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Given the importance that the evolution of cooperation bears in evolutionary biology and the social sciences, extensive theoretical work has focused on identifying conditions that promote cooperation among individuals. In insects, cooperative or altruistic interactions typically occur amongst social insects and are thus explained by kin selection. Here we provide evidence that in Lutzomia longipalpis, a small biting fly and an important vector of leishmaniasis in the New World, cooperative blood-feeding in groups of non-kin individuals results in a strong decrease in saliva expenditure. Feeding in groups also strongly affected the time taken to initiate a bloodmeal and its duration and ultimately resulted in greater fecundity. The benefits of feeding aggregations were particularly strong when flies fed on older hosts pre-exposed to sand fly bites, suggesting that flies feeding in groups may be better able to overcome their stronger immune response. These results demonstrate that, in L. longipalpis, feeding cooperatively maximizes the effects of salivary components injected into hosts to facilitate blood intake and to counteract the host immune defences. As a result, cooperating sand flies enjoy enormous fitness gains. This constitutes, to our knowledge, the first functional explanation for feeding aggregations in this species and potentially in other hematophagous insects and a rare example of cooperation amongst individuals of a non-social insects species. The evolution of cooperative group feeding in sand flies may have important implications for the epidemiology of leishmaniasis. Author Summary: Understanding the processes that promote cooperation amongst animals in nature is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology with ramifications in the social sciences. In insects, cooperative or altruistic interactions are usually observed amongst genetically related social insects (kin selection). Here we provide evidence that in Lutzomia longipalpis, a small biting fly and an important vector of disease in the New World, cooperative blood-feeding occurs in groups of non-kin individuals. Groups of 20 flies and single flies were fed on hamster hosts and we compared their salivary gland usage as well as the time taken to initiate a bloodmeal, its duration, and the number of eggs they produced. Our results show that flies feeding in aggregations benefit from decreased saliva expenditure and greatly enhanced blood intake and egg production. These effects were particularly strong on older hamsters pre-exposed to sand fly bites, suggesting that group-feeding flies may better overcome their stronger immune response. These experiments demonstrate that, in L. longipalpis, feeding cooperatively maximizes the effects of saliva injected into hosts to facilitate blood intake and to counteract the host immune defences, resulting in much increased fecundity. This constitutes the first explanation for the function of feeding aggregations in hematophagous insects and a fascinating example of cooperation amongst individuals in a non-social organism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insects provide key ecosystem services for our sustainable future, which rely upon effective conservation policies to protect insect biodiversity. To date, however, we still do not know how effective current conservation policies are for protecting insect biodiversity, opening up the possibility that policies are unfit-for-purpose. Given the considerable debate and public awareness on the potential global decline of insect species, it is important to understand whether or not current policies can protect insect biodiversity. Here, we used IUCN listing of species status and developed a quantitative framework to analyse the potential effectiveness and coverage of current conservation policies pertaining to insect biodiversity in the UK and Ireland. We contrasted this against coverage for a well-known group – mammals – as a benchmark, to find that while the vast majority of the UK mammalian species in the European IUCN red list are directly protected by current policies, insects remain largely unprotected. Moreover, for those insect species that are explicitly protected by current policies, there is a taxonomic bias whereby the majority (>50%) of insect species are Lepidopterans (moths and butterflies), while a minority are Coleopterans (beetles), and none are Hymenopterans (bees, ants, wasps). Similar trends were observed in the UK priority biodiversity lists. Based on our data, we conclude that current biodiversity policies in the UK and Ireland have significant gaps in their protection of insect biodiversity and, there is a taxonomic bias that may skew some conservation efforts toward butterflies and moths. We anticipate that our findings are likely to occur worldwide, highlighting the need for more directive policies to manage and protect insect biodiversity for the sustainability of ecosystem services. • UK