Wetland butterfly thriving in abandoned jungle: Neptis rivularis in the Czech Republic.

With ongoing insect declines, species expanding in distribution and abundance deserve attention, as understanding their success may help design conservation strategies for less successful species. Common causes of these successes include warmer climates, novel resources, and exploiting land use change, including land abandonment. These factors affect the nymphalid butterfly Neptis rivularis, developing on Spiraea spp. shrubs and reaching the north-western limits of its trans-Palearctic distribution in Central Europe. We combined mark-recapture, behaviour analysis, and distribution modelling to study N. rivularis in wetlands of the Trebonsko Protected Landscape (IUCN category V). The long-living adults (up to 4 weeks) spent a considerable amount of time searching for partners, ovipositing and nectaring at Spiraea shrubs, alternating this with stays in tree crowns, where they located cool shelters, spent nights, and presumably fed on honeydew. They formed high-density populations (310 adults/ha), exploiting high host plant abundance. They adhered to floodplains and to conditions of relatively mild winters. The ongoing Spiraea encroachment of abandoned alluvial grasslands is, thus, a transient situation, ultimately followed by forest encroachment. Rewilding the habitats by introducing native ungulates presents an opportunity to restore the disturbance regime of the sites. The increased resource supply combined with a warming climate has opened up temperate Europe to colonization by N. rivularis.

Habitat openness and predator abundance determine predation risk of warningly colored longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) in temperate forest.

Organisms have evolved different defense mechanisms, such as crypsis and mimicry, to avoid detection and recognition by predators. A prominent example is Batesian mimicry, where palatable species mimic unpalatable or toxic ones, such as Clytini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) that mimic wasps. However, scientific evidence for the effectiveness of Batesian mimicry in Cerambycids in natural habitats is scarce. We investigated predation of warningly and nonwarningly colored Cerambycids by birds in a temperate forest using beetle dummies. Dummies mimicking Tetropium castaneum, Leptura aethiops, Clytus arietis, and Leptura quadrifasciata were exposed on standing and laying deadwood and monitored predation events by birds over one season. The 20 surveyed plots differed in their structural complexity and canopy openness due to different postdisturbance logging strategies. A total of 88 predation events on warningly colored beetle dummies and 89 predation events on nonwarningly colored beetle dummies did not reveal the difference in predation risk by birds. However, predation risk increased with canopy openness, bird abundance, and exposure time, which peaked in July. This suggests that environmental factors have a higher importance in determining predation risk of warningly and nonwarningly colored Cerambycidae than the actual coloration of the beetles. Our study showed that canopy openness might be important in determining the predation risk of beetles by birds regardless of beetles' warning coloration. Different forest management strategies that often modify canopy openness may thus alter predator-prey interactions.

Functional Ultrastructure of Hymenopteran Stingers: Devastating Spear or Delicate Syringe.

In this study, we tested the hypothesis that a micro-serrated edge on the honey bee Apis mellifera stinger tip serves as a tool for more intensive crushing of cell membranes in the victim's tissues. This could have mechanical consequences as well as initiate metabolic pathways linked to cell membrane breakdown (e.g., production of biogenic amines). Accordingly, we found that hymenopteran species that use their stingers as an offensive or defensive weapon to do as much damage to the victim's body as possible had this cuticular microstructure. In parasitic hymenopterans, on the other hand, this structure was missing, as stingers are solely used to delicately transport venom to the victim's body in order to do little mechanical harm. We also demonstrated that the stinger lancets of the honey bee A. mellifera are living organs with sensilla innervated by sensory neurons and containing other essential tissues, rather than mere cuticular structures.

Updating the list of flower-visiting bees, hoverflies and wasps in the central atolls of Maldives, with notes on land-use effects.

