Members of the clade Trichophora (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha) have trichobothria on their abdominal sterna. There is no comparative study of the fine structure of abdominal trichobothria in the group and until now the trichobothria of their immatures were virtually unknown. The fine structure of the abdominal trichobothrial complex (= the trichobothrium and its associated structures) of adults of 98 species belonging to 25 families in 5 superfamilies and larvae of 7 species belonging to 7 families in 2 superfamilies of Trichophora were examined using scanning electron microscopy. This study indicates that the fine structure of the abdominal trichobothria is very variable and useful for determining evolutionary lineages within the clade. Six types of bothria, three of trichomes and three of microtrichia are recognized and their evolutionary transformations discussed. Changes in the size of trichomes, and density and size of the microtrichia during the postembryonic development of selected species are discussed.
† Pyrenicocephalus jarzembowskii, gen. et sp. n. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Enicocephalomorpha: Enicocephalidae: Enicocephalinae) from Early Eocene, London Clay, England, Isle of Sheppey, is described and illustrated according to the unique pyritized adult head reported as a larval enicocephalid head by Jarzembowski (1986). The head anatomy of similar and related genera of Enicocephalinae is compared and the close relationship of the new genus to a clade including the extant genera Oncylocotis, Embolorrhinus and Hoplitocoris is suggested, most probably as the sister genus to Hoplitocoris (presently with Afrotropical, East Palaearctic and Oriental range).
Ten species of Cixiidae, formerly placed in Trirhacus Fieber, 1875, are redescribed and one additional species is described. They belong to seven genera: Trirhacus s. str. with T. setulosus Fieber, 1876 (type species), T. dubiosus Wagner, 1959, T. biokovensis Dlabola, 1971 and T. peloponnesiacus sp. n., Apartus gen. n. with A. michalki (Wagner, 1948) comb. n. (type species) and A. wagnerianus (Nast, 1965) comb. n., Nanocixius Wagner, 1939 stat. n. with N. discrepans (Fieber, 1876) comb. n., Neocixius Wagner, 1939 stat. n. with N. limbatus (Signoret, 1862) comb. n., Sardocixius gen. n. with S. formosissimus (Costa, 1883) comb. n., Simplicixius gen. n. with S. trichophorus (Melichar, 1914) comb. n. and Sphaerocixius Wagner, 1939 stat. n. with S. globuliferus (Wagner, 1939) comb. n. The phylogenetic relationships of these genera to other Cixiidae are briefly discussed and a key to the genera of European Cixiidae is provided.
One of the leaved out fault active systems at Southern Moravian can be considered the so called Diendorf - Čebín tectonic zone (DCTZ), that is seismically active in its southern segment (in Austrian). The Waitzendorf fault is a part of the DCTZ, with intensive morphological signs. The terrain recognizance along the eastern margin of the Dyje Dome confirmed many indi cations showing evidence of geodynamic activity. The facets, old land slides and rock falls indicate recent activity in the environs of Znojmo area. The paper offers interpretation of the geodetic results (GPS) using morphological and geophysical data from all area of the DCTZ ., Lubomil Pospíšil, Pavel Roštínský, Otakar Švábenský, Josef Weigel and Michal Witiska., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
This paper describes the first study of the diatom assemblages in caves in the Czech Republic. The study focused on subaeric habitats: rock faces within caves, walls at cave entrances and “lampflora” assemblages, in three cave systems, Mladeč, Javoříčko and Zbrašov, all in central Moravia. The morphological and cytological variability, ecology and life strategies of diatoms were studied in fresh samples, in Naphrax preparations, in cultures grown on agar plates and in monoclonal cultures. A total of 22 diatom species was identified, mostly aerophytic species and tolerant of low light intensities. Luticola and Diadesmis species complexes are discussed. Taxa D. gallica and L. paramutica var. binodis are new for the Czech Republic. Sexual reproduction was observed in L. mutica and Orthoseira roeseana.
This paper reports the collecting of adult beetles and third-instar larvae of Coelocorynus desfontainei Antoine, 1999 in Cameroon and provides new data on the biology of this high-altitude Afromontane genus. It also presents the first diagnosis of this genus based on larval characters and examination of its systematic position in a phylogenetic context using 78 parsimony informative larval and adult characters. Based on the results of our analysis we (1) support the hypothesis that the tribe Trichiini is paraphyletic with respect to both Valgini and the rest of the Cetoniinae, and (2) propose that the Trichiini subtribe Cryptodontina, represented by Coelocorynus, is a sister group of the Valgini: Valgina, represented by Valgus. The larvae-only analyses were about twofold better than the adults-only analyses in providing a phylogenetic resolution consistent with the larvae + adults analyses. Only one of the ten clades was consistently supported by the analyses of both the larval and adult datasets, while the remaining nine were invariably strongly supported by one but not the other analysis, thus highlighting the importance of employing different data sources.