policies show biases toward Lepidoptera over other large insect orders. • Policy protection of mammals shows greater uniformity between orders than insects. • Policies in Ireland lack protection for any insect species. • UK priority lists do not prioritise all insects assessed as at risk of extinction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insects' biodiversity may represent a threat for rare plant species, which are reliable indicators of environmental changes but also are a resource in various economic sectors, such as pollination and human health. These authors collected 1261 articles containing 4811 new insect species between 2009 and 2017 and reported that, despite the increased taxonomic efforts for the discovery of more species and their geographical distribution information, more than 21% of these new species were described from only one specimen and/or one locality, and half of all new species were reported based on fewer than five specimens. In this Special Issue, Bonsignore et al. [[31]] showed the effects that several species of herbivorous insects have on a rare plant species, I Salvia ceratophylloides i , endemic of southern Italy. Insects comprise more than half of all described species in the animal kingdom and account for a considerable proportion of all biodiversity on the planet [[1]]. [Extracted from the article]

The aims of this study were (1) to examine the geographic distribution of red-listed species of agricultural environments and identify their national threat spots (areas with high diversity of threatened species) in Finland and (2) to determine the main environmental variables related to the richness and occurrence patterns of red-listed species. Atlas data of 21 plant, 17 butterfly and 11 bird species recorded using 10 km grid squares were employed in the study. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were constructed separately for species richness and occurrence of individual species of the three species groups using climate and land cover predictor variables. The predictive accuracy of models, as measured using correlation between the observed and predicted values and AUC statistics, was generally good. Temperature-related variables were the most important determinants of species richness and occurrence of all three taxa. In addition, land cover variables had a strong effect on the distribution of species. Plants and butterflies were positively related to the cover of grasslands and birds to small-scale agricultural mosaic as well as to arable land. Spatial coincidence of threat spots of plants, butterflies and birds was limited, which emphasizes the importance of considering the potentially contrasting environmental requirements of different taxa in conservation planning. Further, it is obvious that the maintenance of various non-crop habitats and heterogeneous agricultural landscapes has an essential role in the preservation of red-listed species of boreal rural environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early successional communities on islands may include specialised aeolian-based pioneer arthropods scavenging on aerial fallout on volcanic lava or ash. Some such species appear to be restricted to such extreme habitats. Persistence of such species may be governed by volcanic activity and their future thus be beyond the control of people. Surveys to determine their presence elsewhere are needed to determine their possible status as refugees in later successional stages, and as a basis for any more informed conservation measures. Insect colonization patterns on Surtsey and Anak Krakatau are briefly reviewed and contrasted to indicate the background to insect community formation on remote islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining population viability of rare insects depends on precise, unbiased estimates of population size and other demographic parameters. We used data on the endangered St. Francis' satyr butterfly (Neonympha mitchellii francisci ) to evaluate 2 approaches (mark–recapture and transect counts) for population analysis of rare butterflies. Mark–recapture analysis provided by far the greatest amount of demographic information, including estimates (and standard errors) of population size, detection, survival, and recruitment probabilities. Mark–recapture analysis can also be used to estimate dispersal and temporal variation in rates, although we did not do this here. Models of seasonal flight phenologies derived from transect counts (Insect Count Analyzer) provided an index of population size and estimates of survival and statistical uncertainty. Pollard–Yates population indices derived from transect counts did not provide estimates of demographic parameters. This index may be highly biased if detection and survival probabilities vary spatially and temporally. In terms of statistical performance, mark–recapture and Pollard–Yates indices were least variable. Mark–recapture estimates were less likely to fail than Insect Count Analyzer, but