Eriophyoid mites (Acari: Prostigmata: Eriophyoidea) from the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean): new reports and a preliminary check-list

In the 20th Century, about 20 species of eriophyoids were listed for the Maltese Islands but these reports were entirely based on plant gall surveys. In these last four years, plant collections were made in order to investigate the species of eriophyoids present in Malta and Gozo. Most of the earlier reports have been confirmed and eight species were found to be new for the Maltese islands: Aceria caulobia (Nalepa) gall- making on Suaeda vera Gmelin; Aceria onychia (Nalepa) on Phlomis fruticosa L.; Aceria sheldoni (Ewing) on lemon; Aculus tetanothrix (Nalepa) gall-making on Salix sp.; Cecidophyopsis hendersoni (Keifer) on yucca; and three species associated with olive, Ditrymacus athiasella Keifer, Oxycenus maxwelli (Keifer) and Tegolophus hassani (Keifer). Additional remarks were included for Acalitus phloeocoptes (Nalepa), collected on cherry plum, whose earlier Maltese record was doubtful. A complete morphometric description of Aceria carlinae (Nalepa) is here provided. Key words: faunistic survey, eriophyoids, new records, Malta. ACARI ERIOFIOIDEI (ACARI: PROSTIGMATA: ERIOPHYOIDEA) DELLE ISOLE MALTESI (MEDITERRANEO CENTRALE): NUOVE SEGNALAZIONI E CHECK-LIST PRELIMINARE Circa 20 specie di eriofioidei sono state segnalate per le Isole Maltesi nel XX secolo a seguito di indagini svolte esclusivamente su piante che manifestavano sintomi evidenti. Negli ultimi quattro anni, sono state effettuate raccolte di campioni di piante al fine di disporre di una più ampia conoscenza degli eriofioidei presenti in Malta e Gozo. Molte delle prime segnalazioni sono state confermate e altre otto specie sono rinvenute per la prima volta: Aceria caulobia (Nalepa) galligeno su Suaeda vera Gmelin; Aceria onychia (Nalepa) su Phlomis fruticosa L.; Aceria sheldoni (Ewing) su limone; Aculus tetanothrix (Nalepa) galligeno su Salix sp.; Cecidophyopsis hendersoni (Keifer) su yucca; e tre specie associate all’olivo, Ditrymacus athiasella Keifer, Oxycenus maxwelli (Keifer) e Tegolophus hassani (Keifer). Vengono fornite osservazioni aggiuntive per Acalitus phloeocoptes (Nalepa), raccolto su ciliegio selvatico, la cui segnalazione precedente era apparsa dubbio, e una descrizione morfometrica completa per Aceria carlinae (Nalepa). Parole chiave: faunistica, acari galligeni, nuove segnalazioni, Malta

Extraction and purification of quartz in rock using hot-phosphoric acid for in situ cosmogenic exposure dating.

Quartz extraction and purification is essential for the successful measurement of Be-10 and Al-26 by AMS for exposure dating. The common procedure involves repetitive etching by ultrasonic heating and agitation in a dilute aqueous HF solution (2% w/w), which has proven adequate for quartz rich rock (i.e., granite, quartzite). We have developed an alternative method using hot phosphoric acid (250 degrees C), which preferentially dissolves silicates but not quartz. This method is particularly effective on samples with very low quartz abundance or with cryptocrystalline silica (i.e., greywacke, silcrete, chert) to enhance quartz recovery. We describe the method in detail and present data that compares the efficiency and the benefits of the two methods. © 2013, Elsevier Ltd

Towards improvement of aluminium assay in quartz for in situ cosmogenic 26Al analysis at ANSTO

Accuracy and precision in the measurement of natural aluminium abundances in quartz can affect the reliability of 26Al exposure dating and 26Al/10Be burial dating. At ANSTO, aliquots extracted from the HF solutions of dissolved quartz are treated in our laboratory, whereas ICP-OES analysis is performed at a commercial laboratory. The long-term inter-run reproducibility of our in-house standards show a limiting precision in Al measurements of 3–4% (1σ), which is lower than the claimed precision of Al analysis by ICP-OES. This indicates that unaccounted random errors are incorporated during our aliquot preparation. In this study, we performed several controlled tests to investigate effects of possible inconsistencies and variances during our aliquot preparation procedure. The results indicate that our procedure is robust against any subtle change in the preparation procedure, e.g., fuming temperatures, fuming reagents, and drying conditions. We found that the density of the solutions dispatched for ICP analysis is occasionally variable due to the presence of residual fuming reagents in the solution. A comparison of the results between the calibration curve and standard addition methods show that the former results are consistently lower than the latter by up to ∼14%. Similar offsets have been reported by previous studies. The reason for these discrepancies is mostly likely matrix effect, which is not accounted for by the calibration curve method. Further tests by varying matrix with impurities such as HF, HClO4, H2SO4 and Si identified that Si could cause lower offset in Al measurements; however, our ICP solutions are confirmed to be free from Si and the cause of matrix effect remains to be investigated. Hence, care must be taken for the measurement of Al concentrations in quartz by ICP-OES, either by ensuring that matrix effect is fully accounted for or by routinely employing standard additions when required.© 2015, Elsevier B.V

An integrated YAC map of the human X chromosome.

The human X chromosome is associated with a large number of disease phenotypes, principally because of its unique mode of inheritance that tends to reveal all recessive disorders in males. With the longer term goal of identifying and characterizing most of these genes, we have adopted a chromosome-wide strategy to establish a YAC contig map. We have performed > 3250 inter Alu-PCR product hybridizations to identify overlaps between YAC clones. Positional information associated with many of these YAC clones has been derived from our Reference Library Database and a variety of other public sources. We have constructed a YAC contig map of the X chromosome covering 125 Mb of DNA in 25 contigs and containing 906 YAC clones. These contigs have been verified extensively by FISH and by gel and hybridization fingerprinting techniques. This independently derived map exceeds the coverage of recently reported X chromosome maps built as part of whole-genome YAC maps