The structure of the claspettes in the male genitalia of the subgenus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ochlerotatus</Emphasis> Lynch Arribalzaga of the genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aedes</Emphasis> Meigen (Diptera,Culicidae) and their diagnostic significance

The structure of the claspettes (modified projections in the male genitalia) in species of the subgenus Ochlerotatus Lynch Arribalzaga of the genus Aedes Meigen is described in detail. A thorough investigation of the three-dimensional structure of the claspettes is necessary for identification of the Ochlerotatus species from Russia. The study of 30 species of Ochlerotatus demonstrated that frequently the use of the claspette structure as a diagnostic character was incorrect when the claspettes were described as flat structures. Examination of the three-dimensional structure of the claspettes has revealed characters differentiating Aedes diantaeus, A. intrudens and A. pullatus; A. communis, A. punctor, and A. hexodontus; A. annulipes, A. excrucians, and A. euedes, as well as some other species.     

Microevolution of Aedes aegypti

Scientific research into the epidemiology of dengue frequently focuses on the microevolution and dispersion of the mosquito Aedes aegypti. One of the world’s largest urban agglomerations infested by Ae. aegypti is the Brazilian megalopolis of Sao Paulo, where >26,900 cases of dengue were reported until June 2015. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the genetic variability of Ae. aegypti in the Sao Paulo area have not been well studied. To reduce this knowledge gap, we assessed the morphogenetic variability of a population of Ae. aegypti from a densely urbanised neighbourhood of Sao Paulo. We tested if allelic patterns could vary over a short term and if wing shape could be a predictor of the genetic variation. Over a period of 14 months, we examined the variation of genetic (microsatellites loci) and morphological (wing geometry) markers in Ae. aegypti. Polymorphisms were detected, as revealed by the variability of 20 microsatellite loci (115 alleles combined; overall F_st = 0.0358) and 18 wing landmarks (quantitative estimator Q_st = 0.4732). These levels of polymorphism are higher than typically expected to an exotic species. Allelic frequencies of the loci changed over time and temporal variation in the wing shape was even more pronounced, permitting high reclassification levels of chronological samples. In spite of the fact that both markers underwent temporal variation, no correlation was detected between their dynamics. We concluded that microevolution was detected despite the short observational period, but the intensities of change of the markers were discrepant. Wing shape failed from predicting allelic temporal variation. Possibly, natural selection (Q_st>F_st) or variance of expressivity of wing phenotype are involved in this discrepancy. Other possibly influential factors on microevolution of Ae. aegypti are worth searching. Additionally, the implications of the rapid evolution and high polymorphism of this mosquito vector on the efficacy of control methods have yet to be investigated.     

Ein neuer Palaeodictyopteren-Fund aus dem westdeutschen Namurium

From the Namurian B of the Bergisches Land the oldest known remain of the Dictyoneuridae is described, namedSchmidtopteron adictyon n. g., n. sp. Present is a wing with the following characteristics: 1. shape long and slender; 2. subcosta relativly short; 3. radius nearly as long as the wing; 4. radius-sector branched off from the radius at 1/5 of the length of the wing (prox.), subdivided into 4 branches; 5. medialis subdivided also at 1/5 of the length of the wing; MEp with 2 branches; 6. cubitus subdivided at 1/10 of the length of the wing, CUp undivided; 7. anal veins 4 in number, separated each from the others in full length; at least A1 und A2 bifurcated; 8. A1 and CUp joined by a short connecting vein; 9. archaeodictyon not present. Schmidtopteron adictyon is the most primitive Namurian wing known. Its systematic position results from the structure of the only little branched veins. The absence of the archaeodictyon may be attributed to preservation: only the external mould of the upper surface of the wing is preserved. From all other genera of the Dictyoneuridae,Schmidtopteron is separated by the connection between A1 and CUp. This feature, and the relative large anal area, show thatSchmidtopteron is not the ancestor of younger Dictyoneuridae, but an early side branch of the evolution of this family.     

