Nowadays, increasing attention is being paid to the biological significance of UV- -reflecting patterns exposed on the outer surfaces of various organisms. UV radiation plays an important role in the communication of many species of organisms. Here we give a brief overview of the biological functions of UV reflectance in some groups of invertebrates. Special attention is paid to the role of UV reflectance in sexual selection, foraging strategies, and the evolution and ecology of a species in general. and Pavel Pecháček, David Stella, Karel Kleisner.
Various types of artificial ant nests (formicaries) are described. These include simple laboratory types to more complex formicaries whose esthetic design is suitable for flat interiors. Formicaries facilitate not only the observation of natural ant behaviour inside a nest, but also of the remarkable practices used by young queens to appropriate the nest of a host ant species. In such equipment it is even possible to arrange a predatory raid by slave-making ants and observe their behaviour inside the attacked nest. Such observations would not have been possible in natural conditions. and Pavel Amcha.
The article describes two independent observations of swimming in the European Mole (Talpa europaea) and provides a review of previously published records. Moles are primary terrestrial mammals but different phylogenetic lineages show different attitudes to water/moist habitats. and Jan Robovský a kol.
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.
Larvae of the stag beetle, Dorcus rectus, feed on decaying wood, which they digest with the aid of symbiotic yeasts; however, they can be successfully reared on artificial diets containing only fungal tissue. In this study we tested whether D. rectus larvae can utilize fungal cell walls, which are an insoluble component of mycelium. Lyophilized Bjerkandera adusta mycelium cultured in potato-dextrose liquid medium consisted of a 47.6% hot-water insoluble fraction by mass, which contains 53.7% of the total nitrogen in the mycelium. D. rectus larvae that hatched from surface-sterilized eggs were reared for 14 days on agar-based diets containing either the soluble fraction, insoluble fraction or both, extracted from 100 mg of mycelium. The larvae increased in mass most on the mixed diet, and there was no difference in their growth on the mixed and positive control diets. Both the soluble and insoluble fractions improved larval growth compared to the negative control diet; however, the growth rates were much lower than those expected from the nitrogen dose-growth response curve obtained in a previous study. Addition of b-chitin to the soluble fraction did not positively affect larval growth. Therefore, we conclude that (1) D. rectus larvae need both the soluble and insoluble fractions of mycelium and (2) the larvae digest the insoluble fraction using their own enzymes., Masahiko Tanahashi, Kôhei Kubota., and Seznam literatury
Přes obrovský pokrok v molekulárních fylogenetických metodách a množství v nedávné době objevených fosilních taxonů nemáme o fylogenezi a evoluci mravenců (čeleď Formicidae) mnoho ověřených faktů. V současnosti se rozlišuje 16 žijících a tři fosilní podčeledi. Podčeleď Leptanillinae je považována za bazální, zatímco skupina Apoidea (včely a kutilky) se ukazuje jako sesterská k čeledi mravenců., In contrast to the huge progress of molecular phylogenetic methods and many recently discovered fossil taxa, the phylogeny and evolution of ants (Formicidae) remains poorly understood. Today 16 extant and three fossil ant subfamilies are known. The subfamily Leptanillinae is considered as basal, while Apoidea seems to be a sister family to the ants., and Pavel Pech.