Male genitalia exhibit patterns of divergent evolution driven by sexual selection. In contrast, for many taxonomic groups, female genitalia are relatively uniform and their patterns of evolution ...remain largely unexplored. Here we quantify variation in the shape of female genitalia across onthophagine dung beetles, and use new comparative methods to contrast their rates of divergence with those of male genitalia. As expected, male genital shape has diverged more rapidly than a naturally selected trait, the foretibia. Remarkably, female genital shape has diverged nearly three times as fast as male genital shape. Our results dispel the notion that female genitalia do not show the same patterns of divergent evolution as male genitalia, and suggest that female genitalia are under sexual selection through their role in female choice.
Entomological collections are of great importance for the maintenance, knowledge and study of taxonomic and history. Few entomological collections have specimens of immature stages and this number is ...smaller when you discuss about material reared on laboratory. Coleoptera is one of the biggest insect orders with about 176 families, 29.500 genera and 386.500 species (Slipinski et al. 2011). The Neotropical Region comprises 127 families, 6.703 genera and 72.476 species. In Brazil are known 104 families, 4.351 genera and 26.755 species (Costa 2000). The Immature Coleoptera Collection of the "Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de Sao Paulo (CIC-MZUSP)" is one of the largest collections around its congeners and very representative of the Neotropical fauna. This important collection provided material for many studies involvig Coleoptera larvae including the book "Larvas de Coleoptera do Brasil" (Costa et al. 1988). Details about the history, collection methods, sampling sites, rearing method and organization of database of "CIC-MZUSP" can be found in Costa (2010). The present study aims to review the database of "CIC-MZUSP", with material verification, and subsequently set up a checklist of groups of immatures and adults contemplated in this collection. The database of that collection and the specimens itself are analyzed and revised. The preliminary analysis shows that "CIC-MZUSP" contemplates 50.617 specimens fixed in 70% ethylic alcohol and of these 20.364 are larvae, 9.607 are larval exuviae, 3.320 are pupae, 5 are pupal exuviae and 17.317 are adults. The collection includes 103 families, 471 genera and 662 species. We intend to make available to public the list of genera and species from "CIC-MZUSP" and provide means for an effective speed-up on Coleoptera Immature descriptions, conservation and understanding.
The Coleoptera collections of the Natural History Museum in London date back to the early collections of explorers such as Sir Joseph Banks, supplemented by material from famous names such as Darwin ...and Wallace, and latterly the vast collections of Victorian researchers such as David Sharp and G. C. Champion. In the 20th Century the Museum has continued to develop its collections through staff fieldwork and by a large number of acquisitions of important private collections. One of these was the collection of Coleoptera larvae assembled by Fritz Isidor van Emden (1898-1958); this was deposited in the museum on the understanding that it would form the basis of a Handbook to the Identification of the Larvae of the Families of British Coleoptera, a work started but unfortunately never finished by van Emden himself. During the past decades, the original manuscripts were extensively redrafted, rewritten and updated by several members of the Coleoptera Section staff, most importantly by P. M. Hammond and J. E. Marshall. Still, it was never brought to a ready-to-publish state. We recently inherited this task, and in the interests of discharging the Museum's responsibility to van Emden, it is our pleasure to announce that the manuscript is now almost ready for publication. It will submitted as a book to the Royal Entomological Society's Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects and will include general chapters on morphology, some interesting aspects of beetle larval ecology (hypermetamorphosis, parasitism), guidance on collecting beetle larvae and how to build and maintain a collection of larval specimens. A key is provided to the larvae of the families and major subfamilies of beetle present in the British Isles, with a short summary of morphological and ecological characteristics of each taxon discussed. The work is illustrated with hundreds of line drawings and a number of high resolution photographs of beetle larvae.
