Comparison of human and faunal enamel isotopes reveals diverse paleodiet and exchange patterns at the highland Maya Site of Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala

This study provides an isotopic examination of both human and animal paleodiets and mobility patterns at a highland Maya community. Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, was a large Prehispanic center located in a distinctly cooler, drier setting compared with the majority of Maya sites in the surrounding lowlands. Previous archaeological research at Kaminaljuyu revealed it played an important political and economic role in the Maya region, assisting in the obsidian trade network and maintaining ties with communities as far away as Teotihuacan in central Mexico. By examining the strontium (87Sr/86Sr), carbon (δ13C), and oxygen (δ18O) isotope values from dental enamel of humans and terrestrial mammals at the site, this study provides direct evidence of long-distance animal trade, explores the nature and timing of such activities, and compares highland dietary patterns with faunal studies in the lowlands. Our results indicate that isotopically non-local humans and animals are most frequently found in special and ceremonial contexts, indicating that long-distance movements of people and products were motivated for politically or ritually significant events. Although dietary patterns showed cross-species variation, diets within species were similar between highland and lowland settings.

An annotated checklist of groundwater Cyclopoida and Harpacticoida (Crustacea, Copepoda) from Romania with notes on their distribution and ecology

Romania, by its position in East-Central Europe has a complex geological history, high landscape heterogeneity and variable climatic conditions, ranging from temperate-continental in the northeast to sub-Mediterranean in the southwest. These conditions have created repeated waves of colonisation of groundwater by copepods, which raise particular interest in this group from a biogeographical perspective. The earliest investigations on groundwater copepods, dating back to the beginning of the 19th century, have resulted in a wealth of information on the richness of this group, making Romania one of the best studied regions from this perspective in Europe. Groundwater copepods in Romania are currently represented by 107 species and subspecies, of which 60 are harpacticoids (56%) and 47 are cyclopoids (43.9%). Of these, 50.5% are strict stygobites (32.7% harpacticoids and 17.7% cyclopoids). Among stygobite copepods 29 species (35 harpacticoids and 19 cyclopoids) are endemic to the country. Almost 86% of the species are single-site endemics (single cave, or single hyporheic or phreatic site) and the rest are restricted in distribution to a single aquifer or hydrographic basin. The aim of the present checklist represents a significant contribution to the knowledge of groundwater copepods in Romania and provides a sound baseline for future comparative faunal studies focused on the affinities and origins of copepods and the analysis of their biogeographical distribution patterns at regional and continental scales.

Two new Pseudoceros (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida: Pseudocerotidae) from Agatti Island, India and a species checklist from Indian waters

The Lakshadweep archipelago constitutes a major coral region of India but still lacks sufficient biodiversity data owing to its remoteness and a low number of faunal studies in the past. The present paper describes two new Pseudoceros species collected from Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, India. Pseudoceros bipurpurea sp. nov. and Pseudoceros galaxea sp. nov. are described based on external and internal characters, supported with histological studies and photographs. Pseudoceros bipurpurea sp. nov. is characterized by a cream background colour and an orange median line surrounded by dense patches of purple spots, which tend to disperse and broaden towards the posterior end. Pseudoceros galaxea sp. nov. displays a brown background colour with numerous white to cream dots covering almost the entire dorsal surface and a thin black margin. This study adds two new species to the polyclad fauna in Indian waters, raising the count to 68 species. An updated checklist of polyclads from Indian coast is also provided.

