scholarly journals A Description and Examination of Fluorescence in Nine North American Firefly Species (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Aidan Wilcox

Fluorescence across the family Lampyridae has been documented sporadically but not comprehensively in formal research. Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), best known for their bioluminescence, are also fluorescent. This fluorescence has been documented in several genera within the clade but is still an often overlooked aspect of firefly physiology in the common understanding of the species. To this end, the purpose of this study was to document and describe the fluorescence in nine species of North American fireflies, across three genera. Each species was photographed and a description of the fluorescent pattern was provided, as well as measurements of the specific spectral sensitivity of the fluorescent excitation and emission wavelengths. These data are intended to provide an identification guide of sorts to different firefly fluorescence, as well as documenting definitively its presence in several firefly genera.

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-88
Author(s):  
CHARLOTTE M PORTER

A curious error affects the names of three North American clupeids—the Alewife, American Shad, and Menhaden. The Alewife was first described by the British-born American architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1799, just two years after what is generally acknowledged as the earliest description of any ichthyological species published in the United States. Latrobe also described the ‘fish louse’, the common isopod parasite of the Alewife, with the new name, Oniscus praegustator. Expressing an enthusiasm for American independence typical of his generation, Latrobe humorously proposed the name Clupea tyrannus for the Alewife because the fish, like all tyrants, had parasites or hangers-on.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 17374-17379
Author(s):  
W.G.D. Chathuranga ◽  
K. Kariyawasam ◽  
Anslem De Silva ◽  
W.A.Priyanka P. De Silva

We investigated the impact of dipteran predators on eggs in foam nests of the Common Hour-glass Tree Frog Polypedates cruciger Blyth, 1852 (Anura: Rhacophoridae) in central Sri Lanka.  Foam nests (n=24) of P. cruciger were examined at their natural breeding habitats and infected (n=8) and uninfected spawns (n=16) were identified.  Emerging tadpoles were collected in a water container hung under each spawn and the average number of tadpoles (N) hatched from infected spawns (N=0) was compared with that of uninfected spawns (N=354 ± 67).  Three severely infected spawns were brought to the laboratory and the fly larvae were reared until they metamorphosed to adults.  Morphological and molecular identification of the flies confirmed them as belonging to Caiusa testacea Senior-White, 1923 of the family Calliphoridae.  The infected spawns were completely destroyed and an estimated average of 400 P. cruciger eggs per spawn were lost.  The results revealed a high impact of Caiusa testacea on egg and embryo mortality of P. cruciger.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
pp. 1835
Author(s):  
Antonio Barrera ◽  
Patricia Román-Román ◽  
Francisco Torres-Ruiz

A joint and unified vision of stochastic diffusion models associated with the family of hyperbolastic curves is presented. The motivation behind this approach stems from the fact that all hyperbolastic curves verify a linear differential equation of the Malthusian type. By virtue of this, and by adding a multiplicative noise to said ordinary differential equation, a diffusion process may be associated with each curve whose mean function is said curve. The inference in the resulting processes is presented jointly, as well as the strategies developed to obtain the initial solutions necessary for the numerical resolution of the system of equations resulting from the application of the maximum likelihood method. The common perspective presented is especially useful for the implementation of the necessary procedures for fitting the models to real data. Some examples based on simulated data support the suitability of the development described in the present paper.


1991 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian M. Smith

AbstractMorphological, life history, and distributional data are presented for North American species of the subgenus Stygomomonia (sensu stricto) Szalay, 1943. Adults of the seven previously recognized species are redescribed, and deutonymphs of five of these species are described for the first time. Two species, S. (s.s.) neomexicana Cook and S. (s.s.) occidentalis Cook are substantially revised on the basis of an examination of the types and extensive series of newly collected specimens. Three new species are described, S. (s.s.) californiensis on the basis of deutonymphs and adults, and S. (s.s.) imamurai and S. (s.s.) cooki on the basis of adults. A new diagnosis of the subgenus is proposed and discussed, the relationships of the various species are discussed, and a key to deutonymphs and adults of North American species is presented. New distributional data are presented for all species, and dispersal patterns from Pleistocene refugia are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Clucas

The Animadversiones in Elementorum Philosophiae by a little known Flemish scholar G. Moranus, published in Brussels in 1655 was an early European response to Hobbes’s De Corpore. Although it is has been referred to by various Hobbes scholars, such as Noel Malcolm, Doug Jesseph, and Alexander Bird it has been little studied. Previous scholarship has tended to focus on the mathematical criticisms of André Tacquet which Moranus included in the form of a letter in his volume. Moranus’s philosophical objections to Hobbes’s natural philosophy offer a fascinating picture of the critical reception of Hobbes’s work by a religious writer trained in the late Scholastic tradition. Moranus’s opening criticism clearly shows that he is unhappy with Hobbes’s exclusion of the divine and the immaterial from natural philosophy. He asks what authority Hobbes has for breaking with the common understanding of philosophy, as defined by Cicero ‘the knowledge of things human and divine’. He also offers natural philosophical and theological criticisms of Hobbes for overlooking the generation of things involved in the Creation. He also attacks the natural philosophical underpinning of Hobbes’s civil philosophy. In this paper I look at a number of philosophical topics which Moranus criticised in Hobbes’s work, including his mechanical psychology, his theory of imaginary space, his use of the concept of accidents, his blurring of the distinction between the human being and the animal, and his theories of motion. Moranus’s criticisms, which are a mixture of philosophical and theological objections, gives us some clear indications of what made Hobbes’ natural philosophy controversial amongst his contemporaries, and sheds new light on the early continental reception of Hobbes’s work.


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