scholarly journals Species and ecomorphological differentiation of genus Arvicola (Mammalia) in Eastern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (21) ◽  
pp. 54-83
Author(s):  
Igor Zagorodniuk ◽  

The genus Arvicola is represented in the fauna of Eastern Europe by several taxa and ecological races of semi-species and subspecies rank. Morphological data indicate the taxonomic homogeneity of lowland amphibious forms and a high level of differentiation of some mountain fossorial forms. Analysis of variation of morphometric characters shows a substantial hiatus for the Carpathian form of Arvicola, considered as A. scherman, as well as the absence of sufficient differentiation among other forms such as in lowland water voles from different parts of Ukraine or in mountain forms from the Northern Caucasus. Morphological features of the Carpathian taxon (A. scherman gutsulius) are stable compared to other mountain water vole populations from Europe and its substantial differences from the Caucasian form, which is very close to the lowland A. amphibius, do not support the idea of the ‘effect of mountains’ in the formation of small fossorial forms of Arvicola. The Carpathian Arvicola differs from all of the studied lowland forms in both morphometric and craniometric characters, which are important in the taxonomy and diagnostics of water voles (coefficient of divergence in body and skull dimensions reach CD = 4...5 ϭ. The mountain water vole (A. scherman) is characterized by a number of paedomorphic features that should be recognized as an ancestral state (plesiomorpy), whereas the European water vole (A. amphibius) is considered as an evolutionary advanced and gerontomorphic form. These two species are allopatric and the border between their distribution ranges coincide with the geographic limits of lowland and mountain faunal assemblages. Evidence for the recognition of the mountain fossorial form as either a separate species or an ecological race of the lowland species is considered. The fossorial A. scherman can be included to the group chosaricus–mosbachensis, but it remains unclear whether it should be considered an ancestral form in the evolution of the lowland A. amphibius or as an example of recapitulation of characters due to secondary transition to fossorial lifestyle. A comparison of different geographic forms of Arvicola suggests that the formation of the group took place in piedmont–mountainous areas of Europe, whereas the forms distributed further east are probably derived from the European ones.

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iryna Bednarska ◽  
Igor Kostikov ◽  
Andrii Tarieiev ◽  
Vaclovas Stukonis

AbstractUntil recently,Festuca arietinawas practically an unknown species in the flora of Eastern Europe. Such a situation can be treated as a consequence of insufficient studying ofFestuca valesiacagroup species in Eastern Europe and misinterpretation of the volume of some taxa. As a result of a complex study ofF. arietinapopulations from the territory of Ukraine (including the material fromlocus classicus), Belarus and Lithuania, original anatomy, morphology and molecular data were obtained. These data confirmed the taxonomical status ofF. arietinaas a separate species. Eleven morphological and 12 anatomical characters, ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 cluster of nuclear ribosomal genes, as well as the models of secondary structure of ITS1 and ITS2 transcripts were studied in this approach. It was found for the first time thatF. arietinais hexaploid (6x = 42), which is distinguished from all the other narrow-leaved fescues by specific leaf anatomy as well as in ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences. Molecular data indicating possible hybridogenous origin ofF. arietina, fall in line with the anatomical-morphological data and explain the tendency toward sclerenchyma strands fusion with formation of a continuous ring inF. arietina, as well asF. arietinaecological confinement to psammophyte biotopes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-316
Author(s):  
M.A. Chursina ◽  
I.Ya. Grichanov

The recent catalogues of the family Dolichopodidae considered Syntormon pallipes (Fabricius, 1794) and S. pseudospicatus Strobl, 1899 as separate species. In this study, we used three approaches to estimate the significance of differences between the two species: molecular analysis (COI and 12S rRNA sequences), analysis of leg colour characters and geometric morphometric analysis of wing shape. The morphological data confirmed the absence of significant differences between S. pallipes and S. pseudospicatus found in the DNA analysis. Significant differences in the wing shape of two species have not been revealed. Hence, according to our data, there is no reason to consider S. pseudospicatus as a distinct species.


