Optimising design and effort for environmental surveys using dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae):

In biological monitoring, deploying an effective standardised quantitative sampling method, optimised by trap design and sampling effort, is an essential consideration. To exemplify this using dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae) communities, three pitfall trap designs (un-baited (TN), baited at ground level (flat trap, TF), and baited above the trap (hanging trap, TH)), employed with varying levels of sampling effort (number of traps = 1, 2, 3… 10; number of days = 1, 2, 3), were evaluated for sampling completeness and efficiency in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Modelling and resampling simulation approaches were used to suggest optimal sampling protocols across environmentally diverse sites. Overall, TF recovered the greatest abundance and species richness of dung beetles, but behavioural guilds showed conflicting trends: endocoprids preferred TH while paracoprids and telocoprids preferred TF. Resampling simulation of trap type and the two components of sampling effort suggested that six TF traps left for three days was most efficient in obtaining a representative sample and allowed differentiation between trap types, allowing the improved efficiency to be recognised. The effect of trap type on non-target specimens, particularly ants, was also investigated. TF and TH caught almost no by-catch, which is ethically desirable

«Todos somos iguales». La Revolución de la Igualdad en Santa Cruz, Bolivia. 1876-1877

The Equality Revolution in Santa Cruz (1876-1877), also known as the equality movement, was a conflict between the pairing of the common urban class and local elites who defended a development formula that championed a modern age that balanced the social values of the traditional and patriarchal society, and other local elites who benefited from the boom of free-market capitalism. The political actions of the egalitarians was influenced by the ideology of romantic socialism in its different stages and combined legal formulas with pressure from peasant militia and civil uprisings. The disruption between the project defending a selfmanaged local way of life and local/state modernization priorities led to a state of repression rarely seen in XIX century Santa Cruz society.La Revolución de Igualdad en Santa Cruz (1876-1877) o movimiento igualitario fue un conflicto entre el binomio formado por las capas plebeyas urbanas y las elites locales, defensoras de la fórmula del desarrollo que abogaba por una modernidad en equilibrio con los valores sociales de la sociedad patriarcal y tradicional, y otras elites locales, beneficiarias del auge del capitalismo de libre cambio. La actuación política de los igualitarios estuvo influenciada por las ideas del socialismo romántico en todas sus etapas y combinó formas legales con presión armada montonera y sublevación popular. El desajuste entre este proyecto de defensa de un autogestionado modo de vida local y las prioridades locales/estatales de modernización provocó una represión del mismo pocas veces vista en la sociedad cruceña en el siglo XIX

Ammonite stratigraphy of a Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) section on Nagy-Pisznice Hill (Gerecse Mts, Hungary)

Abstract In the Jurassic rocks exposed in a small abandoned quarry on the northwestern edge of Nagy-Pisznice Hill in the Gerecse Mts, fairly well preserved parts of a crocodile skeleton was found in 1996. The bed which yielded the skeletal remains is the uppermost layer of the Kisgerecse Marl Formation exposed here and was determined as belonging to the Upper Toarcian Grammoceras thouarsense Zone. The beds of the sequence above and below were carefully sampled in the late 1990s, and the encountered ammonites were evaluated biostratigraphically. As a result, the Lower Toarcian Harpoceras serpentinum Zone, the Middle Toarcian Hildoceras bifrons and Merlaites gradatus Zones, and the Upper Toarcian Grammoceras thouarsense and Geczyceras speciosum Zones were identified. Within most of these zones the subzones and even the faunal horizons were successfully recognized. The lowermost beds above the underlying Pliensbachian red limestone did not yield any fossils; thus the lowermost Toarcian Dactylioceras tenuicostatum Zone could not be documented. The highest Toarcian ammonite zones also remained unidentified, because the beds of the Tölgyhát Limestone above were not sampled all the way up. This paper presents the lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic details of the sequence, and the paleontological descriptions of the most important ammonites

<i>Shajia</i>, a new genus of polyconitid rudist from the Langshan Formation of the Lhasa Block, Tibet, and its palaeogeographical implications

