Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

The Evolution Of A Response To Smoke Within The Arthropoda, Adam Miles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Many animals have a survival instinct to flee in response to fire, but do they respond to smoke alone? Many arthropods respond to fire or smoke by moving in the opposite direction (a negative taxis) to obtain shelter. At the species level, taxa that have adapted a behavioral response to fire increase their fitness. This response behavior has been observed in many terrestrial arthropods. Still, the behavior is currently unknown for marine, aquatic, or cave arthropods, which are atypically exposed to smoke or fire. This project assesses how often behavioral adaptation to smoke avoidance may have evolved within Arthropoda. Twenty-two …

A Phylogenetic Analysis Of Bostrichoidea (Coleoptera) And Revisions Of The Southern African Spider Beetle Genera Meziomorphum And Eutaphroptinus (Ptinidae: Coleoptera), Olivia M. Gearner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Proposals for the internal relationships and classification of the bostrichoids are currently poorly supported, and almost all are based on morphology alone. This study improves upon on previous phylogenetic analyses of the group by including more taxa using the standard genes for many phylogenetic analyses. Cytochrome C oxidase subunit 1 (CO1), 28S small subunit rRNA, and 16S small subunit rRNA mitochondrial genes were sequenced or obtained from Genbank, then analyzed using parsimony and Bayesian analyses. Topologies differed depending on genes used. A three gene tree and a two gene (28S and CO1) tree both supported relationships in which a basal …

Review Of The Sub-Saharan Africa Species Of Dignomus And Phylogenetic Analysis Of The Bostrichoids (Coleoptera: Bostrichoidea: Ptinidae), Amelia Lesbeth Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nine described species of Dignomus Wollaston, 1862. Study and dissection of specimens has led me to the hypothesis that there are nine undocumented species in this region. Descriptions and images of the new species are presented and discussed, along with a compiled list of all described species from the Sub- Saharan region. The probable biology as geographic distributions for members of the genus are also given.

Additionally, a phylogenetic analysis of 95 species of bostrichoids using CO1 molecular data was done with a focus on the origins of Dignomus and Pseudomezium. parsimony and bayesian analyses …

"Introduction" (To Alfred Russel Wallace; An Anthology Of His Shorter Writings), Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.