Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

A New Species Of Cymatodera Gray (Coleoptera: Cleridae) From Honduras, Jacques Rifkind

Insecta Mundi

Cymatodera batleth new species (Coleoptera: Cleridae) is described from Honduras. It appears to belong to a group of Central American congeners that share similar facies and coloration, deeply emarginate elytral apices and elaborately modified male pygidia.

Heretofore ten species of Cymatodera Gray have been recorded from Honduras: C. conflagrata (Klug), C. depau­perata Gorham, C. guatemalensis Schenkling, C. prolixa (Klug), C. sallei Thomson, C. sinuosa Burke, C. rileyi Rifkind, C. crassa Burke and Sole, C. nigrofasciata Burke and Sole, and C. parva Burke which have distributions extending into neighboring Central American countries (Burke 2013; Burke et al. 2017). The known Honduran …

Center For Grassland Studies, March 2023

Center for Grassland Studies: Newsletters

Contents

New Assistant Director for The Center for Grassland Studies, David Wedin

Center for Grassland Studies Policy Advisory Committee

Director's Column by Jerry Volesky (Interim Director)

Congratulations December 2022 Graduates

New Grazing Lands Ecologist for Grassland Studies, Nic McMillan

New Administrative Associate for Grassland Studies, Ashley Branting

Apply Now for CGS Scholarships and Assistantship, https://grassland.unl.edu/grassland-systems/grazing-livestock-scholarships

New Guidelines for Reducing Eastern Redcedar in Grasslands by Dillon Fogarty

Year One Barta Brothers Ranch Collaborative Adaptive Management Update by Craig Allen

Nebraska Grazing Conference, August 8-9, 2023 by Daren Redfearn

Forty Years Reflection on Grassland Fire Weather by David Wedin

Nebraska Youth Range …

Impact Of The Dimethyl Sulfoxide Reductase Superfamily On The Evolution Of Biogeochemical Cycles, Michael Wells, Minjae Kim, Denise M. Akob, Partha Basu, John F. Stolz

UK CARES Faculty Publications

The dimethyl sulfoxide reductase (or MopB) family is a diverse assemblage of enzymes found throughout Bacteria and Archaea. Many of these enzymes are believed to have been present in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all cellular lineages. However, gaps in knowledge remain about how MopB enzymes evolved and how this diversification of functions impacted global biogeochemical cycles through geologic time. In this study, we perform maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses on manually curated comparative genomic and metagenomic data sets containing over 47,000 distinct MopB homologs. We demonstrate that these enzymes constitute a catalytically and mechanistically diverse superfamily defined not …

The Nebraska Bird Review: A Magazine Of Ornithology Of The Nebraska Region. Volume 91, Number 1. March 2023, Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union

Nebraska Bird Review

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2022 - Feb. 2023 by W. Ross Silcock

Annual Color Photo Section

Annual Treasurer's Report for 2022 by Jan Johnson

Subscription and Organization Information

2022-2023 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Sixteen counts were run in the 2022-2023 CBC season. Because of weather and rescheduling issues, the Crawford, Harrison, and Harlan County counts were cancelled. Eight of the counts were completed during the first week of the count period and the other eight were scattered throughout the remainder of the count period. An early December cold snap seemed to drive many of the birds south, but the weather on actual count days was fairly benign: mostly dry with an average high of 34˚F and an average low of 19˚F and with three circles reporting light snow. The total number of species …

The Nebraska Bird Review Annual Color Photo Section

Nebraska Bird Review

Virginia Rail and chick, Washboard Road, North Platte, Lincoln Co., 28 June 2023. Photo by Boni Edwards.

American Coot, Eagle Scout Lake, Hall Co., April 2020. Photo by Colleen Childers.

Hudsonian Godwit, Marsh Wren Community Wetlands, Lancaster Co., 21 May 2022. Photo by Kirill Belashchenko.

American Avocet, N.P. Dodge Park, Omaha, Douglas Co., 2 May 2023. Photo by Thane Dinsdale

Female Cape May Warbler, photographer's backyard, Bellevue, Sarpy Co., 10 May 2022. Photo by Loren Padelford.

Male Cape May Warbler, Ft. Niobrara NWR, Cherry Co., 13 May 2022. Photo by Gordon Warrick.

