A forerunner of Darwin in the service of nihilists: the translation and reception of Vestiges in Russia.

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by Robert Chambers, a Scottish publisher and popular writer, was one of the most influential evolutionary works in the pre-Darwinian age. This article examines the circumstances in which this treatise was published in Russia in 1863 and went through a second printing in 1868. Vestiges was translated into Russian by Alexander Palkhovsky (1831-1907), a former medical student, ideologically close to the nihilist movement, and was initially printed by the radical publisher Anatoly Cherenin, later prosecuted for his ties with revolutionary circles. Vestiges was translated not from the English original, but from a German translation by Karl Vogt. Given the popularity of German materialism among Russian radicals in the 1860s, association with Vogt's name did much to draw attention to the translation. Contrary to Vogt, who took an anti-evolutionary stance while translating Vestiges, Palkhovsky and other nihilists ardently supported evolution in the hope that it would help them combat religious belief. Praising the author of Vestiges for his evolutionary views, Russian radicals at the same time criticized him for numerous references to God, teleological thinking and blindness to social problems. In their attempts to put Vestiges into service, Russian nihilists were similar to English freethinkers of the 1840s. The study of how Vestiges was read and perceived in Russia provides a better understanding of the cross-cultural reception of evolutionary ideas on the eve of Darwin's Origin of Species.

The earliest pollen-loaded insects from the Lower Permian of Russia.

Recent fossil discoveries suggest that the coevolution of insect pollinators and gymnosperms started long before the appearance of flowering plants. One of the keys to understanding the origins of pollination relationships is fossil insects with gymnosperm pollen attached to the body surface. Such fossils are exceedingly rare to find, especially from the Palaeozoic, a time when ambers with insect inclusions were absent. Here, we report compression fossils of Early Permian tillyardembiid insects (Polyneoptera) preserved with pollen on their heads, thoraces, legs and abdomens. This is the earliest finding of pollen-bearing insects, predating the previous oldest record from the Middle Jurassic by ca 120 Ma. Judging by the pollen composition, tillyardembiids visited a narrow range of host plants, including Rufloriaceae (Cordaitales). While it is impossible to say for certain whether tillyardembiids as pollen consumers contributed to pollination, a trophic specialization of this kind could be considered an evolutionary precursor of pollination mutualism.

The first Triassic beaded lacewing (Neuroptera: Berothidae) from Central Asia, with redescription of Mesoberotha superb (Riek, 1955).

Ferganoberotha minutissima gen. et sp. nov. (Berothidae) is described from the Middle-Late Triassic Madygen Formation (Kyrgyzstan) based on an isolated forewing. This is the first species of Triassic Berothidae to be reported from Eurasia. Mesoberotha superb (Riek, 1955), the type genus of Mesoberothidae from the Late Triassic of Australia, is redescribed and transferred to Berothidae, thereby making the former family a junior synonym of the latter.

Possible long-proboscid insect pollinators from the Early Permian of Russia.

Insect pollination is one of the hallmarks of flowering plants.1 Bees, moths, flies, and some other pollinators evolved elongate siphonate mouthparts for sucking concealed nectar and occasionally other liquids.2 However, it is clear from the fossil record that insects with similar adaptations appeared long before the mid-Cretaceous radiation of angiosperms. These insects most probably used their proboscis to reach pollination drops and other sugary fluids that were hidden in the cones of extinct gymnosperms, pollinating them in the process.3-6 The vast majority of these gymnosperm-associated long-proboscid insects have been reported from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous, i.e., the time interval that immediately predated the advent of flowering plants.7 By contrast, the Paleozoic stage of the co-evolution between long-proboscid insect pollinators and plants has remained poorly understood. Here, we report a putative pollination mutualism involving long-proboscid holometabolous insects (Panorpida: Protomeropidae) from the Early Permian of Russia (ca. 283-273 Ma). Their elongate mouthparts have very similar morphology to those of some present-day nectarivorous Coleoptera and Hymenoptera and probably served to imbibe micropylar secretions from the semi-closed ovulate organs of the gymnosperms of a peltaspermalean affinity that have been found in the same locality. This is the earliest record of insects with siphonate-like mouthparts, which could indicate that the complex interactions between pollinators and gymnosperms predate the first flowering plants by over 100 Ma.

Osmyloberotha, an unusual new genus of beaded lacewings (Neuroptera: Berothidae) from Burmese amber.

