Can body traits, other than wings, reflect the flight ability of Triatominae bugs?

Abstract: INTRODUCTION : Insects of the subfamily Triatominae are vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi , the Chagas disease parasite, and their flying behavior has epidemiological importance. The flying capacity is strikingly different across and within Triatominae species, as well as between sexes or individuals. Many Triatoma infestans individuals have wings but no flying muscles. In other Triatominae species, no clear relationships were found between wing length and flying behavior. If wing presence or size is not reflective of the flying behavior, which other parts of the body could be considered as reliable markers of this important function? METHODS : The genus Mepraia has exceptional characteristics with invariably wingless females and wingless or winged males. We calculated the porous surface exposed to odorant molecules to estimate the olfactory capacity of Mepraia spinolai . The head shape and thorax size were estimated using the geometric morphometric approach and traditional morphometric techniques, respectively. RESULTS : Alary polymorphism in M. spinolai was significantly associated with consistent modification of the thorax size, head shape, and notable change in the estimated olfactory capacity. The macropterous individuals had a larger olfactory surface and thorax size and significantly different head shape compared to those of the micropterous individuals. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that these structural changes could be associated with the flying potential of Triatominae. Thus, morphological attributes not found on wings could help determine the likely flying potential of the bugs.

Uma teoria da justiça libertarista: contribuições de Nozick e Steiner

Dissertação de mestrado em Filosofia Política

O preço da água nos municípios portugueses: quais as razões para as suas disparidades?

Dissertação de mestrado em Economia Monetária, Bancária e Financeira

A first evaluation on the use of Ardea albus feathers as bioindicators of mercury burden in Amazonian ecosystems

We evaluated in this study the total mercury concentration in feathers of Ardea albus collected in a colony located in the city of Belem-PA, Brazil in a prospective trial for its use as bioindicators of mercury burden in Amazonia ecosystems. An Atomic absorption spectrophotometry with gold amalgamation was used for the metal determination. The total mercury average concentration in body feathers was 2.2 ± 1.5 µg.g-1 and 1.3 ± 0.9 µg.g-1 in wing feathers. No correlation was observed between total mercury concentration and the length of body or wing feathers. Total mercury concentration was above 5 µg.g-1 dry weight in only one body feather sample.

Alterações na biometria e na refração durante o ano letivo II

Dissertação de mestrado em Optometria Avançada

Hereditariedade da homeose

A preliminary account on the normal development of the imaginai discs in holometabolic Insects is made to serve as an introduction to the study of the hereditary homoeosis. Several facts and experimental data furnished specially by the students of Drosophila are brought here in searching for a more adequate explanation of this highly interesting phenomenon. The results obtained from the investigations of different homoeotic mutants are analysed in order to test Goldschmidt's theory of homoeosis. Critical examination of the basis on which this theory was elaborated are equally made. As a result from an extensive theoretical consideration of the matter and a long discussion of the most recent papers on this subject the present writer concludes that the Goldschmidt explanation of the homoeotic phenomena based on the action of diffusing substances produced by the genes, the "evocators", and on the alteration of the normal speed of maturation of the imaginai discs equally due to the activity of the genes, could not be proved and therefore should be abandoned. In the same situation is any other explanation like that of Waddington or Villee considered as fundamentally identical to that of Goldschmidt. In order to clear the problem of homoeosis in terms which seem to put the phenomenon in complete agreement with the known facts the present writer elaborated a theory first published a few years ago (1941) based entirely on the assumption that the imaginai discs are specifically determined by some kind of substances, probably of chemical nature, contained in the cytoplam of the cells entering in the consti- tution of each individual disc. These substances already present in the blastem of the egg in which they are distributed in a definite order, pass to different cells at the time the blastem is transformed into blastoderm. These substances according to their organogenic potentiality may be called antenal-substance, legsubstance, wing-substance, eye-substance, etc. The hipoderm of the embryo resulting from the multiplication of the blastoderm cells would be constituted by a series of cellular areas differing from each other in their particular organoformative capacity. Thus the hypoderm giving rise to the imaginai discs, it follows that each disc must have the same organogenic power of the hypodermal area it came from. Therefore the discs i*re determinated since their origin by substances enclosed in the cytoplasm of their cells and consequently can no longer alter their potentiality. When an antennal disc develops into a leg one can conclude that this disc in spite of its position in the body of the larva is not, properly speaking, an antennal disc but a true leg disc whose cells instead of having in their cytoplasm the antennal substance derived from the egg blastem have in its place the leg-substance. Now, if a disc produces a tarsus or an antenna or even a compound appendage partly tarsus-like, partly antenna-like, it follows tha,t both tarsal and antennal substances are present in it. The ultimate aspect of the compound structure depends upon the reaction of each kind of substance to the different causes influencing development. For instance, temperature may orient the direction of development either lowards arista or tarsus, stimulating, or opposing to the one or the other of these substances. Confering to the genes the faculty of altering the constitution of the substances containing in the cytoplasm forming the egg blastem or causing transposition of these substances from one area to another or promoting the substitution of a given substance by a different one, the hereditary homoeocis may be easily explained. However, in the opinion of the present writer cytoplasm takes the initiative in all developmental process, provoking the chromosomes to react specifically and proportionally. Accordingly, the mutations causing homoeotic phenomena may arise independently at different rime in the cytoplasm and in the chromosomes. To the part taken by the chromosomes in the manifestation of the homoeotic characters is due the mendalian ratio observed in homoeotic X normal crosses. Expression, in itself, is mainly due to the proportion of the different substances in the cells of the affected discs. Homoeotic phenomena not presenting mendelian ratio may appear as consequence of cytoplasmic mutation not accompanied by chromosomal mutation. The great variability in the morphology of the homoeotic characteres, some individual being changed towards an extreme expression of the mutant phenotype while others in spite of their homozigous constitution cannot be distinguished from the normal ones, strongly supports the interpretation based on the relative proportion of the determining substances in the discs. To the same interpretation point also asymetry and other particularities observed in the exteriorization of the phenomenon. In conformity with this new conception homoeosis should not prove homology of Insect appendages (Villee 1942) since a more replacement of substances may cause legs to develop in substitution of the wings, as it was already observed (requiring confirmation in the opinion of Bateson 1894, p. 184) and no one would conclude for the homology of these organs in the usual meaning of the term.