mark–recapture estimates became less precise as sampling intensity decreased. In general, count-based approaches are less costly and less likely to cause harm to rare insects than mark–recapture. The optimal monitoring approach must reconcile these trade-offs. Thus, mark–recapture should be favored when demographic estimates are needed, when financial resources enable frequent sampling, and when marking does not harm the insect populations. The optimal sampling strategy may use 2 sampling methods together in 1 overall sampling plan: limited mark–recapture sampling to estimate survival and detection probabilities and frequent but less expensive transect counts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Insect diversity, richness and abundance were evaluated at different altitudes in three forest habitats in the Western Himalayas. The habitats studied were all situated between 2100 and 3500 m and included a site with no disturbances, a site with a moderate level of disturbance and a site with a very high level of disturbance. The species composition and diversity of insects varied at all the three study sites, which demonstrates the effect of altitude and disturbances, as well as the effects of other ecological and climatic parameters on insect populations. The site at lowest altitude, which contained a moderate level of disturbance, supported the highest number of species (108), whereas the site at the highest altitude, which contained the maximum level of disturbance, supported the lowest number of species (77). When all of the sites were considered, 122 species of insects belonging to 43 families and 8 orders were recorded. Lepidoptera was the most dominant insect order recorded, with 46 species being observed. This was followed by Hymenoptera (20), Coleoptera (18), Orthoptera (12), Hemiptera (10), Odonata (9), Diptera (5) and Dermeptera (2). The most abundant species were Vanessa cashmirensis Fru. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Pieris canidia indica Sparr. (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), Apis laboriosa Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Anomala dimidiata Hope (Coleoptera: Scarabidae), Chorthipus sp. (Orthoptera: Acrididae), Crocothemis servilia servilia (Drury) (Odonata: Libellulidae) and Syrphus fulvifacies Brunetti (Diptera: Syrphidae). The site at the lowest altitude and the sites with the longest rainy seasons had the highest Shannon–Wiener Diversity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We report on a systematic survey of the ant fauna occurring in hardwood forests in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At 22-mixed hardwood sites, we collected leaf-litter ant species using Winkler samplers. At eight of those sites, we also collected ants using pitfall and Malaise traps. In total, we collected 53 ant species. As shown in other studies, ant species richness tended to decline with increasing elevation. Leaf-litter ant assemblages were also highly nested. Several common species were both locally abundant and had broad distributions, while many other species were rarely detected. Winkler samplers, pitfall traps, and Malaise traps yielded samples that differed in composition, but not richness, from one another. Taken together, our work begins to illuminate the factors that govern the diversity, distribution, abundance, and perhaps rarity of ants of forested ecosystems in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carabus variolosus is a highly endangered insect which is listed in the EC Habitats and Species Directive. Detailed knowledge of the habitat requirements of this semi-aquatic woodland carabid beetle is needed if effective conservation and management strategies are to be developed. Previous habitat models have proved to be a successful analytical and predictive tool for the conservation of species. We conducted an intensive study over a two year period on two extant C. Variolosus populations in Westphalia (Germany) using live capture pitfall traps. We analysed the distribution of the beetles over their main activity period in relation to a large number of edaphic and vegetation variables in order to estimate habitat suitability models and describe optimum ranges. C. Variolosus is restricted to the fringes of water bodies and to areas of high soil moisture that display patches of bare soil, shows a slight preference for sparse tree vegetation, and avoids acidic soil. Temporal and spatial transferability of the statistically significant habitat models indicates their robustness and validity. Based on the results of our study, we suggest management measures for the conservation of C. Variolosus, which promote the rehabilitation of natural flood plains of headwater areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Bees are believed to be in decline across many of the world’s ecosystems. Recent studies on British bumblebees proposed alternative theories to explain declines. One study suggested that greater dietary