H.-W. Herrmann

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• PhD
• Researcher/Scientist at University of Arizona

Trachemys is a speciose genus of freshwater turtles distributed from the Great Lakes in North America across the southeastern USA, Mexico and Central America to the Rio de la Plata in South America, with up to 13 continental American species and 11 additional subspecies. Another four species with three additional subspecies occur on the West Indies...

A sentinel plot case study was carried out to identify and map the distribution of begomovirus-betasatellite complexes in sentinel plots and commercial cotton fields over a four-year period using molecular and high-throughput DNA 'discovery' sequencing approaches. Samples were collected from 15 study sites in the two major cotton-producing areas of...

Decades of research on sexual selection have demonstrated that 'conventional' Darwinian sex roles are common in species with anisogamous gametes, with those species often exhibiting male-biased sexual selection. Yet, mating system characteristics such as long-term sperm storage and polyandry have the capacity to disrupt this pattern. Here, these id...

Abstract Endosymbionts associated with the whitefly Bemisia tabaci cryptic species are known to contribute to host fitness and environmental adaptation. The genetic diversity and population complexity were investigated for endosymbiont communities of B. tabaci occupying different micro‐environments in Pakistan. Mitotypes of B. tabaci were identifie...

Sexual selection theory predicts that the sex in greater abundance and with "cheaper" gametes will experience increased reproductive success as a result of an increased number of matings, whereas the sex with more finite numbers of gametes and in lesser abundance will experience no such gain. Empirical data across taxa have supported the prevalence...

Understanding the origin and maintenance of phenotypic variation, particularly across a continuous spatial distribution, represents a key challenge in evolutionary biology. For this, animal venoms represent ideal study systems: they are complex, variable, yet easily quantifiable molecular phenotypes with a clear function. Rattlesnakes display treme...

The association between Bemisia tabaci mitotypes and cotton leaf curl outbreaks in Pakistan was investigated using the mitochondria cytochrome oxidase I gene (COI) as a molecular marker. The 3′-651 base fragment has been used to resolve B. tabaci phylogenies. However, the 5′-618 base fragment was nearly unexplored. Phylogenetic analysis for 829 whi...

Understanding the relationship between genome, phenotypic variation, and the ecological pressures that act to maintain that variation, represents a fundamental challenge in evolutionary biology. Functional polymorphisms typically segregate in spatially isolated populations [1, 2] and/or discrete ecological conditions [3-5], whereas dissecting the e...

Background Cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV), Cacao swollen shoot CD virus (CSSCDV), and Cacao swollen shoot Togo A virus (CSSTAV) cause cacao swollen shoot disease (CSSD) in West Africa. During 2000–2003, leaf and shoot-swelling symptoms and rapid tree death were observed in cacao in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. Molecular tests showed positive infectio...

Roads can substantially impact the population connectivity of a wide range of terrestrial vertebrates, often resulting in loss of genetic diversity and an increase of spatial genetic structure. We studied the Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox), a large and abundant venomous predator, to test the hypothesis that a large and relative...

Nature conservation is policy driven and thus is political. Conservation science, as portrayed in the literature and to the public at large, is best described as a crisis discipline. Information to guide policy must be objective and based on science; however, contrary to this view, resources committed to nature conservation are often a result of e...

Ecosystems transition quickly in the Anthropocene, whereas biodiversity adapts more slowly. Here we simulated a shifting woodland ecosystem on the Colorado Plateau of western North America by using as its proxy over space and time the fundamental niche of the Arizona black rattlesnake (Crotalus cerberus). We found an expansive (= end-of-Pleistocene...

doi: 10.1094/PDIS-04-14-0345-PDN

The ubiquitous phenomenon of aggregation in all life forms — from microbes and insects to elephants and whales — has promoted the investigation of the formation, pattern, and persistence of this behavior, particularly in like species. In vertebrates, aggregations of single species can vary greatly in size from several individuals in primates and ca...

The vulnerability of a species to extinction is driven by several factors: the depth of its genetic variability, its capacity to disperse, and the rapidity by which its habitat is fragmented and/ or decomposed. These can be adjudicated by evaluating the contemporary molecular diversity of a study species, its dispersal capabilities, the modeling of...

Long-term studies of individual animals in nature contribute disproportionately to our understanding of the principles of ecology and evolution. Such field studies can benefit greatly from integrating the methods of molecular genetics with traditional approaches. Even though molecular genetic tools are particularly valuable for species that are dif...

Long-term studies of individual animals in nature contribute disproportionately to our understanding of the principles of ecology and evolution. Such field studies can benefit greatly from integrating the methods of molecular genetics with traditional approaches. Even though molecular genetic tools are particularly valuable for species that are dif...

