Conservation Note on the Status of the Rare Endemic Marquesan Snout Butterfly, Libythea collenettei

The Marquesan snout butterfly (Libythea collenettei) also known as “Papillon à museau des Marquises,” is the only endemic butterfly from the Mar- quesas Islands, French Polynesia. The butterfly is known from just five historic records. We report results from an intensive two–week survey in 2018. Our survey took place on the two islands where historic collection records exist (Nuku Hiva and Ua Pou), plus Hiva Oa and Tahiti, where the species has been thought to exist. Despite visiting multiple localities including sites where the species was previously observed, we were unsuccessful at detecting this species. The larval host plant, Celtis pacifica (Cannabaceae), can still be found on the Marquesas, indicating that the butterfly might still exist in the archipelago. Because the phenology of this species is unknown, future surveys should be conducted on the same islands but during different seasons. Given the very restricted geographic range of this species and threats to its habitat, we suggest that it be listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List

Classification dynamique par treillis de concepts pour la recherche d'information sur le web.

National audienceL'analyse de concepts formels (ACF) permet d'organiser des objets en fonction de leurs propriétés. Des travaux récents ont utilisé l'ACF pour réorganiser, sous la forme d'un treillis de concepts, les réponses fournies par un moteur de recherche du web. L'utilisateur navigue dans le treillis pour explorer un résultat structuré et synthétique. Or, un tel treillis contient des concepts qui sont pertinents par rapport à une tâche de recherche d'information donnée et d'autres qui ne le sont pas. Pour que l'utilisateur puisse se focaliser sur ce qui l'intéresse et éliminer ce qui ne l'intéresse pas, nous proposons un système interactif dans lequel il va exprimer son intérêt (positif ou négatif) pour certains concepts du treillis. Ce contrôle de pertinence est exploité dans la classification pour faire évoluer le treillis et ainsi mieux l'adapter au besoin de l'utilisateur

Mosaic patterns of diversification dynamics following the colonization of Melanesian islands

The fate of newly settled dispersers on freshly colonized oceanic islands is a central theme of island biogeography. The emergence of increasingly sophisticated methods of macroevolutionary pattern inference paves the way for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms governing these diversification patterns on lineages following their colonization of oceanic islands. Here we infer a comprehensive molecular phylogeny for Melanesian Exocelina diving beetles. Recent methods in historical biogeography and diversification rate inference were then used to investigate the evolution of these insects in space and time. An Australian origin in the mid-Miocene was followed by independent colonization events towards New Guinea and New Caledonia in the late Miocene. One colonization of New Guinea led to a large radiation of >150 species and 3 independent colonizations of New Caledonia gave rise to about 40 species. The comparably late colonizations of Vanuatu, Hawaii and China left only one or two species in each region. The contrasting diversification trajectories of these insects on Melanesian islands are likely accounted for by island size, age and availability of ecological opportunities during the colonization stage

Construction d'une ontologie de descripteurs UCD en astronomie

Les descripteurs UCD (Unified Content Descriptors) permettent de décrire des données d'astronomie. Un processus de standardisation, qui est resté sur un plan purement syntaxique jusqu'à présent, s'est avéré nécessaire et aucune sémantique formelle n'a été associée aux descripteurs normalisés. Dans cet article, nous présentons une méthodologie pour construire une ontologie des UCD normalisés en OWL. Cette ontologie est ensuite exploitée pour l'attribution semi-automatique d'UCD des descriptions de propriétés d'objets célestes issues de catalogues d'astronomie. Cette procédure exploite une classification approchée et progressive s'appuyant sur des méta-donnes qui établissent des liens entre les éléments lexicaux employés dans les descriptions et les propriétés des objets représentant les UCD dans l'ontologie

Pleistocene climate change promoted rapid diversification of aquatic invertebrates in Southeast Australia

