A taxonomic study on Endotricha Zeller （Lepidoptera： Pyralidae： Pyralinae） in China

A checklist of 30 species ofEndotricha Zeller in China is presented in this paper. Six species （E. dumalis sp. nov., E. lunulata sp. nov. E. medogana sp. nov., E. nigra sp. nov., E. purpurata sp. nov. and E. simipunicea sp. nov.） are new to science and three （E. admirabilis Kirpichnikova, E. fuscobasalis Ragonot and E. valentis Kirpichnikova） are recorded for the first time in China. The adult features and genital structures of the new species are illustrated and a key to the Chinese species is given.     

哈茎蜂族二新属三新种(膜翅目:茎蜂科)(英文稿)

　Two new genera and three new species of Cephidae are described in the paperMiscocephus cyaneus gen.et sp.nov., Megajanus longithecus gen.et sp.nov.,Caenocephus tianmunicus sp.nov..Caenocephus is recorded in China for the first time. The type specimens are deposited in Insect Collection of Central South Forestry University, Zhuzhou,Hunan Province,China.     

Revision of Phaedon Latreille from China (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae)

Sixteen species of the genus Phaedon Latreille are revised and illustrated from China, including five new species described herein, namely P. geminatus sp. nov., P. huizuensis sp. nov., P. igori sp. nov., P. insolitus sp. nov., P. prosternalis sp. nov. All species are redescirbed or original described. Figures of important morphological features are provided. The natural history of some species are provided including the host plants records. A key to species of Phaedon from China is presented. The type specimens of the new species described here are deposited in Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences(IZCAS), Mauro Daccordi collection(MDC), Horst Kippenberg collection(HKC) and Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences(ZIN).     

Report on the Hippolytidae Bate (sensu lato) from China seas

Thirty species belonging to 13 genera of three families in the Hippolytidae Bate, 1888(sensu lato) are reported in the present paper, including two new species and two newly recorded ones from the China seas. The two new species are named as Thinora leptochelus sp. nov. and Thor singularis sp. nov. Thinora leptochelus sp. nov. differs from the only knwon species of the genus, Thinora maldivensis(Borradaile, 1915), by the developed supraorbital tooth and the slender and cone-shaped chelae of the first 2 pereopods. Thor singularis sp. nov. can be dinstingershed from the other members of the genus Thor by the first 2 pereopods with epipods. The two newly recorded species from China seas are Eualus kikuchii Miyake & Hayashi, 1967 and Heptacarpus commensalis Hayashi, 1979.     

ON NEW SPECIES OF WOLF SPIDERS FROM CHINA (ARANEAE: LYCOSIDAE)

This paper deals with seven new species of wolf spiders, belonging to four genera, namely, Alopecosa (1 sp.), Arctosa (4 spp.), Hygrolycosa (1 sp.) and Acamholycosa (1 sp.). Spe-cimeus are deposited in Bethune Medical University (the fifth species) and our Institute (other six species) respectively. The diagnostic characters of these species are given below:     

Two new species of the genus Eotmethis from China (Orthoptera: Acridioidea: Pamphagidae)

Two new species of the genus Eotmethis Bey-Bienko, 1948 are described in this paper, namely E. daqingshanensis sp. nov. and E. gansuensis sp. nov. from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Gansu Province, respectively. The type specimens of the new species are deposited in College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding, China.     

Three new genera of the family Nesticidae (Arachnida:Araneae) from Tibet and Yunnan,China

Three new genera of the spider family Nesticidae, Hamus gen. nov., Nescina gen. nov. and Wraios gen. nov., are reported. Three new species, Hamus bowoensis sp. nov., Nescina minuta sp. nov. and Wraios longiembolus sp. nov., showing remarkable characters in palpal and epigynal morphology, are described based on specimens collected in Tibet and Yunnan, China. All the type specimens are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences(IZCAS) in Beijing.     

A STUDY OF CRYPTOLECHIA ZELLER（LEPIDOPTERA. OECOPHORIDAE） IN CHINA （Ⅱ）： SPECIES FROM GUIZHOU PROVINCE

The present paper reports fourteen species of the genus Cryptolechia from Guizhou Province, China. Eleven species are described as new: C. proximideflecta sp. nov., C. muscosa sp.nov., C. solifasciaria sp. nov., C. spinifera sp. nov., C. denticulata sp. nov., C. furcellata sp. nov.,C. latifascia sp. nov., C. acutiuscula sp. nov., C. fasciculifera sp. nov., C. hamatilis sp. nov. and C.concaviuscula sp. nov. The female of C. gei Wang is reported for the first time, and the genital structures of the new species are illustrated.     

