State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart

Aim Rapid loss in global insect diversity has generated substantial public worry due to their critical ecological roles. However, there is controversy about the effectiveness of the global‐scale hotspots in guiding the conservation of diversity at the regional scale. Even worse, little is known about the knowledge of insect distributional dynamics in many understudied regions, such as East and Southeast Asia. Here, to guide for setting regional‐scale conservation priorities for insect diversity, we explore hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) for their distributional dynamics and identify regional hotspots requiring protection. Location South China (including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong and Macau) and northern Vietnam (17°~26.5° N, 102°~117.5° E). Methods Species distribution models were generated for 194 hawkmoth species based on 3597 occurrence records to predict their distributions. We calculated the spatial patterns of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity and identified regional hotspots. Furthermore, the potential assembly mechanisms underlying insect diversity were explored by analysing the rates of speciation, extinction and dispersal between phyloregions. Results (a) The coastal regions of South China and northern Vietnam represent a regional hotspot of hawkmoths in East and Southeast Asia, with significantly higher α‐diversity than that in inland regions. (b) Dispersal played a more important role than local speciation and extinction in the formation of regional hawkmoth hotspots. Main Conclusions In this study, the ‘Out‐of‐the‐tropics model’ can explain the formation of the hawkmoth regional hotspots and the enhanced version of the ‘Pure dispersal model’ can explain the formation of the hotspots in Hainan Island. Compared with the local speciation and extinction, dispersal is the main driving factor that promoted the formation of the regional biodiversity hotspot of hawkmoths in South China. The case of Hainan Island suggests that protection within hotspots needs to account for specific regional macro‐evolutionary dynamics rather than indiscriminate coverage of identified hotspots.

Crocodylomorphs have colonized various environments from fully terrestrial to fully aquatic, making it an important clade among archosaurs. A remarkable example of the rich past diversity of Crocodylomorpha Hay, 1930 is the marine colonization undergone by several crocodylomorph lineages, particularly Thalattosuchia Fraas, 1901 during the Early Jurassic–Early Cretaceous, and Dyrosauridae de Stefano, 1903 during the Late Cretaceous–Early Eocene. Thalattosuchia represents the most impressive and singular marine radiation among Crocodylomorpha, occupying various ecological niches, before enigmatically disappearing in the Cretaceous. Dyrosauridae, on the other hand, is known for surviving the end‐Cretaceous mass extinction in abundance but subsequently vanished. The evolutionary path undertaken by crocodylomorphs into the aquatic environments and the reasons for their disappearance outside marine extinction events during the Mesozoic remains a mystery. Despite a well‐preserved fossil record, attention has primarily centered on craniodental adaptations, overlooking the swimming‐related adaptations recorded in the postcranial skeleton. This research primarily involves a comprehensive examination of the pectoral girdle of the most representative members of Thalattosuchia and Dyrosauridae, highlighting their evolutionary trajectories over time. Additionally, this work aims to test the phylogenetic signal residing in the postcranial anatomy of Crocodylomorpha. As such, the most recent and complete Crocodylomorpha phylogenetic dataset has been repurposed: 42 new postcranial characters have been added and several others have been revised to address our phylogenetic question. We stress that postcranial anatomy constitutes an important tool supply to better understand the relations of extinct crocodyliforms, but also offers insights on their development, ecology, and biomechanics.

Emergence is a fundamental concept in biology and other disciplines, but whether emergent phenotypes evolve similarly to nonemergent phenotypes is unclear. The hypothesized process of emergent evolution posits that evolutionary change in at least some collective behaviors will differ from evolutionary change in the corresponding intrinsic behaviors of isolated individuals. As a result, collective behavior might evolve more rapidly and diversify more between populations compared to individual behavior. To test whether collective behavior evolves emergently, we conducted a large comparative study using 22 ant species and gathered over 1,500 behavioral rhythm time series from hundreds of colonies and isolated individuals, totaling over 1.5 y of behavioral data. We show that analogous traits measured at individual and collective levels exhibit distinct evolutionary patterns. The estimated rates of phenotypic evolution for the rhythmicity of activity in ant colonies were faster than the evolutionary rates of the same behavior measured in isolated individual ants, and total variation across species in collective behavior was higher than variation in individual behavior. We hypothesize that more rapid evolution and higher variation is a widespread feature of emergent phenotypes relative to lower-level phenotypes across complex biological systems.

