Genetic divergence and the Pleistocene history of the alpine butterflies Boloria improba (Nymphalidae) and the endangered Boloria acrocnema (Nymphalidae) in western North America

1992 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh B. Britten ◽  
Peter F. Brussard

Allozymes were assayed at 20 presumptive loci in increasingly isolated populations of alpine butterflies in the Boloria improba species-group including the endangered Boloria acrocnema. Populations of this Holarctic group were sampled along the Rocky Mountain Cordillera from the Yukon Territory to Colorado. Samples from a more widely distributed and generalist butterfly, Boloria titania, were assayed at 18 presumptive loci for comparative purposes. Estimates of heterozygosity, percent polymorphic loci, mean number of alleles per locus, genetic identity, and distribution of regional and private alleles indicated that the current distribution of butterflies in the B. improba group is the result of a vicariance event. During the last Wisconsin glacial maximum (20 000 to 18 000 years BP) the range of ancestral B. improba was split into Alaskan refugial populations and southern glacial-margin populations. Subsequent dispersal into an ice-free corridor 12 000 to 10 000 years BP from the Alaskan refugial populations gave rise to British Columbia and Alberta B. improba populations. Results from B. titania support these findings.

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven R. Manchester ◽  
Tatyana M. Kodrul

ABSTRACT Morphology and anatomy of the extinct angiosperm fruit, Porosia verrucosa (Lesqueruex) Hickey, are documented in detail based on various modes of preservation including molds, casts, and permineralizations from more than seventy localities in the late Cretaceous and Paleocene. The fruits are schizocarpic with paired unilocular, single-seeded mericarps seated on a prominent gynophore with an hypogynous perianth borne on a long pedicel. The most distinctive feature of these fruits is the regularly spaced cylindrical intrusions over the surface of the endocarp. These are interpreted to represent oil cavities similar to those common in the fruits of extant Rutaceae. The oldest known occurrences of P. verrucosa are from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian to Maastrichtian) of western North America, but the genus traversed Beringia and became widespread in the Paleocene both in Asia (Kazakhstan, Amur Region, and Koryak Highlands), and North America (Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Alberta, Saskatchewan). It extended to the late Paleocene in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains region, and appears to have become extinct near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary.


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4272 (4) ◽  
pp. 551
Author(s):  
ROY A. NORTON ◽  
SERGEY G. ERMILOV

Based on the study of type material, other historical specimens, and new collections, the adult of the thelytokous oribatid mite Oribata curva Ewing, 1907 (Galumnidae) is redescribed and the name is recombined to Trichogalumna curva (Ewing, 1907) comb. nov. A confusing history of synonymies and misidentifications is traced in detail, and their effect on published statements about biogeography is assessed. Reliable records of T. curva are only those from North America. The tropical mite Pergalumna ventralis (Willmann, 1932) is not a subspecies of T. curva. The widely-reported Trichogalumna nipponica (Aoki, 1966) and other similar species form a complex with T. curva that needs further morphological and molecular assessment. 


2013 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 1512-1522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooks E. Miner ◽  
Roland A. Knapp ◽  
John K. Colbourne ◽  
Michael E. Pfrender

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Chapco ◽  
G. Litzenberger

The mysterious extinction of the Rocky Mountain Grasshopper, Melanoplus spretus, a major pest species on the prairies and plains of the 1800s, is truly a remarkable event in the history of agriculture. Recently, we obtained specimens of M. spretus from museums and from 400-year-old glacial deposits in Wyoming. We report success in obtaining mitochondrial DNA sequences from both sources. This permitted us to examine two issues surrounding the species’ disappearance. First, a long-standing view that M. spretus and the extant species Melanoplus sanguinipes are (if not phase transforms of one another) sister taxa, is disputed, but cannot be rejected with certainty. Interestingly, there is some evidence that suggests there may be a closer affinity with another member of the Mexicanus species-group, Melanoplus bruneri. Second, because M. spretus still possesses considerable nucleotide diversity (1.15 ± 0.19%), a depletion of variation cannot be considered a factor contributing to its demise.