Experimentos com os nematicidas D. D., E. D. B. e brometo de metilo no combate aos nematódeos causadores de galhas em raízes de plantas (Meloidogyne spp.)

Tomato roots heavily disfigured by root-knot nematodes were throughly mixed with soil. At various time intervals, samples were taken from the mixture and treated in closed containers by each of the folio wing nematicides: D.D., E.D.B. and M.B. The efficacy of the treatment was tested by setting indicator plants in the treated soil and by examining their roots for the presence of galls two months later. In other words, the ability of the three nematicides to penetrate nematode galls after various periods of rotting, which varied from 5 to 30 days was studied. The main conclusions drawn are as follows: a) no nematicide among the three listed above showed the ability for complete destruction of the nematodes protected inside the roots, for a number of small galls developed on the root system of the indicator plant in all treatments; b) smaller and less numerous galls were present on the roots of the indicator plants grown in soil treated after a rotting period of 30 days; c) however, the control obtained seems to be quite satisfactory economically, since the check plants grew poorly and have developed a very unhealthy root system. This is in accordance with STARK & LEAR (1947), LEAR (1951) and CICCARONE's (1951) statements. The results of the present experiments show again that awaiting for the rotting of galls of the root-knot nematodes is not indispensable for an economically convenient soil fumigation. Fields in which many fleshy infected roots from previous crops have been buried can be economically fumigated immediately, without any loss of time. Notwithstanding, when thick woody roots are present in the soil, the above statements may not hold true. This should constitute a new problem calling for further experiments. Another essay dealing with methyl bromide alone, consisted in treating cotton roots heavily disfigured by Meloidogyne incognita in a container (diameter = 28cm, height = 32 cm), which remained closed for five days. After the treatment, the roots were mixed with soil, in which tomato seedlings were planted. After a growing period of two months, the roots of the tomato plants were washed in running water and examined for the presence of galls. As an early infeccion was present in the root system of all plants, the inefficacy of the treatment has been proved.

Evidence for parthenogenesis in the featherwing beetles, with a taxonomic review of a new genus and eight new species (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae) [by] Henry S. Dybas.

v.51:no.2(1966)

The larval characters of featherwing and limulodid beetles and their family relationships in the Staphylinoidea (Coleoptera : Ptiliidae and Limulodidae) / Henry S. Dybas.

v.70:no.3(1976)

Maturidade sexual das fêmeas de Callinectes danae (Crustacea, Decapoda, Portunidae) nos estuários dos rios Botafogo e Carrapicho, Itamaracá, PE, Brasil