Cherry laurel ( Prunus laurocerasus ) is a very popular garden plant and has been widely reported as a garden escape, for example, in Central Europe. We recorded flower visitors and consumers of fruits and conducted pollination experiments to improve our understanding of the degree of ecological integration of P. laurocerasus in the newly colonized range in Central Europe. We observed a range of different flower visitors, especially bees and syrphid flies. Bee visitation rates decreased with increasing canopy cover, whereas fly visitation rates were independent of canopy cover. Prunus laurocerasus is reported as outcrossing in its native range, but we could demonstrate that the plant is facultatively selfing in our study area. Open pollination led to abundant fruit set, and fruit consumption by common blackbirds was observed. Overall, our study documents that the reproductive ecology of P. laurocerasus is well adapted to the conditions (e.g., pollinators, seed dispersers) of the newly colonized range in central Europe and underlines the invasive potential of the species.

The length of the snout in mammals has important evolutionary consequences for the functional systems housed within the rostrum. However, whether increased snout lengths lead to expanded olfactory performance has rarely been examined. Here, we investigate inner rostral function among 10 species of myrmecophagous (ant‐ and/or termite‐eating) placental mammals and 10 closely related species. We use nondestructive computed tomography scanning methods to characterize inner rostral function based on the underlying morphology of the turbinal bones in the nasal cavity. Three approaches were chosen to address this question, including the quantification of functional turbinal surface area, the quantification of functional turbinal three‐dimensional complexity, and geometric morphometrics. By including non‐model species from several different mammalian orders, we were able to extend the discussion surrounding turbinal homologies to comparisons across mammals. Our results show no increased olfactory function in all myrmecophagous species relative to their sister taxa, which suggests that there is no trade‐off for increased olfactory capabilities in myrmecophagous species with elongated snouts. We found no evidence of convergence in turbinal morphology among all five myrmecophagous lineages. However, we found evidence of morphological convergence in the turbinals between the giant armadillo and the aardvark, suggesting a more complex interplay between the evolution of turbinal morphology and ecological correlates. While myrmecophagy alone may not be a strong enough ecological signal to overcome phylogenetic and developmental constraints, we suggest that this might be the case at the intersection of this dietary specialization with a primarily underground lifestyle where odorants may be difficult to detect.

Ecological disturbance can promote or reduce community biodiversity depending on its severity. Beekeeping activities represent a type of ecological disturbance when large numbers of honey bees are introduced to a landscape and interact with the local plant and pollinator community. In this study, we characterized the effect of immediate and long-term low-density migratory beekeeping on the diversity and abundance of native bees in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (China). We found that the presence of apiaries and the number of honey bees reduced native bee abundances in the local bee community, likely through displacement from floral resources. However, in locations where apiaries were previously kept for decades but are not currently present, native bee abundances recovered, and phylogenetic diversity increased; yet community relative abundances and dominant species were distinct from those that had never been stocked. Our results suggest that the presence of a transient, intermediate number of migratory honey bee colonies (60–100 colonies spaced ≥15 km from each other) may represent an intermediate ecological disturbance and not permanently reduce native bee abundances past a critical threshold that may lead to local extirpation. Yet, our study demonstrates the potential for even intermediate-scale low-density beekeeping to alter native bee communities in the long-term.

