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The genus Rudolfina Rohacek, 1987 is revised and redefined with the description of the following nine new species, all from the New World: R. bucki sp. nov. (Mexico), R. exuberata sp. nov. (widespread, from USA to Brazil), R. howdeni sp. nov. (Mexico), R. megepandria sp. nov. (Mexico), R. newtoni sp. nov. (Mexico), R. pauca sp. nov. (Guatemala, Mexico), R. pilosa sp. nov. (Mexico), R. remiforma sp. nov. (Mexico) and R. tumida sp. nov. (Mexico, USA). Rudolfina is compared to closely related genera in the Archiceroptera genus complex, which in turn is recognized as part of a large, mostly Neotropical clade including Robustagramma Marshall & Cui, 2005, Pterogramma Spuler, 1924, Aptilotella Duda, 1924, Bitheca Marshall, 1987, Bromeloecia Spuler, 1924 and Archiceroptera Papp, 1977.

Chronic bacterial infections of the lung are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis patients. Tracking bacterial evolution during chronic infections can provide insights into how host selection pressures—including immune responses and therapeutic interventions—shape bacterial genomes. We carried out genomic and phenotypic analyses of 215 serially collected Burkholderia cenocepacia isolates from 16 cystic fibrosis patients, spanning a period of 2–20 yr and a broad range of epidemic lineages. Systematic phenotypic tests identified longitudinal bacterial series that manifested progressive changes in liquid media growth, motility, biofilm formation, and acute insect virulence, but not in mucoidy. The results suggest that distinct lineages follow distinct evolutionary trajectories during lung infection. Pan-genome analysis identified 10,110 homologous gene clusters present only in a subset of strains, including genes restricted to different molecular types. Our phylogenetic analysis based on 2148 orthologous gene clusters from all isolates is consistent with patient-specific clades. This suggests that initial colonization of patients was likely by individual strains, followed by subsequent diversification. Evidence of clonal lineages shared by some patients was observed, suggesting inter-patient transmission. We observed recurrent gene losses in multiple independent longitudinal series, including complete loss of Chromosome III and deletions on other chromosomes. Recurrently observed loss-of-function mutations were associated with decreases in motility and biofilm formation. Together, our study provides the first comprehensive genome-phenome analyses of B. cenocepacia infection in cystic fibrosis lungs and serves as a valuable resource for understanding the genomic and phenotypic underpinnings of bacterial evolution.

In the last 40 years, the number of species in the orthopteroid orders has increased by ~10% from that known in 1979. The largest order, the Orthoptera, has increased from 205 to 235 species known in Canada. The number of Blattodea has increased from 14 to 18 species, while Dermaptera has increased from 5 to 6 species. The number of species of Mantodea (3) and Phasmida (1) known in Canada have remained unchanged. Most new species records reported in Canada since 1979 have resulted from new collections along the periphery of the range of more widespread species. Some species reported since 1979 are recent introductions to Canada, including species restricted to homes or other heated buildings. The taxonomy of these orders has also changed, with only the Dermaptera having maintained its order definition since the 1979 treatment. Additional orthopteroid species are likely to occur in Canada, particularly in the orders Orthoptera and Blattodea. DNA barcodes are available for more than 60% of the species known to occur in Canada.

Paintedhand Mudbug (Lacunicambarus polychromatus (Thoma, Jezerinac & Simon 2005)) (Decapoda: Cambaridae) was recently discovered at three locations in Windsor, Ontario. These represent the first reports of this burrowing crayfish in Canada. iNaturalist, a nature app and website designed to record photo-based observations of plants and animals, was instrumental in facilitating this discovery. We discuss the importance of collaborative platforms, such as iNaturalist, for linking naturalists and citizen scientists to taxonomic experts around the globe.

