西藏贞琵甲属二新种记述(鞘翅目:拟步甲科)

记述西藏贞琵甲属Agnaptoria Reitter2新种:黑头贞琵甲A.nigriceps,sp.nov.和单刷贞琵甲A.apicopilosa,sp.nov.。模式标本保存于河北大学博物馆。     

基于防御腺的中国琵甲族Blaptini系统发育分析(鞘翅目:拟步甲科)

根据琵甲族Blaptini11属 5 8种防御腺的着生位置、形状、长度、宽度、囊袋距离、表面花纹等特征归纳出属级和族级特征。每属选 1代表种 ,各选 6个典型特征 ,组成特征矩阵 ,用Hennig 86 (1 5版 )软件初步确定了琵甲族各属的系统发育关系 ,得出琵甲族属级进化趋势为 :宽琵甲属Blaptogonia >侧琵甲属Prosodes>异琵甲属Thaumatoblaps>琵甲属Blaps>亚琵甲属Asidoblaps>齿琵甲属Itagonia >贞琵甲属Agnaptoria >小琵甲属Gnaptorina >地琵甲属Dila >新琵甲属Neoblaps >乾琵甲属Coelocnemodes。所有研究标本保存在河北大学博物馆。     

基于DNA序列信息的贞琵甲属物种界定分析（鞘翅目：拟步甲科：琵甲亚科）

贞琵甲属Agnaptoria是小琵甲亚族Gnaptorinina中第三大属和青藏高原特有类群，已知36种/亚种。本文选取3个线粒体基因（COI; Cytb; 16S rDNA）和1个核基因（28S rDNA-D2）片段，采用最大似然法（Maximum likelihood，ML）构建了该属的系统发育树；运用ASAP（Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning）、GMYC（Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent）和PTP（Poisson Tree Processes）3种方法对该属进行了分子物种界定分析。结果表明：综合运用3种分子物种界定方法的界定结果与形态鉴定结果基本吻合。依据形态特征与分子物种界定技术相结合的综合鉴定方法，大大提高了该类群的物种鉴定效率，为该类群未来在系统发育、地理分布格局演化等方面的研究提供了可靠的分子数据。     

中国齿琵甲属昆虫及一新种记述(鞘翅目,拟步甲科,琵甲族)(英文)

对中国齿琵甲属Itagonia Reitter昆虫进行了整理,并记述中国西藏齿琵甲属1新种:巴宿齿琵甲I.baxoica sp.nov..列出了该属中国已知种检索表.模式标本保存于河北大学博物馆.     

中国琵甲族一新属二新种(鞘翅目：拟步甲科)

记述了鞘翅目拟步甲科琵甲族1新属2新种,即新琵甲属Neoblaps gen.nov.,会泽新琵甲N.huizensis sp.nov.;波密地琵甲Dila bomiana sp.nov.。列出了机关报属和新种与近缘属或种的视差鉴别特征或检索表,模式标本保存在河北大学博物馆。     

中国琵甲族一新纪录属一新种：鞘翅目：拟步甲科

本文记述中国琵甲族１新纪录属－异琵甲属Ｔｈａｕｍｏｔｏｂｌａｐｓ及１新种－郑氏异琵甲Ｔｈａｕｍｏｔａｂｌａｐｓ ｚｈｅｎｇｉＲｅｎｅｔ Ｌｏｕ。模式标本保存在宁夏农学院昆虫标本室。     

越南越琵甲在中国首次发现（鞘翅目：拟步甲科：琵甲族）

在中国（云南）首次发现越琵甲属Viettagona Medvedev&Merkl, 2003和越南越琵甲V. vietnamensis Medvedev&Merkl, 2003，扩大了该属和种的分布地，弥补了原始描述的不足。提供了该种成虫的特征图和整体照片，列出了中国琵甲族已知3亚族19属的名录。     

中国琵甲属八新种（鞘翅目：拟步甲科：琵甲族）

记述中国琵甲属8新种：甘孜琵甲Blaps garzica,sp,nov,叉尾琵甲B.furcala,sp.nov。,太原琵甲B.taiyuanica,Sp,nov.,尖角琵甲B.acutangula,sp.nov., 周氏琵甲B.choui,sp.nov.,多毛琵甲Bpilosa,sp.,nov.,短体琵甲B.brevis,sp.nov和圆形琵甲B.ratalaria,sp,nov。模式标本保存在河北大学博物馆。     