Megachile is one of the largest bee genera, including nearly 1,500 species, but very few chromosome-level assemblies exist for this group or the family Megachilidae. Here, we report the chromosome-level genome assembly of Megachile lagopoda collected from Xizang, China. Using PacBio CLR long reads and Hi-C data, we assembled a genome of 256.83 Mb with 96.08% of the assembly located on 16 chromosomes. Our assembly contains 266 scaffolds, with a scaffold N50 length of 15.6 Mb, and BUSCO completeness of 99.20%. We masked 27.10% (69.61 Mb) of the assembly as repetitive elements, identified 459 non-coding RNAs, and predicted 11,157 protein-coding genes. This high-quality genome of M. lagopoda represents an important step forward for our knowledge of megachilid genomics and bee evolution overall.

Recent advances in DNA barcoding have immeasurably advanced global biodiversity research in the last two decades. However, inherent limitations in barcode sequences, such as hybridization, introgression or incomplete lineage sorting can lead to misidentifications when relying solely on barcode sequences. Here, we propose a new Niche‐model‐Based Species Identification (NBSI) method based on the idea that species distribution information is a potential complement to DNA barcoding species identifications. NBSI performs species membership inference by incorporating niche modelling predictions and traditional DNA barcoding identifications. Systematic tests across diverse scenarios show significant improvements in species identification success rates under the newly proposed NBSI framework, where the largest increase is from 4.7% (95% CI: 3.51%–6.25%) to 94.8% (95% CI: 93.19%–96.06%). Additionally, obvious improvements were observed when using NBSI on potentially ambiguous sequences whose genetic nearest neighbours belongs to another species or more than two species, which occurs commonly with species represented by single or short DNA barcodes. These results support our assertion that environmental factors/variables are valuable complements to DNA sequence data for species identification by avoiding potential misidentifications inferred from genetic information alone. The NBSI framework is currently implemented as a new R package, ‘NicheBarcoding’, that is open source under GNU General Public Licence and freely available from https://CRAN.R‐project.org/package=NicheBarcoding.

The diets and feeding strategies of pterosaurs remain a poorly known although speculatively debated topic in vertebrate paleontology. Fossilized gut contents, which offer a crucial direct line of evidence to help decipher these elusive questions, are only known from a handful of pterosaur specimens in a few notable fossil Lagerstätten, such as the Solnhofen Limestone of Bavaria. Although extremely rare, pterosaurs can be exceptionally well preserved in the Lower Jurassic (Toarcian) Posidonia shale of Baden-Württemberg but, until now, none have been reported with identifiable gut contents. Here, we describe fossilized gut contents in two Posidonia Shale pterosaurs: Dorygnathus banthensis (Rhamphorhynchidae) and Campylognathoides zitteli (Campylognathoididae). Dorygnathus is shown to be piscivorous as indicated by the inclusion of the small teleost Leptolepis sp. preserved inside of the abdominal cavity. The gastrointestinal tract of Campylognathoides preserves associated accumulations of belemnoid hooklets referrable to Clarkeiteuthis conocauda and thereby demonstrating a teuthophagous diet. These findings represent the first convincing evidence for belemnoids contributing to the diet of a pterosaur and hint at a possible nocturnal hunting behavior for Campylognathoides. Previous hypotheses regarding dietary trophic partitioning based on differentiating skull anatomy in Posidonia Shale pterosaurs are supported.

Several fragmentary remains of an enigmatic acipenseriform, the order of fishes that includes living sturgeons and paddlefishes, are described from the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation of southern England. These remains are significant because they represent the first definitive evidence of an acipenseriform from the Upper Jurassic described outside of Asia. In total, five associated dorsal caudal fulcra from the caudal fin and a paired pelvic fin from at least two separate individuals are identified as acipenseriform, although it is uncertain to which family they belong. Three families of Mesozoic acipenseriform are considered: the †Chondrostei (Lower Jurassic, Europe), the †Peipiaosteidae (Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous, Asia), and the extant Acipenseroidei (Lower Cretaceous-recent, Laurasia). The new Kimmeridgian Clay acipenseriform fossils would significantly extend the temporal and spatial distribution of whichever family they are ascribed, but their affinities remain unclear. Regardless, the stratigraphic and paleobiogeographic occurrence of the new specimens holds novel implications for the poorly known evolutionary history of this primitive clade of extant non-Neopterygian fishes.