THREE NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS SPILOGONA （DIPTERA： MUSCIDAE） IN CHINA

Three new species of the genus Spilogona Schnabl, namely S. carbiarenosa sp. nov., S.dasyoomma sp. nov. and S. kunjirapensis sp. nov. are described from China. The type specimens of S. kun-firapensis sp. nov. are kept in the Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and those of S. carbi-arenosa sp. nov. and S. dasyoomma sp. nov. are deposited in Shenyang Normal University.     

湖北省蚱科二新种（直翅目：蚱总科）

This paper reports two new species of Tetrigidae (Orthoptera: Tetrigoidea) from Hubei Province, China. They are Alulatettix wufengensis, sp. nov. and Formosatettix hubeiensis, sp. nov.. The type specimens are deposited in Institute of Zoology, Shaanxi Normal University.     

Sexual differences in growth strategies of the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata

In invertebrates, the size at maturation is considered to be important for adult fitness. In the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata, however, it is only females that clearly benefit of larger size through augmented egg production, while male mating success is determined by display activity not related to size. Thus, we can expect conflicting growth patterns for the sexes. Additionally, populations differ greatly in adult size: individuals from dry habitats are smaller than those from wet habitats. To study the sexual differences in reaction norms of growth, we reared spiderlings from seven populations at two food levels under controlled laboratory conditions and compared size at sexual maturity. The shapes of reaction norms for adult size differed between the sexes. In females, the reaction norms were parallel, but individuals from dry habitats tended to grow larger at the given food levels. In males, there was a significant interaction between food level and population without any consistent differences between populations. Maturation time was a plastic character in both sexes with no genetic differences among populations. However, females on low food level matured later and significantly smaller in size than those on high food level. Males also matured later on low food level, but they were nearly of the same size as males that received more food. Female growth patterns reflected the strong selection for large size at maturity. However, the patterns for males were highly variable, which could be explained by the weak overall selection on male size, which means that any environmental factors can affect male growing patterns. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sexual selection in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata: female preference for drum duration and pulse rate

The unusual form of sexual signaling, the drumming producedby the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata, allows exceptionallydetailed studies of female preference patterns against signalcharacteristics. It is easy to manipulate the signals and touse large numbers of females in playback experiments. Malesof H. rubrofasciata produce drums by striking their abdomenagainst dry leaves on the ground. Drums travel not only as substrate-borne vibrations, but also as airborne acoustic signals.Females respond sooner to drums transferred as substrate borne,but the mode of signal transfer has no effect on female preferencefor different types of drums. We investigated the effects oftwo key components of the drums, duration and pulse rate, onfemale choice. Previous studies have shown that the durationof the drum is both repeatable within males and variable betweenmales. In contrast, pulse rate shows high within-male repeatabilitybut only little variability between males. Using playbacksof manipulated drums, we found that females preferred drumsof longer duration but that pulse rate had no effect on femalepreference. Our results suggest that drum duration may functionas an indicator of male quality for choosy females. Pulse rate,on the other hand, is less likely to be an important traitin intersexual selection. Female preference for drum durationwas open-ended within the natural variation of the drum durations,but it leveled off outside the normal range. Thus supernomalstimuli would not pay for males using this energetically demanding acoustic signal.     

Microhabitat selection and audible sexual signalling in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata (Araneae, Lycosidae)

We studied the microhabitat selection and male sexual signalling behaviour in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata (Ohlert). Males strike dry leaves with their abdomen, producing an audible sexual drumming signal, and females use this signal to choose mating partners. In the field we followed male drumming rate and microhabitat selection using both the mark–recapture method and direct observations. In the laboratory we conducted an experiment on male microhabitat and drumming substrate selection. We found that in the field males were not distributed randomly among the habitat; fewer males were found in areas that had high sedge cover, low elevation, and low dry leaf cover. In the laboratory experiment, males spent more time on dry leaf substrate. Drumming rate in the field was positively correlated with dry leaf cover and in the laboratory males clearly preferred dry leaves as drumming substrate. Temperature was positively correlated with male drumming rate, and with male and female mobility. We conclude that in H. rubrofasciata male distribution and sexual signalling rate, and thus mating success, are greatly affected by environmental factors. Therefore, males may be sexually selected to make effective use of their signalling habitat by active microhabitat choice. Received: 27 December 1999 / Received in revised form: 14 February 2000 / Accepted: 14 February 2000     