Tennessee Warbler, Fontenelle Forest Wetlands, Sarpy Co., 24 …

Lichens Of Ultramafic Rocks: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Understanding The Ecology Of An Understudied Organism In A Well-Studied System, Michael Mulroy

Master's Theses

Lichens are among the most prominent and successful life forms of metal-rich habitats, including ultramafic rocks and soils; however, research on lichens of ultramafic habitats is limited, especially on the North American continent. A review of the published literature on lichens of ultramafic substrates in North America yielded a total of 437 lichen species reported from ultramafic rocks and soils. Lichen assemblages of ultramafic substrates vary in composition and are dominated by acidophytic (low pH preferring) taxa with a minor, but consistent, basiphytic (high pH preferring) component. Species lists from ultramafic habitats in different geographic regions varied widely, suggesting that …

Biology Of Spodoptera Frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) On Rice And Different Corn Varieties, Anthony S. Agravante, Karen B. Alviar, Analiza Henedina M. Ramirez, Sheryl A. Yap

The Philippine Agricultural Scientist

Rice and corn are one of the most important crops in the Philippines. Several insect pests contribute to the losses and low yield of these crops. The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), was recently reported to cause economic damage to corn. Also, this insect consists of two genetically differentiated strains namely, the corn strain and the rice strain. This study was conducted in a laboratory conditions to evaluate the biological parameters of FAW on rice and corn varieties. Newly hatched larvae were fed such as the open pollinated variety (OPV), traditional variety, Macho F1 (hybrid), NK 6410 (genetically …

Remembering Paul Johnsgard, Linda R, Brown, Josef Kren

Zea E-Books Collection

Paul A. Johnsgard (1931–2021) was a friend of many, an artist, prolific author, teacher, and humble admirer of all living creatures. It was impossible to find someone at Nebraska Audubon Society or Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union meetings who did not know Paul Johnsgard. His more than 100 published books made him known not just in a community of ornithologists, birdwatchers, and bird lovers in the United States but also abroad. He was a world-renowned ornithologist and naturalist who remained deeply embedded in his local culture and its prairie environment.

We invited about 75 people to write a short memory of Paul. …

Prairie Dogs, Gary Witmer, Jon Grant, Kendra Cross

Wildlife Damage Management Technical Series

Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) occur throughout the prairie states of middle North America from Mexico northward into Canada. They occupy a variety of habitats from prairies to high mountain valleys and sage brush-dominated deserts. The most common species is the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus; Figure 1). Prairie dogs are considered a “keystone species.” They provide habitat for many other native, grassland species. Prairie dogs live in colonies or “towns” that can span hundreds to thousands of acres. Depending on the species, their presence is evident by their burrow system. Despite the many ecosystem benefits prairie dogs provide by modifying …

Allometry Of Bud Dynamic Pattern And Linkage Between Bud Traits And Ecological Stoichiometry Of Nitraria Tangutorum Under Fertilizer Addition, Qinghe Le, Na Duan, Chenggong Liu, Huiqing Li, Lan Xu

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Affected by the pressure and constraints of available resources, plant growth and development, as well as plant life history strategies, usually vary with environmental conditions. Plant buds play a crucial role in the life history of woody plants. Nitraria tangutorum is a common dominant woody species in desertified areas of northern China and its growth is critical to the desert ecosystem. Revealing the allometry of N. tangutorum aboveground bud fates and the linkage between bud traits and plant nutrient contents and stoichiometric ratios can be useful in understanding plant adaptation strategy. We applied seven nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer addition treatments …

Plastic Accumulation In Stormwater Pond Soils Across Socioeconomic And Watershed Development Gradients, Carley Defillips

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater runoff is a major vector transporting pollution along the land-to-sea continuum, with the mobilization of nutrient pollution in stormwater runoff being well documented. Although plastic is a pollutant of growing concern, few studies have focused on the potential role stormwater ponds play in mediating plastic transport. This study uses a combination of watershed development and socioeconomic variables to characterize plastic pollution patterns in dry stormwater ponds (those not inundated outside of times of major rainfall) at a watershed scale. Each pond basin was sampled for plastics embedded in the soil and laying on the pond surface using a systematic …

Annual Treasurer's Report For 2022, Jan Johnson

Nebraska Bird Review

No abstract provided.