Callinectes danae (Smith, 1869), siri-azul, constitui um importante recurso pesqueiro nos estuários dos rios Botafogo e Carrapicho. O objetivo do presente estudo foi estimar a maturidade sexual das fêmeas de C. danae. Os espécimes foram capturados, entre outubro de 2003 a junho de 2004, com auxílio de um barco de pesca equipado com rede de arrasto do tipo "wing-trawl" e arrastados durante 5 minutos. No laboratório, os siris foram contados, numerados, sexados, pesados e mensurados. A largura da carapaça (LC) foi medida na base do espinho lateral e a largura do abdome (LA) mensurada na altura da articulação do quinto esternito abdominal. Um total de 596 fêmeas de C. danae foram analisadas: 417 (69,97%) no rio Botafogo e 179 (30,03%) no Carrapicho; as fêmeas não-ovígeras apresentaram LC de 18,38 a 101 mm (59,14 ± 13,65 mm) e 26,70 a 83,48 mm (59,16 ± 13,77 mm), nos respectivos rios; a LC de fêmeas ovígeras foi de 57,04 a 83,30 mm (67,68 ± 6,56 mm). As médias de larguras das carapaças não apresentaram diferenças estatisticamente significativas O conhecimento da maturidade sexual das fêmeas de Callinectes danae é de grande importância para o seu manejo e conservação. O L50 gonadal foi estimado em 63,58 mm (chi2 = 140,47; g.l. = 1; p < 0,01) e 61,59 mm (chi2 = 90,94; g.l. = 1; p < 0,01) e o L50 morfológico foi de 57,13 mm (chi2 = 484,51; g.l. = 1; p < 0,01) e 56,46 mm (chi2 = 257,82; g.l. = 1; p < 0,01), nos estuários dos rios Botafogo e Carrapicho, respectivamente. Em ambos os estuários, a maturidade morfológica de fêmeas de C. danae ocorreu antes da maturidade gonadal e para garantir que esta espécie seja manejada com êxito, sugere-se que a pesca seja permitida apenas em indivíduos com largura da carapaça superior a 65 mm.

Two new species of Drosophila belonging to the canalinea group (Diptera, rosophilidae)

Drosophila piratininga sp. nov. and Drosophila sampa sp. nov., belonging to the canalinea group of the subgenus Drosophila, are described based mostly on wild-caught specimens collected at a forest reserve of the Cidade Universitária "Armando de Salles Oliveira", an urban remnant of the montane Atlantic Forest located at west São Paulo city, state of São Paulo, Brazil. The two species are readily distinguished from each other mostly by having different wing patterns: the main crossveins being remarkably clouded in the first one and unclouded in the latter. Illustrations of terminalia are also provided.

Sex ratio and morphological characteristics of rufous gnateaters, Conopophaga lineata (Aves, Passeriformes) in Atlantic forest fragments

Unequal sex ratios lead to the loss of genetic variability, decreasing the viability of populations in the long term. Anthropogenic activities often disturb the natural habitats and can cause alterations in sex ratio and morphological characteristics of several species. Forest fragmentation is a major conservation concern, so that understanding its effects in natural populations is essential. In this study, we evaluated the sex ratio and the morphological characteristics of Rufous Gnateaters (Conopophaga lineata (Wied, 1831)) in small and large forest fragments in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Birds (n = 89) were sexed by plumage characteristics and molecular markers. The molecular analysis showed that plumage is not a totally reliable method for sexing Rufous Gnateaters. We observed that sex ratio did not differ between large and small forest fragments, but birds in small fragments had larger wings and tarsus. Wing and tarsus changes may affect the movement ability of individuals within and among forest fragments. In conclusion, Rufous Gnateaters have been able to survive in both small and large Atlantic rain forest fragments without altering their sex ratio, but morphological changes can be prejudicial to their long term survival.

Variation morphogeometrics of Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera) in Brazil

The morphometrics of the honey bee Apis mellifera L., 1758 has been widely studied mainly because this species has great ecological importance, high adaptation capacity, wide distribution and capacity to effectively adapt to different regions. The current study aimed to investigate the morphometric variations of wings and pollen baskets of honey bees Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier, 1836 from the five regions in Brazil. We used geometric morphometrics to identify the existence of patterns of variations of shape and size in Africanized honey bees in Brazil 16 years after the classic study with this species, allowing a temporal and spatial comparative analysis using new technological resources to assess morphometrical data. Samples were collected in 14 locations in Brazil, covering the five geographical regions of the country. The shape analysis and multivariate analyses of the wing allowed to observe that there is a geographical pattern among the population of Apis mellifera in Brazil. The geographical variations may be attributed to the large territorial extension of the country in addition to the differences between the bioregions.

As espécies neotropicais da família Simuliidae Schiner (Diptera Nematocera): II. Lutzsimulium cruzi, n. gen. e n. sp. e nova concepção da nervação das asas dos Simulídeos

A new system for wing venation of Simuliidae is proposed. Lutzsimulium cruzi n., gen. and n. sp. is described based on an single female and its pupal skin.

Espécies neotropicais da família Simuliidae Schiner: (Diptera Nematocera): II. Lutzsimulium cruzi, n. gen. e n. sp. e nova concepção da nervação das asas dos Simulídeos

A new system for wing venation of Simuliidae is proposed. Lutzsimulium cruzi n., gen. and n. sp. is described based on a single female and its pupal skin.