Collapse of species boundaries in the wild potatoSolanum brevicaule complex (Solanaceae, S. sect.Petota): Molecular data

TheSolanum brevicaule complex is a group of morphologically very similar wild and cultivated potato taxa (Solanum sect.Petota). This study uses single to low-copy nuclear RFLPs and RAPDs to investigate their species boundaries and relationships. Cladistic analyses of both data sets are largely concordant with each other and with a recently published phenetic analyses of the same accessions using morphology. All three data sets separate members of the complex into populations from Peru and immediately adjacent northwestern Bolivia, including most cultivated species accessions, and populations from northwestern Bolivia to Argentina. The molecular results suggest that the complex is paraphyletic as currently circumscribed. Many species of theS. brevicaule complex should be relegated to synonymy.     

Genetic diversity of Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in Chuquisaca, Bolivia based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene

Partial cytochrome b DNA sequences for 62 Triatoma infestans were analyzed to determine the degree of genetic variation present in populations of this insect in the northwest region of Chuquisaca, Bolivia. A total of seven haplotypes were detected in the localities sampled. The phylogenetic relationship and population genetic structure of the haplotypes found in this region, indicate that there is greater variation in this relatively small region of Bolivia than what has been previously reported by studies using the same gene fragment, for more distant geographic areas of this country. In addition, a comparison of rural and peri-urban localities, indicate that there is no difference in the genetic variation of T. infestans between these two environments.     

Packaging Indigenous Media: An Interview with Ivan Sanjinés and Jesús Tapia

An interview with two key figures in the indigenous video movement in Bolivia conducted at the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival in New Mexico. In the interview, Ivan Sanjinés and Jesús Tapia describe the development of indigenous video centers and organizations in Bolivia, their work with video makers across Latin American, their goals during their 2002 U.S. video tour, their reactions to their audience's questions, and notions of authorship and collaboration as a process that extends from communities in which videos are made to hemispheric networks of media makers. I introduce the interview by situating indigenous video in Bolivia within the wider and significant historical shift toward indigenous politics in Bolivia in the 1980s and 1990s and draw from the interview new meanings for the term indigenous media that involve the ways video makers assemble and package a multiplex of technologies, resources, social organizations, cultural principles and imagery into a representational form that extends beyond the completed videotape.     

The spread of the House Sparrow Passer domesticus in Bolivia

Bolivia lies within the Tropics and contains extremes from desert to jungle and from low to high altitudes. House Sparrows entered the south of Bolivia from Argentina about 1930 and have now spread to towns and villages scattered through about half of the country. These are principally in the semi-arid Andean descents of south and central Bolivia and in the lowlands in Santa Cruz city and certain nearby towns. In the high altiplano they have reached only two cities and are not numerous in either. They appear to be absent from the humid Andean slopes and from most of the eastern and northern lowlands, with the exception of two isolated towns which they could have reached either from Brazil or from elsewhere in Bolivia. House Sparrows do not occur away from human settlements in Bolivia.     

Genetic Characterization of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus from Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru: Identification of a New Subtype ID Lineage

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of human and equine cases of severe disease in the Americas. A passive surveillance study was conducted in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador to determine the arboviral etiology of febrile illness. Patients with suspected viral-associated, acute, undifferentiated febrile illness of <7 days duration were enrolled in the study and blood samples were obtained from each patient and assayed by virus isolation. Demographic and clinical information from each patient was also obtained at the time of voluntary enrollment. In 2005–2007, cases of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) were diagnosed for the first time in residents of Bolivia; the patients did not report traveling, suggesting endemic circulation of VEEV in Bolivia. In 2001 and 2003, VEE cases were also identified in Ecuador. Since 1993, VEEV has been continuously isolated from patients in Loreto, Peru, and more recently (2005), in Madre de Dios, Peru. We performed phylogenetic analyses with VEEV from Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru and compared their relationships to strains from other parts of South America. We found that VEEV subtype ID Panama/Peru genotype is the predominant one circulating in Peru. We also demonstrated that VEEV subtype ID strains circulating in Ecuador belong to the Colombia/Venezuela genotype and VEEV from Madre de Dios, Peru and Cochabamba, Bolivia belong to a new ID genotype. In summary, we identified a new major lineage of enzootic VEEV subtype ID, information that could aid in the understanding of the emergence and evolution of VEEV in South America.     

