Faeces as a source of DNA for molecular studies in a threatened population of great bustards

With recent advances in molecular biology, it is now possible to use the trace amounts of DNA in faeces to non-invasively sample endangered species for genetic studies. A highly vulnerable population of approximately 100 great bustards (Otis tarda) exists in Morocco necessitating the use of non-invasive protocols to study their genetic structure. Here we report a reliable silica-based method to extract DNA from great bustard faeces. We found that successful extraction and amplification correlated strongly with faeces freshness and composition. We could not extract amplifiable DNA from 30% of our samples as they were dry or contained insect material. However 100% of our fresh faecal samples containing no obvious insect material worked, allowing us to assess the levels of genetic variation among 25 individuals using a 542 bp control region sequence. We were able to extract DNA from four out of five other avian species, demonstrating that faeces represents a suitable source of DNA for population genetics studies in a broad range of species.

Gene flow in great bustard populations across the Strait of Gibraltar as elucidated from excremental PCR and mtDNA sequencing

Recent advances in molecular biology have made it possible to use the trace amounts of DNA in faeces to non-invasively sample endangered species for genetic studies. Here we use faeces as a source of DNA and mtDNA sequence data to elucidate the relationship among Spanish and Moroccan populations of great bustards. 834 bp of combined control region and cytochrome-b mtDNA fragments revealed four variable sites that defined seven closely related haplotypes in 54 individuals. Morocco was fixed for a single mtDNA haplotype that occurs at moderate frequency (28%) in Spain. We could not differentiate among the sampled Spanish populations of Caceres and Andalucia but these combined populations were differentiated from the Moroccan population. Estimates of gene flow (Nm = 0.82) are consistent with extensive observations on the southern Iberian peninsular indicating that few individuals fly across the Strait of Gibraltar. We demonstrate that both this sea barrier and mountain barriers in Spain limit dispersal among adjacent great bustard populations to a similar extent. The Moroccan population is of high ornithological significance as it holds the only population of great bustards in Africa. This population is critically small and genetic and observational data indicate that it is unlikely to be recolonised via immigration from Spain should it be extirpated. In light of the evidence presented here it deserves the maximum level of protection.

Impact of commercial fishing on Trindade Island and Martin Vaz Archipelago, Brazil : characteristics, conservation status of the species involved and prospects for preservation

Reportamos atividades de pesca comerciais no complexo insular mais afastado da costa brasileira: Ilha da Trindade e Arquipélago Martin Vaz. As atividades foram estudadas através de embarques e entrevistas com os mestres e pescadores das embarcações durante uma expedição cientifica realizada entre fevereiro e abril de 2007. Quatro modalidades de atividades de pesca são realizadas na região, capturando ao menos sete espécies que possuem algum risco de extinção. O estabelecimento de normas específicas de restrição para atividades que pescam sobre os recifes das ilhas é uma alternativa para a conservação das espécies ameaçadas. O monitoramento das embarcações pode ocorrer via satélite através do programa nacional de rastreamento de embarcações pesqueiras (PREPS).

Revison of Alongatepyris (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae) with description of a new species from Colombia

Espécies do gênero Neotropical Alongatepyris Azevedo são raramente coletadas. O gênero é reconhecido dentre os Sclerodermini por possuir o corpo extremamente achatado e a célula submediana da asa anterior pequena e completamente fechada. É descrita e ilustrada uma segunda espécie, Alongatepyris ingens sp. nov. da Colômbia. Esta espécie é caracterizada por não possuir a nervura radial da asa anterior. É apresentada uma diagnose de A. platunissimus Azevedo, 1992. É apresentada uma chave para as espécies do gênero.

Characterization of the types of the Neotropical Pseudisobrachium (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), with a key to species

Atualmente é difícil reconhecer a identidade de muitas espécies neotropicais de Pseudisobrachium Kieffer, 1904, principalmente por que as descrições e ilustrações disponíveis não são suficientes para permitir identificações precisas. Para resolver este problema, foram examinadas 115 espécies válidas, além de seus sinônimos juniores. Foram realizados doze atos nomenclaturais, e reconhecidas 110 espécies válidas para a região Neotropical. Foram designados dois lectótipos: Pristocera crassicornis Westwood and Pristocera haemorrhoidalis Westwood. Foram propostas sete sinonímias novas para espécies: Pseudisobrachium retusum Evans syn. nov. de P. pauxillum Evans; P. cunco Perez syn. nov. de P. erythrocephalum Evans; P. navajo Evans, P. rectangulatum Evans, P. emarginatum Evans e P. foutsi Evans syn. nov. de P. flavinervis Fouts; P. acuminatum Waichert & Azevedo syn. nov. de P. latum Waichert & Azevedo. Foi proposta a seguinte sinonímia nova para gênero: Parisobrachium Kieffer syn. nov. de Dissomphalus Ashmead. Foi estabelecida a seguinte combinação nova e revalidado o nome: Dissomphalus albipes (Kieffer) comb. nov. e nom. rev. de Pseudisobrachium paraguayense Kieffer.

