The rate of colonization by macro-invertebrates on artificial substrate samplers

The influence of exposure time upon macro-invertebrate colonization on modified Hester-Dendy substrate samplers was investigated over a 60-day period. The duration of exposure affected the number of individuals, taxa and community diversity. The numbers of individuals colonizing the samplers reached a maximum after 39 days and then began to decrease, due to the emergence of adult insects. Coefficients of variation for the four replicate samples retrieved each sampling day fluctuated extensively throughout the study. No tendencies toward increasing or decreasing coefficients of variation were noted with increasing time of sampler exposure. The number of taxa colonizing the samplers increased throughout the study period. The community diversity index was calculated for each sampling day and this function tended to increase throughout the same period. This supports the hypothesis that an exposure period of 6 weeks, as recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, may not always provide adequate opportunity for a truly representative community of macro-invertebrates to colonize multiplate samplers. Many of the taxa were collected in quite substantial proportions after periods of absence or extreme sparseness. This is attributed to the growth of periphyton and the collection of other materials that created food and new habitats suitable for the colonization of new taxa. Investigation of the relationship between ‘equitability’ and length of exposure revealed that equitability did not vary like diversity with increased time of exposure.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72073/1/j.1365-2427.1979.tb01522.x.pd

Content and performance of the MiniMUGA genotyping array: A new tool to improve rigor and reproducibility in mouse research

The laboratory mouse is the most widely used animal model for biomedical research, due in part to its well-annotated genome, wealth of genetic resources, and the ability to precisely manipulate its genome. Despite the importance of genetics for mouse research, genetic quality control (QC) is not standardized, in part due to the lack of cost-effective, informative, and robust platforms. Genotyping arrays are standard tools for mouse research and remain an attractive alternative even in the era of high-throughput whole-genome sequencing. Here, we describe the content and performance of a new iteration of the Mouse Universal Genotyping Array (MUGA), MiniMUGA, an array-based genetic QC platform with over 11,000 probes. In addition to robust discrimination between most classical and wild-derived laboratory strains, MiniMUGA was designed to contain features not available in other platforms: (1) chromosomal sex determination, (2) discrimination between substrains from multiple commercial vendors, (3) diagnostic SNPs for popular laboratory strains, (4) detection of constructs used in genetically engineered mice, and (5) an easy-to-interpret report summarizing these results. In-depth annotation of all probes should facilitate custom analyses by individual researchers. To determine the performance of MiniMUGA, we genotyped 6899 samples from a wide variety of genetic backgrounds. The performance of MiniMUGA compares favorably with three previous iterations of the MUGA family of arrays, both in discrimination capabilities and robustness. We have generated publicly available consensus genotypes for 241 inbred strains including classical, wild-derived, and recombinant inbred lines. Here, we also report the detection of a substantial number of XO and XXY individuals across a variety of sample types, new markers that expand the utility of reduced complexity crosses to genetic backgrounds other than C57BL/6, and the robust detection of 17 genetic constructs. We provide preliminary evidence that the array can be used to identify both partial sex chromosome duplication and mosaicism, and that diagnostic SNPs can be used to determine how long inbred mice have been bred independently from the relevant main stock. We conclude that MiniMUGA is a valuable platform for genetic QC, and an important new tool to increase the rigor and reproducibility of mouse research

The Mayflies, or Ephemeroptera, of Illinois

MAYFLIES or shadflies are a group of insects constituting the order Ephemeroptera. In the young or nymphal stages, they live in the water of ponds, lakes, or streams, where they can be found under rocks or logs, in the mud at the bottom, or occasionally swimming about. When the nymphs are full grown, they come to the surface of the water and transform into free-flying aerial insects. As such, they are familiar to many fishermen and nature lovers. There are over 550 different species of mayflies known for North America north of Mexico. This report includes 48 genera and 222 species, with Illinois records of 126 species, 15 of which are described as new.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Comportamento de oviposição e tempo de desenvolvimento de Brachymeria villosa (Oliver) (Hymenoptera, Chalcididae) Oviposition behavior and development time of Brachymeria villosa (Oliver) (Hymenoptera, Chalcididae)

<abstract language="eng">The oviposition behavior and development time of Brachymeria villoso (Oliver, 1790) on Trypoxylon albitarse Fabricius, 1804 (Sphecidae) is reported. The parasitism occurs through a little hole made by the parasitoid female in the host nest wall. This hole is used by the parasitoid offspring after its emergence to left the host nest. The parasitoid egg is laid on the host larva before it built its cocoon, when such structure is made the parasitoid egg hatch into a larva that feeds on the living host larva and the parasitoid growth enclosed in the host cocoon without build its own. The development time of B. villosa was 65 days. From two nest of T. albitarse were reared 12 females and one male of B. villosa