a1_This study describes the parasitoid species complex associated with seven closely related species of sexual (Siederia rupicollella, S. listerella, Dahlica lazuri, D. charlottae and D. lichenella) and parthenogenetic (Dahlica fennicella and D. triquetrella) Naryciinae (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) in Central Finland. A thorough ecological analysis of all the species of parasitoids recorded was combined with analyses of molecular data. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data were obtained from all the species in order to (1) detect cryptic species associated with host specialization, (2) assign undescribed males to females, and (3) verify the morphological identification of closely related species. A DNA barcoding technique was employed to identify host species from parasitized larval remains. By sampling more than 10,000 host larvae, of which 25.7% were parasitized, nine parasitoid species were identified morphologically, including both koinobionts (Ichneumonidae: Diadegma incompletum, Macrus parvulus, Trachyarus borealis, T. solyanikovi, T. fuscipes, T. brevipennis and Braconidae: Meteorus affinis) and idiobionts (Ichneumonidae: Orthizema flavicorne, Gelis fuscicornis). Ecological characteristics such as time and mode of host attack, time of emergence and level of specialization differed widely. The results show that differences in parasitoid biology need to be taken into account when studying differences in percentage parasitism of sexual and parthenogenetic Naryciinae. The molecular data revealed that one parasitoid species M. parvulus may consist of two cryptic forms associated with the sexual and parthenogenetic hosts, respectively. The data further establishes that T. brevipennis and some T. fuscipes are in fact morphotypes of one species. The large variation in mitochondrial DNA within species and its inconsistency with nuclear DNA demonstrate that current species and genus delimitation is inadequate in the, a2_Trachyarus species group. Our study shows that it is essential to use DNA barcoding methods when investigating host-parasitoid complexes., and Jelmer A. Elzinga, Kees Zwakhals, Johanna Mappes, Alessandro Grapputo.
Ornithologists in Finland recorded the autumn migration of the Red Admiral butterfly, Vanessa atalanta (L.). In the best year, 1998, 1240 migrants were counted from a bird tower in September. That is, half a million butterflies migrated over a 100-km front. The butterflies were flying above forests riding on cool northerly winds. Radar indicated that a large proportion migrated at high elevations outside the visible range. These records help to resolve an "evolutionary puzzle" of why migrant butterflies and moths travel to northern latitudes when their offspring have limited possibilities of returning south. Until now, the only butterfly for which a high-elevation return migration on northerly winds is known is the American Monarch Danaus plexippus (L.).
Naturally occurring veinless specimen of the swallowtail Papilio xuthus show an extremely aberrant colour pattern. In spite of the fact that we have no breeding data, these veinless specimen are provisionally called veins-reduced mutant. In these mutants seven longitudinal veins of the fore wing and five of the hind wing are absent. The absence of wing veins is associated with a loss of the broad black venous stripes that normally are present along the proximal portion of the veins. In addition, missing veins cause a loss of the dislocation of black bands in adjacent wing cells, so that what are discrete black segments in normal wings become continuous bands in the veinless wing. Computer simulations show that the morphology of the striped patterns on both the veinless and veined wing can be explained if the wing margin acts as an inductive source of pattern formation and the veins act simply as boundaries to the propagation of the signal from the wing margin. The vein-dependent patterns by contrast, require that the veins act as inductive sources, at least along their proximal portion. This dual role of wing veins is consistent with prior observations on the biology of colour pattern formation. The unique veinless colour pattern strongly supports the hypothesis that the wing margin is the dominant organiser of colour pattern in this species, and possibly in other Papilionidae.
Membrane-bound proteases from preparations of the midgut of 5th instar velvetbean caterpillars, Anticarsia gemmatalis (Hübner) were obtained by resuspension of the pellet obtained after 100,000 g centrifugation. As expected of trypsin-like proteases, they hydrolyzed casein and the synthetic substrates N-α-benzoyl-L-Arg-p-nitroanilidine (L-BApNA) and N-α-p-tosyl-L-Arg methyl ester (L-TAME). Higher activities were observed at 50°C, and at pH 8.5 and 8.0 for both synthetic substrates L-BApNA and L-TAME. The membrane-bound proteases were inhibited by EDTA, phenylmethan sulphonyl fluoride (PMSF), tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone (TLCK), benzamidine and aprotinin. TLCK and benzamidine were particularly active inhibitors. The KM-values obtained were 0.23 mM for L-BApNA and 92.5 µM for L-TAME. These results provide evidence for the presence of membrane-bound trypsin-like proteases in the midgut of the velvetbean caterpillar, a key soybean pest in warm climates. The interaction between A. gemmatalis digestive proteases and soybean protease inhibitors has potentially important consequences for soybean breeding programs.
Using sequence alignment, a conserved domain in the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of the cytoplasmic heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) of Lepidoptera was found. This region is highly variable in other insect groups. Furthermore, universal primers were designed to amplify the complete coding sequence (CDS) of HSP90 from total genomic DNA in Lepidoptera, avoiding the commonly used reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 3', 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) methods based on cDNA. These primers amplified a fragment of about 2.25 kb in the 11 species tested, which represent seven different families of Lepidoptera, including moths and butterflies. The results suggest that the conserved domain of 3'UTR is universal in Lepidoptera and these primers successfully amplify the complete CDS of cytoplasmic HSP90 from genomic DNA. and Peng Jun XU, Tong LI, Jin Hua XIAO, Robert W. MURPHY, Huang DA WEI.