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2022 - Feb. 2023, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Since this is a Winter Seasonal Report, it seems appropriate to lead off with notable reports of occurrences that might be considered unexpected for midwinter, of which there were several. A range of species was involved, suggesting an encompassing cause such as climate change. Of interest were northerly wintering groups of waterfowl including Gadwall, Green-winged Teal, Canvasback, Ringnecked Duck, and Hooded Merganser. Reports of wintering Tundra Swans, Whitewinged Doves, and Lesser Goldfinches continue to increase, and numerous Redwinged Blackbirds in the northeast in midwinter were unexpected. Also quite unexpected were two Sandhill Cranes wintering in the east, the state’s first …

Why The Delay In Recognizing Terrestrial Obligate Cave Species In The Tropics?, Francis G. Howarth

International Journal of Speleology

“Nothing could possibly live there!” They believed. Indeed, until recently, few specialized cave- adapted animals were known from volcanic, tropical, or oceanic island caves, and plausible theories had been put forward to explain their absence. But assume nothing in science! One must illuminate, explore, and survey habitats before declaring them barren. Our understanding of cave biology changed dramatically about 50 years ago following the serendipitous discovery of cave-adapted terrestrial arthropods in Brazil and on the young oceanic islands of the Galápagos and Hawai‘i. These discoveries and subsequent studies on the evolutionary ecology of cave animals have revealed a remarkable hidden …

Ambient Electromagnetic Radiation As A Predictor Of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Traffic In Linear And Non-Linear Regression: Numerical Stability, Physical Time And Energy Efficiency, Vladimir Kulyukin, Daniel Coster, Anastasiia Tkachenko, Daniel Hornberger, Aleksey V. Kulyukin

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

Since bee traffic is a contributing factor to hive health and electromagnetic radiation has a growing presence in the urban milieu, we investigate ambient electromagnetic radiation as a predictor of bee traffic in the hive’s vicinity in an urban environment. To that end, we built two multi-sensor stations and deployed them for four and a half months at a private apiary in Logan, Utah, U.S.A. to record ambient weather and electromagnetic radiation. We placed two non-invasive video loggers on two hives at the apiary to extract omnidirectional bee motion counts from videos. The time-aligned datasets were used to evaluate 200 …

Bison Influences On Composition And Diversity Of Riparian Plant Communities In Yellowstone National Park, J. Boone Kauffman, Dian Lyn Cummings, Cimarron Kauffman, Robert L. Beschta, Jeremy Brooks, Keeley Macneill, William J. Ripple

Aspen Bibliography

Riparian zones are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the Intermountain West, USA, and provide valuable ecosystem services, including high rates of biotic productivity, nutrient processing, and carbon storage. Thus, their sustainability is a high priority for land managers. Large ungulates affect composition and structure of riparian/stream ecosystems through herbivory and physical effects, via trailing and trampling. Bison (Bison bison) in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) have been characterized as "ecosystem engineers" because of their demonstrated effects on phenology, aboveground productivity of grasses, and woody vegetation structure. Bison have greatly increased in numbers during the last two decades …

Elevated Estuary Water Temperature Drives Fish Gut Dysbiosis And Increased Loads Of Pathogenic Vibrionaceae, Alessandra L. Suzzi, Michael Stat, Troy F. Gaston, Nachshon Siboni, Nathan L. R. Williams, Justin R. Seymour, Megan J. Huggett

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Marine water temperatures are increasing globally, with eastern Australian estuaries warming faster than predicted. There is growing evidence that this rapid warming of coastal waters is increasing the abundance and virulence of pathogenic members of the Vibrionaceae, posing a significant health risk to both humans and aquatic organisms. Fish disease, notably outbreaks of emerging pathogens in response to environmental perturbations such as heatwaves, have been recognised in aquaculture settings. Considerably less is known about how rising sea surface temperatures will impact the microbiology of wild fish populations, particularly those within estuarine systems that are more vulnerable to warming. We used …

Timing And Magnitude Of Drought Impacts On Carbon Uptake Across A Grassland Biome, Andrew Felton, Gregory R. Goldsmith

