WHY DO PARASITIC CUCKOOS HAVE SMALL BRAINS? INSIGHTS FROM EVOLUTIONARY SEQUENCE ANALYSES

Brain size is under many opposing selection pressures. Estimating their relative influence and reconstructing the brain's evolutionary history have, however, proved difficult. Here, we confirm the suggestion that the brain of brood parasitic cuckoos is smaller in relation to their body weight than that of nonparasitic cuckoo species. Two hypotheses explaining reductions in brain size are tested, using phylogenetically controlled correlations and evolutionary pathway analyses. In a novel approach, the pathway models are combined to build the most likely evolutionary sequence of trait changes correlating with changes in brain size. Brain size changed before brood parasitism, followed by a shift toward less-productive habitats and an increase in migration. This sequence shows that brain size was not reduced as a consequence of a loss of cognitive skills related to chick provisioning, and it offers no support for the hypothesis that an increase in energetic demands or a reduction in energy availability selected for a reduction of brain size. Instead, the sequence suggests that the reduction in energetic demands due to the smaller brain size and parasitic breeding strategy may have enabled parasitic cuckoos to colonize new niches.     

DO IMAGE-FORMING EYES PROMOTE EVOLUTIONARY DIVERSIFICATION?

It has been suggested that image-forming eyes promote the evolutionary diversification (measured by species richness) of the groups that possess them. Several different processes could give rise to this effect, including diversifying selection in a new adaptive zone (or zones) and a reduced rate of extinction due to enhanced competitive abilities. I tested the generality of the hypothesis that imaging eyes increase net speciation by comparing extant species numbers of 12 groups that have such eyes (as categorized by Land and Fernald 1992) with those of their cladistic sister groups that lack such organs. Even assuming the published hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships that most favor increased net speciation of visual groups, these comparisons show no significant association between imaging eyes and species richness. Increased activity, as indicated by published accounts of locomotory speed, is significantly associated with the evolution of image-forming eyes. This suggests that a large “visual adaptive zone” might be characterized by relatively high activity. However, when diversity comparisons are limited to eight cases in which the evolution of imaging eyes is associated with increased activity, there is still no significant association between such eyes and species richness. The fossil record indicates that the only visual groups that have undergone major evolutionary radiations evolved imaging eyes early in the history of metazoans (before the Silurian). The radiations of these early groups may have largely filled up niches for visual animals and thus prevented the subsequent proliferation of other groups with image-forming eyes. Alternatively, it may be that image-forming eyes have no exceptional effect on diversification or that their effects are obscured by other factors in the long run.     

A STUDY OF THE GENUS POLΥOMMATUS LATREILLE (LEPIDOPTERA, LYCAENIDAE) FROM CHANGBAI MOUNTAINS,WITH A NEWLY RECORDED SPECIES FROM CHINA

记述长白山区眼灰蝶属4种,其中兹眼灰蝶Polyommatus tsvetaevi (Kurentzov,1970)为中国新纪录种,编制分种检索表,提供成虫照片和外生殖器特征图.因阿眼灰蝶Polyommatus amanda和酷眼灰蝶Polyommatus semiargus在长白山的亚种名均为amurensis,因此,amurensis Tutt,1909就成为amurensis(Staudinger,1892)的次同名,需要提出替代名Polyommatus semiargus changbaishanensis nom.nov.     

RECONNECTING CELL AND ANIMAL LINEAGES: WHAT DO CELL LINEAGES TELL US ABOUT THE EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRALIA?

Cell lineage studies in the clade Eutrochozoa, and especially the Spiralia, remains a rich and relatively untapped source for understanding broad evolutionary developmental problems; including (1) the utility of cell timing formation for phylogenetic hypotheses; (2) the evolution of cell timing changes and its relation to heterochronic patterns; (3) stereotypy or lack thereof in rates of change of cell growth during evolution and its relation to both evolutionary history and current usage; and (4) how mosaic cleavage timing variation may be expected to differ from other groups. A compilation of available cell timing information was made from previous studies where each division was explicitly followed and the total number of cells followed was greater than 24. From that compilation, we performed a series of heuristic and quantitative analyses, including a phylogenetic analysis using cell timing data as characters and analyses of timing variation across all taxa. Our results show that: (1) cell lineage data reconstructs a phylogenetic hypothesis that has similarities, especially among the Mollusca. to the patterns found in morphological and molecular analyses; (2) the mesentoblast (4d) is a unique cell compared to other cell in that it speeds up and slows down relative to other cells in taxa with both unequal and equal cell sizes; (3) some cells that form in the same quartet at the same point in the cell lineage hierarchy have much lower variations than analogous other cells, arguing for architectural constraint or stabilizing selection acting on those cells; and (4) although variation in cell timing generally increases during development, timing of formation of progeny cells in the first quartet has lower variation than the parent cells, arguing that some regulation-like behavior might be present.     

POSTMENOPAUSAL MOTHERHOOD: IMMORAL,ILLEGAL? A CASE STUDY

The paper explores the ethics of post-menopausal motherhood by looking at the case of Adriana Iliescu, the oldest woman ever to have given birth (so far). To this end, I will approach the three most common objections brought against the mother and/or against the team of healthcare professionals who made it happen: the age of the mother, the fact that she is single, the appropriateness of her motivation and of that of the medical team.     