specialization among the rarer bumblebee species makes them more susceptible to decline. A second study disputed this theory and found that declines in British bumblebees were correlated with the size of species’ European ranges, leading to the suggestion that climate and habitat specialization may be better indicators of the risk of decline. Here we use a new and independent dataset based on Irish bumblebees to test the generality of these theories. We found that most of the same bumblebee species are declining across the British Isles, but that, within Ireland, a simple food-plant specialization model is inadequate to explain these declines. Furthermore, we found no evidence of a relationship between declines in Irish bumblebees and the size of species’ European ranges. However, we demonstrate that the late emerging species have declined in Ireland (and in Britain), and that these species show a statistically significant westward shift to the extremity of their range, probably as a result of changing land use. Irish data support the finding that rare and declining bumblebees are later nesting species, associated with open grassy habitats. We suggest that the widespread replacement of hay with silage in the agricultural landscape, which results in earlier and more frequent mowing and a reduction in late summer wildflowers, has played a major role in bumblebee declines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

When monitoring rare insect species, or when surveying faunas within nature reserves, it is desirable not to use indiscriminate lethal sampling techniques. In this investigation we assessed the usefulness of simple tree-mounted wooden shelters to monitor endemic weta (Orthoptera) in nature reserves in Canterbury, New Zealand. Fifty shelters were placed out at six sites and examined at three-monthly intervals for a year. A wide variety of invertebrates were found utilizing the shelters, with Arachnida, Blattodea and Collembola being the most common occupants. After three months over 80% of the shelters exhibited signs of use by invertebrates, increasing to 96% after 12 months. Only seven tree weta (Anostostomatidae) and one (dead) ground weta ( Hemiandrus sp.) were observed in the shelters over the full 12 month period. There were 52 observations of cave weta (Rhaphidophoridae) in the shelters, 36 of which occurred at one site, Orton Bradley Park. Occupation of the shelters by cave weta was not affected by soil conditions, light intensity or aspect of the shelter. However, cave weta exhibited a preference for shelters less than 50 cm above the ground and for shelters attached to kanuka and vines. Although weta were found in only a small proportion (9%) of the shelters, this method proved useful in confirming the presence of weta without risk of harming vulnerable populations. These shelters are inexpensive and easy to manufacture and have potential for long-term non-lethal monitoring of weta and as a collection/carriage device for live specimens used in conservation translocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to habitat loss populations of many organisms have declined and become fragmented. Vertebrate conservation strategies routinely consider genetic factors, but their importance in invertebrate populations is poorly understood. Bumblebees are important pollinators, and many species have undergone dramatic declines. As monoandrous social hymenopterans they may be particularly susceptible to inbreeding due to low effective population sizes. We study fragmented populations of a bumblebee species, on a model island system, and on mainland Great Britain where it is rare and declining. We use microsatellites to study: population genetic structuring and gene flow; the relationships between genetic diversity, population size and isolation; and frequencies of (sterile) diploid males — an indicator of inbreeding. We find significant genetic structuring (θ = 0.12) and isolation by distance. Populations > 10 km apart are all significantly differentiated, both on oceanic islands and on the mainland. Genetic diversity is reduced relative to closely related common species, and isolated populations exhibit further reductions. Of 16 populations, 10 show recent bottlenecking, and 3 show diploid male production. These results suggest that surviving populations of this rare insect suffer from inbreeding as a result of geographical isolation. Implications for the conservation of social hymenopterans are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interspecific hybridization is a well-established cause of unisexual origins in vertebrates. This mechanism is also suspected in other apomictic taxa, but compelling evidence is rare. Here, we evaluate this mechanism and other hypotheses for the evolutionary origins of unisexuality through an investigation of Calligrapha leaf beetles. This group provides an intriguing subject for studies of unisexual evolution because it presents a rare insect example of multiple apomictic thelytokous