2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
T. Cherkashyna

Using level of income inequality, the clustering of post-communist countries of the Central and Eastern Europe is carried out by the following indicators: Gini index, share in the national income of the second quintile group, share in the national income of the third quintile group, share in the national income of the fourth quintile group, share in the national income of 10% of the poorest, share in the national income of 20% of the richest.,Сluster analysis (k-means method), in the programming environment Statistica is used as analysis tool and five clusters are obtained. The first cluster includes 8 countries (Albania, Hungary, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Сroatia, Russia, Slovakia) is characterized by sufficiently low level of income inequality and can be explained by flow of foreign investment and business transnationalization contributing to the increase of incomes of the main population groups of these countries. The second cluster includes 4 countries (Belarus, Slovenia, Ukraine, Moldova) and is characterized by comparatively low level of income inequality, but high level of property inequality due to heredity, аccumulated wealth та concentration of physical and financial capital by so called «oligarchic clans». The third cluster includes 5 countries (Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia) and is characterized by medium level of income inequality. The fourth and fifth clusters include so called «Baltic tigers» (Latvia, Lihuania, Estonia) and is characterized by high level of income inequality as the result of the occurrence of «excess profits» of financial assets owners. In order to decrease the income inequality in the investigated countries, the following measures are proposed: for the countries of the first cluster to accelerate deconcentration of capital ownership by «spaying» (redemption) of privatized enterprises shares by all categories on preferential terms (so called «ESOP programs»); for the countries of the second cluster to implement progressive tax scale where the tax rate for different groups of population vary depending on the income received and citizens with the lowest incomes (at the level of subsistence minimum or minimum wage) do not pay individual taxes at all; for the countries of the third cluster to cope with «shadow» economy and informal unemployment; for the counties of the fourth and fifth clusters to decrease tax burden on private entrepreneurs and thus stimulate self-employment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
Irina Anatol’evna Sorokopud

Data on fauna of gamasina mites parasitizing on small mammals are provided in article. Data are obtained during long-term monitoring of an ecological complex of small mammals of a natural and territorial complex Samarskaya Luka, which is realized since 1999. Also data on fauna of gamasina mites in 14 years of researches (2000-2003, 2005, 2007-2015 years), including literary data about the gamasina mites of this territory, are generalized and analysed. Specific accessory of 7439 individuals of mites, seven childbirth of three families relating to fifteen types is defined. Parasitizing the gamasina mites on 16 species of small mammals, including groups rodents, soricomorpha, carnivora (least weasel) is established. Domination of separate species of mites is revealed, so to eudominant Laelaps hilaris and Hirstionyssus isabellinus are belong, dominants are - Hirstionyssus ellobii , Haemolaelaps glasgowi , Hyperlaelaps arvalis , L. agilis . Myonyssus rossicus , L. algericus , Haemogamasus ambulans and Hirstionyssus macedonicus were extremely rare species met in single copies. For the first time for this territory types of H. ellobii , L. micromydis , H. ambulans , H. macedonicus are noted. Conclusions on degree of a confinedness of parasites to certain types of hosts are drawn. Monohostal types: L. agilis (the host - a yellow-necked mouse), L. muris (the host - a tundra vole and a water vole), L. micromydis (the host - a small mouse), L. algericus (the host - a house mouse), H. arvalis (the host - a tundra vole and a water vole), H. ellobii (the host - a northern mole vole). Polihostal: H. musculi , L. hilaris , H. isabellinus , H. glasgowi , E. stabularis , H. nidi .


Author(s):  
Stanislav V. Zlyvko ◽  
Valerii A. Bortniak ◽  
Kateryna V. Bortniak ◽  
Iryna P. Storozhuk ◽  
Roman Z. Holobutovskyy

The objective of the article was to analyze the legal regulation of the decentralization reform in Eastern Europe and its impact on the unemployment rate. Methodologically, statistical analysis, hypothetical-deductive method and correlation were used. It was found that the first stage of the reform of the New Civil Service in Poland, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, and Bulgaria began in 1990, but can be called an informal preparatory stage. It is determined that the process of implementation of administrative reforms is influenced by a series of factors: historical, economic, geographical. It is concluded that there is no positive correlation between the effectiveness of public administration and the effectiveness of local self-government in all the countries studied. The reform of decentralization has been shown to have a negative impact on employment. In addition, it found that Poland is the most stable country among those studied, with a high level of efficiency of local self-government. La more negative correlation between the efficiency index of local self-government and employment, and the most positive correlation between local and unemployment rate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (9) ◽  
pp. 1045-1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Campbell ◽  
Drazen Babic ◽  
Uros Bolcina ◽  
Lea Smirčić-Duvnjak ◽  
Tsvetalina Tankova ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-188
Author(s):  
E. Dzika

AbstractOctomacrum europaeum (Monogenea: Octomacridae) was collected, for the first time in north-eastern Europe, from the gills of spirlin (Alburnoides bipunctatus). Morphometric characters were compared with those of other populations and conform to the original description of the species.


