Niko Kasalo

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Verified

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• Master of Science
• Research Assistant at Rudjer Boskovic Institute

Developing biofilms of the gram-positive, soil-dwelling bacterium Bacillus subtilis exhibit expression patterns and evolutionary imprints similar to those observed in eukaryotic embryos. However, the universality of these evolutionary and developmental regularities has not yet been explored in other biofilm-forming bacteria, including pathogens. To...

All animals have outsourced about half of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids (AAs). We recently demonstrated that the loss of biosynthetic pathways for these outsourced AAs is driven by energy-saving selection. Paradoxically, these metabolic simplifications enabled animals to use costly AAs more frequently in their proteomes, allowing them to explore...

Tetrigidae is one of the largest orthopteran families, but very few studies so far have integrated molecular and morphological data. Unsurprisingly, few species have been DNA barcoded, and the unresolved taxonomy makes Tetrigidae a difficult group to work with. Here, we examined a sample of 90 specimens collected as a part of the Costa Rican DNA ba...

The outsourcing of amino acid (AA) production to the environment is relatively common across the tree of life. We recently showed that the massive loss of AA synthesis capabilities in animals is governed by selective pressure linked to the energy costs of AA production. Paradoxically, these AA auxotrophies facilitated the evolution of costlier prot...

All animals have outsourced about half of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids (AAs). We recently demonstrated that the loss of biosynthetic pathways for these outsourced AAs is driven by energy-saving selection. Paradoxically, these metabolic simplifications enabled animals to use costly AAs more frequently in their proteomes, allowing them to explore...

Insects are suitable model organisms for functional morphology research, especially in the context of exaptation, when the same morphological trait represents an advantage in disparate niches. Phylogenetically distant groups of pygmy grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) have various pronotal projections, defining their general appearance, i.e., bo...

The zygotic embryogenesis of Arabidopsis, which is initiated by gamete fusion, shows hourglass-shaped ontogeny-phylogeny correlations at the transcriptome level. However, many plants are capable of yielding a fully viable next generation by somatic embryogenesis—a comparable developmental process that usually starts with the embryogenic induction o...

The outsourcing of amino acid (AA) production to the environment is relatively common across the tree of life. We recently showed that the massive loss of AA synthesis capabilities in animals is governed by selective pressure linked to the energetic costs of AA production. Paradoxically, these AA auxotrophies facilitated the evolution of costlier p...

The Grube Messel is an important Fossillagerstätte in Germany and has a high importance because of the excellently preserved specimens, especially in terms of insects. So far no Orthoptera from the Eocene of Grube Messel have been described. To change this, here we describe two new genera and species of Tetrigidae: Messeltettix cryptoantennatus gen...

Building on coding mutations and splicing variants, post-translational modifications add a final layer to protein diversity that operates at developmental and physiological timescales. Although protein glycosylation is one of the most common post-translational modifications, its evolutionary origin remains largely unexplored. Here, we performed a p...

Discotettiginae were recently synonymized with Scelimeninae, but the polyphyletic genus Hirrius Bolívar, 1887, with five species endemic to the Philippines and Sulawesi, remained an unsolved issue. Besides similarly widened subapical antennomeres, head and pronotum, other traits suggest that Hirrius members belong to different subfamilies. The genu...

Eastern Australia is a rich biodiversity hotspot that had continuous rainforest cover during the existence of Gondwana but which today is quite fragmented. A large part of Australian rainforest biodiversity remains undescribed. In this study, we present the results of our examination of a part of the Queensland Museum Tetrigidae collection. We desc...

The Transsylvanian wingless groundhopper, Tetrix transsylvanica (Bazyluk et Kis, 1960) (Tetrigidae: Tetrigini), inhabiting Romania, Croatia, and Slovenia, is one of only two flightless pygmy grasshopper species in Europe, the second one being Iberian Tetrix nodulosa (Fieber, 1853). It is listed as endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List due to its sma...

The fundamental value of universal nomenclatural systems in biology is that they enable unambiguous scientific communication. However, the stability of these systems is threatened by recent discussions asking for a fairer nomenclature, raising the possibility of bulk revision processes for "inappropriate" names. It is evident that such proposals co...

List of the 1543 additional coauthors. Co-authors who contributed revising translations are listed first. Then, the rest of the coauthors are listed according alphabetic order of countries/territories.