A new species of Solepyris Azevedo (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from Brazil, with amended diagnosis of the genus

Solepyris Azevedo é um gênero neotropical raramente coletado. O gênero é reconhecido dentre os gêneros de Sclerodermini por possuir a nervação das asas anteriores com apenas uma célula fechada grande. É descrita e ilustrada uma segunda espécie, Solepyris montuosus, sp. nov., do Brasil. Esta espécie é caracterizada por possuir a nervura radial da asa anterior longa. É incluída uma diagnose emendada de Solepyris unicus Azevedo. Foi fornecida uma chave para as duas espécies de Solepyris.

New species of Apenesia (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from the Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor, Acre, Brazil

Ten new species of Apenesia Westwood, 1874, from Brazil, Acre, are described and illustrated. They belong, respectively, to the following species-groups: nitida group, Apenesia lobata sp. nov., A. serrulata sp. nov. and A. subangulata sp. nov.; laevigata group, A. ocullata sp. nov. and A. rostrum sp. nov.; columbana group, A. apicilata sp. nov.; mexicana group, A. triapicalis sp. nov.; brasiliensis group, A. megaventris sp. nov., A. ventosa sp. nov. and A. triangula sp. nov. New geographical records and some morphological data on A. funebris Evans, 1963, A. nitida (Kieffer, 1910) and A. truncaticeps (Kieffer, 1910) are added.

New species of Bakeriella (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from the New World and new data on geographic distribution

Bakeriella lata sp. nov. (Brazil, Rondônia), Bakeriella aurata sp. nov. (Brazil, Amazonas) and Bakeriella sulcaticeps sp. nov. (Brazil, Amazonas) are described and illustrated. New geographic records and variation data for B. cristata Evans, 1964, B. floridana Evans, 1964, B. flavicornis Kieffer, 1910, B. incompleta Azevedo, 1994, B. mira Evans, 1997, B. montivaga (Kieffer, 1910), B. olmeca Evans, 1964 and B. subcarinata Evans, 1965 are provided. The male of B. incompleta is described for the first time.

New species and notes on Dissomphalus (Hymenoptera, Bethylidae) from Estação Biológica de Santa Lúcia, Santa Teresa, ES, Brazil

Five new species of Dissomphalus Ashmead, 1893 are described and illustrated, all from Espírito Santo, Brazil: D. h-ramus, D. verrucosus, D. laminaris, D. cristatus and D. scopatus. New geographic records and variation data of D. scamatus Azevedo, 1999, D. concavatus Azevedo, 1999, D. rectilineus Azevedo, 1999, D. vallensis Evans, 1979, D. gilvipes Evans, 1979, D. plaumanni Evans, 1964, D. napo Evans, 1979, D. truncatus Azevedo, 2003 and D. cornutus Evans, 1964 are included.

Automatic prebent customized prosthesis for pectus excavatum minimally invasive surgery correction

Pectus excavatum is the most common deformity of the thorax. A minimally invasive surgical correction is commonly carried out to remodel the anterior chest wall by using an intrathoracic convex prosthesis in the substernal position. The process of prosthesis modeling and bending still remains an area of improvement. The authors developed a new system, i3DExcavatum, which can automatically model and bend the bar preoperatively based on a thoracic CT scan. This article presents a comparison between automatic and manual bending. The i3DExcavatum was used to personalize prostheses for 41 patients who underwent pectus excavatum surgical correction between 2007 and 2012. Regarding the anatomical variations, the soft-tissue thicknesses external to the ribs show that both symmetric and asymmetric patients always have asymmetric variations, by comparing the patients’ sides. It highlighted that the prosthesis bar should be modeled according to each patient’s rib positions and dimensions. The average differences between the skin and costal line curvature lengths were 84 ± 4 mm and 96 ± 11 mm, for male and female patients, respectively. On the other hand, the i3DExcavatum ensured a smooth curvature of the surgical prosthesis and was capable of predicting and simulating a virtual shape and size of the bar for asymmetric and symmetric patients. In conclusion, the i3DExcavatum allows preoperative personalization according to the thoracic morphology of each patient. It reduces surgery time and minimizes the margin error introduced by the manually bent bar, which only uses a template that copies the chest wall curvature.