A trade-off between sexual signalling and immune function in a natural population of the drumming wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata

The field of ecological immunology is ultimately seeking to address the question ‘Why is there variation in immune function?’ Here, we provide experimental evidence that costs of ubiquitous sexual signals are a significant source of variation in immune function. In the mating season, males of the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata drum against dry leaves while wandering around the habitat searching for receptive females. According to a previous study, the male metabolic rate during the drumming increases 22‐fold compared to the resting metabolic rate. In the present study, we examined whether investment in costly courtship drumming decreases male immune function in a wild population of H. rubrofasciata. We induced males to increase their drumming rate by introducing females in proximity. As estimates of male immune function, we used lytic activity and encapsulation rate. Lytic activity estimates the concentration of antimicrobial peptides in haemolymph, which have been shown to play an important role in defence against bacteria, viruses and fungi. Encapsulation is an important defence mechanism against nematodes and insect parasitoids, but it also plays a role in defence against viruses. Our results show that males with nonarbitrarily increased investment in drumming rate had considerably lower lytic activities than control males. Also, there was a tendency for males with nonarbitrarily increased investment in drumming rate to have lower encapsulation rates than control males. This study provides experimental evidence for the first time, to our knowledge, that there are direct immunological costs of sexual signalling in natural populations. Therefore, immunological costs of sexual signals may provide significant phenotypic variation to parasite‐mediated sexual selection.     

Decreased sexual signalling reveals reduced viability in small populations of the drumming wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata

One of the important goals in conservation biology is to determine reliable indicators of population viability. Sexual traits have been suggested to indicate population extinction risk, because they may be related to viability through condition dependence. Moreover, condition-dependent sexual traits may be more sensitive indicators of population viability than early life-history traits, because deleterious fitness effects of inbreeding tend to be expressed mainly at the end of the species' life history. However, empirical evidence of the significance of sexual behaviour for population viability is missing. In this study, we examined two male sexual traits and survival in 39 different-sized and isolated natural populations of the wolf spider, Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata. We also used several traits to estimate female reproductive success in 25 populations of H. rubrofasciata. According to previous studies, H. rubrofasciata males have a costly and condition-dependent acoustic signal, courtship drumming, which is the target of female choice. Males with a high drumming rate have considerably higher viability than males with a low drumming rate, and females that mate with the more actively drumming males gain genetic benefits in terms of increased offspring viability. Our results show that males in small populations had both lower survival and lower drumming rate than males in larger populations. However, we did not find any evidence for a decline in important early life-history traits (offspring number, hatching success or offspring body mass) or female body mass in small populations. Our results have two important messages for conservation biology. First, they show that sexual traits can be used as sensitive indicators of population viability. Second, the indirect benefits of female choice in terms of good genes might partially compensate for the reduction of viability in declining populations. Also, our results support the view that deleterious effects of small population size are expressed at the end of the species' life history.     

Phylogenetic reconstruction of the wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) using sequences from the 12S rRNA, 28S rRNA, and NADH1 genes: implications for classification, biogeography, and the evolution of web building behavior

Current knowledge of the evolutionary relationships amongst the wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae) is based on assessment of morphological similarity or phylogenetic analysis of a small number of taxa. In order to enhance the current understanding of lycosid relationships, phylogenies of 70 lycosid species were reconstructed by parsimony and Bayesian methods using three molecular markers; the mitochondrial genes 12S rRNA, NADH1, and the nuclear gene 28S rRNA. The resultant trees from the mitochondrial markers were used to assess the current taxonomic status of the Lycosidae and to assess the evolutionary history of sheet-web construction in the group. The results suggest that a number of genera are not monophyletic, including Lycosa, Arctosa, Alopecosa, and Artoria. At the subfamilial level, the status of Pardosinae needs to be re-assessed, and the position of a number of genera within their respective subfamilies is in doubt (e.g., Hippasa and Arctosa in Lycosinae and Xerolycosa, Aulonia and Hygrolycosa in Venoniinae). In addition, a major clade of strictly Australasian taxa may require the creation of a new subfamily. The analysis of sheet-web building in Lycosidae revealed that the interpretation of this trait as an ancestral state relies on two factors: (1) an asymmetrical model favoring the loss of sheet-webs and (2) that the suspended silken tube of Pirata is directly descended from sheet-web building. Paralogous copies of the nuclear 28S rRNA gene were sequenced, confounding the interpretation of the phylogenetic analysis and suggesting that a cautionary approach should be taken to the further use of this gene for lycosid phylogenetic analysis.     