基于防御腺特征的琵甲族属级阶元系统发育关系分析 (鞘翅目： 拟步甲科)

基于16属65种琵甲（含新记述7属）的防御腺特征, 探讨了琵甲族（鞘翅目： 拟步甲科）的属级系统发育关系。通过对这些种的防御腺着生位置、 形状、 长度、 宽度、 囊体间距、 囊壁厚度、 囊壁花纹、 囊壁褶皱等特征进行解剖测量和分析, 归纳出族、 属级特征。利用SPSS19.0和Hennig86（1.5版）两个软件对选定特征进行聚类分析和系统进化分析, 得出琵甲族16属的进化关系为：Prosodes>Blaptogonia>Tagonoides>Thaumatoblaps>Caenoblaps>Agnaptoria>Asidoblaps>Coelocnemodes>Dila>Gnaptor>Blaps>Pseudognaptorina> Nalepa>Belousovia>Gnaptorina>Itagonia。基于防御腺形态学数据的琵甲族系统发育分析结果将琵甲族16个属清楚地分开, 表明其在分类上具有重要价值。     

盐池四墩子拟步甲昆虫群落组成与环境因子的相关性

2009年3-10月,对宁夏盐池四墩子不同植被类型和人工干扰强度的荒漠草地的拟步甲昆虫群落结构及其环境因子特征进行了调查, 采用多样性指数和典范对应分析(CCA)研究了昆虫群落与环境因子之间的相关性.共收集拟步甲10属20种,5431只,以弯齿琵甲、克小鳖甲和蒙古漠王占优势,分别占总数的47.30%、39.90%和3.59%.CCA分析表明：拟步甲与环境因子之间的相关性高达100%,提示盐池四墩子环境因子变化影响拟步甲的分布,植物群落多样性、植物生物量和土壤含水量对拟步甲昆虫群落的分布影响最大;从物种的分布状况看,谢氏宽漠王对环境最为敏感;小丽东鳖甲、宽突东鳖甲、尖尾东鳖甲、宽腹东鳖甲次之,与植物生物量、植被盖度呈负相关,戈壁琵甲、中华砚甲、网目土甲和淡红毛隐甲与植被密度和土壤含水量呈正相关,蒙古漠王、克小鳖甲、小皮鳖甲和异距琵甲与植物群落多样性呈正相关,奥氏真土甲、弯齿琵甲和达氏琵甲与植物生物量和植被盖度呈正相关;相关和回归分析结果也显示,拟步甲群落的活动密度与土壤含水量极显著正相关(r=0.943,P=0.005).同时,排序反映了拟步甲对生态环境的需求以及其在不同资源维上的生态分化现象.     

Causality, randomness, intelligibility, and the epistemology of the cell

Because the basic unit of biology is the cell, biological knowledge is rooted in the epistemology of the cell, and because life is the salient characteristic of the cell, its epistemology must be centered on its livingness, not its constituent components. The organization and regulation of these components in the pursuit of life constitute the fundamental nature of the cell. Thus, regulation sits at the heart of biological knowledge of the cell and the extraordinary complexity of this regulation conditions the kind of knowledge that can be obtained, in particular, the representation and intelligibility of that knowledge. This paper is essentially split into two parts. The first part discusses the inadequacy of everyday intelligibility and intuition in science and the consequent need for scientific theories to be expressed mathematically without appeal to commonsense categories of understanding, such as causality. Having set the backdrop, the second part addresses biological knowledge. It briefly reviews modern scientific epistemology from a general perspective and then turns to the epistemology of the cell. In analogy with a multi-faceted factory, the cell utilizes a highly parallel distributed control system to maintain its organization and regulate its dynamical operation in the face of both internal and external changes. Hence, scientific knowledge is constituted by the mathematics of stochastic dynamical systems, which model the overall relational structure of the cell and how these structures evolve over time, stochasticity being a consequence of the need to ignore a large number of factors while modeling relatively few in an extremely complex environment.     

