Marta Skowron Volponi

University of Florence | UNIFI · Dipartimento di Biologia

Heterosphecia tawonoides Kallies, a “lost” species of clearwing moth known only from a single specimen from 1887 (the holotype, which is missing important morphological features), was observed and filmed for the first time in its natural habitat. Our studies have shown that it is associated with Malaysian primary lowland dipterocarp forests, ecosys...

A stunning scarlet-coloured clearwing moth was found mud-puddling on a rainforest river bank in Malaysia and is described herein as a new genus and species, Scarlata nirvana gen. et sp. Nov.. This sesiid seems to be a rare case of a mimic of an assassin bug (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in a family otherwise known for hymenopteran mimicry. A high-quality...

Background The endless struggle to survive has driven harmless species to evolve elaborate strategies of deceiving predators. Batesian mimicry involves imitations of noxious species’ warning signals by palatable mimics. Clearwing moths (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), incapable of inflicting painful bites or stings, resemble bees or wasps in their morpholo...

The author wishes to make the following corrections to this paper [...]

A clearwing moth with a distinct orange, black and white colour pattern was found sucking up fluids from Plecoptera (stonefly) exuviae on rocks, surrounded by water, on a river bank in Thailand. During this process, known as puddling, the sesiid ejected brown liquid, indicating that it was not imbibing water alone. The behaviour was documented via...

A metallic blue, new species of clearwing moth from Thailand is described and shown on video. With its spectacular colouration, long hind legs and an incredible illusion of a wasp-waist, complemented by behavioural imitations, this sesiid is a striking spider wasp mimic. Notes on possible mimicry models, behaviour and conditions of occurrence are g...

Clearwing moths are known for their physical resemblance to hymenopterans, but the extent of their behavioural mimicry is unknown. We describe zigzag flights of sesiid bee mimics that are nearly indistinguishable from those of sympatric bees, whereas sesiid wasp mimics display faster, straighter flights more akin to those of wasps. In particular, t...

Quantitative characterisation of the trajectories of moving animals is an important component of many behavioural and ecological studies, however methods are complicated and varied, and sometimes require well‐developed programming skills to implement. Here, we introduce trajr, an R package that serves to analyse animal paths, from unicellular organ...

The sesiid moth, Akaisphecia melanopuncta O. Gorbunov & Arita, 1995, is recorded from Thailand for the first time, having originally been described from Vietnam and subsequently recorded from Laos. Photographs of a living individual are presented that illustrate that in life it is a very good mimic of red-and-black aposematic Hemiptera (Heteroptera...

Supplementary video of: Skowron Volponi & Volponi (2017) A new species of bee-mimicking clearwing moth (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) from Thailand, with description and video of its behaviour. Abstract Unique footage of flight and mud-puddling behaviour of a new species of clearwing moth (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) was realized in its habitat in Thailand. A...

Unique footage of flight and mud-puddling behaviour of a new species of clearwing moth (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) was filmed in its habitat in Thailand. Aschistophleps argentifasciata, morphologically resembling a bee, imitates its model also in the way it flies. This behavioural mimicry, as well as mud-puddling, filmed both in real-time and slow moti...

The Apollo butterfly, Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus), was common in Europe over 100 years ago, but currently it is considered as near threatened. Different conservation programs have promoted the persistence of this species, however, it is still endangered. An example of such programs was the action devoted to reestablish the Apollo butterfly populat...

Citation: Skowron Volponi MA, Volponi P (2017) A new species of wasp-mimicking clearwing moth from Peninsular Malaysia with DNA barcode and behavioural notes (Lepidoptera, Sesiidae). ZooKeys 692: 129–139. https://doi. Abstract A new species of clearwing moth, Pyrophleps ellawi Skowron Volponi, sp. n., is described from Peninsular Malaysia. Informat...

Multiple alignment of barcode sequences

Video of Pyrophleps ellawi in natural habitat

Screening of extreme environments in search for novel microorganisms may lead to the discovery of robust enzymes with either new substrate specificities or thermostable equivalents of those already found in mesophiles, better suited for biotechnology applications. Isolates from Iceland geysers’ biofilms, exposed to a broad range of temperatures, fr...

A new species of Sesiidae, tribe Osminiini from Peninsular Malaysia, Heterosphecia pahangensis Skowron, displaying numerous bee-mimicking features, is described. DNA barcodes showed significant differences with related taxa. However, the paucity of Sesiidae barcodes from Southeast Asia prevents meaningful taxonomic comparisons. The closest match ou...

The outbreak of an infectious disease in captive-bred Lepidoptera can cause death of all the caterpillars within days. A mixed baculoviral-bacterial infection observed among Actias selene (Hubner 1807), the Indian moon moth (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), larvae was characterized and followed by a photographic documentation of the disease prog...

A type II restriction endonuclease, MmoSTI, from the pathogenic bacterium Morganella morganii infecting a tropical moth, Actias selene, has been detected and biochemically characterized, as a potential etiological differentiation factor. The described REase recognizes interrupted palindromes, i.e., 5'-CCNGG-3' sequences and cleaves DNA leaving 5-nu...

##Assembly-Data-START## Sequencing Technology :: Sanger dideoxy sequencing ##Assembly-Data-END##