Behavior notes and prey spectrum of three species of the bee-hunting wasp Trachypus Klug (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)

Trachypus Klug is a Neotropical genus of crabronid wasps comprising 31 ground-nesting species. Its species can be solitary or communal, and two diet ranges are known: they can forage on several bee subfamilies and wasps; or can be specialists on stingless bees. Natural history observations are scarce nowadays but are essential to contextualize ecological and evolutionary studies. Here we report new records and give biological notes for Trachypus elongatus (Fabricius, 1804), Trachypus taschenbergi Rubio-Espina, 1975, and Trachypus varius (Taschenberg, 1875). Observations and samplings were carried out twice a month, during one year in the city of Curitiba, southern Brazil. Besides field observations, circular statistics were used to analyze seasonality. All species nest in sloped soil and are solitary. Trachypus elongatus and T. taschenbergi were active during most of the year with marked seasonality in the late spring and early summer. Both species were observed hunting only stingless bees, with T. elongatus specialized on Trigona spinipes (Fabricius, 1793), and T. taschenbergi specialized on Paratrigona subnuda Moure, 1947 drones. Trachypus varius was observed only in January and one female was recorded foraging on a Paratrigona subnuda worker. Our observations provide additional data for understanding the biology of bee-hunting wasps, and this is the first study to bring information for T. taschenbergi and T. varius. Our data corroborate that some species of the genus Trachypus are specialized on stingless bees

Factors associated with onset of mouth breathing in early child development

OBJETIVO: os problemas relacionados com a respiração bucal são vários e possuem diversas consequências na saúde humana. O estudo de coorte prospectiva se propõe a determinar os fatores de risco associados ao desenvolvimento da respiração bucal nos primeiros períodos do desenvolvimento infantil. MÉTODO: o grupo inicial constituiu-se por 86 bebês com idade de zero a três meses selecionados em áreas de abrangência do município de Vitória-ES. Realizaram-se sete visitas domiciliares, coletando-se dados sobre respiração bucal, mista, vedamento labial, alterações respiratórias intervisitas, estimulação da respiração nasal, ronco habitual ao dormir, uso de mamadeira, sucção de chupeta, sucção de dedo e aleitamento materno. A partir do grupo inicial, 67 crianças permaneceram em acompanhamento até a idade média de 29,42 meses (+ 2,49dp). RESULTADOS: a prevalência de respiração bucal foi de 3,0%. O aleitamento materno (ORaj = 0,27 : 0,09 - 0,83) e a estimulação da respiração nasal (ORaj = 0,09 : 0,01 - 0,52) funcionam como fatores de proteção ao vedamento labial, enquanto a alteração respiratória intervisita (ORaj = 7,61 : 1,09 - 53,01), sucção de chupeta (ORaj = 5,54 : 2,00 - 15,37) e o ronco (ORaj = 10,74 : 2,32 - 49,64) funcionam com fatores de risco. CONCLUSÃO: a gênese da respiração bucal inicia-se pela perda do vedamento labial, como conseqüência da interação de fatores positivos e negativos sobre o complexo neurológico, ósseo e muscular.PURPOSE: there are several problems related to mouth breathing and there is many consequences in the human health. In this context, this prospective cohort study aims to determine the risk factors associated to the development of mouth breathing in the first periods of children's development. METHODS: The initial group was constituted of 86 babies aging from zero to three months old, selected in the encircled areas of Vitória district, state of Espírito Santo. Seven domiciliary visits were made, collecting data about oral breathing, mixed, labial closing, inter visits respiration alterations, nasal breathing stimulation, common snore when sleeping, the use of baby's milk bottle, pacifier suction, finger suction and breastfeeding. From the initial group, 67 children were assisted until the average age of 29,42 months old (±2,49dp). RESULTS: The prevalence of mouth breathing was of 3,0%. Breastfeeding (ORadj=0,27:0,09-0,83) and the nasal breathing stimulation (ORadj=0,09:0,01-0,52) worked as protection factors against labial closing, while the inter visit breathing alteration (ORadj=7,61:1,09-53,01), pacifier suction (ORadj=5,54:2,00- 15,37) and snoring (ORadj=10,74:2,32-49,64) worked as risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: The genesis of the oral breathing initiates by the loss of lip closing, as consequence of the interaction of positive and negative factors about the neurological, bone and muscular complex

O urbanismo conveniente luso-brasileiro na formação de povoações em Minas Gerais no século XVIII