Palaearctic species of the genus Apsilocera Bouček, 1956 are reviewed. Twelve Palaearctic species are recognized based on females, of which eight new species are described: Apsilocera bradburyi Tselikh, Lee & Ku, sp. nov. (Republic of Korea), A. budai Tselikh, Lee & Ku, sp. nov. (Republic of Korea), A. eleganta Tselikh, Haas & Ku, sp. nov. (Republic of Korea, Sweden), A. grandistigma Tselikh, Lee & Ku, sp. nov. (Republic of Korea), A. jejuensis Tselikh, Lee & Ku, sp. nov. (Republic of Korea), A. marina Tselikh, Lee & Ku, sp. nov. (Republic of Korea), A. totoroi Tselikh, Haas & Ku, sp. nov. (Germany, Japan, Sweden), and A. triapitzini Tselikh, Haas & Ku, sp. nov. (Russia, Republic of Korea, Sweden). The female of A. verticillata Bouček, 1956 is described for the first time. Apsilocera dupla Mitroiu & Achterberg, 2013 and A. elongata Mitroiu & Achterberg, 2013 are recorded from the Palaearctic region for the first time. An identification key to females of all Palaearctic species of Apsilocera is given.

Three types of plant-insect interactions are identified on seeds from the lower Permian (Asselian) Shanxi and lower Shihhotse formations of the Taiyuan district, North China. This enhances the relatively meagre fossil record of seed predation in global late Paleozoic floras, adding the earliest record of granivory from Cathaysia. The dispersed seeds cannot be attributed with confidence to any particular plant group, but associated fossil leaves belong to a broad spectrum of plants, including Medullosales, Cycadales, Noeggerathiales, Gigantopteridales, Cordaitales, and Voltziales. Among 85 analysed seeds, six showed evidence of predation, referable to three damage types: DT074 and two new damage types that will be added to the forthcoming version of the fossil damage guide (DT274, DT430). These damage features indicate novel strategies of seed exploitation in the earliest Permian of China. The causal agents of the seed herbivory are difficult to resolve with certainty, but possible culprits include representatives of Palaeodictyopteroidea, although we cannot exclude other groups, such as Dictyoptera, Odonatoptera, Archaeorthoptera, Hemipteroidea or early holometabolan insects. The presence of damage features, together with a range of probable defensive structures (hairs, spines, apical horns, and thick integuments), suggests that an active arms race involving insects and plant reproductive structures was already well established by the early Permian.

Increases in the abundance of woody species have been reported to affect the provisioning of ecosystem services in drylands worldwide. However, it is virtually unknown how multiple biotic and abiotic drivers, such as climate, grazing, and fire, interact to determine woody dominance across global drylands. We conducted a standardized field survey in 304 plots across 25 countries to assess how climatic features, soil properties, grazing, and fire affect woody dominance in dryland rangelands. Precipitation, temperature, and grazing were key determinants of tree and shrub dominance. The effects of grazing were determined not solely by grazing pressure but also by the dominant livestock species. Interactions between soil, climate, and grazing and differences in responses to these factors between trees and shrubs were key to understanding changes in woody dominance. Our findings suggest that projected changes in climate and grazing pressure may increase woody dominance in drylands, altering their structure and functioning.

The vessels of various woody plants show helical sculpturing of the internal side of the secondary wall. The occurrence of these structures, termed helical thickenings (HT), is correlated with environmental parameters. Their adaptive benefit is, however, still not well understood. Suggestions for functional effects include mechanical stabilization, support of embolism refill or enhancement of water conductance. This study considers possible associations of HT with vessel wall thickness (VWT) and vessel diameter (VD) which are two xylem traits related to water transport and mechanical stabilization. Additionally, the relationship between HT and scalariform perforation plates (SPP) was studied, because a negative correlation between SPP and VWT was reported in the literature. The analysis also addressed the phylogenetic signal of HT. Available trait data for 337 species from 60 families and different biomes were used for statistical analyses. The results show (1) a significant negative correlation between HT and VWT across different biomes that likely indicates correlated evolution, (2) a tendency of HT to occur in narrower vessels (up to a diameter of about 100 µm), (3) an uneven distribution of HT and SPP among taxonomic groups of woody angiosperms, and (4) a moderate phylogenetic signal for HT which is evolutionary more labile than SPP. Based on these outcomes, the assumption of HT as a functional asset is supported which merits further study.

