Discovery of an unknown diversity of Leucinodes species damaging Solanaceae fruits in sub-Saharan Africa and moving in trade (Insecta, Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea)

The larvae of the Old World genera Leucinodes Guenée, 1854 and Sceliodes Guenée, 1854 are internal feeders in the fruits of Solanaceae, causing economic damage to cultivated plants like Solanum melongena and S. aethiopicum . In sub-Saharan Africa five nominal species of Leucinodes and one of Sceliodes occur. One of these species, the eggplant fruit and shoot borer L. orbonalis Guenée, 1854, is regarded as regularly intercepted from Africa and Asia in Europe, North and South America and is therefore a quarantine pest on these continents. We investigate the taxonomy of African Leucinodes and Sceliodes based on morpho - logical characters in wing pattern, genitalia and larvae, as well as mitochondrial DNA, providing these data for identification of all life stages. The results suggest that both genera are congeneric, with Sceliodes syn. n. established as junior subjective synonym of Leucinodes . L. orbonalis is described from Asia and none of the samples investigated from Africa belong to this species. Instead, sub-Saharan Africa harbours a complex of eight endemic Leucinodes species. Among the former nominal species of Leucinodes (and Sceliodes ) from Africa, only L. laisalis (Walker, 1859), comb. n. ( Sceliodes ) is confirmed, with Leucinodes translucidalis Gaede, 1917, syn. n. as a junior subjective synonym. The other African Leucinodes species were unknown to science and are described as new: L. africensis sp. n. , L. ethiopica sp. n. , L. kenyensis sp. n. , L. malawiensis sp. n. , L. pseudorbonalis sp. n. , L. rimavallis sp. n. and L. ugandensis sp. n. An identification key based on male genitalia is provided for the African Leucinodes species. Most imports of Leucinodes specimens from Africa into Europe refer to Leucinodes africensis , which has been frequently imported with fruits during the last 50 years. In contrast, L. laisalis has been much less frequently re - corded, and L. pseudorbonalis as well as L. rimavallis only very recently in fruit imports from Uganda. Accordingly, interceptions of Leucinodes from Africa into other continents will need to be re-investigated for their species identity and will likely require, at least in parts, revisions of the quarantine regulations. The following African taxa are excluded from Leucinodes : Hyperanalyta Strand, 1918, syn. rev. as revised synonym of Analyta Lederer, 1863; Analyta apicalis (Hampson, 1896), comb. n. ( Leucinodes ); Lygropia aureomarginalis (Gaede, 1916), comb. n. ( Leucinodes ); Syllepte hemichionalis Mabille, 1900, comb. rev. , S. hemichionalis idalis Viette, 1958, comb. rev. and S. vagans (Tutt, 1890), comb. n. ( Aphytoceros ). Deanolis iriocapna (Meyrick, 1938), comb. n. from Indonesia is originally described and misplaced in Sceliodes , and L. cordalis (Doubleday, 1843), comb. n. ( Margaritia ) from New Zealand, L. raondry (Viette, 1981) comb. n. ( Daraba ) from Madagascar as well as L. grisealis (Kenrick, 1912), comb. n. ( Sceliodes ) from New Guinea are transferred from Sceliodes to Leucinodes . While Leucinodes is now revised from Africa, it still needs further revision in Asia.publishedVersio

Sharks of the order Carcharhiniformes from the British Coniacian, Santonian and Campanian (Upper Cretaceous).

Bulk sampling of phosphate-rich horizons within the British Coniacian to Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) yielded very large samples of shark and ray teeth. All of these samples yielded teeth of diverse members of the Carcharhiniformes, which commonly dominate the fauna. The following species are recorded and described: Pseudoscyliorhinus reussi (Herman, 1977) comb. nov., Crassescyliorhinus germanicus (Herman, 1982) gen. nov., Scyliorhinus elongatus (Davis, 1887), Scyliorhinus brumarivulensis sp. nov., ? Palaeoscyllium sp., Prohaploblepharus riegrafi (Müller, 1989) gen. nov., ? Cretascyliorhinus sp., Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 1, Scyliorhinidae inc. sedis 2, Pteroscyllium hermani sp. nov., Protoscyliorhinus sp., Leptocharias cretaceus sp. nov., Palaeogaleus havreensis Herman, 1977, Paratriakis subserratus sp. nov., Paratriakis tenuis sp. nov., Paratriakis sp. indet. and ? Loxodon sp. Taxa belonging to the families ?Proscylliidae, Leptochariidae, and Carcharhinidae are described from the Cretaceous for the first time. The evolutionary and palaeoecological implications of these newly recognised faunas are discussed

Fazendas de café oitocentistas no Vale do Paraíba

The architectural remnants of the old coffee plantation estates configure remarkable examples of São Paulo State (Vale do Paraíba) rural architecture. The study of their components, as well as the way in which they were established and organized, was carried out by means of readings of coffee plantation literature of the time, and by the analysis of owners' deeds. On the last part of this essay, the focus is extended to the analysis of the remaining architecture of such edifications.As edificações remanescentes das fazendas de café do Vale do Paraíba constituem notáveis expressões da arquitetura rural paulista. O estudo de seus componentes e a compreensão de sua organização são aqui abordados mediante a leitura de textos, da época, sobre o cultivo de café e o exame de inventários de bens de seus proprietários. Na parte final, este enfoque é desdobrado na análise da arquitetura desses estabelecimentos

The centrosome and spindle as a ribonucleoprotein complex

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Chromosome Research 19 (2011): 367-376, doi:10.1007/s10577-011-9186-7.The presence of nucleic acids in centrosomes and the spindle have been proposed, observed, and reported since the 1950s. Why did the subject remain, perhaps even until today, such a controversial issue? The explanation is manifold, and includes legitimate concern over contamination from other cellular compartments in biochemical preparations. With a typically high background of cytoplasmic ribosomes, even microscopic images of stained intact cells could be difficult to interpret. Also, evidence for RNA and DNA in centrosomes accumulated for approximately 40 years but was interspersed with contradictory studies, primarily regarding the presence of DNA (reviewed in Johnson and Rosenbaum, 1991; Marshall and Rosenbaum, 2000). Perhaps less tangible but still a likely cause for lingering controversy is that the presence of nucleic acids in the spindle or centrosomes will require us to look differently at these structures from a functional, and more to the point, evolutionary standpoint.This work was supported by grants from the NIH (GM088503) and NSF (MCB0843092) to MCA

Shark fossil diversity (Squalomorphii, Squatinomorphii, and Galeomorphii) from the Langhian of Brielas (Lower Tagus Basin, Portugal)

The fossiliferous marine Miocene sediments of the Lower Tagus Basin (Portugal) present a great diversity of Chondrichthyes forms. The current study focuses on the fossil sharks from the Langhian Vc unit of the Brielas section, located in the Setúbal Peninsula. A total of 384 isolated fossil teeth were analysed and ascribed to 17 species from the Orders Hexanchiformes, Squaliformes, Squatiniformes, Lamniformes, and Carcharhiniformes. Centrophorus granulosus and Iago angustidens are described for the first time in Portuguese sediments, whereas Pachyscyllium dachiardii and Rhizoprionodon ficheuri represent only their second reported occurrence. Galeorhinus goncalvesi was already known from the Portuguese uppermost Miocene (Alvalade Basin), but it is now recognized in older sediments. Furthermore, the new material seems to include the first reported occurrence of Hexanchus cf. agassizi in Miocene sediments. As a whole, these new findings support the previous palaeoenvironment characterization of a warm infralittoral setting gradually deepening to a circalittoral one, where seasonal upwelling phenomena could have occurred