Neotropical Copestylum Macquart (Diptera: Syrphidae) Breeding in Fruits and Flowers, Including 7 New Species

Ten species of Copestylum (Diptera: Syrphidae) were reared from fruits and flowers in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Trinidad. Seven were new and in this paper, we describe them, their development sites and the third stage larva and/or the puparium of all ten species. One new synonym is proposed, Copestylum pinkusi (Curran) [= Copestylum cinctiventre (Curran)]. Similarities and differences between these new and other Copestylum species, suggest they separate into two groups, referred to as the Vagum and Cinctiventre species groups. Features characterising these groups for both adult and early stages are assessed. Each species was also distinguished using adult and early stage characters. Within the Vagum group, adults were more disparate morphologically than the larval stage; this was reversed in the Cinctiventre group. Adult colour patterns are probably cryptic in function and for disguise. Vagum species have disruptive marks, while the Cinctiventre species have reflective colours. Biologically, the groups are almost distinguished by larval development sites. Vagum species use predominantly fruits and have a larval stage that is relatively generalised in form and habit. Cinctiventre species are confined to developing in flowers and the larva is more specialised. A key to both adult and early stages of all ten species is provided.

Una mirada a la dispersión de semillas en las excretas de mamíferos

Terrestrial mammals are good dispersers of the fruits and seeds of seasonal rainforest in the Gulf of Mexico. Their importance lies in the huge quantity of fruit and seeds they consume, and their daily and seasonal movement through natural and secondary vegetation and agricultural fields. Their importance is even more noteworthy in the face of increasing deforestation and forest fragmentation, which limits the dispersal of propagules across the landscape and affects, among other things, the potential for forest regeneration. To evaluate fruit and seed consumption and dispersal over 12 months, the droppings of rainforest mammals were analyzed for the rainforest and an abandoned pasture (8,400 m2 respectively) on the coast of central Veracruz, Mexico. In the rainforest 158 droppings were collected and 47 in the pasture from a total of eight mammal species, six of which are known dispersers. The droppings contained 150 seeds belonging to 36 species and 19 families. The deposition of different species and quantities of seeds in the forest and pasture indicates that mammals disperse more rainforest species to the pasture than vice versa.

The comparative effectiveness of rodents and dung beetles as local seed dispersers in Mediterranean oak forests

The process of seed dispersal of many animal-dispersed plants is frequently mediated by a small set of biotic agents. However, the contribution that each of these dispersers makes to the overall recruitment may differ largely, with important ecological and management implications for the population viability and dynamics of the species implied in these interactions. In this paper, we compared the relative contribution of two local guilds of scatter-hoarding animals with contrasting metabolic requirements and foraging behaviours (rodents and dung beetles) to the overall recruitment of two Quercus species co-occurring in the forests of southern Spain. For this purpose, we considered not only the quantity of dispersed seeds but also the quality of the seed dispersal process. The suitability for recruitment of the microhabitats where the seeds were deposited was evaluated in a multi-stage demographic approach. The highest rates of seed handling and predation occurred in those microhabitats located under shrubs, mostly due to the foraging activity of rodents. However, the probability of a seed being successfully cached was higher in microhabitats located beneath a tree canopy as a result of the feeding behaviour of beetles. Rodents and beetles showed remarkable differences in their effectiveness as local acorn dispersers. Quantitatively, rodents were much more important than beetles because they dispersed the vast majority of acorns. However, they were qualitatively less effective because they consumed a high proportion of them (over 95%), and seeds were mostly dispersed under shrubs, a less suitable microhabitat for short-term recruitment of the two oak species. Our findings demonstrate that certain species of dung beetles (such as Thorectes lusitanicus), despite being quantitatively less important than rodents, can act as effective local seed dispersers of Mediterranean oak species. Changes in the abundance of beetle populations could thus have profound implications for oak recruitment and community dynamics.

