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We test Janzen's (1967) hypothesis that the low temperature seasonality in the modern tropics accounts for increased local species turnover (beta diversity) across montane landscapes relative to those of the more seasonal Temperate Zone. In the Eocene, low seasonality extended beyond the hot tropics to Polar Regions, therefore, its effects on montane dispersal ability should have been decoupled from low latitude. We sampled fossil insect communities across the Okanagan Highlands: a thousand kilometer transect of temperate, low temperature seasonality, higher mid-latitude Eocene uplands of far-western North America. We find high species turnover, supporting a prime role of temperature fluctuation in controlling montane beta diversity. This high upper mid-latitude montane endemism is consistent with greater Eocene global biodiversity. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Phylogenetic hypotheses are designed and tested (usually in implicit form) on the basis of a set of presumptions, that is, of statements describing a certain order of things in nature. These statements are to be accepted as such, no matter whatever evidence for them exists, but only in the absence of reasonably sound evidence pleading against them. A set of the most current phylogenetic presumptions is discussed, and a factual example of a practical realization of the approach is presented. A comparison is made of the three main taxonomic approaches hitherto developed, viz., phenetics, cladistics, and phylistics (= evolutionary systematics). The latter term denotes an approach that tries explicitly to represent the basic features of traditional taxonomy and particularly its use of evidence derived from both a similarity and the relatedness of the taxa involved. The phylistic approach has certain advantages in the answering of the basic aims of taxonomy. Taxonomic nomenclature is found to rely ultimately on a few basic principles. Nine of these principles are formulated explicitly: six of them are taxonomically independent, and three are taxonomically dependent, that is, they are only compatible with particular taxonomic concepts. Judging from current taxonomic practice, a taxon is neither a class nor an individual, but a continuum (a notion combining some features of both the class and the individual) of subtaxa that is delimited by a gap separating it from other such continua. The type concept is found to be the best available tool to operate within the concept of the taxon-continuum.

Taxa within diverse lineages select and transport exogenous materials for the purposes of camouflage. This adaptive behavior also occurs in insects, most famously in green lacewing larvae who nestle the trash among setigerous cuticular processes, known as trash-carrying, rendering them nearly undetectable to predators and prey, as well as forming a defensive shield. We report an exceptional discovery of a green lacewing larva in Early Cretaceous amber from Spain with specialized cuticular processes forming a dorsal basket that carry a dense trash packet. The trash packet is composed of trichomes of gleicheniacean ferns, which highlight the presence of wildfires in this early forest ecosystem. This discovery provides direct evidence of an early acquisition of a sophisticated behavioral suite in stasis for over 110 million years and an ancient plant–insect interaction., Departament d’Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona, España, Museo Geominero, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Departamento de Biología Ambiental, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, España, Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, Reino Unido, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Estados Unidos

Nobloedischia rasnitsyni gen. et sp. n. (Oedischiidae) is described from the Lower Permian Wellington Formation of Noble County, Oklahoma. The genus is similar to both Petrelcana (Oedischiidae: Mezenoedischiinae) and Oedischia (Oedischiidae: Oedischiinae) and is left unplaced at the subfamily level. The new species is the twelfth Orthoptera species and the fourth species of Oedischiidae from these deposits.

Phylogenetic hypotheses are designed and tested (usually in implicit form) on the basis of a set of presumptions, that is, of statements describing a certain order of things in nature. These statements are to be accepted as such, no matter whatever evidence for them exists, but only in the absence of reasonably sound evidence pleading against them. A set of the most current phylogenetic presumptions is discussed, and a factual example of a practical realization of the approach is presented. A comparison is made of the three main taxonomic approaches hitherto developed, viz., phenetics, cladistics, and phylistics (= evolutionary systematics). The latter term denotes an approach that tries explicitly to represent the basic features of traditional taxonomy and particularly its use of evidence derived from both a similarity and the relatedness of the taxa involved. The phylistic approach has certain advantages in the answering of the basic aims of taxonomy. Taxonomic nomenclature is found to rely ultimately on a few basic principles. Nine of these principles are formulated explicitly: six of them are taxonomically independent, and three are taxonomically dependent, that is, they are only compatible with particular taxonomic concepts. Judging from current taxonomic practice, a taxon is neither a class nor an individual, but a continuum (a notion combining some features of both the class and the individual) of subtaxa that is delimited by a gap separating it from other such continua. The type concept is found to be the best available tool to operate within the concept of the taxon-continuum.

When organisms became trapped in sticky resin they usually expired so quickly that they could fossilize in almost lifelike circumstances. Based on frequent description in literature of many examples we propose in this paper a classification of these paleobehaviours.