A new polyconitid rudist Shajia tibetica gen. et sp. nov., of late Aptian to Albian age, is described from the Langshan Formation of Nyima County, northern Lhasa Block, Tibet. Though comparable in size and external morphology with Horiopleura haydeni Douvillé, which is a common endemic species in southwestern Asia, Shajia differs from the latter species in its possession of an inwardly inclined, instead of outwardly facing, posterior myophore in the right valve. In addition, a single specimen from Ladakh, which was previously assigned to Polyconites? sp., on account of a similar myophoral distinction from H. haydeni, is transferred to the new genus. Shajia is considered most likely to have been derived from one of a group of Horiopleura species that lived on the southern margin of the Mediterranean Tethys. The so-called ‘Yasin fauna’ represented by the late Aptian to Albian Horiopleura haydeni/ Auroradiolites gilgitensis rudist association, is considered to be restricted to southwestern Asia, including Afghanistan, Kohistan in northern Pakistan and Ladakh in northern India, though those two species in particular have not so far been recorded from the Lhasa Block of Tibet. Nevertheless, S. tibetica co-occurs with Auroradiolites biconvexus (Yang et al.), which probably evolved directly from A. gilgitensis (Douvillé), and the age of the latter association is in accordance with the generally accepted age of the Yasin fauna as late Aptian to Albian. Hence the S. tibetica and A. biconvexus association can be considered a regional variant of the Yasin fauna, which had evidently already dispersed to the Lhasa Block by the late Aptian. So the Langshan Formation can be considered palaeogeographically linked with other mid-Cretaceous shallow-marine carbonate deposits in adjacent southwestern Asian regions. These findings also provide new evidence that the age of the rudist assemblage of the Lhasa Block is late Aptian to Albian, although a slightly younger age cannot be excluded

Tmetoceratidae (Ammonitina) fauna from the Gerecse Mts (Hungary)

Abstract Taxonomic and stratigraphic problems of the family Tmetoceratidae and the genera Dumortieria, Catulloceras, Cotteswoldia, Pleydellia and Tmetoceras included in it are briefly discussed. Fifteen species of Tmetoceratidae are described and illustrated from the Upper Toarcian-Aalenian ammonite assemblages of the Gerecse Mts (NE Transdanubian Range, Hungary). The fauna described here is closely allied to the Mediterranean Province of the Mediterranean-Caucasian Realm

Climate-driven range extension of Amphistegina (protista, foraminiferida) : models of current and predicted future ranges

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS ONE 8 (2013): e54443, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054443.Species-range expansions are a predicted and realized consequence of global climate change. Climate warming and the poleward widening of the tropical belt have induced range shifts in a variety of marine and terrestrial species. Range expansions may have broad implications on native biota and ecosystem functioning as shifting species may perturb recipient communities. Larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera constitute ubiquitous and prominent components of shallow water ecosystems, and range shifts of these important protists are likely to trigger changes in ecosystem functioning. We have used historical and newly acquired occurrence records to compute current range shifts of Amphistegina spp., a larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera, along the eastern coastline of Africa and compare them to analogous range shifts currently observed in the Mediterranean Sea. The study provides new evidence that amphisteginid foraminifera are rapidly progressing southwestward, closely approaching Port Edward (South Africa) at 31°S. To project future species distributions, we applied a species distribution model (SDM) based on ecological niche constraints of current distribution ranges. Our model indicates that further warming is likely to cause a continued range extension, and predicts dispersal along nearly the entire southeastern coast of Africa. The average rates of amphisteginid range shift were computed between 8 and 2.7 km year−1, and are projected to lead to a total southward range expansion of 267 km, or 2.4° latitude, in the year 2100. Our results corroborate findings from the fossil record that some larger symbiont-bearing foraminifera cope well with rising water temperatures and are beneficiaries of global climate change.This work was supported by grants from the German Science Foundation (DFG; www.dfg.de) to ML and SL (LA 884/10-1, LA 884/5-1)

Phylogeny of the Oniticellini and Onthophagini Dung Beetles (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) from Morphological Evidence

A phylogenetic study was conducted to hypothesize relationships of most of the genera of the Oniticellini and Onthophagini for the first time using morphological characters from a diverse array of external and internal sclerites. The monophyly and sister relationship of both tribes was found using Bayesian and parsimony analyses with heavily to moderately weighted data. An alternative hypothesis based on parsimony analyses of unweighted or slightly weighted data show a paraphyletic Oniticellini without the Onthophagini, although recognition of the subtribe Helictopleurina as a tribe would eliminate non-monophyly. Of the three Oniticellini subtribes, the Helictopleurina and Drepanocerina are monophyletic. There is no support for the monophyly of the Oniticellina or the Onthophagini subtribe Alloscelina, as currently defined. The genus Liatongus is paraphyletic, while strong support was found for monophyly of the Madagascan genus, Helictopleurus. The genus Onthophagus is never monophyletic in any analysis performed. Two new subtribes are also proposed: Liatongina subtr. n. including the genus Liatongus and Attavicina subtr. n. including the genera Attavicinus and Paroniticellus. Topological evidence shows that the ancestral oniticellines and onthophagines were all coprophagous with alternative food sources evolving relatively recently. Both myrmecophily and termitophily probably evolved only once in the onthophagines. The phylogenetic analysis supports an African origin for the two tribes, with a relatively early age for the split of the Madagascar helictopleurines from the remaining oniticellines via dispersal. Furthermore, the presence of the oniticellines in the New World is hypothesized to be due to two relatively old dispersal events via Beringia and two relatively recent trans-Atlantic invasions of the Caribbean