Maldives islands host a unique biodiversity, but their integrity is threatened by climate change and impacting land-uses (e.g. cemented or agricultural areas). As pollinators provide key services for the ecosystems and for the inhabitants, it is crucial to know which pollinators occur in the islands, to characterise their genetic identity and to understand which plants they visit and the size of the human impact. Given that no significant faunistic surveys of Hymenoptera have been published for the country in more than 100 years and that Syrphidae were only partly investigated, we sampled islands in the central part of the Maldives country (Faafu and Daahlu atolls) and hand-netted flower-visiting bees, wasps and hoverflies (Hymenoptera: Anthophila, Crabronidae, Sphecidae, Vespidae, Scoliidae and Diptera: Syrphidae). Overall, we found 21 species; 76.4% of the collected specimens were Anthophila (bees), 12.7% belonged to several families of wasps and 10.8% of individuals were Syrphidae. It seems that one third of species are new for the Maldives, based on the published literature. Human land-uses seem to shape the local pollinator fauna since the assemblages of bees, wasps and hoverflies from urbanised and agricultural islands differed from those in resort and natural ones. These pollinators visited 30 plant species in total, although some invasive plants hosted the highest number of flower visitor species. Biogeographically, this pollinating fauna is mostly shared with Sri Lanka and India. Genetically, the used marker hinted for a unique fauna in relation to the rest of the distribution ranges in most cases, although generally within the level of intraspecific genetic variation. This study significantly contributes to increasing the knowledge on the pollinator diversity and genetic identity in Maldives islands also considering the important implications for the islands' land-use and the role of invasive plants. This study will be pivotal for future pollination studies and biodiversity conservation efforts in the region.

Estimating retention benchmarks for salvage logging to protect biodiversity.

Forests are increasingly affected by natural disturbances. Subsequent salvage logging, a widespread management practice conducted predominantly to recover economic capital, produces further disturbance and impacts biodiversity worldwide. Hence, naturally disturbed forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world, with consequences for their associated biodiversity. However, there are no evidence-based benchmarks for the proportion of area of naturally disturbed forests to be excluded from salvage logging to conserve biodiversity. We apply a mixed rarefaction/extrapolation approach to a global multi-taxa dataset from disturbed forests, including birds, plants, insects and fungi, to close this gap. We find that 75 ± 7% (mean ± SD) of a naturally disturbed area of a forest needs to be left unlogged to maintain 90% richness of its unique species, whereas retaining 50% of a naturally disturbed forest unlogged maintains 73 ± 12% of its unique species richness. These values do not change with the time elapsed since disturbance but vary considerably among taxonomic groups.

[Genetic variants of endothelial nitric synthase in gestational hypertension and preeclampsia]. / Warianty genetyczne sródblonkowej syntazy tlenku azotu (eNOS) w nadcisnieniu ciazowym i stanie przedrzucawkowym.

INTRODUCTION: Decreased nitric oxide (NO) plasma concentration may be involved in the development of preeclampsia. It has been suggested that genetic variants of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene may reduce NO plasma levels. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the correlation of 894G>T (Glu298Asp) and -786T>C polymorphisms of NOS3 gene with the development of preeclampsia (PE) and gestational hypertension (GH). MATERIAL AND METHODS: 110 hypertensive pregnant women (mean age 29.46 +/- 4.54 years, mean gestational age 36.88 +/- 3.50 gw., mean systolic blood pressure 16782 +/- 16.87 mmHg, mean diastolic blood pressure 104.32 +/- 11.62 mmHg) were enrolled into the study group. The whole study group was further subdivided into two subgroups: women with gestational hypertension (GH, n = 69) and with preeclampsia (PE, n = 41). Gestational hypertension and preeclampsia were diagnosed according to the ACOG standards. All patients with multiple pregnancy diabetes, vascular changes and thrombotic complications were excluded from the study. The control group consisted of 150 healthy pregnant women (mean age 28.29 +/- 4.40 years, mean gestational age 39.06 +/- 1.28 gw., mean systolic blood pressure 12.07 +/- 10.75 mmHg, mean diastolic blood pressure 70.62 +/- 9.13 mm Hg). The frequency of investigated genotypes of NOS3 gene polymorphisms was examined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR/RFLP) method. RESULTS: As far as the 894G>T polymorphism was concerned, a higher frequency of 894TT genotype in the control group in comparison to the whole study group was observed (8.7 vs. 5.4%; WR = 0.61, p = ns). A similar observation was made about the 894T allele (25.4 vs. 30.0%, WR = 0.79, p = ns). The frequency of the 894T allele was also higher in controls in comparison to the PE group (30% vs. 26.8%, p = ns) and GH group (30% vs. 24.6%, p = ns). Analyzing the -786T>C polymorphism no statistically significant differences between the whole study and the control groups was found. The frequency of the mutated -786CC genotype was similar in the entire study group and controls (13.6 vs. 15.3%, p = ns). The frequency of the mutated -786C allele was also similar in both analyzed groups (37.3 vs. 38.0%, p = ns). A statistically significant difference in the frequency of coexistence of mutated homozygotic genotypes 894TT/-786CC between the investigated groups (0.9% in the whole study group vs. 6.7% in the control group, p = 0.019) was observed. Coexistence of 894GT/-786TC genotypes was noted more frequently in the control group (19.1% in the whole study group vs. 24.7% in the control group, p = ns). The frequency of other combinations of investigated genotypes coexistence did not significantly differ between the control group, the entire study group, and the PE and GH groups. In the PE group, a higher systolic blood pressure was noted in patients with -786CC genotype (205.0 +/- 21.2 mmHg) in comparison to patients with -786TT (177.0 +/- 17.8 mmHg) or -786TC (173.4 +/- 13.5 mmHg) genotypes (p = ns). CONCLUSIONS: The presence of the 894TT genotype of the 894G>T (Glu298Asp) polymorphism may play a protective role in the development of preeclampsia. The presence of the -786CC genotype of the -786T>C polymorphism may correlate with the increase of the systolic blood pressure in pregnant women with preeclampsia.