Structural Features of Spines in Some Rodents (Rodentia: Myomorpha, Hystricomorpha)

The architectonics of spines and hair was studied in Neacomys spinosus, Tokudaia osimensis, Arvicanthis somalicus, Leopoldamys sabanus, L. edwardsi, Maxomys moi, M. surifer, Niviventer fulvescens, N. confucianus, N. cremoriventer, Acomys cahirinus, A. somalica, Hystrix indica, H. cristata, Atherurus macrourus, Erethizon dorsatum, Proechimys steerei, and Lonchotrix emiliae. The presence of a dorsal longitudinal furrow covered by a modified cuticle is a common structural feature of spines in all studied species except E. dorsatum, H. indica, and H. cristata. The frontal surface of the mosaic (scales located side by side) and terrace cuticle (steps between scales) varies in different species from smooth to rib-folded. A terminology has been proposed to describe the main structures of spine and hair. The adaptive significance of the spine architectonics in rodents is discussed.     

Surnames in Bolivia: A study of the population of Bolivia through isonymy

In Bolivia, the Hispanic dual surname system is used. To describe the isonymic structure of Bolivia, the surname distribution of 12,139,448 persons registered in the 2006 census data was studied in 9 districts and 112 provinces of the nation, for a total of 23,244,064 surnames. The number of different surnames found was 174,922. Matrices of isonymic distances between the administrative units (districts and provinces) were constructed and tested for correlation with geographic distance. In the 112 provinces, isonymic distances were correlated with geographic distance (r = 0.545 ± 0.011 for Euclidean, 0.501 ± 0.012 for Nei's, and 0.556 ± 0.010 for Lasker's distance). The multiple regression of the surname effective number (α), equivalent to the allele effective number in a genetic system, was nonsignificant on latitude and longitude; however, it was highly significant and negative on altitude (r = ?0.72). Because the Andes extend from north to south in west‐central Bolivia, random inbreeding was lowest in the eastern districts, and highest in mountainous western Bolivia. Average α for the provinces was 122 ± 2; for the districts, it was 216 ± 29, and for the whole of Bolivia it was 213. The geographical distribution of α in the provinces is compatible with the settlement of subsequent groups of migrants moving from east and north toward the center and south of Bolivia. The relative frequency of indigenous surnames is correlated positively with altitude. This suggests that the country was populated by recent low‐density demic diffusion over a low‐density indigenous population. This may have been a common phenomenon in the immigration to tropical South America. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Timerendering: reflections on chronopolitical praxis in Bolivia

This article uses reflections on chronopolitical praxis during the period 2006-19 in Bolivia in order to make a more general contribution to the anthropology of time and temporalities. The article proposes the theoretical concept of ‘timerendering’ in order to examine the ways in which time emerged as a pervasive register that mediated and also deepened political, social, and ethnic conflict in Bolivia. After illustrating the mechanisms through which timerendering in Bolivia gave way to forms of allochronic denial that are described as ‘hypertemporal exclusion’, the article explains how and why the MAS government's timerendering strategies unravelled, which left it susceptible to the right-wing coup of October/November 2019. The article concludes by narrating the endtimes of the Morales government in Bolivia, before considering what this moment and its afterlives have to say more generally about the anthropology of time as a disciplinary orientation.     

A new species of Linstowia (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae) from marsupials in Bolivia.

