West African pholcid spiders: an overview, with descriptions of five new species (Araneae, Pholcidae)

This paper summarizes current knowledge about West African pholcids. West Africa is here defined as the area south of 17°N and west of 5°E, including mainly the Upper Guinean subregion of the Guineo-Congolian center of endemism. This includes all of Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin. An annotated list of the 14 genera and 38 species recorded from this area is given, together with distribution maps and an identification key to genera. Five species are newly described: Anansus atewa sp. nov., Artema bunkpurugu sp. nov., Leptopholcus kintampo sp. nov., Spermophora akwamu sp. nov., and S. ziama sp. nov. The female of Quamtana kitahurira is newly described. Additional new records are given for 16 previously described species, including 33 new country records. Distribution patterns of West African pholcids are discussed, as well as possible explanations for relatively low West African pholcid species diversity as compared to Central and East Africa

East African pholcid spiders: an overview, with descriptions of eight new species (Araneae, Pholcidae)

This paper summarizes current knowledge about East African pholcids. East Africa is defined as the area from 12°S to 5°N and from 28° to 42°E, including all of Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania. An annotated list of the 15 genera and 87 species recorded from this area is given, together with distribution maps and an identification key to genera. Most East African species (90%) belong to one of only six genera: Buitinga Huber, 2003 (21 species); Smeringopus Simon, 1890 (18); Pholcus Walckenaer, 1805 (17); Spermophora Hentz, 1841 (12); Leptopholcus Simon, 1893 (5) and Quamtana Huber, 2003 (4). Eight species for which DNA sequence data have been published recently are newly described: Buitinga batwa sp. nov., B. wataita sp. nov., Spermophora mau sp. nov., S. maathaiae sp. nov., S. bukusu sp. nov., S. kirinyaga sp. nov., S. kyambura sp. nov. and Quamtana nyahururu sp. nov. Crossopriza johncloudsleyi Deeleman-Reinhold & van Harten, 2001, previously only known from Yemen, is redescribed based on specimens from Kenya. Additional new records are given for 21 previously described species

Guideline for handling pesticide residues in Czech organic production

This document was prepared in the project «Development of guidelines for the use of pesticide analysis in organic inspection in the Czech Republic (sampling, evaluation and interpretation)». At the beginning of this project, a workshop with stakeholders was held. The present document builds on the outcomes of this workshop, and elaborates guidance for all stakeholders involved in Czech organic production and its control, on how to deal with residue analyses. In recognition of the European dimension of the problem, the project followed a two-step approach. In the first step, the present guideline was prepared. It is written in a general style and in the English language, so that it potentially applies for many countries. Although the current project aims specifically at the situation in the Czech Republic, its use for other countries is welcome! In the second step, a national guideline for the Czech Republic will be prepared, based on this document. The present document will serve as a blueprint for this guideline, which will be tailored to the specific situation in the Czech Republic and written in the Czech language. The aim is that all control bodies and authorities dealing with organic production and organic products in the Czech Republic will use this guideline

On the Connectivity of Unions of Random Graphs

Graph-theoretic tools and techniques have seen wide use in the multi-agent systems literature, and the unpredictable nature of some multi-agent communications has been successfully modeled using random communication graphs. Across both network control and network optimization, a common assumption is that the union of agents' communication graphs is connected across any finite interval of some prescribed length, and some convergence results explicitly depend upon this length. Despite the prevalence of this assumption and the prevalence of random graphs in studying multi-agent systems, to the best of our knowledge, there has not been a study dedicated to determining how many random graphs must be in a union before it is connected. To address this point, this paper solves two related problems. The first bounds the number of random graphs required in a union before its expected algebraic connectivity exceeds the minimum needed for connectedness. The second bounds the probability that a union of random graphs is connected. The random graph model used is the Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi model, and, in solving these problems, we also bound the expectation and variance of the algebraic connectivity of unions of such graphs. Numerical results for several use cases are given to supplement the theoretical developments made.Comment: 16 pages, 3 tables; accepted to 2017 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC

Ninetis russellsmithi n. sp., an unusual new pholcid spider species from Malawi (Araneae: Pholcidae)

A new species Ninetis russellsmithi n. sp. is described from Malawi. It lacks the most prominent autapomorphy of pholcid spiders, the retrolateral projection of the cymbium (procursus). Biogeographically this species marks the first record for the genus in a 3000 km gap between its African congeners in Namibia and Tanzania

Towards a Precise Semantics for Object-Oriented Modeling Techniques

In this paper we present a possible way how a precise semantics of object oriented modeling techniques can be achieved and what the possible benefits are .We outline the main modeling techniques used in the SysLab project sketch how a precise semantics can be given and how this semantics can be used during the development process.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure

Artificial infestation of grape berry and grape vine moth : a new method to assay the efficacy of insecticides in grape vines

Bei der Prüfung von Insektiziden gegen die Traubenwickler Lobesia botrana DEN. & SCHIFF. und Eupoecilia ambiguella HBN. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) im Freiland ist ein ausreichender Befall mit den Schadinsekten notwendig, um statistisch auswertbare Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Dem steht jedoch ein jährlich stark wechselnder Befallsdruck und ein oft stark geklusterter Befall, selbst innerhalb einer eng umgrenzten Rebanlage, entgegen. Hinzu kommen erhebliche Probleme mit dem richtigen Timing der Behandlung, bedingt durch eine sehr lange Flugzeit der Traubenwicklerarten, was häufig zu einer geringen Effizienz und schlechten Vergleichbarkeit der Mittel führt. Für die Entwicklung von Insektiziden bedingen diese Voraussetzungen eine große Anzahl von Versuchen, die mit hohen Kosten verbunden sind Abhilfe kann für viele Fragestellungen ein künstlich erzeugter Befall geben. Die Methode soll hier kurz vorgestellt und die Anwendung exemplarisch an Versuchen mit beiden Traubenwicklerarten dargestellt werden.For a proper evaluation of insecticides against Lobesia botrana DEN. & SCHIFF. and Eupoecilia ambiguella HBN. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in the field, a sufficient infestation is necessary. Unfortunately, the degree of infestation varies from year to year and is not even uniform in one vineyard. Furthermore, the timing of the application is quite difficult, because of the long flight period of these species. This often results in a poor efficacy and comparability of the products tested. We therefore developed a method to artificially infest flower or fruit clusters. Pieces of wire covered with green plastic were placed in cages with adult moths. This material was found to be an excellent substrate for egg laying in both species. These sticks, covered with eggs, were transferred to the study areas and carefully mounted individually at grape bunches. This method caused a quite uniform infestation within the whole experimental blocks and allowed a proper determination of the optimal time of application. Yet another advantage is that experiments can be done independently from the natural infestation and flight period. It is possible to vary the time of the exposition of the “egg stick” in the field, the hatch of the larvae and the application itself. This allows to study a variety of problems, such as the optimisation of the time of application and the estimation of the residual activity (persistency) of products