Zoology Commons^™

Tripletail Lobotes Surinamensis Neurocranium, Briana K. Zaffiro, Anna Johnson, David Kerstetter

All Scans: Kerstetter Fisheries and Avian Ecology 3D Scan Series

Neurocranium from Lobotes surinamensis

First Report Of Intraguild Predation In Scorpions (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Turkey, Şahin Toprak, Rıdvan Kurt, Ersen A. Yağmur

Euscorpius

Scorpions are predators of a wide range of invertebrates even including other scorpions. Larger species commonly prey on smaller species or juveniles. Here, we report three cases of intraguild predation of Mesobuthus mesopotamicus (Penther, 1912) and Compsobuthus matthiesseni (Birula, 1905) by Hottentotta saulcyi (Simon, 1880) (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in Şırnak Province, Turkey. These are the first cases reporting antagonistic interactions among scorpions in Turkey.

Lionfish (Pterois Volitans) Neurocranium, Vincenzo Ledonne, David William Kerstetter

All Scans: Kerstetter Fisheries and Avian Ecology 3D Scan Series

Neurocranium from 7.3025 cm total length (TL) [Lionfish (Pterois volitans)]

A Field Synopsis, Systematic Review, And Meta-Analyses Of Cophylogenetic Studies: What Is Affecting Congruence Between Phylogenies?, Valeria Trivellone, Bernd Panassiti

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

We conducted a field synopsis and systematic meta-analysis of studies that carried out cophylogenetic analyses using algorithms and available software. We evaluated the influence of three factors—namely, cophylogenetic method, association, and ecosystem type—on the outcome of the analyses, that is, the degree of congruence between phylogenies of interacting species.

The published papers were identified using 4 different databases and 13 keywords; we included all studies for which statistical approaches to compare phylogenies (cophylogenetic analyses) of interacting lineages were used. After the initial screening, 296 studies were selected to extract response variable (outcome of the cophylogenetic analyses, i.e., congruent, incongruent, or …

Orthochirus Katerinae Sp. N. (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Saudi Arabia, František Kovařík, Pavel Just

Euscorpius

We describe a new species Orthochirus katerinae sp. n. from Saudi Arabia, previously cited as Orthochirus innesi Simon 1910, ssp. ?, the name many years used as an ‘umbrella’ for various Orthochirus from North Africa and Arabia. The new species is described based on males characterized mainly by: total length 26–30 mm; pectinal teeth number 16–20; movable finger of pedipalps with 7–8 rows of denticles, 8–9 ID and 7 OD; tarsomere I of legs I–III with 3–5 long setae; ratio length/width of metasoma V 1.13–1.16; pedipalp femur length/width ratio 3.30–3.32.

The First Complete Genome Of The Simian Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Brasilianum, Marko Bajic, Shashidhar Ravishankar, Mili Sheth, Lori A. Rowe, M. Andreina Pacheco, Dhruviben S. Patel, Dhwani Batra, Vladimir Loparev, Christian Olsen, Ananias A. Escalante, Fredrik Vannberg, Venkatachalam Udhayakumar, John W. Barnwell, Eldin Talundzic

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Naturally occurring human infections by zoonotic Plasmodium species have been documented for P. knowlesi, P. cynomolgi, P. simium, P. simiovale, P. inui, P. inui-like, P. coatneyi, and P. brasilianum. Accurate detection of each species is complicated by their morphological similarities with other Plasmodium species. PCR-based assays offer a solution but require prior knowledge of adequate genomic targets that can distinguish the species. While whole genomes have been published for P. knowlesi, P. cynomolgi, P. simium, and P. inui, no complete genome for P. brasilianum has …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Umatilla Megomphix (Megomphix Lutarius), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Umatilla megomphix (Megomphix lutarius) using NatureServe methodology, 2022.

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Columbia Torrent Salamander (Rhyacotriton Kezeri), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Columbia torrent salamander (Rhyacotriton kezeri) using NatureServe methodology, 2022.

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Southern Torrent Salamander (Rhyacotriton Variegatus), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state rank assessment for Southern torrent salamander (Rhyacotriton variegatus) following NatureServe methodology, 2022.

A Novel Vaccine Candidate Against Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (Rhdv2) Confers Protection In Domestic Rabbits, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth, Bethany Cominsky, Stephanie Porter, J. Jeffrey Root, Amber Schueler, Gary Anderson, Sara Vanderwal, Andy Benson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

OBJECTIVE To evaluate efficacy of a novel vaccine against rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2) in domestic rabbits.