The ovipositor morphology in the members of the family Scathophagidae (Diptera) with reference to their biology

Relation of the ovipositor structure and the egg-laying habit with the larval biology in the family Scathophagidae was investigated. The ovipositor was examined and illustrated for 29 species including Phrosia albilabris (F.), Cordilura umbrosa (Lw.), Spathephilus breviventris (Lw.), Scathophaga stercoraria (L.), Chaetosa punctipes (Mg.), Pogonota barbata (Ztt.), Cochliarium cuneiventris (Ztt.), and Delina nigrita (Fll.). Species with different bionomics and different larval feeding tissues, i.e., different substrates for oviposition, were distinguished. Comparative morphological analysis of the author’s and literature data on 29 species belonging to 15 genera has shown the constancy of the ovipositor structure within the genera examined. Two principal types of the ovipositor structure were distinguished: (a) the elongate ovipositor with the distal position of the terminal part of the abdomen (the proctiger), this type is characteristic of phytophagous species (the delinine type); and (b) the shortened ovipositor with the proctiger shifted dorsally (the scathophagine type), this type is typical of predatory and saprophagous species. The delinine type of the ovipositor is adapted to inserting eggs into hard plant tissues. Changes in the feeding habits of the larvae were found to be associated with changes in the ovipositor structure. The dependence of the ovipositor structure on the egg-laying habit and on the larval biology enables hypothesizing biological features of those species for which the relevant data are not available yet. The morphogenesis of the ovipositor is speculated based on the data on its structure.     

Geometric morphometric analysis of the effect of temperature on wing size and shape in Aedes albopictus

Wing geometry helps to identify mosquito species, even cryptic ones. On the other hand, temperature has a well‐known effect on insect metric properties. Can such effects blur the taxonomic signal embedded in the wing? Two strains of Aedes albopictus (laboratory and field strain) were examined under three different rearing temperatures (26, 30 and 33 °C) using landmark‐ and outline‐based morphometric approaches. The wings of each experimental line were compared with Aedes aegypti. Both approaches indicated similar associations between wing size and temperature. For the laboratory strain, the wing size significantly decreased as the temperature increased. For the field strain, the largest wings were observed at the intermediate temperature. The two morphometric approaches describing shape showed different sensibilities to temperature. For both strains and sexes, the landmark‐based approach disclosed significant wing shape changes with temperature changes. The outline‐based approach showed lesser effects, detecting significant changes only in laboratory females and in field males. Despite the size and shape changes induced by temperature, the two strains of Ae. albopictus were always distinguished from Ae. aegypti. The present study confirms the lability of size. However, it also suggests that, despite environmentally‐induced variation, the architecture of the wing still provides a strong taxonomic signal.     

Geometric Morphometrics of Nine Field Isolates of Aedes aegypti with Different Resistance Levels to Lambda-Cyhalothrin and Relative Fitness of One Artificially Selected for Resistance

Aedes aegypti, a mosquito closely associated with humans, is the principal vector of dengue virus which currently infects about 400 million people worldwide. Because there is no way to prevent infection, public health policies focus on vector control; but insecticide-resistance threatens them. However, most insecticide-resistant mosquito populations exhibit fitness costs in absence of insecticides, although these costs vary. Research on components of fitness that vary with insecticide-resistance can help to develop policies for effective integrated management and control. We investigated the relationships in wing size, wing shape, and natural resistance levels to lambda-cyhalothrin of nine field isolates. Also we chose one of these isolates to select in lab for resistance to the insecticide. The main life-traits parameters were assessed to investigate the possible fitness cost and its association with wing size and shape. We found that wing shape, more than wing size, was strongly correlated with resistance levels to lambda-cyhalothrin in field isolates, but founder effects of culture in the laboratory seem to change wing shape (and also wing size) more easily than artificial selection for resistance to that insecticide. Moreover, significant fitness costs were observed in response to insecticide-resistance as proved by the diminished fecundity and survival of females in the selected line and the reversion to susceptibility in 20 generations of the non-selected line. As a practical consequence, we think, mosquito control programs could benefit from this knowledge in implementing efficient strategies to prevent the evolution of resistance. In particular, the knowledge of reversion to susceptibility is important because it can help in planning better strategies of insecticide use to keep useful the few insecticide-molecules currently available.     

