing with biological data collection. In this article, we expand the known distribution of to include 46 new records from Hungary and one from Serbia.

A carbapenem antibiotic inhibiting a mammalian serine protease: structure of the acylaminoacyl peptidase-meropenem complex.

The structure of porcine AAP (pAAP) in a covalently bound complex with meropenem was determined by cryo-EM to 2.1 Å resolution, showing the mammalian serine-protease inhibited by a carbapenem antibiotic. AAP is a modulator of the ubiquitin-proteasome degradation system and the site of a drug-drug interaction between the widely used antipsychotic, valproate and carbapenems.

Individual differences in song plasticity in response to social stimuli and singing position.

Individual animals can react to the changes in their environment by exhibiting behaviors in an individual-specific way leading to individual differences in phenotypic plasticity. However, the effect of multiple environmental factors on multiple traits is rarely tested. Such a complex approach is necessary to assess the generality of plasticity and to understand how among-individual differences in the ability to adapt to changing environments evolve.

Simulated trapping and trawling exert similar selection on fish morphology.

Commercial fishery harvest can influence the evolution of wild fish populations. Our knowledge of selection on morphology is however limited, with most previous studies focusing on body size, age, and maturation. Within species, variation in morphology can influence locomotor ability, possibly making some individuals more vulnerable to capture by fishing gears.

Parallel morphological evolution and habitat-dependent sexual dimorphism in cave- vs. surface populations of the (Crustacea: Isopoda: Asellidae) species complex.

Studying parallel evolution (repeated, independent evolution of similar phenotypes in similar environments) is a powerful tool to understand environment-dependent selective forces. Surface-dwelling species that repeatedly and independently colonized caves provide unique models for such studies. The primarily surface-dwelling species complex is a good candidate to carry out such research, because it colonized several caves in Europe.

Triparental care in the collared flycatcher (): Cooperation of two females with a cuckolded male in rearing a brood.

Certain predominant forms of mating and parental care systems are assumed in several model species among birds, but the opportunistic and apparently infrequent variations of "family structures" may often remain hidden due to methodological limitations with regard to genetic or behavioral observations. One of the intensively studied model species, the collared flycatcher (), is usually characterized by social monogamy with polyterritorial, facultative social polygyny, and frequent extrapair mating and extrapair paternity. During a brood-size manipulation experiment, we observed two females and a male delivering food at an enlarged brood.

Recording fine-scale movement of ground beetles by two methods: Potentials and methodological pitfalls.

Movement trajectories are usually recorded as a sequence of discrete movement events described by two parameters: step length (distance) and turning angle (bearing). One of the most widespread methods to record the geocoordinates of each step is by a GPS device. Such devices have limited suitability for recording fine movements of species with low dispersal ability including flightless carabid beetles at small spatio-temporal scales.

Melanin-based ornament darkness positively correlates with across-season nutritional condition.

Sexually dimorphic ornamental traits are widely regarded as indicators of nutritional condition. However, variation of nutritional condition outside the reproductive and the ornament production seasons has rarely been considered, although it affects the generality of information content, especially for ornaments that may be used across the year. We measured several indicators of migratory and molt condition in male and female blackcaps () during their autumn migration, and quantified their crown reflectance.

Subjective status and perceived legitimacy across countries.

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries ( = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower status, but there is variation across people and countries. The association between subjective status and perceived legitimacy was never negative at any levels of eight moderator variables, although the positive association was sometimes reduced.

Comparison of ligand binding and conformational stability of human calmodulin with its homolog from the malaria parasite .

Calmodulin (CaM), the key calcium sensor of eukaryotic cells regulating a great number of target proteins, belongs to the most conserved proteins. We compared function and properties of CaMs from two evolutionarily distant species, the human () representing vertebrates, and the malaria parasite (Pf). The biophysical characterization revealed higher stability of Pf CaM attributed to the more stable C-terminal domain in both Ca free and saturated states.

Color polarization vision mediates the strength of an evolutionary trap.

Evolutionary traps are scenarios in which animals are fooled by rapidly changing conditions into preferring poor-quality resources over those that better improve survival and reproductive success. The maladaptive attraction of aquatic insects to artificial sources of horizontally polarized light (e.g.