Acoustic signalling in a wolf spider: can signal characteristics predict male quality?

While there has been considerable interest in female choice for male sexual signals, there have been few studies of the underlying information that different aspects of the signal calls convey. Such studies, however, are essential to understand the significance of signals as honest handicaps, arbitrary Fisherian traits and/or in species recognition. We studied the somewhat exceptional system of audible drumming in the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata. We estimated the repeatabilities of signal components, the levels of between-male variance, the symmetry of the signal, the correlations between different aspects of drumming and their correlations with body weight. While in other taxa the frequency of audible signals may convey honest information of male size, in this species signal frequency was not related to male size and had a low repeatability. The pulse rate within each drum was highly repeatable but had a relatively small between-male coefficient of variation. In previous studies on this species, these traits were not important for male mating success. Among the traits directionally preferred by females, signal volume had considerable repeatability. Signal length was repeatable with high variability between males. In one population, signal length and volume were positively correlated with the rate at which males produced the drumming signals, a trait essential for male mating success. Thus, while signal length may reliably indicate male quality, other signal characteristics such as peak frequency and symmetry were not repeatable or were static and not related to any other male traits. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.     

Energetic costs of size and sexual signalling in a wolf spider

A prerequisite for honest handicaps is that there are significant condition-dependent costs in the expression of sexual traits. In the wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata (Ohlert), sexual signalling (drumming) is costly in terms of increased mortality. Here we investigated whether this mortality may be caused by increased energy expenditure. During sexual signalling, metabolic rate was 22 times higher than at rest and four times higher than when males were actively moving. Metabolic rate per unit mass was positively related to absolute body mass during sexual signalling but not during other activities. This positive relationship is novel to any studies of metabolic rates. Indeed, it seems that the largest males can drum only 12 times per minute before reaching the maximum sustainable metabolic rate, whereas the smallest males may drum up to 39 times per minute. However, there is no relationship between body mass and drumming rate, indicating that larger males are able to compensate for the higher cost of drumming. There was a quadratic relationship between relative abdomen mass and overall body mass, which may provide a partial explanation for the increased energy expenditure of largest males while drumming. Altogether, our results indicate that sexual signalling is highly energetically demanding, which may be the main reason for the honesty of signalling in this species. In addition, the energetic costs are surprisingly strongly size dependent, which may compensate any disadvantage of small male size.     

Adaptive significance of synchronous chorusing in an acoustically signalling wolf spider

Synchronous sexual signalling is a behavioural phenomenon that has received considerable theoretical interest, but surprisingly few empirical tests have been conducted. Here, we present a set of experiments designed to determine (i) whether the sexual signalling of the drumming wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata is synchronous, and (ii) whether the synchrony may have evolved through female preference. Using controlled playback experiments, we found that males actively synchronized their drumming bouts with other males and females significantly preferred closely synchronized drumming clusters compared with loose clusters. In loose clusters, the first drumming signals attracted the most female responses, whereas in close clusters, the last drumming signals were the most heeded. We suggest that this female preference for the last drummer can maintain male synchronous signalling in H. rubrofasciata.     

SEXUAL SELECTION IN A WOLF SPIDER: MALE DRUMMING ACTIVITY,BODY SIZE,AND VIABILITY

Females are often believed to actively choose highly ornamented males (males with extravagant morphological signals or intense sexual display), and ornaments should be honest signals of male viability. However, this belief is relying only on some pieces of empirical evidence from birds. Our study reports active female choice on sexual display that indicates male viability in spiders. We established trials in which we studied female choice in relation to male courtship drumming activity and body size. Females chose the most actively drumming males as mating partners, but the body size of the males did not seem to be selected. Male drumming activity turned out to be a good predictor of male viability, whereas male viability was independent of male body mass. Our results suggest that by actively choosing mates according to male drumming performance, but independently of male body mass, females are preferring viable males as mates. Because Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata males do not provide obvious direct benefits to their offspring, females may gain some indirect benefits; offspring may have higher chance of survival, or the offspring may inherit the attractiveness of their father.