A new species of cestode of the genus Linstowia (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae) is described from marsupials of the genera Thylamys and Monodelphis. The new species (Linstowia schmidti) differs from Linstowia iheringi Zschokke, 1904, in having a much smaller strobila and reduced number of proglottids, and in the distribution of the eggs in gravid proglottids. In Bolivia, cestodes of the genus Linstowia appear to have a restricted geographic distribution, occurring in marsupials only in southeastern Bolivia near the western margin of the Chaco. This host-parasite association may represent an ecological-historical relict.     

A new Acisanthera (Melastomataceae: Melastomeae) from Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia

Acisanthera leptalea, a new species known only from Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia, is described, illustrated, and compared with its presumed closest relatives,A. hedyotidea andA. tetramera, and five other species known from Bolivia. It is assigned to sectionDicrananthera which now comprises three species characterized by sessile or subsessile leaves, 4-merous solitary flowers, and bilocular ovaries.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Aulonemia cochabambensis</Emphasis> (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae: Arthrostylidiinae), an anomalous new species from Bolivia

Aulonemia cochabambensis (Poaceae: Bambusoideae: Bambuseae: Arthrostylidiinae), a new species from the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia, is described and illustrated. It has foliage leaves with delicate fimbriae, no sheath auricles, narrow blades, an abaxial dark marginal stripe, and intercostal sclerenchyma; few-flowered paniculate synflorescences; and robust, awned spikelets. The new species is compared with its putative relatives Aulonemia laxa and Arthrostylidium schomburgkii. A key to the species of Aulonemia in Bolivia is also included.     

Geographic distribution of wild potato species

The geographic distribution of wild potatoes (Solanaceae sect. Petota) was analyzed using a database of 6073 georeferenced observations. Wild potatoes occur in 16 countries, but 88% of the observations are from Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, and Peru. Most species are rare and narrowly endemic: for 77 species the largest distance between two observations of the same species is <100 km. Peru has the highest number of species (93), followed by Bolivia (39). A grid of 50 × 50 km cells and a circular neighborhood with a radius of 50 km to assign points to grid cells was used to map species richness. High species richness occurs in northern Argentina, central Bolivia, central Ecuador, central Mexico, and south and north-central Peru. The highest number of species in a grid cell (22) occurs in southern Peru. To include all species at least once, 59 grid cells need to be selected (out of 1317 cells with observations). Wild potatoes occur between 38° N and 41° S, with more species in the southern hemisphere. Species richness is highest between 8° and 20° S and around 20° N. Wild potatoes typically occur between 2000 and 4000 m altitude.     

Is Lutzomyia serrana (Diptera, Psychodidae, Phlebotominae) present in Ecuador?

We describe a multivariate metric comparison of three sandfly species showing strong differences in size, which questions the geographical distribution of one of them. Two species are represented by a single population (L. robusta and L. guilvardae) and one by two populations (L. serrana). All of them belong to the series serrana (Diptera, Psychodidae, Phlebotominae). The morphometric data confirm that L. guilvardae is a distinct species. However, they suggest that L. robusta and L. serrana in Ecuador are the same taxon, and that it is distinguishable from the population of L. serrana in Bolivia. A multilocus enzyme electrophoresis analysis comparing L. serrana in Bolivia and L. robusta in Ecuador adds further evidence that these two populations are distinct species. Thus, our data seem to indicate that, in Ecuador, the population previously identified as L. serrana is actually the same species as the allopatric population previously identified as L. robusta. Accepting L. serrana in Ecuador as small-sized L. robusta, the resulting geographic distribution of this latter becomes in closer agreement with ecology and epidemiology.     

