Phylogeography of the California mountain kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata (Colubridae)

The phylogeography of the California mountain kingsnake, Lampropeltis zonata, was studied using mitochondrial DNA sequences from specimens belonging to the seven recognized subspecies and collected throughout the range of the species. Maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods identified a basal split within L. zonata that corresponds to southern and northern segments of its distribution. The southern clade is composed of populations from southern California (USA) and northern Baja California, Mexico. The northern clade is divided into two subclades, a 'coastal' subclade, consisting of populations from the central coast of California and the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern California, and a 'northeastern' subclade, mainly comprised of populations north of the San Francisco Bay and from the majority of the Sierra Nevada. We suggest that past inland seaways in southwestern California and the embayment of central California constituted barriers to gene flow that resulted in the two deepest divergences within L. zonata. Throughout its evolutionary history, the northern clade apparently has undergone instances of range contraction, isolation, differentiation, and then expansion and secondary contact. Examination of colour pattern variation in 321 living and preserved specimens indicated that the two main colour pattern characters used to define the subspecies of L. zonata are so variable that they cannot be reliably used to differentiate taxonomic units within this complex, which calls into question the recognition of seven geographical races of this snake.     

A comparison of the dance language in<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Apis mellifera carnica</Emphasis> and<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Apis florea</Emphasis> reveals striking similarities

Honeybees have a dance language by which successful foragers inform nestmates about attractive food patches. The classical concept of dialects in the dance language of honeybees points to two differences in the dances by different species and races, firstly in the flight distance at which the dancers start performing waggle dances instead of round dances, and secondly in the circuit duration of the waggle dance performed for a given flight distance. However, recent findings have indicated that the dance language is influenced and affected by a number of parameters, both genetic and environmental. The current study was carried out to see whether the distance at which dancers change from round dances to waggle dances is statistically different in two different species, Apis mellifera carnica and A. florea and to develop a set of definitions for such comparative studies. Results show that the two species do not differ in the relative proportion of waggle dances and round dances performed at a given distance. Thus, this study points to the need of addressing the dialect question again.     

New approaches in hominoid taxonomy: morphometrics

We report here on new cranial data relevant to hominoid taxonomic analyses, based on a study of 438 skulls belonging to 13 nonhuman living hominoid taxa. Nineteen landmarks were selected to describe the overall shape of the maxillofacial complex, in order to investigate its discriminative power in taxonomic analyses. We used a geometric morphometrics approach to depict morphological variation from the genus down to the subspecific level, and we evaluated whether our morphologic criteria are relevant to discriminating species and subspecies among living hominoids. Considering previous genetic studies, we discuss whether our results can be extrapolated to the hominin fossil record, providing a reference for species and subspecies morphologic differentiation. Our results indicate that the relative warp method, as applied to facial landmarks, provides a powerful tool to discriminate taxa down to a subspecific level. Results show a noticeable divergence of P. t. verus compared to P. t. troglodytes and P. t. schweinfurthii. According to our data, the distance between eastern and western gorilla populations as well as between Bornean and Sumatran orangutan subspecies is as great as between the two species of Pan. In the same manner, differences between Hylobates and Symphalangus are similar to those between Pan and Gorilla genera. Congruence between the morphological distances computed in this study and previous morphological and genetical studies strongly supports their relevance for morphological species recognition in paleoanthropology. Our data provide an objective standard for assessing taxonomic differences among hominoids, and will enable us to define more precisely the significance of morphological differences in the fossil record.     

The influence of hybridization between African and European honeybees, Apis mellifera, on asymmetries in wing size and shape

Abstract We examined the possible role of hybridization in the invasion process of the African honeybee by testing two hypotheses regarding fluctuating asymmetry (FA), a measure of developmental stability, in wing characteristics: (1) FA should be higher in hybrid versus parental genotypes of African and European races; (2) FA should be lower in African bees compared to hybrid and European workers. Parental and reciprocal hybrid worker genotypes were cross fostered in common-hive rearing environments. We did not find greater FA for wing size and shape in the hybrids compared to both parental types. However, we did find significantly lower FA of shape in the African workers compared to the European and hybrid workers, suggesting that European bees and their hybrids may have compromised fitness relative to African bees. We also found that the two hybrid genotypes significantly differed in overall wing size and shape. If these differences affect wing aerodynamics, then the paternity of hybrids may influence worker performance and could potentially contribute to the loss of European matrilines. Hybridization had few consistent effects on directional asymmetry for wing size and shape. Genotypic factors played a far greater role in determining the effect of hybridization on wing morphology than did differences in rearing environment. Thus, African bees may have lower FA for wing shape (and by inference greater developmental stability) relative to European and hybrid workers, which may contribute to the ability of African bees to displace European honeybee races in invaded regions.     

A technical note for using microsatellite DNA analyses in haploid male DNA pools of social Hymenoptera

Summary The analyses of haploid male DNA pooled (MDP) samples can increase the cost efficiency in population genetic studies for a variety of applications in fundamental and applied screening of social Hymenoptera populations. Depending on the research problem addressed it can reduce the number of genotyped samples per study by orders of magnitude. In this study we show the feasibility of MDPs for assessing population allele frequencies, mother queen genotypes and mutation rates for microsatellite loci in the honeybee (Apis mellifera). The main purpose of MDP genotyping is not to replace individual based analyses but to discard non-informative samples and monomorphic loci from further analyses.     