THE AGE OF LOOSE SEDIMENTS AT THE ELISEYEVICHI 1 SITE BASED ON DATING BY THE OPTICALLY STIMULATED LUMINESCENCE METHOD

В статье представлены первые результаты OSL-датирования рыхлых отложений второй надпойменной террасы реки Судости (притока Десны), которые включают культурный слой стоянки Елисеевичи 1. Датировки указывают на то, что формирование культурного слоя происходило относительно быстро в период с 16 до 15 тыс. л. н. В разрезе по результатам датирования не выделяется резких несогласий, перерывов, возрастных инверсий, что может свидетельствовать об относительно непрерывном осадконакоплении. Полученные датировки указывают на поздневалдайский возраст отложений (конец морской изотопной стадии 2) и хорошо коррелируют с полученными ранее по костям мамонта радиоуглеродными датами и оценками возраста на основании изучения палинологии и фауны стоянки. The paper describes the first results of OSL-dating of loose sediments in the second terrace above the flood-plain of the Sudost’ river, a tributary of the Desna river, which include the occupation layer of the Eliseyevichi 1 site. Luminescent dating demonstrates that the formation of the occupation layer occurred relatively quickly in the period from 16,000 to 15,000 years ago. The breakdown by dating results does not reveal any sharp disagreements, disruptions, age-related inversions, which may indicate a relatively continuous sedimentation. The obtained OSL dates indicate the Late Valday age of the deposits (end of the marine isotope stage 2) and well correlate with the radiocarbon dates for mammoth bones obtained earlier and estimates of the age based on palynological and faunal studies at the site

Обзор фауны мух тахин виноградных агроценозов Дагестана

In the context of the intensive use of chemical plant protection products, the issue of ecologization is acute. The concept of environmental protection of grapes, as the most pesticidal crop, is based on the principles of managing the phytosanitary state of agrocenoses as a whole. At the same time, entomophages play a key role in the formation of a balanced self-regulating ecosystem. The development and application of the so-called biorational technologies with the predominant use of safe ecologically “soft” chemical plant protection products in the grape protection system is a prerequisite for activating a useful entomofauna. The targeted effect on the entomophage populations is based on phytosanitary monitoring, on their integration with pesticides. The article presents the results of many years of faunal studies of grape agrobiocenoses, reveals the most effective mechanisms for the regulation of dangerous bunching leaves and cotton scoops. Based on the original drawings, a morphological description of the most common species of tachy flies is given - Elodia tragica Mg., Pseudoperichaeta insidiosa, Tawnsendiellomyia nidicola.

The study of mites and ticks in Ukraine (historical and bibliographic excursion)

In the Ukrainian Entomological society, there is a department that does not study insects. Its members are interested in the insects’ distant relatives, the subphylum Chelicerata, which though less diverse than insects, play a significant role in the economies of nature and humankind. A special place belongs to mites, which are a subject of acarological research. In fact, the economical factors caused this direction of research to develop into a full-fledged science, kindred to parasitology, entomology, epidemiology and other sciences. Contemporary acarology has its own objects and methods of research. It started developing at the territory of today Ukraine as early as in XIX century by efforts of scientists of neighbor countries. At the turn of the XX century, first publications appeared of bloodsucking ticks parasitizing cattle and carrying pathogens, and of plant pests. In 1918–1919, when All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (AUAS) was established, the faunal studies and applied research progressed too. In 1930, the Institute of zoology and biology of AUAS was established and consolidated the efforts of Ukrainian specialists aimed at studying ixodid ticks, which remained in the focus of parasitological studies in 1942–1943, when the Institute was in evacuation in Bashkiria. There, the employees of the Institute studied the transmission of encephalomyelitis of horses by ticks. After the return to Kyiv the Institute continued these studies, resulting in a volume of the edition “Fauna of Ukraine”, on ixodid ticks. In 1968, the first in Ukraine laboratory of acarology was established in the Institute, which in ten years has become a department of acarology, and a center of acarological research. In 1970, the specialists of that laboratory together with representatives of other specialized institutions (from several universities, and from Nikitsky Botanical Garden, Yalta and Odesa cities, and Zakarpattia) organized the Second All-Union Acarological Conference. The Conference shaped the further development of acarological studies, mostly focusing on the applied research of economically important taxa. The acarologists were successful in expeditions, taking samples for collections, the laboratory and industrial cultures of economically important species. Especially significant results were achieved using complex methods. Thus, in Kyiv the research touched upon the spider mites and their acarophagous enemies, utilized in a biological method of pest control, and also on storage mite pests, on predator and parasitic cheyletids, on oribatids, and free-living and parasitic gamasid mites and ixodid ticks, on the bee parasites of the genus Varroa, etc. In the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, complex research was conducted on the plant pest mites. Interesting studies were done in the universities and scientific institutions of Odesa, Lviv, Uzhorod, Donetsk, etc. All of that resulted in the increase of knowledge (published in monographs, papers and designs), and in the growing expertise of the specialists (more than 50 Candidates and Doctors of Science). Results of these works were highly appreciated by the community and given the recognition of the State Award.