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE HERITABILITY OF DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY? ANSWERS FROM A BAYESIAN MODEL

In spite of over half a century of research, little is known about the genetic basis of developmental instability (DI). The estimation of the heritability of DI is seriously hampered by the fact that fluctuating asymmetry-FA, that is, the observable outcome of DI-only poorly reflects DI. This results in an underestimation of the heritability of DI. Current methods transforming heritabilities in FA into those of DI fail to take all sources of variation into account and yield incorrect confidence bands that are usually based on unrealistic assumptions. Therefore, a Bayesian latent variable model is developed and explored. Simulations show that with sample sizes currently applied in empirical studies, extremely wide posterior distributions are obtained and data do not allow to distinguish between high (0.5) and low (0.1) heritabilities of DI at all. Even sample sizes of 5000 result in very wide posteriors in many cases. Furthermore, for smaller samples (250 and 1250), up to 70% of the estimates of the heritability of DI were below the mean expected value because of the high skewness of its distribution. Knowing that in only one study, sample sizes were above 5000, there is a need for larger studies to evaluate the evolutionary potential of DI. Designs with relatively low numbers of sires (1-2% of total number of offspring) appear most efficient. Because such high sample sizes are hard to obtain for many study organisms, more insights are required about how data from different traits can be combined in a single analysis. In addition, new designs and methods, such as QTL analyses and micro-array techniques, should be applied to gain a better understanding of the genetic basis of DI.     

PERSPECTIVE: FROM MUTANTS TO MECHANISMS? ASSESSING THE CANDIDATE GENE PARADIGM IN EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

The generation of mutants in model organisms by geneticists and developmental biologists over the last century has occasionally produced phenotypes that are startlingly reminiscent of those seen in other species. Such extreme mutations have generally been dismissed by evolutionary geneticists since the "modern synthesis" as irrelevant to adaptation and speciation. But only in recent years has information on the molecular bases of mutant phenotypes become widely available, and thus work on testing the relevance of such extreme mutations to the generation of phylogenetic diversity has just begun. Here we evaluate whether evolutionary mimics are, in fact, useful for pinpointing the genetic differences that distinguish morphological variants generated during evolution. Examples come from both plants and animals, and range from intraspecific to interordinal taxonomic ranges. The use of mutationally defined candidate genes to predict evolutionary mechanisms has so far been most fruitful in explaining intraspecific variants, where it has been effective in both plants and animals. In several cases these efforts were facilitated or supported by parallel results from quantitative trait loci studies, in which natural alleles controlling continuous variation in developmental model organisms were mapped to mutationally defined genes. However, despite these successes the approach's utility seems to rapidly decay as a function of phylogenetic distance. This suggests that the divergence of developmental genetic systems is great even in closely related organisms and may become intractable at larger distances. We discuss this result in the context of what it teaches us about development, the future prospects of the candidate gene approach, and the historical debate over process in micro- and macroevolution.     

A NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS HETEROTERMES FROM YUNNAN,CHINA(ISOPTERA:RHINOTERMITIDAE)

In recent years,only one species of the genus Heterotermes from Yunnanwas described by Tsai et Huang(1977),Heterotermes aculabialis(Tsaiet Huang).In April 1982,a new species was collected by one of the authorsfrom Simao,southern area of Yunnan.This new species named in honor ofDr.Yin Wenying.She is a famous entomologist in China. Heterotermes yinae,Zhu,Huang et Li,nov.sp.     

A NEW SPECIES OF THE FRESH-WATER GENUS NOTODROMAS (OSTRACODA) FROM HEILONGJIANG, NORTHEAST CHINA

The new ostracode Notodromas sinensis from a pool near Daqing City, Heilongjiang, Northeast China, is described. A full account of the morphology of this species is given in order to elucidate the terminology used in such studies. Attention is drawn to features that are regarded as important in the classification of freshwater ostracodes.     

A NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS EUCHORTHIPPUS TARB.FROM CHINA(ORTHOPTERA:ACRIDIDAE)

A new species Euchorthippus fusigeniculatus, collected from Changbai Mountains, Jilin Province has been described and illustrated. This new species is allied to Eu. cheui Hsia, but differs from the latter in: 1) lateral carinae of the pronotum weakly incurved in the prozona, 2) the hind femora with dark knees, 3) the sides of supra-anal plate in the male with brown carinae.     

A NEW SPECIES OF THE GENUS SINOCΥCLOCHEILUS (CYPRINIFORMES, CYPRINIDAE) FROM GUANGXI, CHINA

2011年7月,在中国广西隆林县天生桥镇红水河水系一洞穴采集到2尾标本.经鉴定为金线鲃属Sinocyclocheilus 1新种,曲背金线鲃Sinocyclocheilns flexuosdorsalis sp.nov..新种背鳍分支鳍条8根,头背部交界处隆起,具前突状结构,并向下贴近顶骨.吻较长.这些特征可与属内其他种相区别.     

A NEW GENUS AND THREE NEW SPECIES OF DIASPIDAE FROM CHINA

In the course of studying the fauna of Coccoidea of China, three new species of Diaspididae were found, they belong to three genera, of which one is new to science, and another two new to China. This paper will be devoted to describing and figuring