Roy A. Crowson is well known among Coleoptera systematists for the huge volume of published papers and his several books, much of which formed the foundation of the current higher-level ...classification of the order Coleoptera. Less known and largely overlooked by current researchers are the unpublished components of Crowson's legacy, most of which are now deposited in the Natural History Museum (BMNH) in London (slide mounted specimens, spirit collection of adults and larvae, spirit bulk samples, diaries, incomming correspondence, field books and unpublished manuscripts) and at Glasgow University (collection of British adult beetles, pinned material, carded morphological mounts, parts of correspondence, biographical materials and illustrations). Smaller parts are dispersed in various other museums, e.g. fossil specimens (many in the collections of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow), outgoing correspondence and type specimens of modern taxa.
Many parasites modify their host behaviour to improve their own transmission and survival, but the proximate mechanisms remain poorly understood. An original model consists of the parasitoid ...Dinocampus coccinellae and its coccinellid host, Coleomegilla maculata; during the behaviour manipulation, the parasitoid is not in contact with its host anymore. We report herein the discovery and characterization of a new RNA virus of the parasitoid (D. coccinellae paralysis virus, DcPV). Using a combination of RT-qPCR and transmission electron microscopy, we demonstrate that DcPV is stored in the oviduct of parasitoid females, replicates in parasitoid larvae and is transmitted to the host during larval development. Next, DcPV replication in the host's nervous tissue induces a severe neuropathy and antiviral immune response that correlate with the paralytic symptoms characterizing the behaviour manipulation. Remarkably, virus clearance correlates with recovery of normal coccinellid behaviour. These results provide evidence that changes in ladybeetle behaviour most likely result from DcPV replication in the cerebral ganglia rather than by manipulation by the parasitoid. This offers stimulating prospects for research on parasitic manipulation by suggesting for the first time that behaviour manipulation could be symbiont-mediated.
The ongoing exploration of biodiversity and the implementation of new molecular tools continue to unveil hitherto unknown lineages. Here, we report the discovery of three species of neotenic beetles ...for which we propose the new family Iberobaeniidae. Complete mitochondrial genomes and rRNA genes recovered Iberobaeniidae as a deep branch in Elateroidea, as sister to Lycidae (net-winged beetles). Two species of the new genus Iberobaenia, Iberobaenia minuta sp. nov. and Iberobaenia lencinai sp. nov. were found in the adult stage. In a separate incidence, a related sequence was identified in bulk samples of soil invertebrates subjected to shotgun sequencing and mitogenome assembly, which was traced to a larval voucher specimen of a third species of Iberobaenia. Iberobaenia shows characters shared with other elateroid neotenic lineages, including soft-bodiedness, the hypognathous head, reduced mouthparts with reduced labial palpomeres, and extremely small-bodied males without strengthening structures due to miniaturization. Molecular dating shows that Iberobaeniidae represents an ancient relict lineage originating in the Lower Jurassic, which possibly indicates a long history of neoteny, usually considered to be evolutionarily short-lived. The apparent endemism of Iberobaeniidae in the Mediterranean region highlights the importance of this biodiversity hotspot and the need for further species exploration even in the well-studied European continent.
The earliest known member of the family Triaplidae (Coleoptera) is described from the Babii Kamena locality (Kuznetsk Basin). The assemblage of fossil beetles found in the terminal Permian and basal ...Triassic deposits are discussed.
The ambrosia beetle-fungus farming symbiosis is more heterogeneous than previously thought. There is not one but many ambrosia symbioses. Beetle-fungus specificity is clade dependent and ranges from ...strict to promiscuous. Each new origin has evolved a new mycangium. The most common relationship with host trees is colonization of freshly dead tissues, but there are also parasites of living trees, vectors of pathogenic fungi, and beetles living in rotten trees with a wood-decay symbiont. Most of these strategies are driven by fungal metabolism whereas beetle ecology is evolutionarily more flexible. The ambrosia lifestyle facilitated a radiation of social strategies, from fungus thieves to eusocial species to communities assembled by attraction to fungal scent. Although over 95% of the symbiotic pairs are economically harmless, there are also three types of pest damage: tree pathogen inoculation, mass accumulation on susceptible hosts, and structural damage. Beetles able to colonize live tree tissues are most likely to become invasive pests.
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