Revision of the genus Canalirogas van Achterberg & Chen (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from India with description of four new species and a key to the Indian species.

The Indian species of the genus Canalirogas van Achterberg & Chen, 1996 are revised. Four new species, Canalirogas multinigratus Gupta & van Achterberg sp. nov.

Humic substances modulate bacterial communities and mitigate adverse effects of temperature stress in coral reef organisms.

Aims: In the present study, we tested if terrestrially-derived humic substances (HS) could mitigate the adverse effects of elevated temperature and UVB radiation on the bacterial communities of two hard corals (Montipora digitata and Montipora capricornis), one soft coral (Sarcophyton glaucum), sediment and water. We also examined the impact of temperature, UVB radiation and HS supplementation on coral photosynthetic activity, a proxy for coral bleaching.

Methods And Results: We performed a multifactorial experiment using a randomized-controlled microcosm setup.

Fiddler Crabs (Crustacea: Decapoda: Ocypodidae) From Coastal Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands: Species Descriptions and DNA Barcodes.

Neotropical regions near the equator are recognized as speciation "hot spots" reflecting their abundant biodiversity. In western South America, the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, the Galápagos Archipelago, and northern Peru form the Tropical Eastern Pacific biome. This area has the greatest heterogeneity of sympatric fiddler crab species of any portion of the planet.

First insights into the life history of the early Miocene deer Procervulus ginsburgi from Spain.

The small-sized cervid Procervulus is considered as the most basal member of the Cervidae and one of the earliest ruminants bearing antler-like appendages. The Iberian Miocene record of this stem-cervid is extensively documented and largely overlaps with the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO), a transient period of global warming of particular interest when comparing present and near future conditions. Despite receiving a substantial amount of attention, histological studies on Procervulus are very scarce and only limited to postcranial remains of Procervulus praelucidus from Germany (MN3).

A Novel Sesterterpenoid, Petrosaspongin and γ-Lactone Sesterterpenoids with Leishmanicidal Activity from Okinawan Marine Invertebrates.

Leishmaniasis is a major public health problem, especially affecting vulnerable populations in tropical and subtropical regions. The disease is endemic in 90 countries, and with millions of people at risk, it is seen as one of the ten most neglected tropical diseases. Current treatments face challenges such as high toxicity, side effects, cost, and growing drug resistance.

Toward a phylogenomic classification of magnoliids.

Premise: Magnoliids are a strongly supported clade of angiosperms. Previous phylogenetic studies based primarily on analyses of a limited number of mostly plastid markers have led to the current classification of magnoliids into four orders and 18 families. However, uncertainty remains regarding the placement of several families.

Floodplain forests drive fruit-eating fish diversity at the Amazon Basin-scale.

Unlike most rivers globally, nearly all lowland Amazonian rivers have unregulated flow, supporting seasonally flooded floodplain forests. Floodplain forests harbor a unique tree species assemblage adapted to flooding and specialized fauna, including fruit-eating fish that migrate seasonally into floodplains, favoring expansive floodplain areas. Frugivorous fish are forest-dependent fauna critical to forest regeneration via seed dispersal and support commercial and artisanal fisheries.

One-quarter of freshwater fauna threatened with extinction.

Freshwater ecosystems are highly biodiverse and important for livelihoods and economic development, but are under substantial stress. To date, comprehensive global assessments of extinction risk have not included any speciose groups primarily living in freshwaters. Consequently, data from predominantly terrestrial tetrapods are used to guide environmental policy and conservation prioritization, whereas recent proposals for target setting in freshwaters use abiotic factors.

Starch-rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools.

In contrast to animal foods, wild plants often require long, multistep processing techniques that involve significant cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to perform. These costs are thought to have hindered how hominins used these foods and delayed their adoption into our diets. Through the analysis of starch grains preserved on basalt anvils and percussors, we demonstrate that a wide variety of plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene hominins at the site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago.

Phylogenomics yields new systematic and taxonomical insights for Lissotriton newts, a genus with a strong legacy of introgressive hybridization.

