Biology and larval morphology of the genus Ceramida Baraud (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae: Pachydeminae)

The biology and larval morphology of Ceramida, a pest of olive trees in southern Spain, are described. The life-cycle is multivoltine, spanning three years in the field. Females lay eggs in the early spring, with the highest larval densities in June. Larvae feed on the root system of plants. Pupation takes place in the late summer. Adults emerge with the first autumnal rainfalls, with mating extending from September to January. Larval characters such as type of head pubescence, shape of antennal sensory areas, chaetotaxy of raster, and degree of reduction of metathoracic claws are of taxonomic value within Pachydeminae

Mass extinction, gradual cooling, or rapid radiation? Reconstructing the spatiotemporal evolution of the ancient Angiosperm genus Hedyosmum (Chloranthaceae) Using empirical and simulated approaches

Chloranthaceae is a small family of flowering plants (65 species) with an extensive fossil record extending back to the Early Cretaceous. Within Chloranthaceae, Hedyosmum is remarkable because of its disjunct distribution – one species in the Paleotropics and 44 confined to the Neotropics – and a long “temporal gap” between its stem age (Early Cretaceous) and the beginning of the extant radiation (late Cenozoic). Is this gap real, reflecting low diversification and a recent radiation, or the signature of extinction? Here we use paleontological data, relaxed clock molecular dating, diversification analyses, and parametric ancestral area reconstruction to investigate the timing, tempo, and mode of diversification in Hedyosmum. Our results, based on analyses of plastid and nuclear sequences for 40 species, suggest that the ancestor of Chloranthaceae and the Hedyosmum stem lineages were widespread in the Holarctic in the Late Cretaceous. High extinction rates, possibly associated with Cenozoic climatic fluctuations, may have been responsible for the low extant diversity of the family. Crown group Hedyosmum originated c. 36 – 43 Ma and colonized South America from the north during the Early-Middle Miocene (c. 20 Ma). This coincided with an increase in diversification rates, probably triggered by the uplift of the northern Andes from the Mid-Miocene onwards. This study illustrates the advantages of combining paleontological, phylogenetic, and biogeographic data to reconstruct the spatiotemporal evolution of an ancient lineage, for which the extant diversity is only a remnant of past radiations. It also shows the difficulties of inferring patterns of lineage diversification when incomplete taxon sampling is combined with high extinction rates.Peer reviewe

Evolución biogeográfica de los Pachydeminae paleárticos (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea) mediante análisis de dispersión-vicarianza