species within a primarily bisexual genus. To investigate unisexual evolution, this study conducts the first molecular systematic analysis of Calligrapha. This involved the collection and analysis of about 3000 bp of DNA sequences--representing RNA and protein-coding loci from mitochondrial and nuclear genomes--from 54 specimens of 25 Calligrapha species, including four unisexual tetraploid taxa. Phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses indicated independent and single evolutionary origins of each of these unisexual species during the Pleistocene. Significant phylogenetic incongruence was detected between mitochondrial and nuclear datasets and found to be especially associated with the asexual taxa. This pattern is expected when unisexual lineages arise via interspecific hybridization and thus represent genetic mosaics that possess certain nuclear alleles from the paternal species lineage and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) alleles from the maternal parent. Analyzing the mtDNA and nuclear relatedness of unisexuals with corresponding haplotypes of bisexual Calligrapha species allowed the putative identification of these maternal and paternal species lineages for each unisexual species. Strong phenotypic similarities between unisexual taxa and their paternal parent species supported a model that involves both backcrosses of interspecific hybrids with a paternal parent and unreduced gametes. This model accounts for the origins of apomixis, polyploidy, and an overrepresentation of paternal nuclear alleles (and associated phenotypes) in unisexuals. This model is also consistent with the tetraploid karyotypes of unisexual Calligrapha, in which three sets of chromosomes (of presumed paternal ancestry) are quite morphologically homogeneous compared to the fourth. Especially intriguing was a consistent association of unisexual species with the host plant of the paternal parent but never with the maternal host. The statistical implausibility of these patterns occurring by chance further supports our inference of parental species. Moreover, it points to a potentially critical role for host-association in the formation and preservation of unisexual lineages. These findings suggest that ecological factors are critical for the diversification of unisexual as well as bisexual taxa and thus point out new research directions in the area of ecological speciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of unprotected habitats for the persistence of species in reserve networks is likely to be high for species living in highly fragmented habitat in which regional persistence depends on metapopulation processes. The dingy skipper butterfly (Erynnis tages ) is a regionally rare declining species in Britain. In the Creuddyn Peninsula (North Wales), it inhabits patches of its host plant, Lotus corniculatus L., growing in lightly grazed areas in sheltered microhabitats, and its regional distribution is dominated by metapopulation processes. In this area, 16 (61%) out of 26.20 ha of dingy skipper habitat are located in reserves. The remaining unprotected habitat is mostly located in wasteland areas vulnerable to urban development. Using a metapopulation model, the incidence function model, I evaluated the extent to which the persistence of the dingy skipper in the landscape could be guaranteed with the existing reserve network. According to model projections, the dynamics within the reserve system were relatively stable when the unprotected habitat remained, with a maximum of 4% simulation replicates going extinct in a 100-year time frame. When unprotected habitat was completely removed, however, the dynamics in the reserve network became markedly unstable, with an increased extinction risk ranging from 15 to 36%. We calculated a relatively simple measure of “patch importance,” the colonization potential, for each patch. The incidence function model predicted that for low and medium levels of regional stochasticity (σ value from 0 to 0.2), protecting only a relatively small number (four to six) of large and well-connected patches (high colonization potential) in addition to the existing reserves would be enough to decrease notably the extinction risk of the dingy skipper metapopulation. The number of patches needed to be increased (11 patches) for high levels of regional stochasticity (σ= 0.3). My results suggest that long-term persistence of a regionally rare butterfly in a reserve network may depend on the presence of unprotected habitat. For a more realistic estimate of the efficiency of reserves for protecting rare species, conservation biologists should consider incorporating metapopulation dynamics in their evaluations of persistence in existing reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the strategies and statistics of sampling for rare insects. Errors in the detection of rare insects; Sampling for exotic pests during quarantine inspections; Sampling for pathogens in veterinary and medical entomology.