The yellow-spotted tilefish, Hoplolatilus fourmanoiri is recorded for the first time from the coastal waters of India. Eight specimens (92.2-105 mm SL) were procured from major fish landing centres in Tamil Nadu State, southeastern India during July 2022-February 2024. A morphological description and details of fresh colouration of the collected specimens are herein provided for the Indian specimens. This species has previously been known only from Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, the Ryukyu Islands (Japan), the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and this study represents the westernmost record of this species from southeastern India.

The Posidonienschiefer Formation of southern Germany has yielded an array of incredible fossil vertebrates. One of the best represented clades therein is Teleosauroidea, a successful thalattosuchian crocodylomorph group that dominated the coastlines. The most abundant teleosauroid, Macrospondylus bollensis, is known from a wide range of body sizes, making it an ideal taxon for histological and ontogenetic investigations. Previous studies examining thalattosuchian histology provide a basic understanding of bone microstructure in teleosauroids, but lack the taxonomic, stratigraphic, and ontogenetic control required to understand growth and palaeobiology within a species. Here, we examine the bone microstructure of three femora and one tibia from three different‐sized M. bollensis individuals. We also perform bone compactness analyses to evaluate for ontogenetic and ecological variation. Our results suggests that (1) the smallest specimen was a young, skeletally immature individual with well‐vascularized‐parallel‐fibered bone and limited remodeling in the midshaft periosteal cortex; (2) the intermediate specimen was skeletally immature at death, with vascularized parallel‐fibered bone tissue interrupted by at least 10 LAGs, but no clear external fundamental system (EFS), and rather extensive inner cortical bone remodeling; and (3) the largest specimen was skeletally mature, with parallel‐fibered bone tissue interrupted by numerous LAGs, a well‐developed EFS, and extensive remodeling in the deep cortex. Macrospondylus bollensis grew relatively regularly until reaching adult size, and global bone compactness values fall within the range reported for modern crocodylians. The lifestyle inference models used suggest that M. bollensis was well adapted for an aquatic environment but also retained some ability to move on land. Finally, both larger specimens display a peculiar, localized area of disorganized bone tissue interpreted as pathological.

A new species of bumble bee-mimicking brood parasitic bee, Tetralonioidella mimetica Orr & Zhu, sp. nov., is described from China. The systematic placement of this species was initially challenging but was resolved using a combination of phylogenomic and COI barcode analyses, which strongly support the new species as a member of the genus Tetralonioidella Strand. Interestingly, the new species mimics the color pattern of both a bumble bee (Bombus Latreille), and its host Habropoda Smith species, a mimicry format previously unknown for bees. A review of the other Tetralonioidella species revealed three additional bee mimics, including two further likely model-host-brood parasite mimicry complexes. To our knowledge, these represent the first documented three-tiered mimetic systems in bees. Several additional taxonomic actions recently became necessary in these and related taxa: Tetralonioidella meghalayensis Dohling & Dey, 2024 is synonymized syn. nov. with Habropoda radoszkowskii (Dalla Torre, 1896) and Varthemapistra Engel, stat. rev. is again synonymized with Habrophorula Lieftinck. Our results also highlight issues with the generic classification of the tribe Melectini as currently used, as Melecta Latreille was found paraphyletic in relation to the remaining melectine genera. As a first step toward resolving this issue, we return the Melecta subgenus Eupavlovskia Popov, stat. rev. to genus level and discuss the ongoing systematic uncertainties regarding melectine taxonomy.