Background: The Pleistocene Ice Ages were the most recent geohistorical event of major global impact, but their consequences for most parts of the Southern hemisphere remain poorly known. We investigate a radiation of ten species of Sternopriscus, the most species-rich genus of epigean Australian diving beetles. These species are distinct based on genital morphology but cannot be distinguished readily by mtDNA and nDNA because of genotype sharing caused by incomplete lineage sorting. Their genetic similarity suggests a Pleistocene origin. Results: We use a dataset of 3858 bp of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to reconstruct a phylogeny of Sternopriscus using gene and species trees. Diversification analyses support the finding of a recent rapid speciation event with estimated speciation rates of up to 2.40 species per MY, which is considerably higher than the proposed average rate of 0.16 species per MY for insects. Additionally, we use ecological niche modeling and analyze data on habitat preferences to test for niche divergence between species of the recent Sternopriscus radiation. These analyses show that the species can be characterized by a set of ecological variables referring to habitat, climate and altitude. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the repeated isolation of populations in glacial refugia might have led to divergent ecological adaptations and the fixation of morphological traits supporting reproductive isolation and therefore may have promoted speciation. The recent Sternopriscus radiation fulfills many characteristics of a species flock and would be the first described example of an aquatic insect species flock. We argue that the species of this group may represent a stage in speciation past the species flock condition because of their mostly broad and often non-overlapping ranges and preferences for different habitat types.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog

Pleistocene climate change promoted rapid diversification of aquatic invertebrates in Southeast Australia

Background: The Pleistocene Ice Ages were the most recent geohistorical event of major global impact, but their consequences for most parts of the Southern hemisphere remain poorly known. We investigate a radiation of ten species of Sternopriscus, the most species-rich genus of epigean Australian diving beetles. These species are distinct based on genital morphology but cannot be distinguished readily by mtDNA and nDNA because of genotype sharing caused by incomplete lineage sorting. Their genetic similarity suggests a Pleistocene origin. Results: We use a dataset of 3858 bp of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to reconstruct a phylogeny of Sternopriscus using gene and species trees. Diversification analyses support the finding of a recent rapid speciation event with estimated speciation rates of up to 2.40 species per MY, which is considerably higher than the proposed average rate of 0.16 species per MY for insects. Additionally, we use ecological niche modeling and analyze data on habitat preferences to test for niche divergence between species of the recent Sternopriscus radiation. These analyses show that the species can be characterized by a set of ecological variables referring to habitat, climate and altitude. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the repeated isolation of populations in glacial refugia might have led to divergent ecological adaptations and the fixation of morphological traits supporting reproductive isolation and therefore may have promoted speciation. The recent Sternopriscus radiation fulfills many characteristics of a species flock and would be the first described example of an aquatic insect species flock. We argue that the species of this group may represent a stage in speciation past the species flock condition because of their mostly broad and often non-overlapping ranges and preferences for different habitat types

Comunicación, sentido y vida cotidiana

La pregunta por la vida cotidiana, su estructura, su funcionamiento, no es una novedad en el ámbito de las ciencias sociales. Se han ocupado de esta problemática pensadores de la talla de Heller, Habermas, Goffman, Freiré, Wolf, por citar sólo algunos. Diferentes enfoques, teorías y preocupaciones han derivado en un vasto campo de estudio que observa y rescata lo que era considerado como "materiales secundarios", indagando cómo los pequeñísimos actos cotidianos realzan temas muy importantes (Wolf, 1979). En el campo de la comunicación cobran fuerza en cantidad y calidad, a partir de 1980 (Fuentes, 1991) los estudios que abordan diferentes aspectos de la cotidianidad para indagar por ejemplo, en un cambio de perspectiva, no ya lo que los medios hacen a la gente, sino lo que la gente hace con y a partir de los medios, haciendo aparecer en primer plano al actor de la comunicación.ITESO, A.C

Macroevolution of hyperdiverse flightless beetles reflects the complex geological history of the Sunda Arc

The Sunda Arc forms an almost continuous chain of islands and thus a potential dispersal corridor between mainland Southeast Asia and Melanesia. However, the Sunda Islands have rather different geological histories, which might have had an important impact on actual dispersal routes and community assembly. Here, we reveal the biogeographical history of hyperdiverse and flightless Trigonopterus weevils. Different approaches to ancestral area reconstruction suggest a complex east to west range expansion. Out of New Guinea, Trigonopterus repeatedly reached the Moluccas and Sulawesi transgressing Lydekker′s Line. Sulawesi repeatedly acted as colonization hub for different segments of the Sunda Arc. West Java, East Java and Bali are recognized as distinct biogeographic areas. The timing and diversification of species largely coincides with the geological chronology of island emergence. Colonization was not inhibited by traditional biogeographical boundaries such as Wallace’s Line. Rather, colonization patterns support distance dependent dispersal and island age limiting dispersal