ANIMALS 40 New Zealand White rabbits obtained from a commercial breeder.

PROCEDURES Rabbits were vaccinated and held at the production facility for the duration of the vaccination phase and transferred to Colorado State University for challenge with RHDV2. Rabbits were challenged with oral suspensions containing infectious virus and monitored for clinical disease for up to 10 days. Rabbits that died or were euthanized following infection were necropsied, and livers were evaluated for viral RNA via RT-PCR.

RESULTS None of the vaccinated animals …

The Stockholm Paradigm: Lessons For The Emerging Infectious Disease Crisis, Daniel R. Brooks, Walter A. Boeger, Eric P. Hoberg

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

The emerging infectious disease (EID) crisis represents an immediate existential threat to modern humanity. Current policies aimed at coping with the EID crisis are ineffective and unsustainably expensive. They have failed because they are based on a scientific paradigm that produced the parasite paradox. The Stockholm paradigm (SP) resolves the paradox by integrating four elements of evolutionary biology: ecological fitting, sloppy fitness space, coevolution, and responses to environmental perturbations. It explains why and how the EID crisis occurs and is expanding and what happens after an EID emerges that sets the stage for future EIDs. The SP provides a number …

The Dama Protocol, An Introduction: Finding Pathogens Before They Find Us, Eric P. Hoberg, Walter A. Boeger, Orsolya Molnár, Gábor Földvári, Scott L. Gardner, Alicia Juarrero, Vitaliy A. Kharchenko, Eloy Ortiz, Wolfgang Preiser, Valeria Trivellone, Daniel R. Brooks

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

Globally, humanity is coming to recognize the magnitude of the interactive crisis for emerging infectious disease (EID). Strategies for coping with EID have been largely in the form of reactive measures for crisis response. The DAMA protocol (Document, Assess, Monitor, Act), the operational policy extension of the Stockholm paradigm, constitutes a preventive/proactive dimension to those efforts. DAMA is aimed at focusing and extending human and material resources devoted to coping with the accelerating wave of EID. DAMA is integrative, combining efforts to strategically document the distribution of complex pathogen and host assemblages in the biosphere in the context of dynamic …

Searching For The Soldier Pheromone: Behavioral Effects Of Soldiers And Soldier-Produced Chemicals In The Formosan Subterranean Termite, Coptotermes Formosanus (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae)), Joseph Mccarthy

LSU Master's Theses

The Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus, is a eusocial insect and an invasive urban pest. Colonies function through a division of labor among castes (i.e., queens and kings, workers, and soldiers). Though soldiers are energetically expensive to maintain, C. formosanus has a relatively large soldier caste (~10% of the colony). Soldiers are physically unable to collect food or build tunnels but are regularly found with foraging workers. In some species, soldiers influence the worker foraging behavior. In C. formosanus, aside from defense, the roles soldiers play remains unknown. In this study, we determined if soldiers influence …

Exceptional Larval Morphology Of Nine Species Of The Anastrepha Mucronota Species Group (Diptera: Tephritidae), Erick J. Rodriguez, Gary J. Steck, Matthew R. Moore, Allen L. Norrbom, Jessica Diaz, Louis A. Somma, Raul Ruiz-Arce, Bruce D. Sutton, Norma Nolazco, Alies Muller, Marc A. Branham

Papers in Evolution

Anastrepha is the most diverse and economically important genus of Tephritidae in the American tropics and subtropics. The striking morphology of the third instars of Anastrepha caballeroi Norrbom, Anastrepha crebra Stone, Anastrepha haplacantha Norrbom & Korytkowski, Anastrepha korytkowskii Norrbom, Anastrepha nolazcoae Norrbom & Korytkowski, and three newly discovered and as yet formally unnamed species (Anastrepha sp. Peru-82, Anastrepha sp. nr. protuberans, and Anastrepha sp. Sur-16), and the more typical morphology of Anastrepha aphelocentema Stone, are described using light and scanning electron microscopy. To contribute to a better understanding of the interspecific and intraspecific variation among species in the mucronota …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Subscription And Organization Information (December 2022)

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Inc., as its official journal, and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $25 in the United States and $35 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $7 each, postpaid, in the United States and $9 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Anita Breckbill, NOU Librarian, c/o Music Library, WMB 30, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0101 (or at the email address listed below).

Memberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year basis only): Active …

Fall Field Report, August-November 2022, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

All in all, this was a fairly uneventful fall season, although even uneventful seasons have their share of oddities and variations from the norm. A noteworthy event was a fire that took out much of the brushy habitat in Carter Canyon, Scotts Bluff Co (see photo on following page). It will be interesting to read upcoming spring reports to see what effect the fire might have had on numbers of birds that frequent brushy areas, like towhees and buntings. Optimistically, fires have attracted rare woodpeckers, with first to arrive Black-backed, which would be a first documented Nebraska record, and typically …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Cascades Frog (Rana Cascadae), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Cascades frog (Rana cascadae) using NatureServe methodology, 2022.

Reproductive Traits And Change In Body Shape Of Neonates In The Oak Forest Skink, Plestiodon Lynxe, Manuel Feria-Ortiz, Uri Omar García-Vázquez, Carlos Joaquín Pavón-Vázquez, Adrián Nieto-Montes De Oca

Publications and Research

Reproductive traits are critically important for understanding how organisms adapt to their respective environments. In this study, we provide information on relative litter mass (RLM) and other litter and neonate related characters of nine female Plestiodon lynxe captured in the field. We also recorded seven body dimensions in 16 neonates and 15 two-month juveniles, and on the basis of these dimensions we compared the body shape of these two age classes to detect changes in the proportions of body parts. The average litter size (4.55) is larger than that found in other viviparous species of Plestiodon, but smaller than …

The 3p Framework: A Comprehensive Approach To Coping With The Emerging Infectious Disease Crisis, Orsolya Molnár, Eric Hoberg, Valeria Trivellone, Gábor Földvári, Daniel R. Brooks

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest example of the profound socioeconomic impact of the emerging infectious disease (EID) crisis. Current health security measures are based on a failed evolutionary paradigm that presumes EID is rare and cannot be predicted because emergence requires the prior evolution of novel genetic capacities for colonizing a new host. Consequently, crisis response through preparation for previously emerged diseases and palliation following outbreaks have been the only health security options, which have become unsustainably expensive and unsuccessful. The Stockholm paradigm (SP) is an alternative evolutionary framework that suggests host changes are the result of changing conditions …

Oregon State Rank Assessment For White-Footed Vole (Arborimus Albipes), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for white-footed vole (Arborimus albipes) using NatureServe methodology, 2022.

Oregon State Rank Assessment For Red Tree Vole (Arborimus Longicaudus), Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Oregon state conservation status assessment for Red tree vole (Arborimus longicaudus) using NatureServe methodology, 2022.

Forest Cover And Geographic Distance Influence Fine-Scale Genetic Structure Of Leaf-Toed Geckos In The Tropical Dry Forests Of Western Mexico, Connor M. French, Casey-Tyler Berezin, Isaac Overcast, Fausto R. Méndez De La Cruz, Saptarsi Basu, Roberto Lhemish Martínez Bernal, Robert W. Murphy, Michael J. Hickerson, Christopher Blair

Publications and Research

The biodiversity within tropical dry forests (TDFs) is astounding and yet poorly catalogued due to inadequate sampling and the presence of cryptic species. In the Mexican TDF, endemic species are common, and the landscape has been continually altered by geological and anthropogenic changes. To understand how landscape and environmental variables have shaped the population structure of endemic species, we studied the recently described species of leaf-toed gecko, Phyllodactylus benedettii, in coastal western Mexico. Using double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing data, we first explore population structure and estimate the number of ancestral populations. The results indicate a high degree of …

Reanalysis Of The Yunnan Population Of Scorpiops Kubani With A Description Of A New Species, Scorpiops Lowei Sp. N. (Scorpiones: Scorpiopidae), Victoria Tang

Euscorpius

The Yunnan population of Scorpiops kubani (Kovařík, 2004) is reassessed based on recently collected specimens from this region. A misidentification of that species is revealed, which leads to a description of a new species, Scorpiops lowei sp. n.

Morphometric And Molecular Characterization Of An Unpigmented Haemosporidian Parasite In The Neotropical Turnip-Tailed Gecko (Thecadactylus Rapicauda), Nubia E. Matta, Leydy P. González, Mario Vargas-Ramírez, Gediminas Valkiūnas, Ananias A. Escalante, M. Andreína Pacheco

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Morphological traits from blood stages have been the gold standard for determining haemosporidian parasite species. However, the status of some taxa and the value of such traits in parasites from reptiles remain contentious. The scarce sampling of these species worsens the situation, and several taxa lack molecular data. A survey was performed in the Magdalena Department in Colombia, where 16 species of reptiles were captured. A peculiar haemosporidian parasite was found in the Turnip-tailed gecko Thecadactylus rapicauda. This haemosporidian does not show malarial pigment in blood stages under light microscopy; thus, it fits the Garnia genus’s characters belonging to …