The beetle subfamily Pachydeminae Reitter, 1902 is one of the least-known subfamilies of Melolonthidae or “leaf-chafers” (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea). Some species of Pachydeminae have recently been described as agricultural pests of olive trees. The Pachydeminae are distributed in all major zoogeographical regions (except Australia and India) but their distribution is very disjunct. In the Palearctic region, they are distributed across southern Eurasia from the Canary Islands to China, including southern Europe (except France and Italy), North Africa, Asia Minor, Middle East, Iran-Afghanistan, Caucasus, and Central Asia. The majority of species occur in the southwestern Palearctic, with only a few species in China. As in the rest of Melolonthidae subfamilies (Browne & Scholtz, 1999), phylogenetic relationships within the Pachydeminae are poorly resolved. Recently, Sanmartín & Martín-Piera, (2003) reviewed the systematics of the Palearctic genera, and proposed the first phylogenetic hypothesis within the subfamily. This study summarizes the conclusions of Sanmartín (1998) and Sanmartín (2003), which reconstructed the biogeographic history of the subfamily Pachydeminae in the Palearctic region using dispersalvicariance analysis (DIVA, Ronquist, 1996, 1997). This method reconstructs the ancestral distribution in a given phylogeny based on a vicariance model, while allowing dispersal and extinction to occur. Unlike other methods, DIVA does not enforce area relationships to conform to a hierarchical “area cladogram” so it can be used to reconstruct “reticulate” biogeographic scenarios. DIVA optimal reconstructions suggest that the ancestor of Pachydeminae was originally present in the south-eastern Mediterranean region, including North Africa, the Middle East, the Iranian Plateau, and the Balkans/Anatolian region. During the Oligocene-Miocene, the collision between the Arabian, African, and Eurasian Plates resulted in the appearance of consecutive dispersal barriers (e.g., the Red Sea, the Zagros Mountains). This geographic division was followed by fragmentation (vicariance) of the ancestral biota, giving rise to several disjunct genera (Pachydema Castelnau, 1832, Hemictenius Reitter, 1897). The Middle East region and the Iranian Plateau acted as centers of diversification during the evolution of the subfamily: many of the least speciose genera of Pachydeminae originated within these two regions by sympatric speciation (Otoclinius Brenske, 1896). In contrast, the presence of Pachydeminae in the Western Mediterranean region (Iberian Peninsula and southwestern Mediterranean Islands) is the result of a more recent dispersal event. The ancestor of the Iberian genera Ceramida Baraud, 1987 and Elaphocera Gené, 1836 probably dispersed from the Middle East to the Iberian Peninsula across North Africa and the Gibraltar Strait. This dispersal could have taken place during the “Messinian salinity crisis” at the end of the Miocene, when the Red Sea and the Mediterranean partially dried-up, allowing a short period of biotic dispersal between West Asia, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula. The subsequent evolution of Ceramida and Elaphocera seem to have involved repeated vicariance events between the East and West Mediterranean, and between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. In the Iberian Peninsula, the two genera are geographically segregated: most species of Ceramida are found in the southwestern region, whereas Elaphocera is generally restricted to the southeastern Iberian Peninsula.En este trabajo, se reconstruye la historia biogeográfica de la subfamilia Pachydeminae Reitter, 1902 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea, Melolonthidae) en el Paleártico occidental, utilizando el análisis de dispersión-vicarianza (DIVA). Este método de análisis biogeográfico reconstruye las distribuciones ancestrales en la filogenia de acuerdo con un simple modelo vicariante, pero al mismo tiempo permite considerar otros procesos como dispersión y extinción en la reconstrucción biogeográfica. Al contrario que otros métodos, no restringe las relaciones entre áreas a un modelo jerárquico por lo que puede utilizarse para reconstruir relaciones reticuladas. La reconstrucción óptima postulada por DIVA indica que el ancestro de los Pachydeminae Paleárticos probablemente se originó en la región suroriental del Mediterráneo, incluyendo el Norte de África, Oriente Medio, la Meseta Iraní, y los Balcanes/Anatolia. Durante el Oligoceno-Mioceno, la colisión de las Placas Africana, Arábiga, y Eurasiática dio lugar a la aparición de sucesivas barreras geográficas (e. g., el Mar Rojo, las montañas del Zagros) que dividieron el área ancestral de Pachydeminae, y dieron lugar a varios géneros por vicarianza (e. g., Pachydema Castelnau, 1832). El Oriente Medio y la Meseta Iraní habrían actuado como centros de diversificación en la evolución de la subfamilia: muchos de los géneros de Pachydeminae se originaron en estas regiones por especiación simpátrica (e. g., Otoclinius Brenske, 1896). La distribución de los Pachydeminae en el Mediterráneo occidental, en cambio, es el resultado de una dispersión posterior. El ancestro de los géneros ibéricos Ceramida Baraud, 1987 y Elaphocera Gené, 1836 probablemente se dispersó desde el Oriente Medio hacia la Península Ibérica a través del Norte de África y el Estrecho de Gibraltar. Esta dispersión pudo tener lugar a finales del Mioceno, durante la “crisis de salinidad” del Mesiniense, cuando la desecación parcial del Mar Rojo y el Mediterráneo permitió la dispersión de linajes asiáticos al Norte de África y la Península Ibérica. La evolución posterior de los géneros Elaphocera y Ceramida implicó la existencia de varios eventos de dispersión y vicarianza entre el Mediterráneo occidental y oriental, y entre la Península Ibérica y el Norte de África

Ancient vicariance and climate-driven extinction explain continental-wide disjunctions in Africa: the case of the Rand Flora genus Canarina (Campanulaceae)