Study of all flies (Diptera) collected for one year from a four-hectare (150 x 266 meter) patch of cloud forest at 1,600 meters above sea level at Zurquí de Moravia, San José Province, Costa Rica (hereafter referred to as Zurquí), revealed an astounding 4,332 species. This amounts to more than half the number of named species of flies for all of Central America. Specimens were collected with two Malaise traps running continuously and with a wide array of supplementary collecting methods for three days of each month. All morphospecies from all 73 families recorded were fully curated by technicians before submission to an international team of 59 taxonomic experts for identification. Overall, a Malaise trap on the forest edge captured 1,988 species or 51% of all collected dipteran taxa (other than of Phoridae, subsampled only from this and one other Malaise trap). A Malaise trap in the forest sampled 906 species. Of other sampling methods, the combination of four other Malaise traps and an intercept trap, aerial/hand collecting, 10 emergence traps, and four CDC light traps added the greatest number of species to our inventory. This complement of sampling methods was an effective combination for retrieving substantial numbers of species of Diptera. Comparison of select sampling methods (considering 3,487 species of non-phorid Diptera) provided further details regarding how many species were sampled by various methods. Comparison of species numbers from each of two permanent Malaise traps from Zurquí with those of single Malaise traps at each of Tapantí and Las Alturas, 40 and 180 km distant from Zurquí respectively, suggested significant species turnover. Comparison of the greater number of species collected in all traps from Zurquí did not markedly change the degree of similarity between the three sites, although the actual number of species shared did increase. Comparisons of the total number of named and unnamed species of Diptera from four hectares at Zurquí is equivalent to 51% of all flies named from Central America, greater than all the named fly fauna of Colombia, equivalent to 14% of named Neotropical species and equal to about 2.7% of all named Diptera worldwide. Clearly the number of species of Diptera in tropical regions has been severely underestimated and the actual number may surpass the number of species of Coleoptera. Various published extrapolations from limited data to estimate total numbers of species of larger taxonomic categories (e.g., Hexapoda, Arthropoda, Eukaryota, etc.) are highly questionable, and certainly will remain uncertain until we have more exhaustive surveys of all and diverse taxa (like Diptera) from multiple tropical sites. Morphological characterization of species in inventories provides identifications placed in the context of taxonomy, phylogeny, form, and ecology. DNA barcoding species is a valuable tool to estimate species numbers but used alone fails to provide a broader context for the species identified.

The Oriental family Nothybidae (Diptera: Diopsoidea) is a small, rarely collected group of acalyptrate flies including eight described species, all in the genus Nothybus. Nothybus species are usually collected in wet forests but little is known of their life cycle and behaviour. Adults, most often seen on horizontal leaf surfaces, wave their front legs much like superficially similar Micropezidae and some hold their wings at a characteristic angle of about 45 degrees from the horizontal (McAlpine 1974; Marshall 2012). Larvae, however, are known only from first instars dissected from pinned adult specimens, and larval habits remain unknown. We here describe courtship behaviour in a Vietnamese population of Nothybus sumatranus Enderlein in which the males provide nuptial gifts through indirect trophallaxis.

The Palaearctic leaf beetle speciesCassida viridisLinnaeus (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is newly recorded from North America on the basis of recent observations of established populations onMonardaLinnaeus (Lamiaceae) plantings in an Ontario, Canada garden. Historical specimen records show that the species has been in Ontario at least since 1974.

ABSTBACT The solitary, ground-nesting crabronid wasp Cerceris fumipennis Say excels at detecting buprestid diversity in a given geographic area, and after the introduction of the invasive pest emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) to the United States in 2002, has been developed as an effective tool for the biosurveillance of pest Buprestidae in eastern North America. Here we report records of Buprestidae collected from foraging C. fumipennis in 13 North Carolina counties over the course of three seasons (2009–2011). Nests of the wasp were located, and beetle prey collected from foraging females in three geographic regions, with a concentration on the western, mountainous area of the state. In total, 909 beetles were collected, comprising 52 buprestid species that included eight native pests and 17 species of Agrilus. Our results emphasize the utility of C. fumipennis in documenting buprestid biodiversity and in detecting forest pests. Eight new state records and five new prey records for the wasp are here recorded.

Salix alba L. and Salix fragilis L. are two closely related willow species whose phenotypic features, showing a large and continuous variation, have a low diagnostic value for identifying pure species and interspecific hybrids. In this paper, the effectiveness of different multilocus PCR-based molecular markers, such as I-SSRs, RAPDs and AFLPs in detecting genetic polymorphisms able to discriminate the two willow species was evaluated by analysing a set of 12 reference samples. Three genetic similarity indexes, Dice, Jaccard and Simple Matching coefficient, were used for all possible pairwise comparisons of individuals, revealing the same trend of variation within and between species when different marker systems were used. Cluster analysis, based on Dice genetic similarity coefficient, clustered the individuals of S. alba and S. fragilis into two distinct subgroups, indicating that the gene pools are well differentiated. Moreover, a number of private alleles for each marker system allowed the di...