In the temperate mixed oak forests of Central Europe, outbreaks of insects such as the spongy moth, Lymantria dispar, can cause severe defoliation and insecticide is sometimes applied for their control. Parasitoids, mainly Hymenoptera and Diptera, are among the most diverse and important natural enemies of caterpillars in these forests. However, due to their cryptic lifestyle and taxonomic difficulties, we lack knowledge on the impact of insecticide applications on complex host‐parasitoid networks. In a large‐scale field experiment, we tested the effect of spraying the lepidopteran‐specific insecticide Mimic (tebufenozide) on the abundance and community composition of both adult and larval parasitoids. We combined morphological identification, DNA barcoding and metabarcoding to identify parasitoids adult or inside caterpillars, both sampled by canopy fogging during an outbreak and two subsequent years. We analysed the abundance of parasitoids, community composition and network specialisation using statistical methods that account for sample incompleteness in host‐parasitoid data. For adult parasitoid assemblages, we found strong annual effects on abundance, with highest numbers of adult parasitoids occurring in the outbreak year, as well as on annual changes in community composition, but no effect linked to insecticide application. However, the abundance and species number of immature parasitoids revealed negative effects of insecticide application, while community composition was only affected by annual variation. Coverage‐based network analyses showed a reduction of taxonomic network diversity and network specialisation associated with insecticide application in the first 2 years. Synthesis and applications: This real‐world experiment shows that parasitoid populations respond immediately to large‐scale outbreaks but only limited to local disturbances. Results indicate that this group of natural enemies exhibits high mobility, enabling them to track host populations across large spatial scales. However, our observation of reduced network specialisation after insecticide application is a warning signal that ecosystem function, and consequently natural pest control services, may be impaired by human interference at the local stand scale.

The role of dipteran predators in biological pest control programs is reviewed and discussed. Diptera encompasses a large number of potentially efficient predators for biological pest control, yet only a few species are routinary used. The families Syrphi-dae and Cecidomyiidae provide some of the most successful examples of biological control, but other families (e.g., Muscidae, Sarcophagidae, Sciomyzidae) also include species with that potential. Most applications of Diptera as predators involve the conservation biological control approach, while the augmenta-tive approach has involved only a few species, almost exclusively of Syrphidae and Cecidomyiidae. In a few cases, classical biological control has been employed. Commercialization of species mainly to be used in the augmentative approach is discussed, also focusing on the critical issues linked to rearing methods. The dual services performed by Diptera (pollination as adults and biological control as larvae) have been studied in detail for Syrphidae only, but would deserve further study in other families, e.g., Sarcophagidae. This is the first review in which the use of predatory Diptera in biological control programs is investigated for all families and in all types of applications. This review recommends a multi-taxon approach in the use of Diptera in biological control since a large number of taxa have considerable potential, although this has not yet been tested in practical applications.

A partial caudal fin of a large-bodied asthenocormine pachycormiform (Pachycormiformes: Pachycormidae: Asthenocorminae) is described from the Upper Jurassic (lower Tithonian) Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset, England. The specimen comprises associated fin rays, basal fulcra, ‘epurals’ and paired pre-caudal scutes, the combination and morphology of which is consistent with the large (2–3 m TL) edentulous, supposedly ‘suspension-feeding’ asthenocormine, Asthenocormus titanius (Wagner), presently known only from the Upper Jurassic plattenkalks of Bavaria, Germany. Asthenocormus has previously been documented in the literature as being present in the Middle and Upper Jurassic of England, however all of these specimens have been misattributed or since referred to different genera. However, the specimen from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation is here referred with confidence to Asthenocormus. Morphological variation in the pre-caudal dorsal scute of the new specimen compared to the Bavarian material suggest that the Kimmeridge Clay specimen likely represents a new species of Asthenocormus, although it is currently too poorly represented to diagnose, and hence we refer the specimen to Asthenocormus cf. titanius. The new specimen represents the first true record of Asthenocormus from the UK, thereby extending its known palaeobiogeographic distribution and further demonstrating faunal similarities between fish assemblage from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset and the Solnhofen-type plattenkalks of southern Germany. Additional comments are also made on the hidden diversity of pachycormid fishes in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation.