Effect of Habitat Type on Parasitism of Ectatomma ruidum

Eucharitidae are parasitoids that use immature stages of ants for their development. Kapala Cameron is the genus most frequently collected in the Neotropics, but little is known about the biology and behavior of any of the species of this genus. We aimed to evaluate the effect of habitat type on eucharitid parasitism and to contribute to the knowledge of the host-parasite relationship between Kapala sp. and the poneromorph ant Ectatomma ruidum (Roger) in Colombia. Twenty E. ruidum colonies were extracted from two different habitat types (woodland and grassland), and larvae and cocoons (pupae) were examined in search for parasitoids in different stages of development. Globally, 60% of the colonies were parasitized, with 1.3% of larvae and 4% of pupae parasitized. Planidia (first-instar larvae), pupae, and adults of the parasitoid were observed. All of the pupae and adult parasitoids belonged to Kapala iridicolor Cameron. All the colonies collected in the woodlands were parasitized and contained more parasitized larvae (2%) and parasitized cocoons (8%) than those collected in grasslands (4/12 parasitized colonies, 0.5% parasitized larvae, 0.8% parasitized cocoons). The relationship observed between habitat type and parasitism prevalence is a novel aspect of the study of eucharitid impact on ant host populations

Reproductive biology of Sclerodermus brevicornis, a European parasitoid developing on three species of invasive longhorn beetles

The reproductive performance of Sclerodermus brevicornis (Kieffer), a bethylid wasp native to Europe, was evaluated on three species of facticious hosts. These are longhorn beetles which have recently invaded Europe from Asia: Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), Anoplophora chinensis (Forster) and Psacothea hilaris hilaris (Pascoe) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae). Sclerodermus brevicornis attacked all three species, but offspring only developed to maturity on medium and large sized host larvae. Host species influenced the duration of parasitoid development and the number of offspring maturing, both were greatest on A. glabripennis, with up to 373 adult parasitoids emerging from a single host. The sex ratios of S. brevicornis broods were strongly female biased (ca. 9% males). We conclude that S. brevicornis has the potential to be efficiently mass-reared and actively deployed in the biological control of invasive longhorn beetles. Further progress should be encouraged by the successful use of other species of Sclerodermus against beetle pests in China

Mutual interference reduces offspring production in a brood- guarding bethylid wasp

Parasitoids have the potential to suppress populations of their hosts and thus may play an 2 important role in influencing the temporal and spatial dynamics of pest arthropods. 3 Behavioural interactions between foraging females, collectively constituting ‘mutual 4 interference’, can reduce host suppression. We use laboratory microcosms to assess the 5 prevalence and consequences of mutual interference behaviour in a bethylid wasp, Goniozus 6 nephantidis (Muesebeck) (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), which is known to brood guard and to 7 engage in agonistic contests for individual hosts and which is also an agent of biological pest 8 control. We hold host and parasitoid numbers constant and vary the degree of female-female 9 contact that can occur. Mutual interference is manifest in a considerable reduction in the 10 number of offspring produced when females are not fully isolated from each other, due to 11 effects operating at the early stages of offspring production. This mutual interference may 12 contribute towards the limited degree of host population suppression achieved when some 13 species of bethylids are deployed as agents of biological pest control and also has clear 14 potential to influence the efficiency of mass rearing of parasitoids prior to field release

Global genome diversity of the Leishmania donovani complex.

Protozoan parasites of the Leishmania donovani complex - L. donovani and L. infantum - cause the fatal disease visceral leishmaniasis. We present the first comprehensive genome-wide global study, with 151 cultured field isolates representing most of the geographical distribution. L. donovani isolates separated into five groups that largely coincide with geographical origin but vary greatly in diversity. In contrast, the majority of L. infantum samples fell into one globally-distributed group with little diversity. This picture is complicated by several hybrid lineages. Identified genetic groups vary in heterozygosity and levels of linkage, suggesting different recombination histories. We characterise chromosome-specific patterns of aneuploidy and identified extensive structural variation, including known and suspected drug resistance loci. This study reveals greater genetic diversity than suggested by geographically-focused studies, provides a resource of genomic variation for future work and sets the scene for a new understanding of the evolution and genetics of the Leishmania donovani complex

Anchored enrichment dataset for true flies (order Diptera) reveals insights into the phylogeny of flower flies (family Syrphidae)

Background: Anchored hybrid enrichment is a form of next-generation sequencing that uses oligonucleotide probes to target conserved regions of the genome flanked by less conserved regions in order to acquire data useful for phylogenetic inference from a broad range of taxa. Once a probe kit is developed, anchored hybrid enrichment is superior to traditional PCR-based Sanger sequencing in terms of both the amount of genomic data that can be recovered and effective cost. Due to their incredibly diverse nature, importance as pollinators, and historical instability with regard to subfamilial and tribal classification, Syrphidae (flower flies or hoverflies) are an ideal candidate for anchored hybrid enrichment-based phylogenetics, especially since recent molecular phylogenies of the syrphids using only a few markers have resulted in highly unresolved topologies. Over 6200 syrphids are currently known and uncovering their phylogeny will help us to understand how these species have diversified, providing insight into an array of ecological processes, from the development of adult mimicry, the origin of adult migration, to pollination patterns and the evolution of larval resource utilization. Results: We present the first use of anchored hybrid enrichment in insect phylogenetics on a dataset containing 30 flower fly species from across all four subfamilies and 11 tribes out of 15. To produce a phylogenetic hypothesis, 559 loci were sampled to produce a final dataset containing 217,702 sites. We recovered a well resolved topology with bootstrap support values that were almost universally >95 %. The subfamily Eristalinae is recovered as paraphyletic, with the strongest support for this hypothesis to date. The ant predators in the Microdontinae are sister to all other syrphids. Syrphinae and Pipizinae are monophyletic and sister to each other. Larval predation on soft-bodied hemipterans evolved only once in this family. Conclusions: Anchored hybrid enrichment was successful in producing a robustly supported phylogenetic hypothesis for the syrphids. Subfamilial reconstruction is concordant with recent phylogenetic hypotheses, but with much higher support values. With the newly designed probe kit this analysis could be rapidly expanded with further sampling, opening the door to more comprehensive analyses targeting problem areas in syrphid phylogenetics and ecology.Peer reviewe

Could conservative iron chelation lead to neuroprotection in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?

Iron accumulation has been observed in mouse models and both sporadic and familial forms of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Iron chelation could reduce iron accumulation and the related excess of oxidative stress in the motor pathways. However, classical iron chelation would induce systemic iron depletion. We assess the safety and efficacy of conservative iron chelation (i.e. chelation with low risk of iron depletion) in a murine preclinical model and pilot clinical trial. In Sod1G86R mice, deferiprone increased the mean life span as compared with placebo. The safety was good, without anemia after 12 months of deferiprone in the 23 ALS patients enrolled in the clinical trial. The decreases in the ALS Functional Rating Scale and the body mass index (BMI) were significantly smaller for the first 3 months of deferiprone treatment (30 mg/kg/day) than for the first treatment-free period. Iron levels in the cervical spinal cord, medulla oblongata and motor cortex (according to MRI), as well as cerebrospinal fluid levels of oxidative stress and neurofilament light chains were lower after deferiprone treatment. Our observation leads to the hypothesis that moderate iron chelation regimen that avoids changes in systemic iron levels may constitute a novel therapeutic modality of neuroprotection for ALS

A Catalog of the Highest-energy Cosmic Rays Recorded during Phase I of Operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory

A catalog containing details of the highest-energy cosmic rays recorded through the detection of extensive air-showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory is presented with the aim of opening the data to detailed examination. Descriptions of the 100 showers created by the highest-energy particles recorded between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2020 are given for cosmic rays that have energies in the range 78 EeV to 166 EeV. Details are also given of a further nine very-energetic events that have been used in the calibration procedure adopted to determine the energy of each primary. A sky plot of the arrival directions of the most energetic particles is shown. No interpretations of the data are offered

Joint Constraints on Galactic Diffuse Neutrino Emission from the ANTARES and IceCube Neutrino Telescopes

[EN] The existence of diffuse Galactic neutrino production is expected from cosmic-ray interactions with Galactic gas and radiation ¿elds. Thus, neutrinos are a unique messenger offering the opportunity to test the products of Galactic cosmic-ray interactions up to energies of hundreds of TeV. Here we present a search for this production using ten years of Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) track and shower data, as well as seven years of IceCube track data. The data are combined into a joint likelihood test for neutrino emission according to the KRAg model assuming a 5 PeV per nucleon Galactic cosmic-ray cutoff. No signi¿cant excess is found. As a consequence, the limits presented in this Letter start constraining the model parameter space for Galactic cosmic-ray production and transport.Albert, A.; Andre, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Aubert, J-.; Aublin, J.; Avgitas, T.... (2018). Joint Constraints on Galactic Diffuse Neutrino Emission from the ANTARES and IceCube Neutrino Telescopes. The Astrophysical Journal. 868(2):1-7. https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaeecfS178682Aartsen, M. G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., … Anderson, T. (2017). Search for Astrophysical Sources of Neutrinos Using Cascade Events in IceCube. The Astrophysical Journal, 846(2), 136. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa8508Aartsen, M. G., Abraham, K., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., … Archinger, M. (2015). A COMBINED MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF THE HIGH-ENERGY ASTROPHYSICAL NEUTRINO FLUX MEASURED WITH ICECUBE. The Astrophysical Journal, 809(1), 98. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/809/1/98Aartsen, M. G., Abraham, K., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., … Anderson, T. (2017). All-sky Search for Time-integrated Neutrino Emission from Astrophysical Sources with 7 yr of IceCube Data. The Astrophysical Journal, 835(2), 151. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/835/2/151Aartsen, M. G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., … Anderson, T. (2017). Constraints on Galactic Neutrino Emission with Seven Years of IceCube Data. The Astrophysical Journal, 849(1), 67. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa8dfbAartsen, M. G., Ackermann, M., Adams, J., Aguilar, J. A., Ahlers, M., Ahrens, M., … Ansseau, I. (2017). The IceCube Neutrino Observatory: instrumentation and online systems. Journal of Instrumentation, 12(03), P03012-P03012. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/03/p03012Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Atwood, W. B., Baldini, L., Ballet, J., Barbiellini, G., … Berenji, B. (2012). FERMI-LAT OBSERVATIONS OF THE DIFFUSE γ-RAY EMISSION: IMPLICATIONS FOR COSMIC RAYS AND THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM. The Astrophysical Journal, 750(1), 3. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/750/1/3Adrián-Martínez, S., Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Samarai, I. A., Albert, A., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2012). The positioning system of the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope. Journal of Instrumentation, 7(08), T08002-T08002. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/7/08/t08002Ageron, M., Aguilar, J. A., Al Samarai, I., Albert, A., Ameli, F., André, M., … Ardid, M. (2011). ANTARES: The first undersea neutrino telescope. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 656(1), 11-38. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2011.06.103Ahn, H. S., Allison, P., Bagliesi, M. G., Beatty, J. J., Bigongiari, G., Childers, J. T., … Zinn, S. Y. (2010). DISCREPANT HARDENING OBSERVED IN COSMIC-RAY ELEMENTAL SPECTRA. The Astrophysical Journal, 714(1), L89-L93. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/714/1/l89Albert, A., André, M., Anghinolfi, M., Anton, G., Ardid, M., Aubert, J.-J., … Basa, S. (2017). New constraints on all flavor Galactic diffuse neutrino emission with the ANTARES telescope. Physical Review D, 96(6). doi:10.1103/physrevd.96.062001Antoni, T., Apel, W. D., Badea, A. F., Bekk, K., Bercuci, A., Blümer, J., … Zabierowski, J. (2005). KASCADE measurements of energy spectra for elemental groups of cosmic rays: Results and open problems. Astroparticle Physics, 24(1-2), 1-25. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2005.04.001Apel, W. D., Arteaga-Velázquez, J. C., Bekk, K., Bertaina, M., Blümer, J., Bozdog, H., … Cossavella, F. (2013). KASCADE-Grande measurements of energy spectra for elemental groups of cosmic rays. Astroparticle Physics, 47, 54-66. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2013.06.004Gaggero, D., Grasso, D., Marinelli, A., Taoso, M., & Urbano, A. (2017). Diffuse Cosmic Rays Shining in the Galactic Center: A Novel Interpretation of H.E.S.S. and Fermi-LAT γ -Ray Data. Physical Review Letters, 119(3). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.031101Gaggero, D., Grasso, D., Marinelli, A., Urbano, A., & Valli, M. (2015). THE GAMMA-RAY AND NEUTRINO SKY: A CONSISTENT PICTURE OF FERMI -LAT, MILAGRO, AND ICECUBE RESULTS. The Astrophysical Journal, 815(2), L25. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/815/2/l25Gaggero, D., Urbano, A., Valli, M., & Ullio, P. (2015). Gamma-ray sky points to radial gradients in cosmic-ray transport. Physical Review D, 91(8). doi:10.1103/physrevd.91.083012Vladimirov, A. E., Digel, S. W., Jóhannesson, G., Michelson, P. F., Moskalenko, I. V., Nolan, P. L., … Strong, A. W. (2011). GALPROP WebRun: An internet-based service for calculating galactic cosmic ray propagation and associated photon emissions. Computer Physics Communications, 182(5), 1156-1161. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2011.01.01