The settlement of villages in the old colonial province of Minas Gerais obeyed certain principles of what was considered decent, convenient and adequate. Such principles were based on rules, doctrines and habits inherent to the Luso-Brazilian architecture of that time. The historical analysis of these aspects leads to a critical review of some consolidated assumptions in historiography, such as the one for which the settlements aforementioned would have appeared in a spontaneous, irregular and disordered fashion. Because they are evident in the remaining settlements and period art treatises and documents, these aspects lead to the consideration of a true art of populating, based on certain values and habits, which we call convenient Luso-Brazilian urbanism.A formação de povoações na capitania de Minas Gerais no século XVIII estava condicionada a preceitos de decoro, conveniência e adequação. Esses preceitos constituíam regras, doutrinas e costumes muito relevantes à arte luso-brasileira de edificar arquiteturas e cidades naquele tempo. A consideração histórica desses aspectos nos conduz à revisão crítica de uma série de compreensões consolidadas na historiografia, como, por exemplo, a de que essas povoações seriam espontâneas, irregulares e desordenadas. Pela importância com que se evidenciam nas povoações remanescentes, nos tratados artísticos e nos documentos coevos, tais aspectos nos levam a cogitar em uma verdadeira arte de povoar fundamentada nesses valores e costumes, arte a que denominamos urbanismo conveniente luso-brasileiro

Local hydrological conditions influence tree diversity and composition across the Amazon basin

Tree diversity and composition in Amazonia are known to be strongly determined by the water supplied by precipitation. Nevertheless, within the same climatic regime, water availability is modulated by local topography and soil characteristics (hereafter referred to as local hydrological conditions), varying from saturated and poorly drained to well-drained and potentially dry areas. While these conditions may be expected to influence species distribution, the impacts of local hydrological conditions on tree diversity and composition remain poorly understood at the whole Amazon basin scale. Using a dataset of 443 1-ha non-flooded forest plots distributed across the basin, we investigate how local hydrological conditions influence 1) tree alpha diversity, 2) the community-weighted wood density mean (CWM-wd) – a proxy for hydraulic resistance and 3) tree species composition. We find that the effect of local hydrological conditions on tree diversity depends on climate, being more evident in wetter forests, where diversity increases towards locations with well-drained soils. CWM-wd increased towards better drained soils in Southern and Western Amazonia. Tree species composition changed along local soil hydrological gradients in Central-Eastern, Western and Southern Amazonia, and those changes were correlated with changes in the mean wood density of plots. Our results suggest that local hydrological gradients filter species, influencing the diversity and composition of Amazonian forests. Overall, this study shows that the effect of local hydrological conditions is pervasive, extending over wide Amazonian regions, and reinforces the importance of accounting for local topography and hydrology to better understand the likely response and resilience of forests to increased frequency of extreme climate events and rising temperatures

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Estimating the global conservation status of more than 15,000 Amazonian tree species

Estimates of extinction risk for Amazonian plant and animal species are rare and not often incorporated into land-use policy and conservation planning. We overlay spatial distribution models with historical and projected deforestation to show that at least 36% and up to 57% of all Amazonian tree species are likely to qualify as globally threatened under International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. If confirmed, these results would increase the number of threatened plant species on Earth by 22%. We show that the trends observed in Amazonia apply to trees throughout the tropics, and we predict thatmost of the world’s >40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as globally threatened. A gap analysis suggests that existing Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories will protect viable populations of most threatened species if these areas suffer no further degradation, highlighting the key roles that protected areas, indigenous peoples, and improved governance can play in preventing large-scale extinctions in the tropics in this century

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The global abundance of tree palms

Aim Palms are an iconic, diverse and often abundant component of tropical ecosystems that provide many ecosystem services. Being monocots, tree palms are evolutionarily, morphologically and physiologically distinct from other trees, and these differences have important consequences for ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration and storage) and in terms of responses to climate change. We quantified global patterns of tree palm relative abundance to help improve understanding of tropical forests and reduce uncertainty about these ecosystems under climate change. Location Tropical and subtropical moist forests. Time period Current. Major taxa studied Palms (Arecaceae). Methods We assembled a pantropical dataset of 2,548 forest plots (covering 1,191 ha) and quantified tree palm (i.e., ≥10 cm diameter at breast height) abundance relative to co‐occurring non‐palm trees. We compared the relative abundance of tree palms across biogeographical realms and tested for associations with palaeoclimate stability, current climate, edaphic conditions and metrics of forest structure. Results On average, the relative abundance of tree palms was more than five times larger between Neotropical locations and other biogeographical realms. Tree palms were absent in most locations outside the Neotropics but present in >80% of Neotropical locations. The relative abundance of tree palms was more strongly associated with local conditions (e.g., higher mean annual precipitation, lower soil fertility, shallower water table and lower plot mean wood density) than metrics of long‐term climate stability. Life‐form diversity also influenced the patterns; palm assemblages outside the Neotropics comprise many non‐tree (e.g., climbing) palms. Finally, we show that tree palms can influence estimates of above‐ground biomass, but the magnitude and direction of the effect require additional work. Conclusions Tree palms are not only quintessentially tropical, but they are also overwhelmingly Neotropical. Future work to understand the contributions of tree palms to biomass estimates and carbon cycling will be particularly crucial in Neotropical forests