A new beaded lacewing, Osmyloberotha simpla gen. et sp. nov. (Neuroptera: Berothidae), is described from Cenomanian Burmese amber (Myanmar, Kachin State). It has a rather peculiar osmylid-like venation with simple costal veinlets and CuA, CuP, A1 and A2 all pectinate in forewing, a venational pattern previously unknown in Berothidae.

A substitute name for a genus of fossil mantispid (Insecta: Neuroptera: Mesomantispinae) from the Jurassic of Kazakhstan.

In a recent paper (Jepson et al., 2018) a new genus of Mesomantispinae from Karatau, Kazakhstan was described. The name given to the genus, Longicollum, is unavailable, because it is preoccupied by a senior homonym, Longicollum Yamaguti, 1935 (Acanthocephala: Pomphorhynchidae). In accordance with Art. 60.1. of the ICZN, we herein propose a replacement name for the genus: Longipronotum nom. nov.

New Mesomantispinae (Insecta: Neuroptera: Mantispidae) from the Jurassic of Karatau, Kazakhstan.

Two new genera and species, and one indeterminate genera and species of fossil Mantispidae, Mesomantispinae are described from the Upper Jurassic of Karatau, Kazakhstan: Longicollum benmaddoxi gen. et sp. nov., Ovalofemora abbottae gen. et sp. nov., and Mesomantispinae sp. et gen. indet. Karataumantispa monstruosa is removed from the genus Karataumantispa and placed in the new genus Ovalofemora gen. nov. due to its different foreleg morphology (stout coxae, trochanter, and oval shaped femur), in addition to differences in wing venation. These taxa are all placed within the subfamily Mesomantispinae. An updated key to the genera of Mesomantispinae is given.

Molecular Structure and Conformational Analysis of 1-Phenyl-1-X-1-Silacyclohexanes (X = F, Cl) by Electron Diffraction, Low-Temperature NMR, and Quantum Chemical Calculations.

The molecular structure and conformational preferences of 1-phenyl-1-X-1-silacyclohexanes C5H10Si(Ph,X) (X = F (3), Cl (4)) were studied by gas-phase electron diffraction, low-temperature NMR spectroscopy, and high-level quantum chemical calculations. In the gas phase only three (3) and two (4) stable conformers differing in the axial or equatorial location of the phenyl group and the angle of rotation about the Si-CPh bond (axi and axo denote the Ph group lying in or out of the X-Si-CPh plane) contribute to the equilibrium. In 3 the ratio Pheq:Phaxo:Phaxi is 40(12):55(24):5 and 64:20:16 by experiment and theory, respectively. In 4 the ratio Pheq:Phaxo is 79(15):21(15) and 71:29 by experiment and theory (M06-2X calculations), respectively. The gas-phase electron diffraction parameters are in good agreement with those obtained from theory at the M06-2X/aug-ccPVTZ and MP2/aug-cc-pVTZ levels. Unlike the case for M06-2X, MP2 calculations indicate that 3-Pheq conformer lies 0.5 kcal/mol higher than the 3-Phaxo conformer. As follows from QTAIM analysis, the phenyl group is more stable when it is located in the axial position but produces destabilization of the silacyclohexane ring. By low-temperature NMR spectroscopy the six-membered-ring interconversion could be frozen at 103 K and the present conformational equilibria of 3 and 4 could be determined. The ratio of the conformers is 3-Pheq:3-Phax = (75-77):(23-25) and 4-Pheq:4-Phax = 82:18.

New fossil Osmylopsychopidae (Neuroptera) from the Early/Middle Jurassic of Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia.

Four genera and four species of Osmylopsychopidae are described from the Jurassic of Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia: Oligophlebiopsis biramosa gen. et sp. nov. (Early Jurassic of Sogyuty); Osmylopsychoides anteromedialis gen. et sp. nov., Psychostoechotes undulatus gen. et sp. nov. and Osmylopsychostoechus sogulensis gen. et sp. nov. (all from the late Early to early Middle Jurassic of Sai-Sagul). By their poorly-developed outer gradate series of crossveins, these taxa (except O. anteromedialis gen. et sp. nov.) are more similar to Triassic genera than to the Middle/Late Jurassic Osmylopsychopidae (particularly from Daohugou, China). Two isolated hind wings from Sai-Sagul (i.e., Osmylopsychostoechus sp. and Osmylopsychopidae gen. et sp. indet.) are preliminarily assigned to this family.

Ultracold heteronuclear mixture of ground and excited state atoms.