Species richness of anthophilous butterflies of an Atlantic Forest fragment in Southeastern Brazil

The objectives of this study were to identify anthophilous butterflies on psychophilous flowers of four Asteraceae species in an Atlantic Forest fragment in Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, Southeastern Brazil, and to determine whether there are species in common with other lepidopteran inventories of the Southeastern and Midwestern regions of Brazil. It is the first inventory of anthophilous butterflies of a semideciduous forest fragment in Zona da Mata, State of Minas Gerais. A total of 108 species were recorded, representing the fourth largest lepidopteran survey in this State. The results demonstrated that Asteraceae species may be important tools for monitoring anthophilous butterflies. The similarity with other inventories ranged from 1 to 92.55%. Fifteen species were reported for the first time in the State of Minas Gerais, and among them, Melanis alena and Thisbe irenea were observed in this study only.

Soybean growth and yield after single tillage and species mixture of cover plants

The use of cover crops is important for the agricultural crop and soil management in order to improve the system and, consequently, to increase yield. Therefore, the present study analyzed the effect of crop residues of black oat (Avena strigosa Schreb.) (BO) and a cocktail (CO) of BO, forage turnip (Raphanus sativus L.) (FT) and common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) (V) on the emergence speed index (ESI), seedling emergence speed (SES) plant height and soybean yield in different intervals between cover crop desiccation with glyphosate 480 (3 L ha-1) and BRS 232 cultivar sowing. Plots of 5 x 2.5 m with 1 m of border received four treatments with BO cover crops and four with CO as well as a control for each cover crop, at random, with five replications. The plots were desiccated in intervals of 1, 10, 20 and 30 days before soybean seeding. The harvest was manual while yield was adjusted to 13% of moisture content. The experimental design was completely randomized with splitplots and means compared by the Scott and Knott test at 5% of significance. The results showed that CO of cover crops can be recommended for soybean to obtain a more vigorous seedling emergence, from 10 days after cover crop desiccation.

Automatic prebent customized prosthesis for pectus excavatum minimally invasive surgery correction

Pectus excavatum is the most common deformity of the thorax. A minimally invasive surgical correction is commonly carried out to remodel the anterior chest wall by using an intrathoracic convex prosthesis in the substernal position. The process of prosthesis modeling and bending still remains an area of improvement. The authors developed a new system, i3DExcavatum, which can automatically model and bend the bar preoperatively based on a thoracic CT scan. This article presents a comparison between automatic and manual bending. The i3DExcavatum was used to personalize prostheses for 41 patients who underwent pectus excavatum surgical correction between 2007 and 2012. Regarding the anatomical variations, the soft-tissue thicknesses external to the ribs show that both symmetric and asymmetric patients always have asymmetric variations, by comparing the patients’ sides. It highlighted that the prosthesis bar should be modeled according to each patient’s rib positions and dimensions. The average differences between the skin and costal line curvature lengths were 84 ± 4 mm and 96 ± 11 mm, for male and female patients, respectively. On the other hand, the i3DExcavatum ensured a smooth curvature of the surgical prosthesis and was capable of predicting and simulating a virtual shape and size of the bar for asymmetric and symmetric patients. In conclusion, the i3DExcavatum allows preoperative personalization according to the thoracic morphology of each patient. It reduces surgery time and minimizes the margin error introduced by the manually bent bar, which only uses a template that copies the chest wall curvature.

Finite element analysis of pectus carinatum surgical correction via a minimally invasive approach

Pectus carinatum (PC) is a chest deformity caused by a disproportionate growth of the costal cartilages compared to the bony thoracic skeleton, pulling the sternum towards, which leads to its protrusion. There has been a growing interest on using the ‘reversed Nuss’ technique as minimally invasive procedure for PC surgical correction. A corrective bar is introduced between the skin and the thoracic cage and positioned on top of the sternum highest protrusion area for continuous pressure. Then, it is fixed to the ribs and kept implanted for about 2–3 years. The purpose of this work was to (a) assess the stresses distribution on the thoracic cage that arise from the procedure, and (b) investigate the impact of different positioning of the corrective bar along the sternum. The higher stresses were generated on the 4th, 5th and 6th ribs backend, supporting the hypothesis of pectus deformities correction-induced scoliosis. The different bar positioning originated different stresses on the ribs’ backend. The bar position that led to lower stresses generated on the ribs backend was the one that also led to the smallest sternum displacement. However, this may be preferred, as the risk of induced scoliosis is lowered.