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Although drought is known to negatively impact grassland functioning, the timing and magnitude of these impacts within a growing season remains unresolved. Previous small-scale assessments indicate grasslands may only respond to drought during narrow periods within a year; however, large-scale assessments are now needed to uncover the general patterns and determinants of this timing. We combined remote sensing datasets of gross primary productivity and weather to assess the timing and magnitude of grassland responses to drought at 5 km² temporal resolution across two expansive ecoregions of the western US Great Plains biome: the C₄-dominated shortgrass steppe and …

A New Species Of Scorpio From Jordan (Scorpiones: Scorpionidae), Mohammad Al-Saraireh, Ersen A. Yağmur, Bassam Abu Afifeh, Zuhair Amr

Euscorpius

A new species Scorpio granulomanus sp. n. is described and illustrated from Dibbeen Forest, Jerash Governorate, Jordan. The new species is compared with the previously recorded species of the genus Scorpio L., 1758 in the Middle East; it can be distinguished from all other congeners by its very large, pointed granules on the dorsoexternal surface of the chela manus, and an untypically elongated chela manus.

Investigating The Reptilian Innate Immune System: A Review And Examination Of The Relationship Between Immunity, Stress, And Reproduction, Emily Katherine Field

Student Theses and Dissertations

Ecoimmunology examines the relationship between the physiology of an organism, its immune responses, and the external environment. As such, this field is critical to answering important questions in ecology, physiology, and evolution, and it can be vital in making policy and conservation decisions. As the only ectothermic amniotes, class Reptilia represents a group of unique study organisms. However, in comparison to other vertebrate taxa, this group has remained relatively understudied in the field of ecoimmunology. Though reptilian immunology has gained some attention in the last decade, we still lack data assessing immunity across the four orders of class Reptilia. Immune …

Standing Genetic Variation As A Potential Mechanism Of Novel Cave Phenotype Evolution In The Freshwater Isopod, Asellus Aquaticus, Lizet R. Rodas, Serban M. Sarbu, Raluca Bancila, Devon Price, Žiga Fišer, Meredith E. Protas

Natural Sciences and Mathematics | Faculty Scholarship

Novel phenotypes can come about through a variety of mechanisms including standing genetic variation from a founding population. Cave animals are an excellent system in which to study the evolution of novel phenotypes such as loss of pigmentation and eyes. Asellus aquaticus is a freshwater isopod crustacean found in Europe and has both a surface and a cave ecomorph which vary in multiple phenotypic traits. An orange eye phenotype was previously revealed by F2 crosses and backcrosses to the cave parent within two examined Slovenian cave populations. Complete loss of pigmentation, both in eye and body, is epistatic to the …

Updated List Of Intercepted Coccidae (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha) At South Korean Ports Of Entry And Potential Invasive Species To South Korea, Soo-Jung Suh

Insecta Mundi

An updated list is given of 25 species of soft scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccidae) which have been intercepted on plants imported into South Korea during the period of 1996 to 2021. Information on the num­ber of interceptions, host plants, distribution and origin of species intercepted at South Korean ports of entry is provided. In addition, data on intercepted species was analyzed to determine potential invasive species of soft scales that could threaten South Korean plants.

Soft scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) occur in all zoogeographical regions of the world. The Coccidae is the third largest family of scale insects (Hemiptera: …

New Synonyms And Records Of Costa Rican And Panamanian Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae), Ángel Solis, Bert Kohlmann

Insecta Mundi

To better understand the dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) biodiversity of Costa Rica and Panama, new synonyms, records, distributions, and updates are presented. This paper analyzes the distribution and taxonomy of Phanaeus olsoufieffi Balthasar, 1939 in Panama and establishes the following new subjective synonym: Phanaeus panamensis Moctezuma and Halffter, 2021 = Phanaeus olsoufieffi Balthasar, 1939. Color morphs of Phanaeus pyrois Bates, 1887 in Costa Rica are analyzed. The Costa Rican distribution of Onthophagus bidentatus Drapiez, 1819 and O. marginicollis Harold, 1880 is stud­ied. Onthophagus bidentatus is recorded for Costa Rica for the first time. A population analysis of barcode mtDNA, …

Una Nueva Especie De Alurnus Fabricius De La Costa Pacífica De Colombia Y Apuntes Sobre Su Biología (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae), Luis Carlos Pardo-Locarno, Luis Miguel Constantino

Insecta Mundi

Resumen. En este trabajo se describe una nueva especie de Alurnus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), A. chocoensis Pardo y Constantino, con notable coloración rojo sangre en todo el cuerpo, excepto las hembras que presentan el pronoto de color negro. La nueva especie es una plaga importante del follaje en palma de chontaduro (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) en la costa pacífica de Colombia y es un endemismo propio de las selvas lluviosas de la región biogeografica del Chocó, en el occidente de Colombia. Se presentan apuntes sobre su biología y ecología.

