203 results match your criteria: "McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity[Affiliation]"

Revision of the South American genus Dognin (Noctuidae, Pantheinae) with descriptions of five new genera and twenty-one new species.

Zookeys

November 2020

Florida Museum of Natural History, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA, University of Florida Gainesville United States of America.

The endemic Neotropical genus Dognin is revised. Morphological characters and a phylogenetic analysis demonstrate paraphyletic relationships among the species. Four different groups are interpreted to represent four different genera.

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Altitudinal variation in butterfly community associated with climate and vegetation.

An Acad Bras Cienc

November 2020

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Ecologia Evolutiva & Biodiversidade, Departamento de Genética, Ecologia & Evolução, Av. Pres. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Pampulha, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil.

Elevation creates a variety of physical conditions in a relatively short distance, which makes mountains suitable for studying the effects of climate change on biodiversity. We investigated the importance of climate and vegetation for the distribution of butterflies from 800 to 1400 m elevation. We sampled butterflies, and woody and rosette plants and measured air temperature and humidity, wind speed and gust, and solar radiation.

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A new species of Cicinnus Blanchard (Lepidoptera, Mimallonidae, Cicinninae) from the mangrove ecoregions of Brazil.

Zootaxa

June 2020

Department of Biology, University of Florida, 220 Bartram Hall, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 3215 Hull Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

A new species of Cicinnus from northern coastal Brazil is described and illustrated: C. litoralis sp. n.

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Mixed-Species Gardens Increase Monarch Oviposition without Increasing Top-Down Predation.

Insects

September 2020

Entomology and Nematology Department, University of Florida, P.O. Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

Monarch butterfly populations have declined by over 80% in the last 20 years. Conservation efforts focus on the creation of milkweed habitats to mitigate this decline. Previous research has found monarchs lay more eggs per milkweed stem in urban gardens than natural habitats and recent work identified specific garden designs that make urban gardens more attractive to monarchs.

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Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms governing the uneven distribution of species richness across the tree of life is a great challenge in biology. Scientists have long argued that sexual conflict is a key driver of speciation. This hypothesis, however, has been highly debated in light of empirical evidence.

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A new species of cicinnine Mimallonidae, , is described from the Sky Islands Region of southern Arizona, USA. The new species is closely related to (Druce), type locality Veracruz, Mexico, based on morphology and genetics. The other species known from the United States, the common (type locality Pennsylvania, USA) is morphologically and genetically distinct from both and .

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The poorly studied Mesoamerican genus Adamsiana Penny, 1996 (Neuroptera: Ithonidae) was considered monotypic for more than 20 years, containing only Adamsiana curoei Penny. However, a second species was recently discovered in the southern region of Guatemala and is described here as Adamsiana alux Ardila-Camacho, Castillo-Argaez & Martinez, sp. nov.

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A new species of Ukamenia from Vietnam (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae: Gatesclarkeanini).

Zootaxa

February 2020

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA..

The genus Ukamenia Oku (1981) was proposed with Simaethis sapporensis Matsumura (1931) from Japan as its type species, which had been originally described in the family Choreutidae. Oku (1981) based the new genus on characters of S. sapporensis that were typical of Tortricidae rather than Choreutidae, notably the naked haustellum (scaled in Choreutidae), among many other characters differing between the two families, such as wing venation, head morphology, and genital form.

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While surface microstructures of butterfly wings have been extensively studied for their structural coloration or optical properties within the visible spectrum, their properties in infrared wavelengths with potential ties to thermoregulation are relatively unknown. The midinfrared wavelengths of 7.5 to 14 µm are particularly important for radiative heat transfer in the ambient environment, because of the overlap with the atmospheric transmission window.

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The sky islands of southeastern Arizona (AZ) mark a major transition zone between tropical and temperate biota and are considered a neglected biodiversity hotspot. Dispersal ability and host plant specificity are thought to impact the history and diversity of insect populations across the sky islands. We aimed to investigate the population structure and phylogeography of two pine-feeding pierid butterflies, the pine white () and the Mexican pine white (), restricted to these "islands" at this transition zone.

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A new Grapholita species from Sumatra, Indonesia (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae: Grapholitini).

Zootaxa

May 2019

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA..

A new species, Grapholita diehli n. sp., is described and illustrated from northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

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A new genus of Castniinae (Lepidoptera Castniidae) with comments on comparative morphology and bionomics of its assigned species.

Zootaxa

September 2019

Austin Achieve Public Schools, Austin, Texas, 78723, USA McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, P.O. Box 112710, Gainesville, FL 32611-2710, USA..

There are 14 species of Castniinae known from Mexico of which about ten appear to be endemic. Among the latter, we find Synpalamides chelone (Hopffer, 1856), Synpalamides escalantei (J.Y.

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New species of Procinnus Herbin and Micrallo St Laurent and C. Mielke (Lepidoptera, Mimallonidae, Druenticinae) from the Brazilian Cerrado.

Zootaxa

March 2019

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 3215 Hull Road, Gainesville, FL 32611-2710, USA. Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

Two new species of Mimallonidae are described from the Brazilian Cerrado. One species belongs to Procinnus Herbin, 2016 and the second to Micrallo St Laurent and C. Mielke, 2016, both considered to belong to Druenticinae St Laurent and Kawahara, 2018.