Three buprestid species, Actenodes acornis (Say, 1836), Dicerca asperata (Laporte et Gory, 1837), and Dicerca lepida LeConte, 1857, are newly recorded from Canada on the basis of a collection of 57 buprestid specimens taken from females of the crabronid wasp Cerceris fumipennis Say, 1837 in Rondeau Provincial Park, Chatham-Kent region, Ontario, in July 2004. Nine additional buprestid species were taken from wasps that were intercepted as they approached their nests, demonstrating the effectiveness of C. fumipennis nest sites as sampling stations for buprestid beetles. We suggest that this sampling method could be applied to efficiently monitor the spread of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in eastern North America.

The Aleocharinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) of Ontario were reviewed in the context of recently studied material, primarily from insect surveys conducted by the University of Guelph Insect Collection (Ontario, Canada). Aleochara daviesi Klimaszewski & Brunke sp. n., Agaricomorpha websteri Klimaszewski & Brunke sp. n., Atheta (Microdota) alesi Klimaszewski & Brunke sp. n., Dinaraea backusensis Klimaszewski & Brunke sp. n., and Strigota obscurata Klimaszewski & Brunke sp. n. are described as new to science. We also report 47 new Ontario records and 24 new Canadian records. Callicerus rigidicornis (Erichson) and Alevonota gracilenta (Erichson) are newly reported from North America as adventive species. A checklist, with Canadian distributions by province, of the 224 species of Aleocharinae known from Ontario is given. The following species are placed in subjective synonymy with Dexiogyia angustiventris (Casey): (De. asperata (Casey) syn. n., De. abscissa (Casey) syn. n., De. tenuicauda (Casey) syn. n., De. intenta (Casey) syn. n., De. alticola (Casey) syn. n.). The following species are placed in subjective synonymy with Acrotona subpygmaea (Bernhauer): (Ac. avia (Casey) syn. n., Ac. puritana (Casey) syn. n.). Lectotypes are designated for Thiasophila angustiventris Casey, Th. asperata Casey, Ischnoglossa intenta Casey, Oxypoda rubescans Casey, Chilopora americana Casey, Chilopora fuliginosa Casey, Coprothassa smithi Casey, Atheta subpygmaea Bernhauer, Colpodota puritana Casey, Strigota seducens Casey, Trichiusa compacta Casey, Trichiusa hirsuta Casey and Trichiusa robustula Casey.

WILLOW WOOD: TRADITIONAL USED AND FUTURE PROSPECTS The willows, thanks to wide annual growth rings, are high biomass producer. From willow wood can be achieved special wooden elements used in agricultural and rural traditional uses. Because of its elasticity both stems and shoots has been long used in baskets production, this kind of use is decreased just in the recent years because of plastic. The willow is the tree of women, and in Celtic mythology was consecrated to the moon. Even during the Middle Ages there was a close link between this plant and the moon, so that the willow trees favourite for the manufacture of the “witches broom”. Even today there are in the market “magic wands”, and talismans, made of willow wood, which should facilitate the identification of skills, help the health and give protection to the whole family. This “magic” feature of the willow is also found in cultures totally different from ours, like the Ainu of Japan, who use the wood of willow in the production of substitutes anthropomorphic deities entrusted with the prayers. Currently, the most common uses are for carpentry, sports equipment, hooves, packaging, matches, plywood, wood pulp, paper and cellulose. The study of the revival of willow, directing the production through genetic selection, can also make the start in Italy, often postponed, the promotion of a “willow wood culture”, as happens from time in several other industrial emerging countries.

Summary Several European species of Salix have been examined to test the presence of mucilaginous cells in leaf epidermis. The mucilage deposits are extraplasmatic and located between the plasma membrane and the cell wall. They consist of a predominant microfibrillar component, PATAg positive. Since after selective extractions with solvents for both pectic substances and hemicelluloses the microfibrillar network proves to be only slightly modified it may be assumed that cellulose is a major component of the Salix mucilages. The possible ecophysiological role of the mucilage cells is briefly discussed.