Abstract. In this work, a new species of Alurnus Fabricius (Coleoptera: …

Third Contribution To The Knowledge Of Arabian Onthophagini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Onthophagus Aeneopiceus D’Orbigny, 1902, A New Record For Yemen And For The Palaearctic Ecozone, Stefano Ziani, Denis Keith

Insecta Mundi

Onthophagus aeneopiceus d’Orbigny, 1902 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae: Onthophag­ini) is recorded for the first time for Yemen and for the Palaearctic region. An integration into the key to the Onthophagini from the Arabian Peninsula (Ziani et al. 2019), is provided.

After Ziani et al. (2019) and Montanaro and Ziani (2022), 30 Onthophagini species were known from the Arabian Peninsula. In this paper a 31st species is recorded: Onthophagus aeneopiceus d’Orbigny, 1902. The species, belong­ing to the 23rd group of d’Orbigny (1913) and until now known from Eastern Africa and, dubitatively, Ivory Coast (Schoolmeesters 2022), has been collected in Yemen. This is …

The False Click Beetles (Coleoptera: Elateroidea: Eucnemidae) Of The Dominican Republic. Part I: A Look Into The Past, Robert L. Otto

Insecta Mundi

Thirteen new fossil eucnemid taxa (Coleoptera: Elateroidea) are described from amber deposits excavated from the vicinity of Santiago, Dominican Republic. Two new genera, Mioxylobius and Paleo­quirsfeldia are described. The following 13 new species are described from Dominican amber: Mioxylobius bicolor, Balistica serrulata, Paleoquirsfeldia epicrana, Dyscharachthis dominicana, Idiotarsus poinari, Eurypty­chus antilliensis, Euryptychus hispaniolus, Plesiofornax caribica, Fornax dominicensis, Fornax serropalpoides, Dromaeolus argenteus, Nematodes miocenensis and Nematodes thoracicus. Each new species are both diag­nosed and illustrated. Calyptocerus Guérin-Méneville and Lissantauga Poinar are shown to be congeneic, resulting in a new …

Riverine Commons And Institute Framework Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The nonprofit Watershed Conservation Resource Center is restoring a 98-acre riparian wetland landscape near downtown Fayetteville as a River Commons and Institute. The Framework Plan combines watershed restoration with architecture and urban design to house a river education center, a visitor interpretive center, walking trails, passive recreation facilities including bird watching and canoeing, and outdoor heritage exhibitions. The Plan operates at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, and design in developing a lasting and robust riverine knowledge fund across space and time.

Dominant Ecological Processes And Plant Functional Strategies Change During The Succession Of A Subtropical Forest, Taotao Han, Hai Ren, Dafeng Hui, Yanpeng Zhu, Hongfang Lu, Qingfeng Guo, Jun Wang

Biology Faculty Research

Understanding community assembly process could enhance forest conservation and restoration, while which dominant ecological process drives the community assembly during forest succession is still controversial. In this study, the phylogeny-based and functional trait-based indicators were used to investigate the community assembly processes during forest succession in southern China. 30 dominant species and 33 functional trait indicators related to plant competition, reproduction, and defense strategies, 7 environmental factors related to light availability and soil nutrients, and species richness were selected to explore the dominant ecological processes during succession via Monte Carlo method, structural equation model, multiple linear regression, and one-way …

Blanding’S Turtle (Emydoidea Blandingii): Species Conservation Assessment, Melissa J. Panella, Colleen Rothe-Groleau

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: Publications

The primary goal in 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 Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) as a Tier 1 at-risk species. Some general management recommendations are made here regarding Blanding’s turtles; however, conservation practitioners will need to use professional judgment to make specific management decisions based on objectives, location, and a multitude of variables. This resource was designed to share available knowledge of this at-risk turtle that will aid in the decision-making …