[Genetic variability of endothelin-1 system in gestational hypertension and preeclampsia].

INTRODUCTION: Recently much attention has been focused on endothelin-1 (ET-1) and endothelin-1 converting enzyme (ECE-1) gene polymorphisms and connected changes in ET-1 concentration. Additionally these processes have been shown to be possibly involved in preeclampsia susceptibility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between ET-1 (Lys198Asn) and ECE-1 (Thr341lle) gene polymorphisms and the risk of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study group consisted of 110 hypertensive (69 with gestational hypertension and 41 preeclamptic) pregnant women. The control group included 150 healthy pregnant women. The frequency of investigated polymorphisms was examined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR/RFLP) assay RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in genotype frequencies of ET-1 Lys198Asn and ECE-1 Thr341lle gene polymorphic variants between hypertensive pregnant women and the control group. There were also no remarkable differences between GH and PE groups when compared to the controls. However parallel presence of both Thr341lle ECE-1 and Lys198Asn ET-1 variant localisation showed a higher occurrence rate of ECE-1 CT/ET-1 GT heterozygotic genotypes in the control group (5,3%) than in the whole study or GH and PE groups (0.9%, 1.4% and 0.0% respectively p = ns). In preeclamptic women, the higher systolic blood pressure value was observed in GG Lys198Asn ET-1 genotype carriers (180.7 mmHg) than in patients with at least one mutated T allele (GT and TT) (167.3 mmHg, p = ns). The lowest blood pressure level was connected with the mutated TT Lys198Asn ET- 1 genotype presence. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study suggest lack of direct correlation of Lys198Asn ET-1 and Thr341lle ECE-1 gene polymorphisms with risk of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia in the studied population of Polish women. High prevalence of ECE-1 CT/ET-1 GT heterozygote genotypes of both Thr341lle ECE-1 and Lys198Asn ET-1 polymorphisms in healthy pregnant subjects compared to GH and PE groups suggests the protective role of mutated alleles in the development of PE. The carrier of mutated TT genotype of Lys198Asn ET-1 polymorphism is probably connected with lower systolic blood pressure level in preeclamptic women. Future studies are needed to establish the role of analysed polymorphisms in the etiology of gestational hypertension and preeclampsia.

Is it justifiable to perform screening tests for Chlamydia trachomatis in pregnant women?

Worldwide, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is the most common sexually transmitted bacteria. The improved understanding of CT pathophysiology in recent years became possible through DNA amplification technique and genome cloning. This paper updates informations on chlamydial infection in pregnant women, its pathophysiology, diagnostic methods, prevention and treatment. There is increasing evidence that Chlamydia trachomatis infection may result in a number of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including early and late abortion, infection of the foetus, stillbirth, premature rupture of membranes, prematurity and postpartum endometritis. Ectopic pregnancy is often associated with a previous tubal chlamydial infection. C. trachomatis infection in newborns may be acquired during pregnancy or during vaginal delivery, and it may result in neonatal conjunctivitis and/or pneumonia. We discuss benefits of early treatment of chlamydial infections in pregnant women and present guidelines for treatment. Screening should lead to early detection and treatment of men and women with chlamydial infection and thereby reduce the incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal infertility and ectopic pregnancy.