We report on the realization of an ultracold mixture of lithium atoms in the ground state and ytterbium atoms in an excited metastable (3P2) state. Such a mixture can support broad magnetic Feshbach resonances which may be utilized for the production of ultracold molecules with an electronic spin degree of freedom, as well as novel Efimov trimers. We investigate the interaction properties of the mixture in the presence of an external magnetic field and find an upper limit for the background interspecies two-body inelastic decay coefficient of K2'<3×10(-12) cm3/s for the 3P2 mJ=-1 substate. We calculate the dynamic polarizabilities of the Yb(3P2) magnetic substates for a range of wavelengths, and find good agreement with our measurements at 1064 nm. Our calculations also allow the identification of magic frequencies where Yb ground and metastable states are identically trapped and the determination of the interspecies van der Waals coefficients.

A remarkable new family of Jurassic insects (Neuroptera) with primitive wing venation and its phylogenetic position in Neuropterida.

BACKGROUND: Lacewings (insect order Neuroptera), known in the fossil record since the Early Permian, were most diverse in the Mesozoic. A dramatic variety of forms ranged in that time from large butterfly-like Kalligrammatidae to minute two-winged Dipteromantispidae. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We describe the intriguing new neuropteran family Parakseneuridae fam. nov. with three new genera and 15 new species from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou (Inner Mongolia, China) and the Early/Middle Jurassic of Sai-Sagul (Kyrgyzstan): Parakseneura undula gen. et sp. nov., P. albomacula gen. et sp. nov., P. curvivenis gen. et sp. nov., P. nigromacula gen. et sp. nov., P. nigrolinea gen. et sp. nov., P. albadelta gen. et sp. nov., P. cavomaculata gen. et sp. nov., P. inflata gen. et sp. nov., P. metallica gen. et sp. nov., P. emarginata gen. et sp. nov., P. directa gen. et sp. nov., Pseudorapisma jurassicum gen. et sp. nov., P. angustipenne gen. et sp. nov., P. maculatum gen. et sp. nov. (Daohugou); Shuraboneura ovata gen. et sp. nov. (Sai-Sagul). The family comprises large neuropterans with most primitive wing venation in the order indicated by the presence of ScA and AA1+2, and the dichotomous branching of MP, CuA, CuP, AA3+4, AP1+2. The phylogenetic position of Parakseneuridae was investigated using a phylogenetic analysis of morphological scoring for 33 families of extinct and extant Neuropterida combined with DNA sequence data for representatives of all extant families. Parakseneuridae were recovered in a clade with Osmylopsychopidae, Prohemerobiidae, and Ithonidae. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The presence of the presumed AA1+2 in wings of Parakseneuridae is a unique plesiomorphic condition hitherto unknown in Neuropterida, the clade comprising Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera. The relative uncertainty of phylogenetic position of Parakseneuridae and the majority of other families of Neuroptera reflects deficient paleontological data, especially from critical important periods for the order, earliest Triassic and latest Triassic/earliest Jurassic.

Sympathetic cooling in an optically trapped mixture of alkali and spin-singlet atoms.

We report on the realization of a stable mixture of ultracold lithium and ytterbium atoms confined in a far-off-resonance optical dipole trap. We observe sympathetic cooling of 6Li by 174Yb and extract the s-wave scattering length magnitude |a(6Li-174Yb)|=(13±3)a0 from the rate of interspecies thermalization. Using forced evaporative cooling of 174Yb, we achieve reduction of the 6Li temperature to below the Fermi temperature, purely through interspecies sympathetic cooling.

Laser induced fluorescence of Mg-phthalocyanine in He droplets: evidence for fluxionality of large H2 clusters at 0.38 K.

The formation of Ar and H2 clusters, having up to 900 particles in helium droplets, has been studied via laser induced fluorescence of attached Mg-phthalocyanine (Mg-Pc) molecules. In the experiments, one Mg-Pc molecule in average was added to each He droplet either before or after the cluster species, and the shift of the spectrum of the Mg-Pc molecules was studied as a function of the cluster size. For Ar clusters, about a factor of 2 smaller matrix shift was observed for the late pickup of the Mg-Pc molecules as compared with the prior pickup, indicating that in the former case, the Mg-Pc molecules reside on the surface of the preformed Ar clusters. On the other hand, the spectra of the Mg-Pc molecules attached to H2 clusters are independent of the pickup order, which is consistent with Mg-Pc molecules residing near the center of the H2 clusters in both cases. Therefore H2 clusters remain fluxional in helium droplets at T=0.38 K. No significant differences in the spectra were observed between the para-H2 and ortho-H2 clusters.