New species of Cinclotaenia macy, 1973 (Cyclophyllidea: Dilepididae) from Cinclus leucocephalus tschudi (Passeriformes: Cinclidae) in Bolivia

Two new species of Cinclotaenia (Cyclophyllidea: Dilepididae) are described from the small intestine of Cinclus leucocephalus (Aves: Passeriformes: Cinclidae) collected in the Yungas region of Bolivia. Cinclotaenia minuta n. sp. is characterized by possessing a minute strobila with a maximum body length of 1.58 mm, consisting of 5-10 proglottids, 19-22 rostellar hooks with lengths from 16 to 17 microm, 12-17 testes per proglottid, and eggs forming packets without filaments. Cinclotaenia boliviensis n. sp. has bandlike strobila with a length up to 26 mm with 67-74 proglittids, 22 rostellar hooks with length 39-42 microm, 43-68 testes, and eggs forming packets possessing long filaments. The systematic position in Cinclotaenia of cestodes lacking filaments on the egg packets is confirmed. This is the first record of species of Cinclotaenia in dippers from Bolivia and also the first report of cestodes from Cinclus sp. in the Neotropical Region.     

Conservation of Bolivian flora: representation of phytogeographic zones in the national system of protected areas

The protected areas of Bolivia cover 10.2% of its territory, but only 60% of this surface is considered to be of conservation value. Protected areas are unevenly distributed over the eight phyto-geographic regions of Bolivia. The Pantanal is not represented in any conservation unit. Inventories and basic information are usually lacking as plant surveys have been carried out mostly outside protected areas.     

Wing geometry as a tool for studying the Lutzomyia longipalpis (Diptera: Psychodidae) complex

Toro Toro (T) and Yungas (Y) have been described as genetically well differentiated populations of the Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva, 1912) complex in Bolivia. Here we use geometric morphometrics to compare samples from these populations and new populations (Bolivia and Nicaragua), representing distant geographical origins, qualitative morphological variation ("one-spot" or "two-spots" phenotypes), ecologically distinct traits (peridomestic and silvatic populations), and possibly different epidemiological roles (transmitting or nor transmitting Leishmania chagasi). The Nicaragua (N) (Somotillo) sample was "one-spot" phenotype and a possible peridomestic vector. The Bolivian sample of the Y was also "one-spot" phenotype and a demonstrated peridomestic vector of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The three remaining samples were silvatic, "two-spots" phenotypes. Two of them (Uyuni and T) were collected in the highlands of Bolivian where VL never has been reported. The last one (Robore, R) came from the lowlands of Bolivia, where human cases of VL are sporadically reported. The decomposition of metric variation into size and shape by geometric morphometric techniques suggests the existence of two groups (N/Y/R, and U/T). Several arguments indicate that such subdivision of Lu. longipalpis could correspond to different evolutionary units.     

Agalinis (Scrophulariaceae) in Peru and Bolivia

Chromosome numbers determined for ten species ofAgalinis from Peru and Bolivia are alln=16. Field observations have provided morphological data about habit, leaves, inflorescences, and flowers. A key to species in Peru and Bolivia is provided.     

Critical ontologies: rethinking relations to other-than-humans from the Bolivian Andes

Drawing from fieldwork and archival research carried out in Bolivia between 2010 and 2017, this article undertakes a rethinking of Indigenous ontologies in light of Bolivian interlocutors’ efforts to navigate deeply precarious ties to named places and saints. Attention to such instabilities challenges romantic accounts of ontology that presume a stable domain of materiality or religiosity outside of practice. During fieldwork in central Bolivia, I learned about the ways that Quechua farmers negotiated the relational and ecological effects of a divisive history of indentured labour and sexual violence through acts of devotion including paraman purina (‘walking for rain’), feasting, flute-play, dance, and chapel prayer each February for the Patron Saint La Virgen de la Candelaria, named places, and the Pachamama. These practices sought to rebuild ties to named places that were interrupted by the forbidding of offerings by the prior hacienda master and reshaped by state projects of Indigenous revivalism. These devotional practices, and participants’ narrations of them, offer insight into the political workings of Indigenous ontologies in twenty-first-century Bolivia. I propose critical ontologies as a scholarly lens that insists upon placing relations with other-than-humans within broader fields of legal and political contestation over rights, nature, and Indigeneity.