The ground beetle tribe platynini bonelli, 1810 (Coleoptera, carabidae) in the southern levant: dichotomous and interactive identification tools, ecological traits, and distribution

The carabids of the tribe Platynini from the southern Levant (Egypt: Sinai Peninsula, Israel, Jordan) and adjacent regions of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia are reviewed in terms of species tax-onomy, ecological, distributional traits, and conservation biology. In addition to a classical dichotomous identification key to the 14 species of the region, identification tools are made freely available via the Xper3 knowledge database “Platynini, southern Levant”. Besides an interactive identification key, a matrix with character states for the species and single access identification keys are available. A database includ-ing all available records from the southern Levant is also provided. First faunistic records are recorded for Anchomenus dorsalis infuscatus from Sinai (Egypt), Olisthopus fuscatus from Lebanon and Iraq, and for O. glabricollis from Iraq. Threatened species are discussed, also with regard to the reasons of their decline. The majority of species lives in wetlands, especially on the shore of winter ponds and streams, which have been extremely degraded in the last decades

Recurrent, Robust and Scalable Patterns Underlie Human Approach and Avoidance

BACKGROUND. Approach and avoidance behavior provide a means for assessing the rewarding or aversive value of stimuli, and can be quantified by a keypress procedure whereby subjects work to increase (approach), decrease (avoid), or do nothing about time of exposure to a rewarding/aversive stimulus. To investigate whether approach/avoidance behavior might be governed by quantitative principles that meet engineering criteria for lawfulness and that encode known features of reward/aversion function, we evaluated whether keypress responses toward pictures with potential motivational value produced any regular patterns, such as a trade-off between approach and avoidance, or recurrent lawful patterns as observed with prospect theory. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS. Three sets of experiments employed this task with beautiful face images, a standardized set of affective photographs, and pictures of food during controlled states of hunger and satiety. An iterative modeling approach to data identified multiple law-like patterns, based on variables grounded in the individual. These patterns were consistent across stimulus types, robust to noise, describable by a simple power law, and scalable between individuals and groups. Patterns included: (i) a preference trade-off counterbalancing approach and avoidance, (ii) a value function linking preference intensity to uncertainty about preference, and (iii) a saturation function linking preference intensity to its standard deviation, thereby setting limits to both. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE. These law-like patterns were compatible with critical features of prospect theory, the matching law, and alliesthesia. Furthermore, they appeared consistent with both mean-variance and expected utility approaches to the assessment of risk. Ordering of responses across categories of stimuli demonstrated three properties thought to be relevant for preference-based choice, suggesting these patterns might be grouped together as a relative preference theory. Since variables in these patterns have been associated with reward circuitry structure and function, they may provide a method for quantitative phenotyping of normative and pathological function (e.g., psychiatric illness).National Institute on Drug Abuse (14118, 026002, 026104, DABK39-03-0098, DABK39-03-C-0098); The MGH Phenotype Genotype Project in Addiction and Mood Disorder from the Office of National Drug Control Policy - Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center; MGH Department of Radiology; the National Center for Research Resources (P41RR14075); National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (34189, 05236

Acute D3 Antagonist GSK598809 Selectively Enhances Neural Response During Monetary Reward Anticipation in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Evidence suggests that disturbances in neurobiological mechanisms of reward and inhibitory control maintain addiction and provoke relapse during abstinence. Abnormalities within the dopamine system may contribute to these disturbances and pharmacologically targeting the D3 dopamine receptor (DRD3) is therefore of significant clinical interest. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the acute effects of the DRD3 antagonist GSK598809 on anticipatory reward processing, using the monetary incentive delay task (MIDT), and response inhibition using the Go/No-Go task (GNGT). A double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design approach was used in abstinent alcohol dependent, abstinent poly-drug dependent and healthy control volunteers. For the MIDT, there was evidence of blunted ventral striatal response to reward in the poly-drug-dependent group under placebo. GSK598809 normalized ventral striatal reward response and enhanced response in the DRD3-rich regions of the ventral pallidum and substantia nigra. Exploratory investigations suggested that the effects of GSK598809 were mainly driven by those with primary dependence on alcohol but not on opiates. Taken together, these findings suggest that GSK598809 may remediate reward deficits in substance dependence. For the GNGT, enhanced response in the inferior frontal cortex of the poly-drug group was found. However, there were no effects of GSK598809 on the neural network underlying response inhibition nor were there any behavioral drug effects on response inhibition. GSK598809 modulated the neural network underlying reward anticipation but not response inhibition, suggesting that DRD3 antagonists may restore reward deficits in addiction.The research was carried out at the NIHR/Wellcome Trust Imperial Clinical Research Facility, the NIHR/Wellcome Trust Cambridge Research Facility and Clinical Trials Unit at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, and is supported by the North West London, Eastern and Greater Manchester NIHR Clinical Research Networks

Une nouvelle Crepidogaster Boheman, 1848, de l’Inde méridionale (Col., Caraboidea, Brachinidae)

Deuve Thierry, Wrase David W. Une nouvelle Crepidogaster Boheman, 1848, de l’Inde méridionale (Col., Caraboidea, Brachinidae). In: Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, volume 119 (4),2014. pp. 471-472

Description d’un nouveau Broscosoma du Yunnan, Chine (Coleoptera, Caraboidea, Broscidae)

Deuve Thierry, Wrase David W. Description d’un nouveau Broscosoma du Yunnan, Chine (Coleoptera, Caraboidea, Broscidae). In: Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, volume 120 (1),2015. pp. 29-30

Description of two new species of Notiobia Perty from Southern Venezuela (Insecta, Coleoptera, Carabidae, Harpalini)

Volume: 24Start Page: 157End Page: 16

A new species of Philorhizus Hope, 1838 from Greece (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Lebiini)

Philorhizus marggii n. sp. is described from Greece (southern Peloponnese). Type locality: Taygetos Massif, Profitis Illias, N 36°58’/E 022°21’, 2000-2400 m asl. Members of this micropterous species are distinguished from the other Philorhizus species occurring on the Balkans by habitus, the special colouration pattern of the elytra and the special construction of the internal sac of the median lobe. Illustrations of the habitus, the median lobe and its internal sac and a description of the habitat of the new species are presented. A key to all Philorhizus species known from Greece is given. Biogeographic notes on the distribution of micropterous Philorhizus species in the western Palaearctic realm are given. Philorhizus paulo Wrase, 1995 is recorded from France for the first time (East Pyrenees)

On a new synonymy in genus Laemostenus concerning a species from Iran (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Sphodrini)

Wrase, David W., Casale, Achille (2019): On a new synonymy in genus Laemostenus concerning a species from Iran (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Sphodrini). Zootaxa 4646 (3): 595-597, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4646.3.1

Une nouvelle Crepidogaster Boheman, 1848, de l’Inde méridionale (Col., Caraboidea, Brachinidae)

Deuve Thierry, Wrase David W. Une nouvelle Crepidogaster Boheman, 1848, de l’Inde méridionale (Col., Caraboidea, Brachinidae). In: Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France, volume 119 (4),2014. pp. 471-472