Fluctuating Thermal Regimes (FTR), where organisms are held at low temperatures with a brief, daily warm pulse, have been shown to increase longevity in adult insects and improve pupa survival while reducing sublethal effects. We used FTR to extend the longevity and thus generation time of the fly species Themira biloba (Diptera: Sepsidae). T. biloba can be maintained in continuous culture and requires an insecticide-free dung substrate for larval growth and development. Our objective was to decrease labor and consumable materials required to maintain insect species in critical scientific collections using FTR. We extended pupation time from 4 days up to 8 weeks with no increase in mortality, and mean adult longevity was increased from 12 days to 50 days. FTR is a valuable tool for reducing the investment required to maintain rare and exotic insects. • Fluctuating temperatures extended pupa development from 4 days to 8 weeks. • Mean adult longevity increased from 12 ± 0.29 days to 50 ± 1.79 days. • This protocol may be used to extend generation time and reduce resource consumption in some non-model species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A small sample learning method different from the traditional deep learning method. • Proposing focus-area locations to deal with fine-grained insect recognition. • Utilizing a Center Neighbor Loss function to achieve competitive performance. • We can predict new categories without retraining the model. Most real-world scenarios face the problems of small-sample learning and fine-grained recognition. For many rare insect classes, collecting a large number of training samples is infeasible or even impossible. In contrast, humans are able to recognize a new object class with little supervision. This motivates us to address the problems of small-sample recognition and fine-grained recognition for insects by combining recognition and localization; this can provide an effective remedy for data scarcity and the two techniques can bootstrap from each other. In this paper, we propose a saliency-detection model to localize the key regions that have the largest discriminative features for fine-grained insect classification. The learner learns to predict foreground and background masks for such localization, having been trained on a training set annotated with bounding boxes. Additionally, to further generate discriminative features, a center neighbor loss function is used to construct a robust feature-space distribution. The proposed model is trained end-to-end on our small-sample learning dataset, which comprises 220 insect categories from a real-world complex environment. Compared with the method using prototypical networks, the proposed method achieves a superior performance, with a mean recognition rate (top-5 accuracy) of 57.65%, and can effectively recognize insects under small-sample and complex-scene conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. The birch (Betula)-feeding aphid, Monaphis antennata, is always found at low densities on individual hosts and has low local abundance, but another birch-feeding aphid, Euceraphis betulae, is often found at high densities on individual hosts and has high local abundance. 2. This work attempts to establish whether the interaction between M. antennata and its host or the behaviour of individuals limits its densities. 3. Both species were reared on saplings, and population sizes were monitored for 6 weeks. Two levels of host quality were used and feeding space was kept constant throughout the experiment. Adults were prevented from leaving the saplings by clipping their wings, and predators were excluded. 4. On plants of similar host quality, both species achieved similar population sizes. 5. It is concluded that resource availability or the interactions between individuals are unlikely to be important causes of rarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research study which examines the movements of Calopteryx exul, an endangered endemic damselfly. The study was conducted through capture-mark-resightings of the insect for five days in Salah Salah in north-east Algeria. Results reveal a resighting rate of 21.18% for males and 24.67% for females.

Simple Summary: Whereas vertebrate scavengers have a higher diversity reported at randomly placed carcasses, the drivers of insect diversity on carrion, such as the exposure type (fixed versus random) or the carrion species, are still incompletely understood. We analyzed beetle diversity at differently exposed carcasses in the low-range mountain forest of the Bavarian Forest National Park in Germany. We tested if scavenging beetles, similarly to vertebrate scavengers, show a higher diversity at randomly placed carcasses compared to easily manageable fixed places. Ninety-two beetle species at 29 exposed wildlife carcasses (roe, red deer, and red foxes) were detected. Beetle diversity was higher at fixed locations possessing extended highly nutrient-rich cadaver decomposition islands as important refuges for threatened red-listed species, such as Necrobia violacea (Coleoptera: Cleridae). Particularly noticeable in our insect traps were the following two rare species, the "primitive" carrion beetle Necrophilus subterraneus (Coleoptera: Agyrtidae) and the false clown beetle Sphaerites glabratus (Coleoptera: Sphaeritidae). In Europe, only the species S. glabratus out of the genus Sphaerites is present. This emphasizes the importance of carrion for biodiversity conservation. We clearly show the relevance of leaving and additional providing wildlife carcasses in a dedicated place in protected forests for preserving very rare and threatened