A New Light on the Evolution and Propagation of Prehistoric Grain Pests: The World's Oldest Maize Weevils Found in Jomon Potteries, Japan

Three Sitophilus species (S. granarius L., S. oryzae L., and S. zeamais Mots.) are closely related based on DNA analysis of their endosymbionts. All are seed parasites of cereal crops and important economic pest species in stored grain. The Sitophilus species that currently exist, including these three species, are generally believed to be endemic to Asia's forested areas, suggesting that the first infestations of stored grain must have taken place near the forested mountains of southwestern Asia. Previous archaeological data and historical records suggest that the three species may have been diffused by the spread of Neolithic agriculture, but this hypothesis has only been established for granary weevils in European and southwestern Asian archaeological records. There was little archeological evidence for grain pests in East Asia before the discovery of maize weevil impressions in Jomon pottery in 2004 using the “impression replica” method. Our research on Jomon agriculture based on seed and insect impressions in pottery continued to seek additional evidence. In 2010, we discovered older weevil impressions in Jomon pottery dating to ca. 10 500 BP. These specimens are the oldest harmful insects in the world discovered at archaeological sites. Our results provide evidence of harmful insects living in the villages from the Earliest Jomon, when no cereals were cultivated. This suggests we must reconsider previous scenarios for the evolution and propagation of grain pest weevils, especially in eastern Asia. Although details of their biology or the foods they infested remain unclear, we hope future interdisciplinary collaborations among geneticists, entomologists, and archaeologists will provide the missing details

‘Sub-Prime’ Water, Low-Security Entitlements and Policy Challenges in Over-Allocated River Basins: the Case of the Murray–Darling Basin

Environmental policy is often implemented using market instruments. In some cases, including carbon taxing, the links between financial products and the environmental objectives, are transparent. In other cases, including water markets, the links are less transparent. In Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), financial water products are known as ‘entitlements’, and are similar to traditional financial products, such as shares. The Australian water market includes ‘Low Security’ entitlements, which are similar to ‘sub-prime’ mortgage bonds because they are unlikely to yield an amount equal to their financial worth. Nearly half the water purchased under the Murray–Darling Basin Plan for environmental purposes is ‘Low Security’. We suggest that the current portfolio of water held by the Australian Government for environmental purposes reflects the mortgage market in the lead-up to the global financial crisis. Banks assumed that the future value of the mortgage market would reflect past trends. Similarly, it is assumed that the future value of water products will reflect past trends, without considering climate change. Historic records of allocations to ‘Low Security’ entitlements in the MDB suggest that, in the context of climate change, the Basin Plan water portfolio may fall short of the target annual average yield of 2075 GL by 511 GL. We recommend adopting finance sector methods including ‘hedging’ ‘Low Security’ entitlements by purchasing an additional 322–2755 GL of ‘Low Security’, or 160–511 GL of ‘High Security’ entitlements. Securing reliable environmental water is a global problem. Finance economics present opportunities for increasing the reliability of environmental flows

Search for long-lived heavy charged particles using a ring imaging Cherenkov technique at LHCb

A search is performed for heavy long-lived charged particles using 3.0 fb$^{-1}$ of pp collisions collected at $\sqrt{s}$= 7 and 8 TeV with the LHCb detector. The search is mainly based on the response of the ring imaging Cherenkovdetectors to distinguish the heavy, slow-moving particles from muons. No evidence is found for the production of such long-lived states. The results are expressed as limits on the Drell-Yan production of pairs of long-lived particles, with both particles in the LHCb pseudorapidity acceptance, $1.8 < \eta < 4.9$. The mass-dependent cross-section upper limits are in the range 2-4 fb (at 95\% CL) for masses between 124 and 309 GeV/c$^2$

Behavioral interactions between Sitophilus zeamais and Tribolium castaneum: the first colonizer matters