Culturable aerobic and facultative bacteria from the gut of the polyphagic dung beetle Thorectes lusitanicus Jeckel

Unlike other dung beetles, the Iberian geotrupid Thorectes lusitanicus exhibits polyphagous behavior; for example, it is able to eat acorns, fungi, fruits, and carrion in addition to the dung of different mammals. This adaptation to digest a wider diet has physiological and developmental advantages and requires key changes in the composition and diversity of the beetle's gut microbiota. In this study, we isolated aerobic, facultative anaerobic, and aerotolerant microbiota amenable to grow in culture from the gut contents of T. lusitanicus and resolved isolate identity to the species level by sequencing 16S rRNA gene fragments. Using BLAST similarity searches and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses, we were able to reveal that the analyzed fraction (culturable, aerobic, facultative anaerobic, and aerotolerant) of beetle gut microbiota is dominated by the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria. Among Proteobacteria, members of the order Enterobacteriales (Gammaproteobacteria) were the most abundant. The main functions associated with the bacteria found in the gut of T. lusitanicus would likely include nitrogen fixation, denitrification, detoxification, and diverse defensive roles against pathogens.

Rosa gallica l. var. officinalis (hort. ex Andrews) Ser. en el norte de Alicante (Comunidad Valenciana)

Se ha localizado en el margen de la carretera comarcal CV 795 en su kilómetro 17 próximo a Ulls de Canals y dentro del término de Banyeres de Mariola, una buena población asilvestrada de Rosa gallica L. var. officinalis (hort. ex Andrews) Ser., que corresponde a la segunda población localizada en Alicante, puesto que se conocía una población pero situada próxima al litoral en la comarca de la Marina Alta. La llamada rosa de Provins o provincialis (de Provenza) es una de las rosas cultivadas en Europa desde más antiguo, probablemente la primera. Aparece dibujada en los frescos de Pompeya, fue también la rosa de las boticas (“Officinalis”) y se corresponde con la famosa rosa roja o Rosa de Lancanster, símbolo de este bando en la Guerra de civil inglesa llamada de “las dos rosas”. Su cultivo en España fue muy importante y era frecuentemente citada en la literatura botánica antigua, fue llamada “rosa de Castilla” pero con el tiempo y el abandono del campo, su presencia fue disminuyendo y de forma asilvestrada solo aparece en unas pocas provincias españolas, aunque se sigue manteniendo su cultivo a pequeña escala en colecciones particulares y rosaledas. Precisamente, en la Rosaleda “Pere Dot” del Jardín Botánico de Torretes (Ibi) mantenemos en cultivo dos de las variedades botánicas reconocidas y muchos de los cultivares e híbridos de este rosal, que hemos adquirido de colecciones extranjeras. El hallazgo de este material asilvestrado probablemente procedente de antiguos cultivos en la zona, tiene gran valor etnobotánico y puede tener valor genético. Aunque en su morfología no se han encontrado diferencias relevantes, se ha procedido a su multiplicación vegetativa y será próximamente incluido en la rosaleda del Jardín Botánico, junto con pliegos de herbario y semillas.

Multi-Element Analysis of Spanish Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Based Techniques. Discrimination Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis

The elemental analysis of Spanish palm dates by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry is reported for the first time. To complete the information about the mineral composition of the samples, C, H, and N are determined by elemental analysis. Dates from Israel, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iran have also been analyzed. The elemental composition have been used in multivariate statistical analysis to discriminate the dates according to its geographical origin. A total of 23 elements (As, Ba, C, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, H, In, K, Li, Mg, Mn, N, Na, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr, V, and Zn) at concentrations from major to ultra-trace levels have been determined in 13 date samples (flesh and seeds). A careful inspection of the results indicate that Spanish samples show higher concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, and Ni than the remaining ones. Multivariate statistical analysis of the obtained results, both in flesh and seed, indicate that the proposed approach can be successfully applied to discriminate the Spanish date samples from the rest of the samples tested.