The tree, the network, and the species

To enrich the Hennigian internodal conception of species, a new formalization of the definition of the species concept is proposed. This rigorous definition allows for considerable unification of the various, and sometimes conflicting, techniques of species delimitation used in practice. First, the domain of such a definition is set out, namely, the set of all organisms on Earth, past, present, and future. Next, the focus is on the genealogical relationship among organisms, which provides the key to analysing the giant or global genealogical network (GGN) connecting all these organisms. This leads to the construction of an algorithm revealing the topological structure of the GGN, from families to lineages, ending up with a definition of species as equivalence classes of organisms corresponding to branches of the 'tree of life'. Such a theoretical definition of the species concept must be accompanied by various recognition criteria to be operational. These criteria are, for example, the ill-named 'biological species concepts', 'phylogenetic species concepts', etc., usually, but wrongly, presented as definitions of the species concept. Besides clarifying this disputed point, the definition in the present study displays the huge diversity of the scales (time-scale and population size) involved in actual species, thus explaining away the classical problems raised by previous attempts at defining the species concept (uniparental reproduction, temporal depth of species, and hybridization).  © 2006 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2006, 89 , 509–521.     

Formation of pyrophosphate,tripolyphosphate, and phosphorylimidazole with the thioester,N, S-diacetylcysteamine,as the condensing agent

Summary Reaction of 0.20M orthophosphate with 0.20M N,S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M imidazole at pH 7.0 or 8.0 under drying conditions at 50°C for 6 days yields pyrophosphate and tripolyphosphate in the presence and absence of 0.10M divalent metal ion. The efficiency of utilization of N,S-diacetylcysteamine in the formation of pyrophosphate linkages ranges from 3 – 8% under the above conditions. The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteamine, and imidazole are required for phosphoanhydride formation.Reaction of 0.40M orthophosphate with 0.20M N, S-diacetylcysteamine in 0.40M imidazole at ambient temperature for 6 days yields phosphorylimidazole in the absence or presence of 0.05M MgCl₂. Phosphorylimidazole and pyrophosphate are formed in the presence of 0.05M CaCl₂; pyrophosphate and tripolyphosphate are formed with 0.15M CaCl₂. The efficiency of utilization of N,S-diacetylcysteamine in the formation of pyrophosphate linkages is roughly 7% at 6 days of reaction with 0.15M CaCl₂. The thioester, N,S-diacetylcysteamine and imidazole are required for the formation of phosphoanhydrides. The significance of these reactions to molecular evolution is discussed.Abbreviations P₁ orthophosphate - P₂ pyrophosphate - P₃ tripolyphosphate - ImP phosphorylimidazole - Ac-Csa(Ac) N, S-diacetylcysteamine - Im imidazole     

The parasitic chytrid, Zygorhizidium, facilitates the growth of the cladoceran zooplankter, Daphnia, in cultures of the inedible alga, Asterionella

In food-web studies, parasites are often ignored owing to their insignificant biomass. We provide evidence that parasites may affect trophic transfer in aquatic food webs. Many phytoplankton species are susceptible to parasitic fungi (chytrids). Chytrid infections of diatoms in lakes may reach epidemic proportions during diatom spring blooms, so that numerous free-swimming fungal zoospores (2-3 microm in diameter) are produced. Analysis shows that these zoospores are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and sterols (particularly cholesterol), which indicates that they provide excellent food for zooplankters such as Daphnia. In life-table experiments using the large diatom Asterionella formosa as food, Daphnia growth increased significantly in treatments where a parasite was present. By grazing on the zoospores, Daphnia acquired important supplementary nutrients and were able to grow. When large inedible algae are infected by parasites, nutrients within the algal cells are consumed by these chytrids, some of which, in turn, are grazed by Daphnia. Thus, chytrids transfer energy and nutrients from their hosts to zooplankton. This study suggests that parasitic fungi alter trophic relationships in freshwater ecosystems and may be the important components in shaping the community and the food-web dynamics of lakes.     

On the Position of the Genera Turdoides, Argya, Illadopsis, Neociehla, Ptyrticus, Maerosphenus and Pseudoaleippe in the Timaliidæ

Although in these five genera the long broad first primary and rounded wing agree with Timalia pileata, as does the profile of the bill of Argya fulvus and Argya rubiginosus, they do not do so in any other respect,. neither in their habits, nest and eggs, nor in the scutation of the tarsus. We therefore propose to remove them all from the Timaliidae and place them in two separate families, but leaving them in their present position in the classification as placed by Sclater in Syst. Av. Æthiop. ii. 1930.