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Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

November 2019

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

Article Synopsis
  • Butterflies and moths (called Lepidoptera) are super cool insects, with around 160,000 different kinds, and they help the environment by pollinating plants and serving as food for other animals.
  • They also help scientists understand changes in nature and study ideas like mimicry, where one species looks like another, and the special relationship they have with plants and bats.
  • Researchers created a detailed family tree of Lepidoptera using a lot of data, showing that these insects evolved special features, like a long tongue for sipping nectar, and that butterflies changed from flying at night to flying during the day a long time ago.
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Advances in nondestructive genetic sampling techniques continue to offer new opportunities for studying organisms, particularly those of conservation concern where more traditional invasive sampling methods are often not available. As part of a proof-of-concept, we investigated the effectiveness of using the chorion from residual butterfly egg debris as a source of viable genetic material for analysis. Laboratory material from a captive breeding population of the federally endangered Miami blue butterfly () was used to test efficacy and refine the methodology.

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Pollination ecology of the ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii): A first description with new hypotheses for Darwin's orchids.

Sci Rep

September 2019

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.

The structural variation of orchids enables myriad fascinating symbiotic relationships with organisms across kingdoms. Orchids are frequently known for having elaborate arms races with their pollinators that result in intricate morphologies in both parties, and flowers with long corollas hypothesized to be pollinated only by individual species of long tongued hawkmoths are of particular concern for conservation. Florida's endangered ghost orchid, Dendrophylax lindenii, has long been confidently assumed to be pollinated by one species (Cocytius antaeus), despite the presence of a resident community of multiple suitable long-tongued candidates.

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A revision of the new genus Nakahara, Willmott & Espeland, gen. n., described for Fabricius, 1776 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae).

Zookeys

January 2019

Arthropoda Department, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauer Allee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig Bonn Germany.

We here propose a new, monotypic genus, Nakahara, Willmott & Espeland, , to harbor a common Neotropical butterfly, described as Fabricius, 1776, and hitherto placed in the genus Forster, 1964. Recent and ongoing molecular phylogenetic research has shown to be polyphyletic, with proving to be unrelated to remaining species and not readily placed in any other described genus. as treated here is a widely distributed and very common species ranging from southern Mexico to southern Brazil.

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Reclassification of the Sack-bearer Moths (Lepidoptera, Mimallonoidea, Mimallonidae).

Zookeys

January 2019

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 3215 Hull Road, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA University of Florida Gainesville United States of America.

A backbone molecular phylogeny of Mimallonidae, based on 47 species and 515 loci, was recently published. That study resolved some of the major relationships in the family, but taxon sampling was limited and a classification of the family was not formally presented for all species. Here morphological phylogenetic analyses in parsimony and maximum likelihood (ML) frameworks were conducted that included 192 species and 55 morphological characters.

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Discovery of a rare and striking new pierid butterfly from Panama (Lepidoptera: Pieridae).

Zootaxa

December 2018

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, USA Departamento de Entomología, Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Apartado 14-0434 Lima-14, Peru.

We here describe and name a distinctive new pierid species in the subfamily Pierinae, Catasticta sibyllae Nakahara, Padrón MacDonald, n. sp. from western Panama.

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Emperors, admirals and giants, zebras, tigers and woolly bears: casting a broader net in exploring heparin effects on Lepidoptera wing patterns.

F1000Res

November 2018

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, USA.

Studies of heparin effects on Lepidoptera wing patterns have been restricted to a small number of species. I report observations from experiments on a broader range of taxa, including first results from swallowtails, tiger moths and microlepidoptera. Heparin injections were made in prepupae and pupae of (common buckeyes), (gulf fritillaries), (zebra longwings), (tawny emperors) (monarchs), (red admirals); (giant swallowtails), (spicebush swallowtails), (zebra swallowtails), (polydamas swallowtails); (giant leopard moths), (acrea moths), (fall webworm moths) (ornate bella moths); (mulberry leaftier).

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Polymorphisms for melanic form of insects may provide various selective advantages. However, melanic alleles may have significant/subtle pleiotrophic "costs." Several potential pleiotrophic effects of the W (=Y)-linked melanism gene in Papilio glaucus L.

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Some taxa have adopted the strategy of mimicry to protect themselves from predation. Butterflies are some of the best representatives used to study mimicry, with the monarch butterfly, (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) a well-known model. We are the first to empirically investigate a proposed mimic of the monarch butterfly: , the Mexican pine white butterfly (Lepidoptera: Pieridae).

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The North American monarch butterfly () population has declined significantly over the past two decades. Among the many other factors, loss of breeding habitat has been implicated as a potential leading driver. In response, wildlife agencies and conservation practitioners have made a strong push to restore and conserve milkweeds on both wild and managed landscapes including agricultural lands as well as transportation and utility rights-of-way.

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The identity of Cicinnus orthane Blanchard, 1852 (Lepidoptera, Mimallonidae, Cicinninae), type species of Cicinnus Blanchard, 1852.

Zootaxa

July 2018

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, 3215 Hull Road, Gainesville, FL 32611-2710, USA. Department of Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

In order to clarify the identity of the type species of one of the most diverse Mimallonidae genera, Cicinnus Blanchard, 1852, we designate a lectotype for Cicinnus orthane Blanchard, 1852 with photographs of the lectotype (dorsal and ventral) and its genitalia figured for the first time. Cicinnus orthane, described from Chile, is a close morphological match for a southeastern Brazilian species, which we also illustrate for comparative purposes. Because the lectotype of C.

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A new species of Anthozela from Vietnam, with a list of species in the genus (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae: Enarmoniini).

Zootaxa

July 2018

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA..

The genus Anthozela Meyrick (1913) is reported for the first time from Vietnam, represented by the new species Anthozela cypriflammella Heppner Bae, n. sp. A list of the species of Anthozela and related genera is provided.

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