Lophotettiginae Hancock, 1909, endemic to the Neotropics, is one of the most ill-known subfamilies of Tetrigidae. Until now, there have not been any hypothesis on its relationship with other subfamilies. Lophotettiginae comprise only two genera, Lophotettix Hancock, 1909 and Phelene Bolívar, 1906, both with an arduous taxonomic history. Here, we de...

the Philippine archipelago houses an incredibly diverse biota, among which are 122 species of pygmy grasshoppers (orthoptera: tetrigidae). Many of them belong to genera without proper taxonomic assignment and some genera, e.g., Bolivaritettix are so speciose and ill-defined that working with them is practically impossible. Here, we make a step towa...

Animals are generally capable of synthesizing eleven amino acids, while the remaining nine, often referred to as essential, have to be acquired through diet. This has a profound impact on animals by defining their ecological lifestyle and evolutionary trajectory. Recent phylogenomic studies reveal that this phenotype is a result of gene losses that...

At the molecular level, multicellular eukaryotic lineages and bacterial biofilms show predictable evolutionary footprints in their development. For instance, the zygotic embryogenesis of Arabidopsis , which is initiated by gamete fusion, shows hourglass-shaped ontogeny-phylogeny correlations at the transcriptome level. However, many plants are capa...

Fiji is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean from which only four species in four genera of Tetrigidae had previously been reported. We report the results of our examination of the Fijian Tetrigidae from the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, and additionally the Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, formerly Nationa...

Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park (SNNP) is a protected land spanning an area of 159 km2 in the heart of central Nepal. This area has never been systematically explored in search of the family Tetrigidae (Orthoptera). In this paper, we report 11 species from SNNP, of which five are new to science: Aryalidonta rochaki n. sp., Skejotettix mahendrai n....

During the last century, well-known locust species, such as Calliptamus italicus and Dociostaurus maroccanus, have produced outbreaks of varying degrees in the Balkans. The literature data on outbreaks in the region are scarce, and Croatia is not an exception. This study summarized the data on 23 Orthoptera mass occurrences in Croatia from 1900 to...

Extant pygmy grasshoppers (Tetrigidae) that possess wings have the forewings reduced into scale-like tegmenula, while hind wings remain fully developed. Rusmithia gorochovi gen. et sp. nov. (Tetrigidae, Batrachideinae, Rusmithini trib. nov.) is described based on a single adult female holotype from Lithuanian Baltic amber, from the Bartonian-Priabo...

Paraspartolus Günther, 1939 is a monotypic genus endemic to the Philippines. Its only species-P. curiosus Günther, 1939-has been known only from Cape Engaño, Santa Ana, Cagayan, Luzon Island. Even though the species was described more than 80 years ago, only three specimens have been known, and nothing about the species' coloration, variability, or...

Two new genera of pygmy grasshoppers belonging to the subfamily Batrachideinae (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) are described from Central America, each including a single new flight- less species. Naskreckiana kosemeni Kasalo, Buzzetti & Skejo gen. & sp. nov. is described from Costa Rica, Procellator kai Kasalo, Skejo & Cambra gen. & sp. nov. is described...

Both Metrodorinae and Cladonotinae are polyphyletic subfamilies of Tetrigidae and are thus in need of revision. This paper offers a key step toward this by defining the nominotypical tribe of Metrodorinae, Metrodorini Bolívar, 1887 that encompasses mostly apterous species with arcuate median carina of pronotum, laterally projecting lateral lobes of...

The Transsylvanian wingless groundhopper, Tetrix transsylvanica (Bazyluk et Kis, 1960) is a flightless pygmy grasshopper (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) known only from a few fragmented localities and thus considered an endangered (EN) species in the IUCN Red List. The species consists of two subspecies, the nominal T. t. transsylvanica inhabiting the sou...

The COI gene is widely used as a DNA barcode in animals that can assist in the identification of species. One of the widely used aggregators of DNA barcodes is the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD Systems), which contains around 2500 sequences of Tetrigidae, an understudied orthopteran family with unresolved taxonomy and species that are difficult...

A new genus of the tribe Ephippigerini, Dinarippiger Skejo, Kasalo, Fontana et Tvrtković gen. nov., is described based on the characters of occiput coloration, tegmina coloration, cerci and pronotum shape. The new genus is morphologically intermediate between the genera Ephippiger Berthold, 1827 and Uromenus Bolívar, 1878, and presently includes on...