“A Russian citizen of Swedish origin”: Materials for biography of W.A. Lindholm

Based on the study of archival materials and literary sources, the scientific biography of W.A. Lindholm (1874–1935), an outstanding Russian zoologist of the first half of the XX century, has been reconstructed. Most published works of W.A. Lindholm are devoted to studies of continental molluscs and reptiles. The life course of W.A. Lindholm is described and his contribution to the development of Russian malacology of the last century is characterized as well as his scientific connections with contemporary German zoologists. Deprived of university education, W.A. Lindholm managed to progress from amauterish faunal studies to writing significant works on taxo­nomy, biogeography and zoological nomenclature. It is shown that the greatest contribution of W.A. Lindholm to malacology was his works on the endemic malacofauna of Lake Baikal, terrestrial gastropods of the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as fossil Pliocene molluscs of Western Siberia. In all these fields W.A. Lindholm performed pioneering studies that have retained their value to this day. The most important stages of the scientific career of W.A. Lindholm and the circumstances allowed him to acquire the status of a professional scientist (an employee of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences) are described. The available archival documents allow us to reconstruct not only the scientific, but also the “private” biography of W.A. Lindholm, which is of interest for studying the situation of scientists in Russia during the First World War, as well as in the post-revolutionary period. A number of biographical documents from the W.A. Lindholm’s archive, stored in the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are given as an Appendix to this article.

Evaluating Devonian bioregionalization: quantifying biogeographic areas

The work of Arthur J. Boucot (vale, 1924–2017) is foundational to Devonian biogeography. Cited more than 1000 times and mentioned in excess of 105,000 times, his classification of the Old World, Eastern Americas, and Malvinokaffric realms has become the framework for Devonian biogeographic and faunal studies. This study is the first to test and quantify the biotic area classification using the distributional data of trilobite, brachiopod, and fish taxa across the Lower, Middle, and Late Devonian. The biotic similarity analysis of 676 genera (ca. 30,000 occurrences) of late Silurian (Ludlow–Pridoli) and Devonian taxa represents the largest quantification of distributional data undertaken in Devonian biogeography. The temporal area approach (TAAp), applied here for the first time, failed to recover in the area phenogram many of the realms and regions used by Devonian biogeographers, excepting the Malvinokaffric realm, across the entirety of the Devonian. The Old World and Western Gondwana realms are found to be artificial and in need of revision. Without natural areas, bioregionalizations (area classifications) become unstable and unusable, resulting in authors creating further artificial regions and provinces. This study offers a better solution, namely, to identify artificial areas in existing area classifications using TAAp and biotic similarity analysis and revise them. Area classifications are modeled on taxonomic process (Wilson and Brown 1953; Starrett 1958) and the movement toward revision is necessary to break the cycle of reinvention of realms and regions within bioregionalization.

A new species and new record of the cryptobiotic ant genus Ponera Latreille, 1804 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) from Hong Kong

Despite its small size, Hong Kong hosts a surprising level of ant diversity. Through faunal studies on arthropods conducted in Hong Kong over recent years, a new record and species of the genus Ponera have been discovered, which are introduced here. Poneraguangxiensis Zhou, 2001 is reported for the first time from Hong Kong, and Poneratudigongsp. nov. is here described as a new species, easily distinguishable from other Ponera species and unique within the genus for its four mandibular teeth.