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Due to the growing awareness that insects' diversity and populations are in decline, there is an increased need for monitoring insects. Entomological lidars and photonic sensors can monitor and remotely identify flying insects based on their backscattered signal in terms of oscillations-, polarization-, and spectral content. The backscattered light from insects is predominantly oscillatory and derives from the wings. This part of the signal is also more coherent and co-polarized than the light reflected from the insect's abdomen. Clear membranes can display soap-bubble colors due to thin-film interference, a feature that can be associated with the thickness of the wing. A hyperspectral camera can capture these wing interference patterns with hundreds of spectral bands and accurately identify the wing thickness. Here we investigate whether the spectral fringes can provide complementary information to aid remote species identification. We demonstrate that we can extract wing thickness and modulation depth information from spectral fringes of 87 species of common insect pollinators in Skåne, Sweden. The modulation depth of a fringe provides information related to insect wing thickness homogeneity, wrinkledness, or anti-reflectance features. Our results show that examined species display distinct modulation and wing thickness, and therefore such features can be used to improve the specificity of species identification of photonics sensors.

In recent years, techniques such as Bayesian inference of phylogeny have become a standard part of the quantitative linguistic toolkit. While these tools successfully model the tree-like component of a linguistic dataset, real-world datasets generally include a combination of tree-like and nontree-like signals. Alongside developing techniques for modeling nontree-like data, an important requirement for future quantitative work is to build a principled understanding of this structural complexity of linguistic datasets. Some techniques exist for exploring the general structure of a linguistic dataset, such as NeighborNets, δ scores, and Q-residuals; however, these methods are not without limitations or drawbacks. In general, the question of what kinds of historical structure a linguistic dataset can contain and how these might be detected or measured remains critically underexplored from an objective, quantitative perspective. In this article, we propose TIGER values, a metric that estimates the internal consistency of a genetic dataset, as an additional metric for assessing how tree-like a linguistic dataset is. We use TIGER values to explore simulated language data ranging from very tree-like to completely unstructured, and also use them to analyze a cognate-coded basic vocabulary dataset of Uralic languages. As a point of comparison for the TIGER values, we also explore the same data using δ scores, Q-residuals, and NeighborNets. Our results suggest that TIGER values are capable of both ranking tree-like datasets according to their degree of treelikeness, as well as distinguishing datasets with tree-like structure from datasets with a nontree-like structure. Consequently, we argue that TIGER values serve as a useful metric for measuring the historical heterogeneity of datasets. Our results also highlight the complexities in measuring treelikeness from linguistic data, and how the metrics approach this question from different perspectives.

There are hundreds of thousands of moth species with crucial ecological roles that are often obscured by their nocturnal lifestyles. The pigmentation and appearance of moths are dominated by cryptic diffuse shades of brown. In this study, 82 specimens representing 26 moth species were analysed using infrared polarimetric hyperspectral imaging in the range of 0.95–2.5 µm. Contrary to previous studies, we demonstrate that since infrared light does not resolve the surface roughness, wings appear glossy and specular at longer wavelengths. Such properties provide unique reflectance spectra between species. The reflectance of the majority of our species could be explained by comprehensive models, and a complete parametrization of the spectral, polarimetric and angular optical properties was reduced to just 11 parameters with physical units. These parameters are complementary and, compared with the within-species variation, were significantly distinct between species. Counterintuitively to the aperture-limited resolution criterion, we could deduce microscopic features along the surface from their infrared properties. These features were confirmed by electron microscopy. Finally, we show how our findings could greatly enhance opportunities for remote identification of free-flying moth species, and we hypothesize that such flat specular wing targets could be expected to be sensed over considerable distances.

The larva of Abablemma brimleyana (Dyar) (Noctuidae) is described and illustrated based on ex ova larvae reared on green algae (Protococcus viridis). A last instar Abablemma duomaculata (Barnes & Benjamin), collected from and reared on Physcia, a foliose lichen, and its lichen-encrusted cocoon, as well as a last instar Nigetia formosalis Walker ex ova reared on Protococcus, also are figured. Beating samples of lichens in the thorn scrub that yielded the A. duomaculata larva also produced multiple individuals of Cisthene subrufa (Barnes & McDunnough) (Noctuidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini) and Glenoides lenticuligera A. Blanchard (Geometridae: Ennominae), both of which were reared to maturity on lichens. Abablemma, presently classified in the Araeopteroninae, is shown to be closely related to Nigetia formosalis, a Scolecocampinae according to Fibiger and Lafontaine. Shared larval and life history characters among the Araeopteroninae Fibiger 2005, Eublemminae Forbes 1954, Hypenodinae Forbes 1954, and Scolecocampinae Grote 1883 are discussed: the similarities between Abablemma, Hypenodes, and other genera suggest that the subfamilial classification for these basal quadrifids has been oversplit. The article concludes with a brief review of lichen and algal feeding in Macrolepidoptera and provides a listing of 38 macrolepidopterans that T.L.M. and D.L.W. have reared from green algae and foliose lichens; included are members of Geometridae: Ennominae (n = 1); and five subfamilies of Noctuidae: Arctiinae (n = 13) (12 of which are lithosiines), Eublemminae (n = 6) (all Metalectra Hübner), Herminiinae (n = 2) (both Zanclognatha Lederer), Scolecocampinae (n = 1), Araeopteroninae (n = 3), Hypenodinae (n = 1), Nolinae (n = 1), and Xyleninae: Elaphriini (n = 10) (all but two of which are Elaphria Hübner).

Larvae and pupae of two Neotropical choreutids, Rhobonda gaurisana Walker and Zodia scintillana (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Choreutidae), are described. Photographs, drawings, and scanning electron micrographs are provided for both species, and observations on larval behavior and biology are reported. The larval head in both genera is reinterpreted as being semiprognathous. The D2 setae on A9 arise from a common middorsal pinaculum in Rhobonda, Zodia, and other choreutid genera. Previously, this character was regarded as one of the defining characters for the Tortricidae. The implications of its presence in choreutids are discussed. The variability of the arrangement of pupal dorsal spines between the Millieriinae and the other two subfamilies Brenthiinae and Choreutinae is so great that the inclusion of the Millieriinae with the Choreutidae is questioned.