Embryonic development in animals is dynamically regulated by physiological, behavioural, and environmental factors (temperature, precipitation, humidity), which in turn influence the timing of birth or hatching. In the present study, we provide evidence that parturition in a large-bodied North American pitviper, the western diamond-backed rattlesna...

First Detection of Cotton leaf curl Burewala virus and Cognate Cotton leaf curl Multan betasatellite and Gossypium darwinii symptomless alphasatellite in Symptomatic Luffa cylindrica in Pakistan

We used 10 microsatellite DNA markers originally described for two Crotalus and one Sistrurus species to infer paternity in a captive-hatched clutch of Lachesis muta. Although the dam was known, records listed two potential sires, which prevented the inclusion of those offspring in a captive breeding program. Samples were collected from both possib...

Namibia is mostly an arid and semi-arid country with a high number of reptile and fewer amphibian species. We review the herpetological literature dealing with Namibian species over the past fifty years, and provide up-to-date amphibian and reptile accounts using a widely accepted taxonomy and nomenclature. We critically discuss species accounts, d...

We provide details on 46 microsatellite loci for Crotalus and Sistrurus rattlesnake species. We isolated 14, five, and four novel polymorphic species-specific microsatellite markers for Crotalus atrox, C. scutulatus, and C. cerastes, respectively. We observed seven to 36 alleles per locus. Additionally, we provide data on the cross-species amplific...

Suggestions that the extinct Vegas Valley leopard frog (Rana fisheri=Lithobates fisheri) may have been synonymous with one of several declining species have complicated recovery planning for imperiled leopard frogs in southwestern United States. To address this concern, we reconstructed the phylogenetic position of R. fisheri from mitochondrial and...

Eighteen species of the frog genus Phrynobatrachus are recognized from Cameroon. We describe a new species from Mt. Nlonako in the Littoral Province of Western Cameroon. It was recorded during a six-year amphibian inventory at Mt. Nlonako and is known only from the type locality within a submontane rain forest at an altitude of approximately 450 m....

We present the first data collected in situ on clutch and egg size for the Mountain Chameleon (Chamaeleo montium). In addition, we examine within and among clutch variation and its relationship with female body size. We caught wild females from January to June 2003 and held them until egg deposition. We collected morphometric data on females and cl...

The reptiles of Mt Nlonako, a mountain at the southeastern edge of the Cameroon mountain range ("Dorsale camerounaise"), were inventoried continually over a six year period from 1998 to 2004. This area encompasses 150 km2 of lowland, submontane and montane rainforest with an elevation up to 1,825 m. Accounts of 89 species are provided based on coll...

We redescribe Trimeresurus cornutus, a species that has not been reported for more than half a century, based on a recently collected live specimen from the Annamite Mountains of Central Vietnam. Besides new data on the distribution and habitat, we compare coloration and morphological data of the first known male of the species with the type specim...

Biochemical and biological activities of a venom sample from a recently discovered new genus and species of pitviper from Vietnam, Triceratolepidophis sieversorum, were assayed and compared with those of five other viperid snakes (Bothrops asper, Crotalus atrox, Protobothrops flavoviridis, Trimeresurus insularis, and Vipera ammodytes). The venom ha...

It is shown that Cuora g. galbinifrons and C. g. bourreti intergrade in the Vietnamese provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh. A parallel situation exists there for Pyxidea m. mouhotii and P. m. obsti. The complicated nomenclatural history of Cuora galbinifrons is discussed and the type locality of Cuora galbinifrons bourreti Obst & Reimann, 1994 is c...

A new genus and species of pitviper from the Annam Mountain Range, Quang Binh Province, Vietnam are described. The description is based on a single male specimen. This member of the Trimeresurus group is characterized by the presence of raised horn-like multiple supraoculars and by having the unique structure of the dorsal scales showing a keel con...

A 34 year old male bitten by an adult Atheris squamiger snake developed symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea which were followed by drowsiness and impaired breathing. Local hemorrhage, edema and pain at the bite-site occurred, but no systemic bleeding or hemorrhagic diathesis developed. All clinical and laboratory parameters were in the normal ra...

This is the first book to present a multidisciplinary approach to venomous snake research. As well as focusing on the medical aspects of snake venoms and the effects of snakebites, the book examines the evolution and ecology of venomous snakes, which are so crucial in the search for snakebite antidotes. The book has been written to be accessible to...

The phylogenetic relationships of the large Palaearctic vipers (Daboia sensu Obst, 1983) and Eristicophis were investigated using immunological comparisons of blood serum albumin and blood serum electrophoresis. The genus Echis was used for outgroup comparisons. Daboia was found to be polyphyletic. The name Daboia should be restricted to the type s...

Thesis (Dr. rer. nat.)--Philipps-Universität Marburg, 1995. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-143). Electronic reproduction. s