External structure of postorbital organ of certain representatives of family astronesthidae (Stomiiformes)

The external structure of postorbital organ is described in detail in seven representatives of family Astronesthidae, i.e., Borostomias elucens, B. panamensis, B. mononema, B. antarcticus, Heterophorus ophistoma, Neonesthes microcephalus, and Rhadinesthes decimus. The shape, sizes, position with respect to eye, and some other features of the structure of the postorbital organ are characteristic of the species or close species. The comparison of the structure of this organ in the above-mentioned representatives of the family Astronesthidae and earlier studied species of genus Astronesthes is given.     

Review of the Palaearctic Acomopterella Zaitzev (Diptera,Sciaroidea, Mycetophilidae)

The distribution of Acomopterella species in the Palaearctic region has been re-examined in this study, using recently collected material. The European species was found to be distributed in the eastern Palaearctic as well. A second Palaearctic species from Honshu (Japan) is herein described. The morphology of adult specimens was studied by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The shape of functional specialized setae on mid tibiae in Acomopterella and seven further fungus gnat genera is described and the suitability of this character for systematic studies is discussed. Details of a “hind tibial organ” are described.The position of Acomopterella in the tribe Gnoristini is briefly discussed. Acomopterella is found to be more closely related to Speolepta Edwards, 1925, than to any other recent genus.     

The colouration toolkit of the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly,Battus philenor: thin films,papiliochromes, and melanin

The ventral hindwings of Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies, Battus philenor, display a colourful pattern, created by variously coloured wing scales. Reflectance and transmittance measurements of single scales indicate that the cream and orange scales contain papiliochrome pigments, while brown, black and blue scales contain melanin. Microspectrophotometry and scatterometry of both sides of the wing scales show that the lower lamina acts as a thin film, with reflection properties dependent on the scale’s pigmentation. Notably in the orange scales, the reflectance spectrum of the lower lamina is tuned to the pigment’s absorbance spectrum. The dorsal hindwings of the male (but not the female) B. philenor are blue-green iridescent. At oblique illumination, the light reflected by the male’s dorsal hindwings can be highly polarised, which may have a function in intersexual signalling.     

Altitudinal variation in the morphometric characteristics of Aedes vexans Meigen from northeastern Turkey

Body size is one of the most significant features of organisms and is correlated with a large number of ecological and physiological variables. Similar to size, biological shape is one of the most conspicuous aspects of an organism's phenotype and provides a link between the genotype and the environment. Body size may change with altitude and also habitat differences associated with altitude may affect the biological shape and some morphological characteristics. Four populations of Aedes vexans Meigen occurring in different ecological subregions at altitudes between 808–1,620 m in the Aras Valley from northeastern Turkey were compared using traditional and geometric morphometrics. When the wing shape differences of populations were analyzed by UPGM, the cluster analyses recognized two main groups of populations. Gödekli (808 m) comprised the first group while Zülfikar (848 m), Sürmeli (944 m), and Cilehane (1,620 m) populations comprised the second group. In the second group, Zülfikar and Cilehane populations showed a similar grouping pattern while Sürmeli appeared as a different group. Centroid sizes were used as measures of overall wing size differences among different regions. Aedes vexans from the Sürmeli region had relatively larger wings.     

The morphological variability of four species of the euphausiid genus Thysanoessa Brandt, 1851 from Kamchatkan waters

The morphological variability of four species of the euphausiid genus Thysanoessa from Kamchatka waters was studied. The neglecta form and 18 variants of the abdomen structure were found in Th. inermis. Th. raschii and Th. inermis exhibited four variants of eye shape; Th. longipes had three variants. In Th. longipes and Th. raschii, a tooth on the lateral edge of the carapace can be positioned closer to the middle. The most variable morphological features in Th. raschii were the location of a tooth on the carapace; in Th. longipes, the length of the second pair of thoracic legs and the position of a tooth on the carapace; in Th. inspinata, the length of the second pair of legs; in Th. inermis, the eye shape and the structure of the abdomen. A new key for the identification of euphausiids of the genus Thysanoessa that inhabit the Russian Far Eastern seas is proposed.     