20 p., gráf., mapas, tablas -- Post-print del artículo publicado en Molecular Ecology. Versión revisada y corregida.Transoceanic distributions have attracted the interest of scientists for centuries. Less attention has been paid to the evolutionary origins of ‘continent-wide’ disjunctions, in which related taxa are distributed across isolated regions within the same continent. A prime example is the ‘Rand Flora’ pattern, which shows sister taxa disjunctly distributed in the continental margins of Africa. Here, we explore the evolutionary origins of this pattern using the genus Canarina, with three species: C. canariensis, associated with the Canarian laurisilva, and C. eminii and C. abyssinica, endemic to the Afromontane region in East Africa, as case study. We infer phylogenetic relationships, divergence times and the history of migration events within Canarina using Bayesian inference on a large sample of chloroplast and nuclear sequences. Ecological niche modelling was employed to infer the climatic niche of Canarina through time. Dating was performed with a novel nested approach to solve the problem of using deep time calibration points within a molecular dataset comprising both above-species and population-level sampling. Results show C. abyssinica as sister to a clade formed by disjunct C. eminii and C. canariensis. Miocene divergences were inferred among species, whereas infraspecific divergences fell within the Pleistocene–Holocene periods. Although C. eminii and C. canariensis showed a strong genetic geographic structure, among-population divergences were older in the former than in the latter. Our results suggest that Canarina originated in East Africa and later migrated across North Africa, with vicariance and aridification-driven extinction explaining the 7000 km/7 million year divergence between the Canarian and East African endemics.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Projects CGL2006-09696, CGL2009-1332-C03-01, CGL2012-40129-C02-01) the JAE-Doc programme (CSIC/FSE) to MA, and a PhD research grant (BES-2010-037261) to MM. LP was funded by a research contract under CGL2012-40129-C02-01.Peer reviewe

Perfectionism and Emotional Intelligence: A Person-Centered Approach

This study examined the relationship between perfectionistic concerns (PC) and perfectionistic strivings (PS) with the subcomponents of emotional intelligence (EI) through a latent class person-centered approach. A sample of 1582 Ecuadorian adolescents (619 females) aged from 12 to 18 was employed. The trait meta-mood scale-24 (TMMS-24) and the child and adolescent perfectionism scale (CAPS) were used, respectively, for assessing three subcomponents of EI (i.e., emotional attention, emotional clarity, and mood repair) and two perfectionist dimensions (PC and PS). A three-class solution (High perfectionism, moderate perfectionism, and nonperfectionism) was identified by using latent class analysis. High perfectionism significantly scored higher on emotional attention in comparison with the moderate and nonperfectionism classes, with small and moderate effect sizes. Overall, results suggest that people with high perfectionism might be at greater risk of developing maladaptive emotional self-regulation strategies, such as rumination, because of their tendency to excessively attend their negative mood states

La ciudad de Zaragoza bajo dominio francés (1809-1813).

La guerra de Independencia (1808-1814) supone la ocupación del trono español por el hermano de Napoleón Bonaparte, José I Bonaparte, así como grandes pérdidas en el patrimonio artístico español. Tras la eliminación de toda huella del enfrentamiento y la limpieza de las ciudades, se impulsan diferentes renovaciones urbanísticas caracterizadas por la introducción de ideas ilustradas y la modernización del trazado urbano, siguiendo los ejemplos anteriores impulsados por Carlos III, los realizados por Napoleón en París, y los impulsados por José I en Madrid. El presente trabajo se centra en el periodo de ocupación francesa en Zaragoza, donde se siguen los modelos anteriormente mencionados, la introducción las ideas ilustradas; y donde el proyecto que destaca por excelencia es la construcción del paseo Imperial, actual paseo de la Independencia, al sur de la ciudad. Dicho proyecto, aunque posteriormente acabado por los españoles y con otros supuestos supone, entre otras cosas, el inicio de la expansión hacia el sur de la ciudad de Zaragoza. <br /