There is lack of knowledge on the interactions between kernel aging and the simultaneous infestation by insects, both internal and external feeders. In the present paper, we report results obtained in arena-olfactometer assays in which we studied possible preference and behavioral relationships between the primary colonizer Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) and the secondary colonizer Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). For this purpose, three experiments were conducted. The experiment I examined the response of S. zeamais adults at the fresh or stored kernels damaged by T. castaneum adults, compared to the control and the response of T. castaneum adults at the fresh or stored kernels damaged by S. zeamais adults, compared to the control. The experiment II examined the response of S. zeamais adults at the intact fresh or stored kernels conditioned at different conditioning intervals (1, 7, and 14 days) with kernels damaged by T. castaneum, compared to the control and the response of T. castaneum adults at the intact fresh or stored kernels conditioned at different conditioning intervals (1, 7 and 14 days) with kernels damaged by S. zeamais, compared to the control. The experiment III examined the response of S. zeamais adults at kernels contaminated at different contamination intervals by larvae or adults of T. castaneum, and the response of T. castaneum adults at kernels contaminated by larvae or adults of S. zeamais. In experiment I, significantly more S. zeamais adults were found in traps containing fresh or stored kernels damaged by T. castaneum than in the controls. Significantly more T. castaneum adults were found in traps containing fresh or stored kernels damaged by S. zeamais than in the controls. In experiment II, at 7 days of conditioning, significantly more adults of S. zeamais were captured in the traps used as control than in the traps containing either fresh conditioned kernels or stored conditioned kernels. At 1 and 14 days of conditioning, significantly more adults of T. castaneum were captured in the traps that contained stored conditioned kernels damaged by S. zeamais than in the controls. In experiment III, at 1, 7, and 14 days of contamination, significantly more adults of S. zeamais were captured in traps with kernels contaminated by larvae of T. castaneum or in the traps with kernels contaminated by adult females of T. castaneum than in the controls. Significantly more S. zeamais adults were found in traps containing kernels contaminated by T. castaneum adult males than in control kernels at the 7 and 14 days of contamination. At 1 day of contamination, significantly more adults of T. castaneum were captured in traps with kernels contaminated by larvae of S. zeamais than in the controls. The results of the present study suggest that kernels which were previously infested by S. zeamais were more prone to be selected by T. castaneum adults and kernels that were previously infested by T. castaneum were more prone to be selected by S. zeamais. Thus, the first colonizer can serve as the primary colonizer of stored grains, even if this first colonizer cannot infest sound kernels. The kernel age was also a crucial issue for the attraction of S. zeamais and T. castaneum. Stored kernels exhibited a stronger influence on the attraction of T. castaneum than for S. zeamais

Tiny hitchhikers and parasites: a review of Australian heterostigmatic mites (Acari: Prostigmata) associated with insects, with description of three new species

Heterostigmatic mites (Heterostigmata) are highly diverse, have symbiotic associations with various insects and occur worldwide. Despite Australia's rich insect biodiversity, little is known about its heterostigmatic mites. In this study, we conducted a preliminary study on heterostigmatic mites associated with beetles in eastern Australia and found four species, of which three were new: Caraboacarus stammeri Krczal, 1959 (Caraboacaridae) and Eutarsopolipus orpheus Katlav & Seeman, sp. nov., (Podapolipidae) associated with Australian-endemic Gnathaphanus melbournensis (Castelnau, 1867) (Carabidae); Hoplocheylus australiensis Katlav & Seeman, sp. nov., (Tarsocheylidae) phoretic on Australian-endemic Mastachilus quaestionis (Kuwert, 1891) (Passalidae); and Pavania gazellatris Katlav & Seeman, sp. nov., (Dolichocybidae) phoretic on introduced Digitonthophagus gazella (Fabricius, 1787) (Scarabaeidae). The species of Caraboacaridae, Dolichocybidae and Tarsocheylidae are the first species records of these families in Australia. It is likely that two of the three new species are Australian endemics, while P. gazellatris may be a more recent arrival on introduced dung beetles, possibly arriving with imports of exotic adult dung beetles. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the heterostigmatic mite fauna of Australia that consists of less than 90 species belonging to 13 families, with representatives of all known seven superfamilies. These mites have so far been mostly reported on beetles but also on other insect orders (Blattodea, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera). Our findings of three new species and one new record based on the analysis of a relatively small number of specimens and beetle species suggest that more comprehensive studies of host insect taxa will reveal a substantially larger Australian diversity of heterostigmatic mites