Preliminary study of wing interference patterns (WIPs) in some species of soft scale (Hemiptera,Sternorrhyncha, Coccoidea,Coccidae)

The fore wings of scale insect males possess reduced venation compared with other insects and the homologies of remaining veins are controversial. The hind wings are reduced to hamulohalterae. When adult males are prepared using the standard methods adopted to females and nymphs, i.e. using KOH to clear the specimens, the wings become damaged or deformed, an so these structures are not usually described or illustrated in publications. The present study used dry males belonging to seven species of the family Coccidae to check the presence of stable, structural colour patterns of the wings. The visibility of the wing interference patterns (WIP), discovered in Hymenoptera and Diptera species, is affected by the way the insects display their wings against various backgrounds with different light properties. This frequently occurring taxonomically specific pattern is caused by uneven membrane thickness and hair placement, and also is stabilized and reinforced by microstructures of the wing, such as membrane corrugations and the shape of cells. The semitransparent scale insect’s fore wings possess WIPs and they are taxonomically specific. It is very possible that WIPs will be an additional and helpful trait for the identification of species, which in case of males specimens is quite difficult, because recent coccidology is based almost entirely on the morphology of adult females.     

Morphological variation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Melanargia russiae</Emphasis> (Esper, 1783) (Lepidoptera,Satyridae) from the main part of the range and in case of its expansion to the north under climate change conditions

A climate-related shift in the range boundaries of the western–central Eurasian subboreal species Melanargia russiae in the Ural region from the northern forest-steppe zone to pine–birch forests was found. Morphological variation of M. russiae wings from the boundary northern populations and populations from the main part of the range in the Urals were studied. The results of a complex analysis of the morphological traits (size, wing shape, and wing pattern eyespots) confirm the hypothesis that the local population formed in the south of Sverdlovsk oblast and contradict the hypothesis of the migratory origin of M. russiae imago.     

Phenetic structure of two Bactrocera tau cryptic species (Diptera: Tephritidae) infesting Momordica cochinchinensis (Cucurbitaceae) in Thailand and Laos

Morphometric variation with respect to wing venation patterns was explored for 777 specimens of the Bactrocera tau complex collected in Thailand (nine provinces) and Laos (one locality). Cryptic species B. tau A and C were identified based on their wing shape similarity to published reference images. In Thailand, the B. tau A species was identified in four provinces and the B. tau C species in seven provinces, and both species in one locality of Laos. The objective of the study was to explain the geographic variation of size and shape in two cryptic species collected from the same host (Momordica cochinchinensis). Although collected from the same host, the two species did not show the same morphological variance: it was higher in the B. tau A species, which currently infests a wide range of different fruit species, than in the B. tau C species, which is specific to only one fruit (M. cochinchinensis). Moreover, the two species showed a different population structure. An isolation by distance model was apparent in both sexes of species C, while it was not detected in species A. Thus, the metric differences were in apparent accordance with the known behavior of these species, either as a generalist (species A) or as a specialist (species C), and for each species our data suggested different sources of shape diversity: genetic drift for species C, variety of host plants (and probably also pest–host-relationship) for species A. In addition to these distinctions, the larger species, B. tau C, showed less sexual size and shape dimorphism. The data presented here confirm the previously established wing shape differences between the two cryptic species. Character displacement has been discussed as a possible origin of this interspecific variation. The addition of previously published data on species A from other hosts allowed the testing of the character displacement hypothesis. The hypothesis was rejected for interspecific shape differences, but was maintained for size differences.     