Aryal’s Ten Avatar Groundhopper, Aryalidonta itishreea gen. et sp. nov. , named in honor of the late Bhairav Aryal, an iconic Nepali satirist, is a new genus and species of Tetrigidae described as a part of the tribe Thoradontini. The species is native to Nepal, a country with a rich tetrigid fauna in need of taxonomic revisions. This monotypic gen...

Tetrigidae Rambur, 1838 of Central America are severely understudied. Most of the historical data are restricted to the original descriptions of the species and scant records reported by the early tetrigidologists. This study examines the literature alongside the data made available through the efforts of citizen scientists. This allowed to compose...

The tribe Choriphyllini Cadena-Castañeda & Silva, 2019 consists of only two genera, Choriphyllum Serville, 1838 and Phyllo-tettix Hancock, 1902b, combining leaf-like Caribbean wide-nosed pygmy grasshoppers (Tetrigidae, Cladonotinae). The genus Choriphyllum has four species, C. bahamense Perez-Gelabert & Otte, 1999 from the Bahamas (Hummingbird Cay...

Australia is a biogeographically interesting region in which Tetrigidae are understudied. This paper provides numerous new records of the species Tepperotettix reliqua Rehn, 1952 and expands the information about its distribution and habitat. With nearly 300 hundred published records, this species becomes one of the most well-known tetrigid from Au...

The Balkan peninsula is an important biogeographic region of Europe which houses the Dinaric Alps, a mountain range rich in biodiversity. The fauna of Orthoptera has, in recent years, been an important subject of study in Croatia, but many of the Dinaric mountains in Croatia remain poorly sampled. Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exception of some...

Spiky pygmy devils (Tetrigidae: Discotettiginae) are, because of the spiky pronotal projections and widened subapical antennal segments, among the most unique pygmy grasshoppers in Southeast (SE) Asia. The taxonomy of the group was unclear in the past, so this study brings a taxonomic and biographical review of the genus Discotettix Costa, 1864. Ne...

The monotypic genus Rosacris, described by Bolívar (1931) remained largely unnoticed until a couple of new specimens were noticed by Skejo (2016), which prompted his examination of the genus and the conclusion that R. antennata syn. nov. probably represents a nymph of Metamazarredia fuscipes (Stål, 1877). By not conducting taxonomic acts, Skejo (20...

A brief preliminary revision of the genus Scelimena Serville, 1838 (Tetrigidae: Scelimeninae: Scelimenini) from PR China is presented. Scelimena pyrroma Lao, Kasalo, Gao, Deng et Skejo sp. nov. is described from Hainan, Ding'an, based on a female holotype and a male paratype, and an additional photograph of a female in the natural habitat from Wuzh...

A new pygmy unicorn genus, Dravidacris Bhaskar et Kasalo, gen. nov., and its single species D. annamalaica Bhaskar et Kasalo sp. nov. are described, restricted to the Eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, one of the southern states of India. Dravidarcis gen. nov. is a unique pygmy grasshopper genus with its long, elevated, and projected vertex. Long and dor...

Only two leaf-like pygmy grasshopper species and specimens are known from Madagascar: the Leatherback Pygmy Grasshopper (Lepocranus fuscus Devriese, 1991) —which has a relatively low median carina of the pronotum; and the Malagasy Litterhopper (Valalyllum folium gen. et. sp. nov.), herein described — which has a high median carina. Lepocranus fuscu...

The genus Lophotettix, belonging to the Neotropical subfamily Lophotettiginae of the family Tetrigidae, has hitherto been known only from five specimens, i.e. the The genus Lophotettix, belonging to the Neotropical subfamily Lophotettiginae of the family Tetrigidae, has hitherto been known only from five specimens, i.e. the holotypes of each of its...

In Europe Callopistromyia annulipes (Macquart, 1855) is an alien species. It was introduced from North America in 2007 and has spread to more than ten European countries. The spread of the species has been observed since 2007 and the trend is still continuing, the species having recently been found in Croatia. Using social networks such as Facebook...

A heated debate on whether a new species should be described without a physical specimen, i.e., by designating a photographed specimen to serve as a holotype, has been ongoing for a long time. Herewith, without nomenclatural actions, a new species of the Batrachidein pygmy grasshoppers belonging to the genus Scaria Bolívar, 1887 is identified from...