At the southern limit of its range the endangered butterfly Coenonympha oedippus inhabits grasslands (wet, dry) that differ significantly in the abundance of its larval hostplants (wet > dry) and mean annual air temperature (wet < dry). We determined the difference in the wing morphology of individuals in the two contrasting habitats to test whether and how traits associated with wing size, shape and eye like spots vary in the sexes and two ecotypes. We show that sexual dimorphism follows the same (wing size and shape, number of eyespots on forewing) or different (relative area of eyespots on hindwings) patterns in the two contrasting habitats. Irrespective of ecotype, females had larger, longer and narrower wings, and more forewing eyespots than males. Sexual dimorphism in the relative area of eyespots on hindwing was female-biased in the wet, but male-biased in the dry ecotype. Ecotype dimorphism in wing size and the relative area of eyespots on the hindwing is best explained by mean annual air temperature and abundance of host-plants. While ecotype dimorphism in wing size did not differ between sexes, neither in direction (wet > dry) or in degree, in the two sexes the relative area of eyespots on hindwing had opposite patterns (males: dry > wet; females: wet > dry) and was more pronounced in males than in females. The differences in wing shape between ecotypes were detected only in the hindwings of males, with more rounded apex in the dry than in the wet ecotype. We discuss the life-history traits, behavioural strategies and selection mechanisms, which largely account for the sex- and ecotype-specific variation in wing morphology., Jure Jugovic, Sara Zupan, Elena Bužan, Tatjana Čelik., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Thermal requirements for flight in butterflies is determined by a combination of external factors, behaviour and physical constraints. Thorax temperature of 152 butterflies was monitored with an infra-red thermometer in controlled laboratory conditions. The temperature at take-off varied from 13.4°C, for a female Heteronympha merope to 46.3°C, for a female Junonia villida. Heteronympha merope, an understorey species, had the lowest recorded take-off temperatures, with females flying at a much lower thorax temperatures than males. Among the tested butterfly species, warming-up rate was positively correlated with take-off temperature and negatively with body mass. Wing loading is a major variable in determining the thorax flight temperature. Butterflies with the highest wing-loadings experienced the highest thorax temperatures at take-off. A notable exception to this rule is Trapezites symmomus, the only Hesperiidae of our data set, which had thorax flight temperatures of 31.5°C and 34.5°C, well within the range of the observed butterflies, despite a wing load ca. five times higher. The high thorax temperature recorded in J. villida is probably linked to its high flight speed. The results highlight the importance of physical constraints such as body size on the thermal requirements for flight across a range of butterfly species., Gabriel Nève, Casey Hall., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Population fluctuations of the well-known oak defoliator, the oak processionary moth (Thaumetopoea processionea L.), were studied using light trap data and basic meteorological parameters (monthly average temperatures, and precipitation) at three locations in Western Hungary over a period of 15 years (1988-2012). The fluctuations in the numbers caught by the three traps were strongly synchronized. One possible explanation for this synchrony may be similar weather at the three trapping locations. Cyclic Reverse Moving Interval Techniques (CReMIT) were used to define the period of time in a year that most strongly influences the catches. For this period, we defined a species specific aridity index for Thaumetopoea processionea (THAU-index). This index explains 54.8-68.9% of the variation in the yearly catches, which indicates that aridity, particularly in the May-July period was the major determinant of population fluctuations. Our results predict an increasing future risk of Oak Processionary Moth (OPM) outbreaks and further spread if the frequency of severe spring/summer droughts increases with global warming., György Csóka, Anikó Hirka, Levente Szöcs, Norbert Móricz, Ervin Rasztovits, Zoltán Pödör., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The fresh weight, dry weight, and C and N content of the eggs, egg shells and neonate larvae of several satyrines were measured. This was done in order to assess the specificity of the composition of the egg and larvae, the phylogenetic or ecological nature of the variation and the existence of structural constraints on the composition of the offspring. All the traits investigated were found to be highly species-specific. The nature of the variation was not primarily phylogenetic, suggesting that the composition of the offspring has an ecological meaning. However, only a slight association was detected between three life history traits or habitat features and the compositions of the eggs or larvae, namely: female egg dropping was associated with a high C content of the eggs, xerophily with a high C : N ratio, and a high content of N in the larvae with egg diapause. The evidence for intra-specific allometry between the traits investigated and egg weight varied among the species, suggesting that the slope of such relationship may be a specific feature. There was a close to isometric relationship between C and N contents in every species. Therefore simple C : N ratios are independent of egg size, hence they can be used directly in comparative studies. Across species analyses indicated that small offspring contained a proportionally low amount of carbon and had a high dry matter content, suggesting that selection for small eggs was accompanied by selection for an enhanced proportion of nitrogen per egg. Finally, the species with large adult females invested comparatively more nitrogen per egg, which indicates a potential, constraint-based advantage of large adult size.