Cricket community acoustics: a new tool to detect invasive ants.

Relatório curricular de mestrado (Análises Clínicas), apresentado á Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de CoimbraO presente trabalho apresenta as atividades desenvolvidas no âmbito do estágio curricular, inserido no Mestrado em Análises Clínicas da Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Coimbra. O referido estágio realizou-se no Laboratório de Análises Clínicas do Centro de Saúde Militar de Coimbra, de Dezembro de 2014 a Maio de 2015, sob a orientação do Dr. Mário João Roque. Neste relatório serão apresentados os métodos usados na execução das análises, a sua importância clínica, a organização diária e o sistema de gestão de qualidade implementado no laboratório. Serão desenvolvidos de modo mais detalhado os sectores de hematologia e bioquímicaThe present work exposes the activities developed in the internship within the context, of the Master´s degree of Clinical Analysis, of the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra. The training was performed at the Clinical Analysis Laboratory of Centro de Saúde Militar of Coimbra, from December to May 2015, under the supervision of Dr. Mario João Roque. In this report will be present the methods used in the execution of laboratorial assays, the clinical interest of the laboratory test, the daily organization and quality management system implemented in the laboratory. This report presents a more detailed description of the hematology and biochemistry sector

ZOOTAXA

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Old lineage on an old island : Pixibinthus, a new cricket genus endemic to New Caledonia shed light on gryllid diversification in a hotspot of biodiversity

Few studies have focused on the early colonization of New Caledonia by insects, after the re-emergence of the main island, 37 Myr ago. Here we investigate the mode and tempo of evolution of a new endemic cricket genus, Pixibinthus, recently discovered in southern New Caledonia. First we formally describe this new monotypic genus found exclusively in the open shrubby vegetation on metalliferous soils, named 'maquis minier', unique to New Caledonia. We then reconstruct a dated molecular phylogeny based on five mitochondrial and four nuclear loci in order to establish relationships of Pixibinthus within Eneopterinae crickets. Pixibinthus is recovered as thesister clade of the endemic genus Agnotecous, mostly rainforest-dwellers. Dating results show that the island colonization by their common ancestor occurred around 34.7 Myr, shortly after New Caledonia re-emergence. Pixibinthus and Agnotecous are then one of the oldest insect lineages documented so far for New Caledonia. This discovery highlights for the first time two clear-cut ecological specializations between sister clades, as Agnotecous is mainly found in rainforests with 19 species, whereas Pixibinthus is found in open habitats with a single documented species. The preference of Pixibinthus for open habitats and of Agnotecous for forest habitats nicely fits an acoustic specialization, either explained by differences in body size or in acoustic properties of their respective habitats. We hypothesize that landscape dynamics, linked to major past climatic events and recent change in fire regimes are possible causes for both present-day low diversity and rarity in genus Pixibinthus. The unique evolutionary history of this old New Caledonian lineage stresses the importance to increase our knowledge on the faunal biodiversity of 'maquis minier', in order to better understand the origin and past dynamics of New Caledonian biota

300 million years of diversification: elucidating the patterns of orthopteran evolution based on comprehensive taxon and gene sampling

Orthoptera is the most diverse order among the polyneopteran groups and includes familiar insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and their kin. Due to a long history of conflicting classification schemes based on different interpretations of morphological characters, the phylogenetic relationships within Orthoptera are poorly understood and its higher classification has remained unstable. In this study, we establish a robust phylogeny of Orthoptera including 36 of 40 families representing all 15 currently recognized superfamilies and based on complete mitochondrial genomes and four nuclear loci, in order to test previous phylogenetic hypotheses and to provide a framework for a natural classification and a reference for studying the pattern of divergence and diversification. We find strong support for monophyletic suborders (Ensifera and Caelifera) as well as major superfamilies. Our results corroborate most of the higher-level relationships previously proposed for Caelifera, but suggest some novel relationships for Ensifera. Using fossil calibrations, we provide divergence time estimates for major orthopteran lineages and show that the current diversity has been shaped by dynamic shifts of diversification rates at different geological times across different lineages. We also show that mitochondrial tRNA gene orders have been relatively stable throughout the evolutionary history of Orthoptera, but a major tRNA gene rearrangement occurred in the common ancestor of Tetrigoidea and Acridomorpha, thereby representing a robust molecular synapomorphy, which has persisted for 250 Myr.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Insect mimicry of plants dates back to the Permian

In response to predation pressure, some insects have developed spectacular plant mimicry strategies (homomorphy), involving important changes in their morphology. The fossil record of plant mimicry provides clues to the importance of predation pressure in the deep past. Surprisingly, to date, the oldest confirmed records of insect leaf mimicry are Mesozoic. Here we document a crucial step in the story of adaptive responses to predation by describing a leaf-mimicking katydid from the Middle Permian. Our morphometric analysis demonstrates that leaf-mimicking wings of katydids can be morphologically characterized in a non-arbitrary manner and shows that the new genus and species Permotettigonia gallica developed a mimicking pattern of forewings very similar to those of the modern leaf-like katydids. Our finding suggests that predation pressure was already high enough during the Permian to favour investment in leaf mimicry

3-D imaging reveals four extraordinary cases of convergent evolution of acoustic communication in crickets and allies (Insecta)

When the same complex trait is exhibited by closely related species, a single evolutionary origin is frequently invoked. The complex stridulatory apparatus present in the forewings of extant crickets, mole crickets, katydids, and prophalangopsids, is currently interpreted as sharing a single common origin due to their similarity and unique function. An alternative hypothesis of convergent evolution in these ensiferan groups has challenged this common view, but remained controversial because of competing interpretations of wing venation. Here we propose another hypothesis for the widely and long debated homology of ensiferan stridulatory apparatus, performing the first 3D reconstruction of hidden structures at the wing bases. This approach allowed defining the homology of each vein from its very origin rather than after its more distal characteristics, which may be subjected to environmental pressure of selection. The stridulatory apparatus involves different veins in these four singing clades. In light of the most recent phylogenetic evidence, this apparatus developed four times in Ensifera, illustrating extraordinary convergent evolutions between closely related clades, by far exceeding the number of evolutionary steps ever proposed for calling ability in this group

Etude phylogenetique, biogeographique et ecologique des Grylloidea neotropicaux (Insectes, Orthopteres)

INIST T 72649 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEFRFranc