Nathan Patrick Lord

Air Force Research Laboratory | WPAFBRL

Three new genera of Synchitini are described from New Zealand, including two monotypic genera, Oparara Leschen and Lord, new genus (type species Oparara marskeae Leschen and Lord, new species) and Tarphionivea Leschen and Lord, new genus (type species T. lindsayae Leschen and Lord, new species). The New Zealand Bitoma Herbst comprise members of mul...

Opsin proteins are fundamental components of animal vision whose structure largely determines the sensitivity of visual pigments to different wavelengths of light. Surprisingly little is known about opsin evolution in beetles, even though they are the most species rich animal group on Earth and exhibit considerable variation in visual system sensit...

Background: Arthropods have received much attention as a model for studying opsin evolution in invertebrates. Yet, relatively few studies have investigated the diversity of opsin proteins that underlie spectral sensitivity of the visual pigments within the diverse beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera). Previous work has demonstrated that beetles appear to...

A brief review of the classification history of the subfamily Colydiinae is provided, followed by a provisional diagnosis for the group. The 47 genera of New World Colydiinae (Colydiidae auctorum) are reviewed, with an illustrated key to genera, a representative habitus of each genus, a list of all 305 described species currently considered valid,...

Five new genera and 13 new species of Neotropical synchitine zopherids are described, and two new combinations are proposed. Globotrichus Lord and Ivie, new genus (type species Globotrichus harti Lord and Ivie, new species) is described from Central and South America. Helonoton Lord and Ivie, new genus (type species Helonoton costaricense Lord and...

Colour pattern variation provides biological information in fields ranging from disease ecology to speciation dynamics. Comparing colour pattern geometries across images requires colour segmentation, where pixels in an image are assigned to one of a set of colour classes shared by all images. Manual methods for colour segmentation are slow and subj...

The evolutionary history of visual genes in Coleoptera differs from other well-studied insect orders, such as Lepidoptera and Diptera, as beetles have lost the widely conserved short-wavelength (SW) insect opsin gene that typically underpins sensitivity to blue light (∼ 440 nm). Duplications of the ancestral ultraviolet (UV) and long-wavelength (LW...

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a reemerging crop in the United States with increasing outdoor acreage in many states. This crop offers a potential host for polyphagous, defoliating lepidopteran pests currently present in Louisiana. The ability of soybean looper [Chrysodeixis includens (Walker)] (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), fall armyworm [Spodoptera frug...

Color patterns are easy to observe, but difficult to quantify. A necessary first step for most digital color pattern analysis methods is generating color maps, where every pixel in an image is assigned to one of a set of discrete color pattern elements (color segmentation). Most automatic methods for color segmentation rely on color value threshold...

The quality of nest soils has significant effects on reproductive success in mud dauber species. This study investigated the physical and mechanical properties of the nest soils used by mud daubers from a geotechnical engineering perspective. One hundred thirty-one nests of black and yellow mud daubers were collected from five locations in the sout...

Two new species of Bohayella Belokobylskij, 1987 from Costa Rica are described: Bohayella geraldinae Kang, sp. nov. and Bohayella hansoni Kang, sp. nov. These are new distribution records for the genus in the Neotropical region. In addition, a key to species of the genus Bohayella of Costa Rica is presented. The current work elevates the number of...

Eyes have the flexibility to evolve to meet the ecological demands of their users. Relative to camera-type eyes, the fundamental limits of optical diffraction in arthropod compound eyes restrict the ability to resolve fine detail (visual acuity) to much lower degrees. We tested the capacity of several ecological factors to predict arthropod visual...

For the first time in 21 years, a new genus of cardiochiline braconid wasp, Orientocardiochiles Kang & Long, gen. nov. (type species Orientocardiochiles joeburrowi Kang, sp. nov.), is discovered and described. This genus represents the ninth genus in the Oriental region. Two new species (O. joeburrowi Kang, sp. nov. and O. nigrofasciatus Long, sp....

Light control through layered photonic nanostructures enables the strikingly colored displays of many beetles, birds, and butterflies. To achieve different reflected colors, natural organisms mainly rely on refractive index variations or scaling of a fixed structure design, as opposed to varying the type of structure. Here, we describe the presence...

Aim During the late Oligocene (23 mya) the New Zealand landmass was reduced to approximately 18% of its current area. It has been hypothesized that this event, known as the Oligocene Drowning, caused population bottlenecking and mass extinction. Using phylogenetic methods, we examine the effect of this and other environmental events on the hyper‐di...

The Australian species of Teredolaemus Sharp, 1885 are reviewed, described and illustrated. A key to the Australian species and detailed distribution maps are also provided. Five new species are described: Teredolaemus mulleolus sp. nov., T. opimus sp. nov., T. amplus sp. nov., T. micropunctatus sp. nov. and T. cerinus sp. nov. The neotype of Oxyla...

Advances in sequencing technologies have increased the utility of RNA to many fields of biology. Ideal preservation of RNA in tissues is accomplished by flash freezing and subsequent storage at -80 °C. Buffers such as RNAlater® are commonly used to preserve RNA samples when flash freezing is not possible. RNAlater® performs optimally at subfreezing...

The tortured nomenclatural history of the Chilean species Endophloeus flexuosus Solier, 1849 and Endophloeus angustatus Solier, 1851 is reviewed. These species have had dual parallel and independent histories as members of the Zopheridae: Colydiinae and Tenebrionidae. The genus Phloeopsidius Gebien, 1925 was proposed for these two species in the Te...

A large-scale phylogenetic study is presented for Cucujoidea (Coleoptera), a diverse superfamily of beetles that historically has been taxonomically difficult. This study is the most comprehensive analysis of cucujoid taxa to date, with DNA sequence data sampled from eight genes (four nuclear, four mitochondrial) for 384 coleopteran taxa, including...

Among insects, opsin copy number variation has been shown to be quite diverse. However, within the beetles, very little work on opsins has been conducted. Here, we look at the visual system of fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae), which offer an elegant system in which to study visual evolution as it relates to their behavior and broader ecology. The...

The first three visual transcriptomes were sequenced for the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), including both a male and female Emerald Ash Borer (EAB: Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire), arguably the most economically important insect pest in North America, and one male Chrysochroa tonkinensis (Descarpentries). Sequences for r-opsin genes were...

The jewel beetles are one of the most well-known and visually appealing groups of beetles. Buprestids are the 8th largest beetle family, but despite their diversity and recognizability, the higher classification of the group remains largely unresolved. Here we present the first molecular phylogeny for the family based on molecular data from eight l...

This paper provides a comprehensive catalogue of the New Zealand members of the family Zopheridae Solier (Coleoptera: Tenebrionoidea) in an effort to stabilize the nomenclature preceding extensive revisionary taxonomy within the group. A checklist of the 17 New Zealand zopherid genera and an account for each of the 189 species (by current combinati...

Leptochromus laselva Lord, Carlton, and Leschen, new species, from Costa Rica is described. Collecting techniques and natural history data are given. Among the five currently described species, this species is most similar to Leptochromus agilis (Sharp), but possesses a much longer postgenal process and differs in the shapes of the aedeagal paramer...

A new fossil beetle, Xylolaemus sakhnovi sp. nov., from Baltic amber (Eocene) of the Kaliningrad region of Russia is described and compared with the related extant species X. fasciculosus (Gyll.), X. africanus Grouv., X. indicus Grouv., X. aeonii (Oromí et García) and X. abnormis Ślipiński. The newly described species differs morphologically from a...

A revision of the genus Deretaphrus Newman, 1842 (Coleoptera: Bothrideridae) is presented. Deretaphrus is a predominantly Australian genus (22 species), although single species are also present in New Caledonia, Bolivia, and the Pacific Northwest USA. Members of the genus are large (5–13 mm) and commonly collected. Deretaphrus larvae are ectoparasi...

A revision of the genus Deretaphrus Newman, 1842 (Coleoptera: Bothrideridae) is presented. Deretaphrus is a predominantly Australian genus (22 species), although single species are also present in New Caledonia, Bolivia, and the Pacific Northwest USA. Members of the genus are large (5-13 mm) and commonly collected. Deretaphrus larvae are ectoparasi...

The first comprehensive investigation of heavy metal incorporation into the mandibles of beetles was conducted via variable pressure environmental scanning electron microscopy (VP-ESEM) and X-Ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Mandibles from all major coleopteran lineages (117 taxa = 4/4 suborders, 16/16 superfamilies, ~25% families) were an...

The beetle family Zopheridae is currently composed of members from three previously-recognized families (Zopheridae, Colydiidae, and Monommatidae), resulting in a tortured taxonomic history. The impressive morphological heterogeneity of the group and insufficient prior analyses have led to repeated questioning of the family’s constitution and highe...

The Zopheridae of New Zealand are remarkably speciose, containing more than 10% of the described members of the cosmopolitan family. New Zealand zopherids exhibit high levels of endemism and occupy a number of ecological niches across both islands. Since the major descriptive efforts of Broun in the late 1800s and early 1900s, little work has been...

Two lineages of basal tenebrionoids, Ulodidae and Zopheridae, are rich in species in New Zealand, and also pose important taxonomic problems at species and higher levels. Critical examination of external morphology and over 200 primary types of described New Zealand species alongside molecular phylogenetic studies and several years of intensive fie...

Ironclad ID: Tool for Diagnosing Ironclad and Cylindrical Bark Beetles (Coleoptera: Zopheridae) of the United States, ws developed through collaboration between CPHST and University of New Mexico. Designed for use by a wide variety of individuals, Ironclad ID aims to provide support for the identification of all genera and species in the family Zop...

We infer the first phylogenetic hypothesis for Latridiidae Erichson (Coleoptera: Cucujoidea). Portions of seven genes (18S ribosomal DNA, 28S ribosomal DNA, 12S ribosomal DNA, 16S ribosomal DNA, cytochrome c oxidase I and II and histone III) were analysed. Twenty-seven latridiid species were included, representing both subfamilies and more than hal...

It is well-documented that arthropods incorporate various elements into their cuticle for reinforcement. High concentrations of zinc, manganese, and iron are often found in the cuticle of various arthropod structures. Numerous studies have focused on the types and locations of cuticular metals in particular groups of arthropods. None of these studi...

Numerous arthropod taxa incorporate metals such as zinc and calcium into their mandibles for exoskeletal reinforcement. The location and type of cuticular metals are potentially diagnostic taxonomic characters. The absence or presence of these metals cannot be determined through conventional light microscopy techniques. Similarly, the coating of sp...

Introduction The genus Deretaphrus Newman resides in the family Bothrideridae. Long considered to be cylindrical bark beetles (Coleoptera: Colydiidae) in the Tenebrionoidea, the bothriderids were transferred to the Cerylonid Series of the superfamily Cucujoidea (Pal and Lawrence, 1986) based on several morphological features, including: exposed ant...

A phylogenetic analysis of the beetle family Latridiidae was performed based on seven genes (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, 12S rDNA, 16S rDNA, Cytochrome Oxidase I and II, and Histone 3). Due to the placement of the enigmatic genus Akalyptoischion (formerly Latridiinae), both parsimony and Bayesian analyses of the combined data indicate Latridiidae is paraph...