Preliminary checklist of spiders (Araneae) from Coiba National Park, Panama.

Background: Coiba National Park is an offshore region on the Pacific side of Panama, which hosts several endemic species of animals and plants. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. Despite the title awarded to the Park, knowledge about basic elements of its biodiversity are still lacking, which are of vital relevance for management and conservation policies.

Description of a new species of the complex from the Caribbean Sea, and resurrection of from the East Pacific (Crustacea, Anomura, Porcellanidae).

The complex currently consists of six American species distributed in the West Atlantic, including the amphi-American . All species in the complex are similar in their adult morphology but differ in colour, size, larval morphology, and shape of the adult sternal plate. The West Atlantic species have different geographic ranges, which overlap in the southern Caribbean.

Invasive wild deer exhibit environmental niche shifts in Australia: Where to from here?

Invasive species have established populations around the world and, in the process, characteristics of their realized environmental niches have changed. Because of their popularity as a source of game, deer have been introduced to, and become invasive in, many different environments around the world. As such, deer should provide a good model system in which to test environmental niche shifts.

Laying low: Rugged lowland rainforest preferred by feral cats in the Australian Wet Tropics.

Invasive mesopredators are responsible for the decline of many species of native mammals worldwide. Feral cats have been causally linked to multiple extinctions of Australian mammals since European colonization. While feral cats are found throughout Australia, most research has been undertaken in arid habitats, thus there is a limited understanding of feral cat distribution, abundance, and ecology in Australian tropical rainforests.

Density dependence of daily activity in three ungulate species.

Daily activity in herbivores reflects a balance between finding food and safety. The safety-in-numbers theory predicts that living in higher population densities increases safety, which should affect this balance. High-density populations are thus expected to show a more even distribution of activity-that is, spread-and higher activity levels across the day.

The genomic signal of local environmental adaptation in mosquitoes.

Local adaptation is important when predicting arthropod-borne disease risk because of its impacts on vector population fitness and persistence. However, the extent that vector populations are adapted to the environment generally remains unknown. Despite low population structure and high gene flow in mosquitoes across Panama, excepting the province of Bocas del Toro, we identified 128 candidate SNPs, clustered within 17 genes, which show a strong genomic signal of local environmental adaptation.

Sympatric divergence of the ergot fungus, , populations infecting agricultural and nonagricultural grasses in North America.

The ergot diseases of agricultural and nonagricultural grasses are caused by the infection of spp. (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) on florets, producing dark spur-like sclerotia on spikes that are toxic to humans and animals, leading to detrimental impacts on agriculture and economy due to the downgrading of cereal grains, import-export barriers, reduced yield, and ecological concerns. At least seven phylogenetic lineages (phylogenetic species) were identified within the premolecular concept of s.

Clustering of loci controlling species differences in male chemical bouquets of sympatric butterflies.

The degree to which loci promoting reproductive isolation cluster in the genome-that is, the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation-can influence the tempo and mode of speciation. Tight linkage between these loci can facilitate speciation in the face of gene flow. Pheromones play a role in reproductive isolation in many Lepidoptera species, and the role of endogenously produced compounds as secondary metabolites decreases the likelihood of pleiotropy associated with many barrier loci.

(Octoblepharaceae) a new species from the Neotropics.

, a new species of moss in the family Octoblepharaceae from Panama and Brazil, is described and illustrated. The new species is characterised by plants with a reddish-purple colour particularly at the leaf bases, peristomes of eight teeth, each tooth composed of two rows of cells, fenestrate and usually completely separated at the base, strongly vertically striate-reticulate, some striations forked-like in shape. At the base of the teeth, some striations are horizontally orientated, poorly developed or absent, particularly on the cell wall that is rupturing in the separation of the vertical rows of the cells that form each tooth.

A revision of the genus Verrill, 1868 (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean.

The species of the genus Verrill, 1868 from the shallow waters of the tropical eastern Pacific were mainly described from 1846 to 1870. Very few contributions were published subsequently. Recently, the genus was revisited with the addition of two new species.

Variation of chemical compounds in wild Heliconiini reveals ecological factors involved in the evolution of chemical defenses in mimetic butterflies.

Evolutionary convergence of color pattern in mimetic species is tightly linked with the evolution of chemical defenses. Yet, the evolutionary forces involved in natural variations of chemical defenses in aposematic species are still understudied. Herein, we focus on the evolution of chemical defenses in the butterfly tribe Heliconiini.

A new species of (Crustacea, Anomura, Porcellanidae) inhabiting vermetid formations (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Vermetidae) in the southern Caribbean Sea.

from the Caribbean Sea of Colombia is described. The new species resembles morphologically but differs from it principally by its color and habitat. is brown or blueish brown and occurs under intertidal boulders strongly exposed to water movement.

A new species of (Lecythidaceae) from south-western Gabon.

Kenfack & Nguema, from the Rabi forest in south-western Gabon is described, illustrated and assigned a provisional conservation status of "Critically Endangered". An identification key to the five Gabonese species of is also provided.

Amphibian diversity in Serranía de Majé, an isolated mountain range in eastern Panamá.

Eastern Panamá is within the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot and supports an understudied amphibian fauna. Here we characterize the amphibian diversity across an elevational gradient in one of the least studied mountain ranges in eastern Panamá, Serranía de Majé. A total of 38 species were found, which represent 17% of all species reported for Panamá.

A new species of (Crustacea, Anomura, Porcellanidae) inhabiting polychaete-worm tubes (Annelida, Chaetopteridae) in the Indo-West Pacific.

from the South China Sea of Vietnam is described. The new species was collected in a previous study that compared the vertebrate and invertebrate symbiont communities living in the tubes of two syntopic species of the polychaete genus . inhabits the tubes of the smaller polychaete species as a heterosexual pair, and frequently shares the cavity of the host's tube with a larger porcellanid, , also present as a male-female pair, and with a species of trinchesiid nudibranch.

On a new commensal species of from the western Pacific (Crustacea, Decapoda, Porcellanidae).

from the Philippines and Indonesia is described. The new species has been frequently photographed by divers because of its striking coloration, but has not been described yet. is in fact a widespread commensal of barrel sponges of the genus and other sponges.

The Saturniidae of Barro Colorado Island, Panama: A model taxon for studying the long-term effects of climate change?

We have little knowledge of the response of invertebrate assemblages to climate change in tropical ecosystems, and few studies have compiled long-term data on invertebrates from tropical rainforests. We provide an updated list of the 72 species of Saturniidae moths collected on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama, during the period 1958-2016. This list will serve as baseline data for assessing long-term changes of saturniids on BCI in the future, as 81% of the species can be identified by their unique DNA Barcode Index Number, including four cryptic species not yet formally described.

Comparative evolutionary diversity and phylogenetic structure across multiple forest dynamics plots: a mega-phylogeny approach.

Forest dynamics plots, which now span longitudes, latitudes, and habitat types across the globe, offer unparalleled insights into the ecological and evolutionary processes that determine how species are assembled into communities. Understanding phylogenetic relationships among species in a community has become an important component of assessing assembly processes. However, the application of evolutionary information to questions in community ecology has been limited in large part by the lack of accurate estimates of phylogenetic relationships among individual species found within communities, and is particularly limiting in comparisons between communities.