beetle species as essential members of the decomposing community. In contrast to other necromass, such as leaves, deadwood, or dung, the drivers of insect biodiversity on carcasses are still incompletely understood. For vertebrate scavengers, a richer community was shown for randomly placed carcasses, due to lower competition. Here we tested if scavenging beetles similarly show a higher diversity at randomly placed carcasses compared to easily manageable fixed places. We sampled 12,879 individuals and 92 species of scavenging beetles attracted to 17 randomly and 12 at fixed places exposed and decomposing carcasses of red deer, roe deer, and red foxes compared to control sites in a low range mountain forest. We used rarefaction-extrapolation curves along the Hill-series to weight diversity from rare to dominant species and indicator species analysis to identify differences between placement types, the decay stage, and carrion species. Beetle diversity decreased from fixed to random locations, becoming increasingly pronounced with weighting of dominant species. In addition, we found only two indicator species for exposure location type, both representative of fixed placement locations and both red listed species, namely Omosita depressa and Necrobia violacea. Furthermore, we identified three indicator species of Staphylinidae (Philonthus marginatus and Oxytelus laqueatus) and Scarabaeidae (Melinopterus prodromus) for larger carrion and one geotrupid species Anoplotrupes stercorosus for advanced decomposition stages. Our study shows that necrophilous insect diversity patterns on carcasses over decomposition follow different mechanisms than those of vertebrate scavengers with permanently established carrion islands as important habitats for a diverse and threatened insect fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Conservation of insects requires a reliable knowledge of their distribution. Such knowledge is hard to obtain in many cases, due to lack of human power and funding for extensive surveys. Three ways out of this problem have been suggested: (1) data already available in museum collections, (2) data already available in the entomological literature and (3) use of citizen science projects as a cheap, efficient way to survey extensive territories. We assessed the contribution of each of these sources of information in delineating the Spanish distribution of the European stag beetle. Although citizen science quickly contributed more grid cells than the other sources, some grid cells were uniquely contributed by museum and publication data. Thus, the three sources of information need to be combined when targeting endangered species in a broad, heterogenous, sparsely populated territory such as Spain. Reliable distribution maps are in the basis of insect conservation, but detailed chorological information is lacking for many insects of conservation concern (the Wallacean shortfall). Museum collections, entomological publications and citizen science projects can contribute to solve this Wallacean shortfall. Their relative contribution to the knowledge on the distribution of threatened insects has been scarcely explored, but it is important given that each of these three sources of information has its own biases and costs. Here we explore the contribution of museum data, entomological publications and citizen science in delineating the distribution of the European stag beetle in Spain. Citizen science contributed the highest number of records and grid cells occupied, as well as the highest number of grid cells not contributed by any other information source (unique grid cells). Nevertheless, both museum data and publications contributed almost 25% of all unique grid cells. Furthermore, the relative contribution of each source of information differed in importance among Spanish provinces. Given the pros and cons of museum data, publications and citizen science, we advise their combined use in cases, such as the European stag beetle in Spain, in which a broad, heterogeneous, sparsely populated territory has to be prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lonomia accidents occur by contact to caterpillar bristles that penetrate the skin of the victim. This moth presents toxins in its larval stage, which has hemorrhagic effects that can cause accidents and even death in humans. This study presents the first report of Lonomia obliqua in the Zona da Mata Mineira, Southeast Brazil. As the species abundance and phenology are still little known in the region further studies are important, so that prevention and educational measures can be adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numbers of Cybister tripunctatus orientalis Gschwendtner diving beetles are declining in most regions of Japan, and it is included in the Red Data List of species in 34 of 47 prefectures of Japan. However, basic ecological information about C. tripunctatus orientalis, such as its feeding habits, remains unknown. In order to elucidate the feeding habits of C. tripunctatus orientalis larvae, feeding preference experiments were carried out in 2nd and 3rd instar larvae. The number of Odonata nymphs consumed was significantly higher than the number of tadpoles consumed, indicating that C. tripunctatus orientalis larvae prefer Odonata nymphs to tadpoles. In addition, all the first instar larvae of C. tripunctatus orientalis developed into second instars when they were supplied with motionless Odonata nymphs, but their survival rate was lower when they were supplied with motionless tadpoles. These results suggest that C. tripunctatus orientalis larvae prefer insects to vertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a