Phylogenetics, genome diversity and origin of modern leopard, Panthera pardus

Leopards, Panthera pardus, are widely distributed across southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The extent and phylogeographic patterns of molecular genetic diversity were addressed in a survey of 77 leopards from known geographical locales representing 13 of the 27 classical trinomial subspecies. Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences (727 bp of NADH5 and control region) and 25 polymorphic microsatellite loci revealed abundant diversity that could be partitioned into a minimum of nine discrete populations, tentatively named here as revised subspecies: P. pardus pardus, P. p. nimr, P. p. saxicolor, P. p. fusca, P. p. kotiya, P. p. delacouri, P. p. japonensis, P. p. orientalis and P. p. melas. However, because of limited sampling of African populations, this may be an underestimate of modern phylogeographic population structure. Combined phylogeographic and population diversity estimates support an origin for modern leopard lineages 470,000-825,000 years ago in Africa followed by their migration into and across Asia more recently (170,000-300,000 years ago). Recent demographic reductions likely have led to genetic impoverishment in P. p. orientalis and in the island subspecies P. p. kotiya.     

Nuclear DNA PCR-RFLPs that distinguish African and European honey bee groups of subspecies. II: Conversion of long PCR markers to standard PCR

Nuclear DNA PCR-RFLPs previously found in amplifications of three long (>5 kbp) anonymous regions of DNA were made analyzable using standard PCR procedures. RFLP analyses were simplified by restricting the amplifications to sections, within each locus, that contained most of the informative polymorphic sites. AluI digests of locus L-1 section 2 (L-1S2) revealed three suballeles of which one was African-specific (Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier) and one was east European-predominant (A. m. ligustica Spinola, A. m. carnica Pollman, and A. m. caucasica Gorbachev). Alleles found originally at locus L-2 with Avawere determined in RFLP analysis of two sections, L-2S1int and L-2S2, resulting in two African-specific and two east European-predominant suballeles. Suballele identity was determined by the combination of banding patterns from both fragments. revealed by HaeIII in locus L-2 were analyzed in amplifications and digests of L-2S1int, an 830 bp fragment within L-2S1. Seven suballeles were found of which two were African-specific and three were east European-specific or predominant, including one suballele specific to the east European subspecies A. m. caucasica. In locus L-5, RFLPs were detected with HaeIII, DdeI, and SpeI. HaeIII polymorphisms were analyzed by amplification and digestion of fragments L-5S1xt and L-5S1ter. Five suballeles were found of which three were African-specific and one east European-predominant. For DdeI, all five alleles originally found with long PCR could be identified in RFLP analyses of three sections. Two African-specific, one east European-specific, and one west European-predominant (A. m. mellifera L. and A. m. iberica Goetze) suballeles were found. A west European-predominant suballele was also found in RFLP analysis of L-5S3 with SpeI. Allele frequency data from Old World and U.S. populations are presented.     

“Spraying” Behavior During Queen Competition in Honey Bees

In honey bees (Apis mellifera), virgin queens may eject a liquid substance from their abdomens while they are engaged in fatal combat. We investigated the functional significance of spraying behavior by staging queen duels within colonies housed in observation hives. Spraying occurred in 39.7% of all interactions between rival queens and was recorded in 12 of 15 duels. Workers were highly attracted to the surfaces and individuals contaminated by spraying, forming tight clusters with hundreds of bees in which movement was severely restricted. One or both queens in a pair became immobilized by the workers in 37.5 and 29.2% of all spraying events, respectively, but the queens were never killed by the workers. Conversely, a mobile queen penetrated the worker aggregation and stung an immobilized queen in one-third of the observed bouts. Thus spraying may serve as a fighting tactic by virgin queens to increase their chances of winning by temporarily immobilizing their rivals.     

Free amino acids in the haemolymph of honey bee queens (Apis mellifera L.)

In queen honey bees the free amino acid content in the haemolymph clearly depends on the physiological function and social environment of the individual. While in drones and workers the content of free amino acids increases after emergence until it reaches a peak in 5-day-old animals and decreases afterwards, the amino acid content in queens reaches its highest level (>60 nmol/ microl haemolymph) with the onset of egg laying (10 d of age). This level is about 2.5 times more than the highest level found in workers. Queens maintain this high level also when they are older (>30 d) and continue to lay eggs in average colonies. As in drones and workers, in queens the predominant amino acid is proline, which accounts for more than 50% of the total content of free amino acids in egg-laying individuals. When 10-day-old queens are prevented from mating and do not lay eggs, their amino acid content is significantly lower compared to laying queens of the same age. Also the social environment influences the contents of free amino acids in queens. When virgin queens were kept for 6 days with 20 worker bees and sufficient honey and pollen in an incubator, they had significantly lower concentrations of amino acids than virgin queens living for the same period with about 8000 workers in a colony. Most probably, the high amino acid concentration in the haemolymph is the basis for the high protein synthesis activity of laying queens.     

Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the polytypic North American rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta): a critique of the subspecies concept

Subspecies have been considered artificial subdivisions of species, pattern classes, or incipient species. However, with more data and modern phylogenetic techniques, some subspecies may be found to represent true species. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the polytypic snake, Elaphe obsoleta, yields well-supported clades that do not conform to any of the currently accepted subspecies. Complete nucleotide sequences of the cytochrome b gene and the mitochondrial control region produced robust maximum-parsimony and maximum-likelihood trees that do not differ statistically. Both trees were significantly shorter than a most parsimonious tree in which each subspecies was constrained to be monophyletic. Thus, the subspecies of E. obsoleta do not represent distinct genetic lineages. Instead, the evidence points to three well-supported mitochondrial DNA clades confined to particular geographic areas in the eastern United States. This research underscores the potential problems of recognizing subspecies based on one or a few characters.