The ease with which genome-wide data can nowadays be collected allows complicated phylogenetic questions to be re-evaluated. Phylogenetic relationships among newts have often proven difficult to resolve due to the prevalence of incomplete lineage sorting and introgressive hybridization. For the newt genus Lissotriton, phylogenetic relationships are not settled and there is controversy surrounding the species status of several taxa.

Unravelling a Latent Pathobiome Across Coral Reef Biotopes.

Previous studies on disease in coral reef organisms have neglected the natural distribution of potential pathogens and the genetic factors that underlie disease incidence. This study explores the intricate associations between hosts, microbial communities, putative pathogens, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factors (VFs) across diverse coral reef biotopes. We observed a substantial compositional overlap of putative bacterial pathogens, VFs and ARGs across biotopes, consistent with the 'everything is everywhere, but the environment selects' hypothesis.

Running performance in Australopithecus afarensis.

The evolution of bipedal gait is a key adaptive feature in hominids, but the running abilities of early hominins have not been extensively studied. Here, we present physics simulations of Australopithecus afarensis that demonstrate this genus was mechanically capable of bipedal running but with absolute and relative (size-normalized) maximum speeds considerably inferior to modern humans. Simulations predicted running energetics for Australopithecus that are generally consistent with values for mammals and birds of similar body size, therefore suggesting relatively low cost of transport across a limited speed range.

Some like it hot: adaptation to the urban heat island in common dandelion.

The Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) is a globally consistent pressure on biological species living in cities. Adaptation to the UHIE may be necessary for urban wild flora to persist in cities, but experimental evidence is scarce. Here, we report evidence of adaptive evolution in a perennial plant species in response to the UHIE.

Allometry, sexual dimorphism, and Rensch's rule in pygmy and marbled newts.

Allometry, the relationship between body size and the size of other body parts, explains a significant portion of morphological variation across biological levels, at the individual level, within and between species. We used external morphology measurements of 6 Triturus (sub)species, focussing on the T. marmoratus species group, to explore allometric parameters within and between taxa.

A new species of Tapajosa Melichar from Curaçao, Lesser Antilles (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Proconiini).

A new species of the Neotropical genus Tapajosa Melichar 1924 from Curaçao is proposed, described, and illustrated. Tapajosa arawaka sp. nov.

Leiobracon, a new genus of the subfamily Braconinae (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) from Vietnam.

The genus Leiobracon gen. nov. and the type species Leiobracon vietnamicus sp.

Checklist of the Odonata (Insecta) of Sundaland and Wallacea (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Timor Leste).

A checklist, based on a database containing published data, of the Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) occurring in Sundaland and Wallacea is presented. The presence of (sub)species is indicated for eight main regions (Singapore & Peninsular Malaysia, South China Sea (islands in the South China Sea that are not sensibly treated as satellites of larger landmasses), Borneo, Sumatra, Java & Bali, Lesser Sunda, Sulawesi, Moluccas), 22 subregions and 80 smaller islands and island groups. In total 743 full species are recorded from the entire area with 549 species known from Sundaland and 270 from Wallacea.

Two new species of Machaerotidae from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with some additional records of the family (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea).

Machaerotidae is a small family with a paleotropical distribution. Eight species are known from Africa. Labramachaerota luilaka sp.

New braconid species of the Euphorinae genus Syntretus Foerster and a first report of the Alysiinae genus Heratemis Walker from India.

N/A.

Parasitoid complex of doryctine wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) reared from Pongamia pinnata (L.) (Fabaciae) coleopteran complex (Coleoptera) with description of two new species from India.

Two doryctine species, viz., Leluthia pongamiacola Gupta & Belokobylskij, sp. nov.

Platypontonia ngae sp. nov., a new symbiotic shrimp (Decapoda: Palaemonidae) living inside a boring gastrochaenid bivalve mollusk from the Philippines.

A new symbiotic palaemonid shrimp Platypontonia ngae sp. nov., is described based on a male-female pair found inside the mantle cavity of a gastrochaenid bivalve mollusk collected on a coral slope on the island Panglao, Philippines.