Nematology ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 529-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Fonderie ◽  
Hanne Steel ◽  
Tom Moens ◽  
Wim Bert

Although molecular techniques are revolutionising nematode taxonomy, morphological data still form the basis of nematode species descriptions. However, morphological characters show a natural variability that should be taken into account before describing new species. The current study presents the results of an elaborate morphometric study of Halicephalobus cf. gingivalis, including 15 measurements and 13 indices of 540 specimens, the progeny of a single parthenogenetic female and cultured under different temperature and food conditions and measured in different adult age groups, i.e., young adults with a developed vulva but before the onset of oviposition, adults laying eggs, and old, post-reproductive adults near the end of their life cycle. The morphometric characters were analysed using both univariate (analysis of variance) and multivariate (principal components and canonical discriminant analysis) techniques. The main results reveal that the morphometric characters most used in Halicephalobus identification keys have a huge variability within a single progeny, e.g., body length 1.9 times longer than the shortest or ratio VA/tail length 3.9 times larger than the smallest. This variability has a magnitude that has not been observed in nematodes before. Further, by changing the environmental factors, the morphometric characters are influenced to an extent that one could assign – with seemingly ‘statistical support’ – different ‘species’ of the genus to different subpopulations. With this experimental study we provide convincing elements to advocate an integrative taxonomic approach and to discourage the description of new species based only on morphometric differences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Zdislava Dvořáková ◽  
Petra Hlásná Čepková ◽  
Iva Viehmannová ◽  
Lenka Havlíčková ◽  
Dagmar Janovská

In this study, the genetic diversity and relationships among eight millet genera were investigated by molecular and morphological data analyses. Sixty-nine millet accessions were analysed by using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, and evaluated for morphological traits. Eight AFLP primer pairs were amplified successfully and 779 bands were scored for all accessions, with a high level of polymorphism detected. Nei’s genetic distance among all accessions varied from 0.0123 to 0.4246 and the Shannon’s index was estimated at 0.9708. The neighbour joining tree, using the unweighted neighbour-joining method and Dice’s dissimilarity coefficient, was constructed. The AFLP markers revealed the close relatedness between the Eragrostis and Panicum genera, whereas the greatest distance was found the Pennisetum and Echinochloa genera. Cluster analysis based on the AFLP profiles revealed that the majority of accessions of a given millet genus tend to group together. Clustering from morphological data allocated individuals into three main clusters with high variation. The genetic variability found between the analysed accessions was weakly negatively correlated (r = –0.074) with their morphological attributes. However, high molecular and morphological variability indicated that this collection includes rich and valuable plant materials for millet breeding.


2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1893) ◽  
pp. 20181632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin M. D. Beck ◽  
Charles Baillie

Phylogenies of mammals based on morphological data continue to show several major areas of conflict with the current consensus view of their relationships, which is based largely on molecular data. This raises doubts as to whether current morphological character sets are able to accurately resolve mammal relationships. We tested this under a hypothetical ‘best case scenario’ by using ancestral state reconstruction (under both maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood) to infer the morphologies of fossil ancestors for all clades present in a recent comprehensive DNA sequence-based phylogeny of mammals, and then seeing what effect the subsequent inclusion of these predicted ancestors had on unconstrained phylogenetic analyses of morphological data. We found that this resulted in topologies that are highly congruent with the current consensus phylogeny, at least when the predicted ancestors are assumed to be well preserved and densely sampled. Most strikingly, several analyses recovered the monophyly of clades that have never been found in previous morphology-only studies, such as Afrotheria and Laurasiatheria. Our results suggest that, at least in principle, improvements in the fossil record—specifically the discovery of fossil taxa that preserve the ancestral or near-ancestral morphologies of the nodes in the current consensus—may be sufficient to largely reconcile morphological and molecular estimates of mammal phylogeny, even using current morphological character sets.


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