A New Species Of Scorpiops Peters, 1861 From Yunnan Province, China, With A Preliminary Review Of Its Congeners In Yunnan (Scorpiones: Scorpiopidae), Victoria Tang

Euscorpius

A new species of Scorpiops Peters, 1861, Scorpiops tongtongi sp. n., is described from Yingjiang, Yunnan Province, China, based on a single adult female. The morphology of the new species is fairly distinguishable from other congeners in Yunnan even with unaided eye; it is characterized by the following combination of characters in female: a pair of moderately robust pedipalp chelae without proximal lobes, small median ocular tubercle, short superciliary carinae, less granulated tergites, proportionally elongate metasoma and relatively short and bulbous vesicle. The coloration of the new species also differs from other congeners in Yunnan by being brownish in …

Orb-Weaver Diversity And Niche Partitioning In Ecuador’S Amazonian Foothills: What Spiders Can Reveal About Tree Fall Gaps, Streams, And Cultivated Areas, Riley Endries

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As abundant predators at the top of arthropod food chains, spiders are excellent bioindicators. Araneae is a megadiverse and extremely understudied order, especially in the tropics. This study aims to investigate the diversity of orb-weaver spiders across a disturbance gradient and variety of habitat types as well as their microhabitat preferences and potential niche partitioning. Spider collection was performed on spiders of the families Araneidae, Tetragnathidae, and Theridiosomatidae in Sumak Kawsay in Situ biological reserve in the lower elevation cloud forest of Ecuador’s Andean foothills. Spiders and webs were observed and analyzed from primary and secondary forest tree fall gaps, …

Arthropod Assemblages At The Intersection Of Epiphyte And Soil Habitats: An Assessment Of Understory Level Nonvascular Epiphyte Communities And Their Connectivity Within A Tropical Montane Rainforest, David “Max” Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Canopy arthropods communities represent a disproportionate amount of global species richness (Stuntz 2001). Understanding arthropod composition and connectivity of lower epiphyte communities is important in understanding how canopy arthropods communities are formed and will respond to change (Floren and Linsenmair 1998). As such this study examined arthropod assemblages living within nonvascular epiphyte communities (epiphyte mats) living directly upon lower trunk regions of 24 trees in a tropical montane rain forest within the Santa Lucia Nature Reserve in Pichincha, Ecuador. Trees were assessed for size, epiphyte diversity, and epiphyte coverage before arthropod sampling within the epiphyte mats. Soil assessments were taken …

Tree To Tree: Phylogenetics Of Diverse Anura Using Portable Lab Equipment: Primer Optimization, Bioinformatic Pipeline, And Phylogenetic Analyses Reveal Potential New Species And Ability To Identify Evolutionary Relationships In A Hyper Diverse Anura Clade Using Nanopore Sequencing, Elinor Sterner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Corredor Llanganates-Sangay is an extremely significant region for conservation, coined a “gift to the earth” by the World Wildlife Fund. Understanding amphibians species and populations is key due to their roles as hyper sensitive bioindicators. In recent years, portable sequencing equipment (Mini PCR thermocyclers, Oxford Nanopore Technology’s MinION sequencer, etc) make genetic data collection in remote areas possible, greatly increasing potential for conservation genetics and genomics. This study uses portable equipment to sequence two mitochondrial loci in 104 Anuran samples collected in four sites in the Corridor and presents phylogenies of each gene as well as a concatenated phylogeny. …

Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus Horridus): A Species Conservation Assessment For The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project, Melissa J. Panella, Dan Fogell, Colleen Rothe-Groleau

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Publications

The primary goal in the development of at-risk species conservation assessments is to compile biological and ecological information that may assist conservation practitioners in making decisions regarding the conservation of species of interest. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project recognizes the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) as a Tier 1 at-risk species. Provided here are general management recommendations regarding timber rattlesnakes. Conservation practitioners will need to use their professional judgment for management decisions based on objectives, location, and site-specific conditions. Based on the body of literature and available data, this species conservation assessment provides an overview of our current knowledge of timber …

[Tilapia (Oreochromis)] Neurocranium, Kaylee J. Czachorowski, Mackenzie S. Magyar, Haley Minne, David William Kerstetter

All Scans: Kerstetter Fisheries and Avian Ecology 3D Scan Series

Neurocranium [Oreochromis] by Kaylee Czachorowski, Haley Minne, Mackenzie Magyar