The genus Berchmansus Navás, which was previously assigned to the tribe Leucochrysini, consists of three very rare species, all described from the Neotropics and all poorly known. Our report (1) provides the first description of a Berchmansus larva, the first instar of Berchmansus elegans (Guérin Méneville), (2) illustrates and redescribes the B. elegans adult, with emphasis on male and female genitalia, and (3) examines the larval and adult characters vis-à-vis the tribal affiliation of the genus. Given that the B. elegans adult and first instar share many apomorphies with other belonopterygine genera, this species belongs in the cosmopolitan tribe Belonopterygini, rather than the New World tribe Leucochrysini. Although Berchmansus larvae have not been collected in the field, we suspect that, like other belonopterygines, they are associated with ant nests. B. elegans exhibits a number of highly modified and unusual structures, some of which (#1 to #5) are not reported for any other chrysopids. Specifically: Males have (1) a unique, quadrate, dome-like hood above the gonarcus and (2) large, coiled parameres on the gonosaccus. First instars have (3) a greatly enlarged subapical seta on the flagellum, (4) a transverse row of long, hooked setae along the dorso-anterior margin of the pronotum, and (5) setose laterodorsal tubercles on the meso- and metathorax, with (6) multi-pronged, hooked setae.
The species of the Poecilimon heroicus-group occur around the Caucasus (from north-eastern Turkey to south-eastern Ukraine). We describe the diagnostic morphological characters of all these species and the male calling song of three of the four species. Based on this data the following phylogenetic relationship is derived (P. tschorochensis (P. tricuspis (P. heroicus, P. bifenestratus))). Within the genus Poecilimon, the species can be recognised by a relatively wide pronotum and large tegmina. In one species, Poecilimon tschorochensis Adelung, 1907 (type species of the monotypic genus Artvinia Karabag, 1962, syn. n.; P. rammei Miram, 1938, syn. n.), the tegmina are very large and the song has unusually low spectral components. This species produced di-syllabic echemes at intervals of about 10 s. In two other species of the group, P. heroicus and P. bifenestratus, the calling song of males consists of an uninterrupted dense sequence of long syllables (syllable duration around 0.5 s; ca. 1 syllable/s at 20°C). In these species the auditory spiracles are reduced in size in both sexes, and the females have extremely small tegmina and are unable to respond to the male song acoustically, which would be typical for Phaneropteridae. The change in communication from acoustically responding to mute females has not been previously documented within a group of closely related species.
The larva of the Palaearctic Renocera pallida (Fallén, 1820) is confirmed as a predator of small species of bivalve molluscs of the family Sphaeriidae. To date only the larvae of three Nearctic Renocera species (and larvae of two other species of Sciomyzidae in two genera) are known to have the same food preference. The life cycle, biology, larval feeding and behaviour are described for the first time and compared with that of the Nearctic Renocera. The systematic position and biology of Renocera in general are discussed. Descriptions of the egg, second and third larval instars and the puparium of R. pallida are presented, the main features of the egg and larvae are illustrated by scanning electron micrographs.
Multivariate morphometrics and an assessment of genetic diversity obtained using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) were used to determine the variability of the polymorphic group Cyanus triumfetti in Central Europe. The ploidy level of the populations studied was also determined; all individuals from the C. triumfetti group were diploid (2n ~ 2x ~ 22) and all those of the related C. montanus group were tetraploid (2n ~ 4x ~ 44). A multivariate morphometric study of 71 populations revealed that three species from the C. triumfetti group occur in Central Europe, namely ‘Cyanus axillaris’, C. strictus and C. dominii. Three subspecies are recognized within the latter species, namely C. dominii subsp. dominii, C. dominii subsp. slovenicus and C. dominii subsp. sokolensis. Morphological characters of leaves are the best features for delimiting these taxa; a shift in characters caused by cultivation did not affect the value of key characters and differences among the taxa remained. AFLP analysis of 38 populations from the C. triumfetti group and two from the C. montanus group revealed a contrasting pattern of genetic variation that was related to the geographic distribution of the populations rather than the morphological variation in the C. triumfetti group. The AFLP data revealed the following three genetically differentiated and allopatric groups: (i) C. triumfetti s.s. and C. montanus from the Western Alps, (ii) ‘C. axillaris’ from Austria and the Czech Republic (except the Carpathians) and (iii) ‘C. axillaris’, C. strictus and C. dominii from the Western Carpathians and Pannonia. The striking genetic gap between the Austrian-Czech and the W Carpathian-Pannonia groups and the high genetic diversity and weak genetic differentiation within the latter group are discussed in the light of potential glacial refuges, postglacial migration routes and/or the probability of hybridization events occurring during the evolutionary history of this group. An identification key for the taxa of the C. triumfetti group in Central Europe is presented.