1969 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 382-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Rice

AbstractEnoclerus barri Knull occurs in western North America from British Columbia south to Mexico and throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Adults were collected at Grass Valley, Calif., from May to September at traps baited with beetle attractants. Collections occurred at temperatures ranging from 22.5° to 31 °C; the sex ratio of trapped beetles was 4.5 females to 1 male. Duration of life cycle stages at 24 ± 2 °C were: egg, 9 days; larva, first iastar, 14 days; second instar, 12 days; third instar feeding stage, 14 days. All larvae reared to third instar failed to pupate in the laboratory. Adult females of unknown age when collected lived from 10 to 131 days and produced an average of 389 eggs per female. Enoclerus barri utilized six species of Scolytidae as hosts in the laboratory.


1999 ◽  
Vol 77 (9) ◽  
pp. 1429-1438 ◽  
Author(s):  
M A Jost ◽  
J Hamr ◽  
I Filion ◽  
F F Mallory

A study of two herds of Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) introduced into the French River - Burwash regions of Ontario in the 1940s was undertaken to assess forage selection and availability. Studies in western North America have shown that the diets of elk vary seasonally, spatially, and in response to forage availability, palatability, plant phenology, plant species diversity, and habitat type. These studies have concluded that grasses, browse, and forbs were preferred forage items and that indigenous grass was used most. In an attempt to obtain a more detailed understanding of forage use in relation to habitat type, selection and availability of forage in ridge, mixed-forest, and grassland habitats was analyzed by tracking elk during a 2-year period. More than 1000 forage occasions were recorded from approximately 60 animals. It was hypothesized that Rocky Mountain elk in the French River - Burwash region would select forage species similar to those found in western North America. The results of this study support the following conclusions: (i) elk in the French River - Burwash regions of Ontario use ridge, mixed-forest, and grassland habitats for foraging; (ii) most forage consumed by elk in this region is woody species, grasses, or forbs, common in mixed-forest habitats; (iii) open grasslands increased forage diversity minimally and appeared to be the least important for foraging; (iv) uncultivated grasslands dominated by Old World agricultural gaminoid species, such as timothy (Phleum pratense), quack grass (Elymus repens), wire grass (Poa compressa), and redtop (Agrostis gigantea), or by indigenous graminoid species, such as white-grained mountain rice (Oryzopsis asperifolia), Canada blue joint (Calamagrostis canadensis), poverty oat grass (Danthonia spicata), and (or) fringed brome grass (Bromus ciliatus), may provide little nutritional support for elk in this region; (v) habitats containing large amounts of willow (Salix spp.), red maple (Acer rubrum), and common hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa) provide a significant forage base for elk in the Great Lakes - St. Lawrence ectone; and (vi) relocated Rocky Mountain elk in Ontario use forage classes similar to those utilized by elk in western North America; however, woody browse is the dominant forage used.


1980 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cuny

AbstractThe genus Eudasyphora Townsend 1911 is resurrected from junior synonymy and recognized with the genera Dasyphora Robineau-Desvoidy 1830 and Pyrellia Robineau-Desvoidy 1830. Rypellia Malloch 1932 is a subgenus of Eudasyphora, but Dasypyrellia Lobanov 1976 is reported as synonym novum. A key to the species of Eudasyphora is presented. Two new species are described: E. cordilleriana n. sp. from western North America, and E. canadiana n. sp. from northern North America. The phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis led to the following conclusions: Eudasyphora became separated from its sister genus Pyrellia before the beginning of the Pleistocene glaciations. The Rypellia line evolved further in the Oriental Region, whereas the Eudasyphora s. str. line developed in the Holarctic Region. Speciation in both subgenera is correlated with the history of the forest vegetation during the Pleistocene.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4927 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57
Author(s):  
BRADLEY J. SINCLAIR ◽  
SCOTT E. BROOKS ◽  
JEFFREY M. CUMMING

The Empis (Enoplempis) mira species group is revised and includes the type species of Enoplempis and four new species (E. macdonaldi sp. nov., E. submira sp. nov., E. williamturneri sp. nov., E. winkleri sp. nov.). A lectotype is designated for Enoplempis mira Bigot. The species group is defined by the yellow body colour, directionally asymmetrical male hindlegs and geniculate hindlegs in both males and females. The group has not been found outside of western North America and is known from California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington. 


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