Studies on the female-sterile mutant rudimentary of Drosophila melanogaster,: I. An analysis of the rudimentary wing phenotype

The rudimentary wing phenotype was examined in detail, using six different alleles of rudimentary, and a number of points about the genesis of the r phenotype were made. (1) All of the r alleles in which the wings are defective produce wings in which the area of individual hair cells is reduced. The more severely affected the allele, the greater is the reduction in wing cell area. This reduction in area is probably uniform throughout the wing rather than localized to specific wing regions. (2) The total number of cells per wing is also greatly reduced in phenotypically r wings. As with cell area, the more severely affected the allele, the greater the reduction in cell number. However, the reduction in cell number is not uniform throughout the wing. In the less severely affected alleles, the cell number reduction is much greater in those regions of the wing which are drastically altered in shape (truncated), while those wing regions which show only slight size reductions but no overall shape changes have near normal numbers of cells. In the most deformed wings, there is a reduction in cell number throughout the wing, but again those regions with are severely truncated are the most drastically reduced in cell number. Measurements of the amount of chitin per wing indicated that the three most severely affected alleles had as much or more chitin than the wild type. It is suggested that overproduction of chitin in these alleles prevents normal expansion of the wing cells, thus increasing the severity of the wing defect. Finally, the validity and limitations of a quantitative measure of the r phenotype were defined. This measure was utilized to demonstrate a clear-cut effect of nutrition on the expression of the r phenotype.     

The NOTCH Locus of DROSOPHILA HYDEI: Alleles, Phenotypes and Functional Organization

The Notch (N) locus of Drosophila hydei and a series of its alleles and phenotypes are described. Some models are discussed to explain the opposite effects of some alleles on the structure of the wing, the neomorphic action of N^Ax over typical N alleles and the interaction with the mutation Costal-nick (Cnk).     

Sexual dimorphism and intraspecific variation in wing size and shape of Tongeia fischeri (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae)

Wing morphological variations are described here for the lycaenid butterfly Tongeia fischeri. A landmark‐based geometric morphometric approach based on wing venation of 197 male and 187 female butterflies collected in Japan was used to quantify wing size and shape variations between sexes and among populations. Sexual dimorphism in wing size and shape was detected. Females had significantly larger wings than males, while males showed a relatively elongated forewing with a longer apex and narrower wing tornus in comparison to females. Intraspecific variations in wing morphology among populations were revealed for the wing shape, but not wing size. Distinct wing shape differences were found in the vein intersections area around the distal part of the discal cell where median veins originated in the forewing and around the origin of the CU1 vein in the hindwing. In addition, phenotypic relationships inferred from wing shape variations grouped T. fischeri populations into three groups, reflecting the subspecies classification of the species. The spatial variability and phenotypic relationships between conspecific populations of T. fischeri detected here are generally in agreement with the previous molecular study based on mitochondrial and nuclear sequences, suggesting the presence of a phylogenetic signal in the wing shape of T. fischeri, and thus having taxonomic implications.     

A new genus and species of the cockroach family Blattulidae from Lebanese amber (Dictyoptera,Blattina)

A new genus and species of the cockroach family Blattulidae, Ocelloblattula ponomarenkoi gen. et sp. nov., are described from the Early Cretaceous Lebanese amber. In the wing venation, the new genus is extremely similar to the Jurassic genus Blattula Handlirsch, differing from the latter in a number of characters in its body structure. This find reveals much about the body structure of the extinct family Blattulidae, which is related to ancestors of the suborders Mantina and Blattina.     

Fine Structure and Life Cycle of Lankesteria clarki sp. n. (Sporozoa: Eugregarinida) Parasitic in the Mosquito Aedes sierrensis (Ludlow)

Lankesteria clarki sp. n. from the treehole mosquito, Aedes sierrensis (Ludlow) in California, is described. This species can be separated from the closely related ones, L. culicis (Ross) and L. barretti Vávra, by the totally intracellular nature of the trophozoite, the shape of the gamont, the position of the gamont nucleus and the structure and position of the residual body in the spore. Morphologic and ultrastructural investigations of gametogenesis and sporogony were conducted and the host relationship discussed. Lankesteria clarki was found in mosquitoes collected from all treeholes examined near Novato in Marin County, California and an examination of over 6,000 larvae of A. sierrensis showed an infection rate of 27.5%. The parasite is capable of destroying the midgut epithelial cells during its trophic stage and Malpighian tubule cells during gametogenesis and sporogony.