Biogeography Meets Niche Modeling: Inferring the Role of Deep Time Climate Change When Data Is Limited

Biogeography Meets Niche Modeling: Inferring the Role of Deep Time Climate Change When Data Is Limited. Geographic range shifts are one major organism response to climate change, especially if the rate of climate change is higher than that of species adaptation. Ecological niche models (ENM) and biogeographic inferences are often used in estimating the effects of climatic oscillations on species range dynamics. ENMs can be used to track climatic suitable areas over time but have often been limited to shallow timescales; biogeographic inference can reach greater evolutionary depth, but often lacks spatial resolution. This study presents a simple approach that treats them as independent and complementary sources of evidence, which, when used in partnership, can be employed to reconstruct geographic range shifts over deep evolutionary timescales. For testing this, we chose two extreme African disjunctions: Camptoloma (Scrophulariaceae) and Canarina (Campanulaceae), each comprising of three species disjunctly distributed in Macaronesia and eastern/southern Africa. Using inferred ancestral ranges in tandem with preindustrial and paleoclimate ENM hindcastings, we show that the disjunct pattern was the result of fragmentation and extinction events linked to Neogene aridification cycles. Our results highlight the importance of considering temporal resolution when building ENMs for rare endemics with small population sizes and restricted climatic tolerances such as Camptoloma, for which models built on averaged monthly variables were more informative than those based on annual bioclimatic variables. Additionally, we show that biogeographic information can be used as truncation threshold criteria for building ENMs in the distant past. Our approach is suitable when there is sparse sampling on species occurrences and associated patterns of genetic variation, such as in the case of ancient endemics with widely disjunct distributions as a result of climate change

Alcuino de York y su Vita Vedasti: un comentario histórico-cultural.

Alcuino de York, como máximo exponente del Renacimiento Carolingio, realizó una ardua tarea de reforma social y educativa. Entre sus numerosas obras, Alcuino escribió las Vitae para que sirvieran no solo de ejemplo de vida para los cristianos, sino también para corregir los errores que, hasta el momento, venían cometiendo tanto intelectuales como autores de épocas anteriores.<br /

Comentario a la Apocolocyntosis de Séneca.

Poco después de la muerte del emperador Claudio, Lucio Anneo Séneca escribió una obra satírica titulada Apocolocyntosis cuyo objetivo era ridiculizar al príncipe. Este breve escrito ha planteado a los estudiosos posteriores muchos interrogantes que se exponen en este trabajo. Además, se incluye el texto acompañado de una traducción del mismo, así como un comentario detallado de sus partes. Por último, se ofrece una descripción del personaje de Claudio en la obra comparándola con la que nos presentan autores posteriores como Tácito y Suetonio.<br /

Políticas de implantación de la TDT local en España (2005-2006) : los casos de las Comunidades Autónomas de Islas Baleares, Madrid, Región de Murcia, Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia, Cataluña y Aragón

Este texto describe y analiza las políticas de implantación de la TDT local que se están llevando a cabo en las siete comunidades autónomas españolas que en diciembre de 2006 tenían total o casi totalmente configurado el nuevo mapa de televisión local, al haber definido cuántos y cuáles son los operadores públicos y privados presentes su territorio: Islas Baleares, Madrid, Región de Murcia, Comunidad Valenciana, Galicia, Cataluña y Aragón.This paper describes and analyzes the different public policies addressed to the implementation of local Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) that have been carried out at the regional-local level, in seven Spanish autonomous communities that by December 2006 had totally or almost shaped their new local television map. The paper explores how many and which public and private services were in place in these seven autonomous communities: Balearic Islands, Madrid, Region of Murcia, Valencia Community, Galicia, Catalonia, and Aragon.Este texto descreve e analisa as políticas de implementação local da Televisão Digital Terrestre (TDT), a partir do estudo da implantação que tem decorrido em sete comunidades autonómicas espanholas - Ilhas Baleares, Madrid, Região de Múrcia, Comunidade Valenciana, Galiza, Catalunha e Aragão - as quais contribuíram para configurar o mapa da televisão digital local existente em Espanha até Dezembro de 2006