detection of a surprising similarity in the diet of predators across distant phyla. Though just a first glimpse into the subject, our discovery contradicts traditional aspects of biology, as the earliest notions in ecology have linked the most severe competition of resources with evolutionary relatedness. We argue that our finding deserves more research, and propose a plan to reveal more information on the current biodiversity loss around the world. While doing so, we expand the recently proposed conservation roadmaps into a parallel study of global interaction networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freeze-tolerance, or the ability to survive internal ice formation, is relatively rare among insects. Larvae of the Antarctic midge Belgica antarctica are freeze-tolerant year-round, but in dry environments, the larvae can remain supercooled (i.e., unfrozen) at subzero temperatures. In previous work with summer-acclimatized larvae, we showed that freezing is considerably more stressful than remaining supercooled. Here, these findings are extended by comparing survival, tissue damage, energetic costs, and stress gene expression in larvae that have undergone an artificial winter acclimation regime and are either frozen or supercooled at −5 °C. In contrast to summer larvae, winter larvae survive at −5 °C equally well for up to 14 days, whether frozen or supercooled, and there is no tissue damage at these conditions. In subsequent experiments, we measured energy stores and stress gene expression following cold exposure at −5 °C for either 24 h or 14 days, with and without a 12 h recovery period. We observed slight energetic costs to freezing, as frozen larvae tended to have lower glycogen stores across all groups. In addition, the abundance of two heat shock protein transcripts, hsp60 and hsp90, tended to be higher in frozen larvae, indicating higher levels of protein damage following freezing. Together, these results indicate a slight cost to being frozen relative to remaining supercooled, which may have implications for the selection of hibernacula and responses to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tiger beetle, Cicindela anchoralis Chevrolat, 1845 (Coleoptera: Carabidae), has been listed as an Endangered insect in South Korea. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of this organism (16,388 bp). The genome includes a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, and 22 tRNA genes) and 1 non-coding region with an arrangement identical to that observed in most insect genomes. Twelve PCGs had the typical ATN start codon, whereas ND1 had the atypical TTG codon. The AT-rich region is 1629-bp long, composed of 80.0% A + T nucleotides, and has no long repeat sequences. Phylogenetic analyses with concatenated sequences of the 13 PCGs and 2 rRNA genes, using the Bayesian inference (BI) method, placed C. anchoralis as a sister to the within-subfamilial species Habrodera capensis, with the highest nodal support presented by both BI and maximum likelihood (ML) methods. Three subfamilies represented by more than one species (Cicindelinae, Harpalinae, and Carabinae) were all determined by both BI and ML analyses to form strong monophyletic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including management plans for endemic butterflies like Polyommatus violetae and Euchloe bazae; source-sink dynamics for Phengaris nausithous; and population demography of Phengaris arion.

The flower chaferOsmoderma opicum(Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) has been listed in Korea as a class II endangered wild species. The 15 341-bp complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of the species consists of a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes [PCGs], two rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes) and the A + T-rich region, with an arrangement typical of insects. The 761-bp long A + T-rich region ofO. opicumhas a microsatellite-like sequence consisting of (TA)6, along with a poly-T (12 bp) and a poly-A (16 bp) stretch, but does not have a longer repeat sequence often found in other Scarabaeidae. Twelve PCGs started with the typical ATN codon, whereas the COI started with AAC, which has been designated as the start codon for the coleopteran suborder Polyphaga. Phylogenetic analysis using 11 PCGs from Scarabaeidae showed thatO. opicumwas placed as the sister to the within-subfamilial speciesMyodermumsp., forming the monophyletic group, the subfamily Cetoniinae, with moderate to high nodal support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents statistics showing that 40 percent of insect species are threatened with extinction as a result of intensive use of pesticides and agriculture, and the sequencing and culturing of 737 strains of human gut microbes by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Great Britain.

The article reports on the nature educational projects being developed by a group of volunteers in the Netherlands under the name Bio-Visie Natuureducatieve Projecten. These projects include an exhibit about the stag beetle Lucanus cervus cervus, an endangered species in the country. The author reveals that the group sought help from scientists and institutions to complete the exhibit.

A poorly-known noctuid species Xylena czernilai Volynkin, 2011 is recorded from North-West Altai and East Sayan (Russian Federation, Southern Siberia: Altai Territory and Buryatia Republic). The new locations proved its wide distribution in the mountains of Southern Siberia. The female of the species is described for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]