Greater traditionalism predicts COVID-19 precautionary behaviors across 27 societies.

People vary both in their embrace of their society's traditions, and in their perception of hazards as salient and necessitating a response. Over evolutionary time, traditions have offered avenues for addressing hazards, plausibly resulting in linkages between orientations toward tradition and orientations toward danger. Emerging research documents connections between traditionalism and threat responsivity, including pathogen-avoidance motivations. Additionally, because hazard-mitigating behaviors can conflict with competing priorities, associations between traditionalism and pathogen avoidance may hinge on contextually contingent tradeoffs. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a real-world test of the posited relationship between traditionalism and hazard avoidance. Across 27 societies (N = 7844), we find that, in a majority of countries, individuals' endorsement of tradition positively correlates with their adherence to costly COVID-19-avoidance behaviors; accounting for some of the conflicts that arise between public health precautions and other objectives further strengthens this evidence that traditionalism is associated with greater attention to hazards.

Flower angle favors pollen export efficiency in the snowdrop Galanthus nivalis (Linnaeus, 1753) but not in the lesser celandine Ficaria verna (Huds, 1762).

Flower angle is crucially important for accurate pollination and flower protection against abiotic factors. Evolutionary factors shaping floral traits are particularly strong for bilaterally symmetric flowers because these flowers require more pollination accuracy than radially symmetrical flowers. We experimentally investigated the flower angle in the snowdrop's (Galanthus nivalis) radially symmetrical, early-blooming downward flowers. Bumblebees were able to gather significantly more pollen grains from downward flowers than from upward flowers, but female traits (fertility in the field) seem unaffected by flower angle. Similar experiments with radially symmetrical, later flowering Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna) upward flowers showed no differences in bees' abilities to gather pollen in upward vs downward-facing flowers. The downward angle of snowdrop flowers is an adaptation that increases the ability of insects to collect more pollen grains under unfavorable early spring weather conditions when pollinators are scarce.

Changes in Diversity and Structure of Thrips (Thysanoptera) Assemblages in the Spruce Forest Stands of High Tatra Mts. after a Windthrow Calamity.

Strong winds, fire, and subsequent forest management impact arthropod communities. We monitored the diversity and changes in the community structure of forest thrips assemblages in the context of secondary succession and anthropogenic impact. There were eight study plots that were affected to varying degrees by the mentioned disturbances that were selected in the Central European spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests in Slovakia. The soil photoeclectors were used to obtain thrips in the study plots during two vegetation seasons. The thrips assemblages and their attributes were analyzed by non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The significant changes in community structure, composition, stratification, species richness, and diversity of thrips assemblages that were caused by natural- (wind) and human-induced disturbance (forestry and fire) were observed in our research. Our analyses revealed a clear relationship between different thrips assemblages and impacted environment. Moreover, our results indicate that silvicolous thrips species may be useful for indicating changes and disturbances in forest ecological systems.

Functional significance of flower orientation and green marks on tepals in the snowdrop Galanthus nivalis (Linnaeus, 1753).

Flower shapes, colors, sizes and fragrances are shaped mostly for pollinator attraction. Flower phenotypes are, however, subjected to conflicting selection directed by both pollinators and non-pollinating agents. We investigated flower attractiveness to a model pollinator in the snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis L.) under laboratory conditions. Naïve bumblebees (Bombus terrestris L.) showed strong, innate preferences for experimentally altered upward positioned flowers, suggesting that the natural, downward orientation did not evolve to attract pollinators. Experimentally treated green marks on inner tepals decreased pollinator attraction compared with flowers expressing intact marks, suggesting that green marks serve to guide/attract pollinators. Attractiveness of green marks was significantly compromised by flower orientation; green marks were attractive only for untreated downward-oriented flowers, but they did not improve the attractiveness of upward-oriented flowers. Our results suggest that downward flowers in snowdrop evolved under conflicting selection directed by biotic and abiotic factors, and that green marks on inner tepals could evolve later to enhance flower attractiveness.

Hydrolutos piaroa sp.n. (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae), a new semiaquatic Lutosini species from south-western Venezuelan lowland streams.

Hydrolutos piaroa, a new species of Lutosini (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) from Tobogán de la Selva (Puerto Ayacucho region, SW Venezuela) is described and figured. Inhabiting aquatic environment it represents an unusual orthopteran with sternal and pleural area covered by fine microtrichia, forming a plastron. This is the first known Hydrolutos species sampled in lowland streams of Venezuelan Guayana.

With or without you: does partner satisfaction and partner-directed violence influence the presence of a partner on women’s Facebook cover profile photographs? / Contigo o sin ti: ¿la satisfacción de pareja y la violencia dirigida a la pareja influyen en la presencia de la pareja en la fotografía del perfil en Facebook de una mujer?

Social network sites (SNSs) provide new opportunities for online self-presentation of millions of users. The cover profile photograph (CPP) along with written information regarding relationship status is a central component of online self-presentation, although their associations with actual romantic relationships are not clear. We investigated relationships between the presence of a current romantic partner on the CPP and the displayed relationship status and partner satisfaction, partner-directed violence and women’s intrasexual competition with peers. A total of 28 % of the 158 women with a Facebook profile and being involved in a romantic relationship had their romantic partners on their CPP. As predicted, women with their partners on the CPP were more satisfied with their romantic relationship than others. Furthermore, women who did not have their partner on the CPP tended to conceal or lie in their displayed mating status suggesting that this may be a strategy how to attract another potential mate. The partner-directed violence and intrasexual competition hypotheses were not supported. Overall, the CPP and an honestly displayed relationship status is an expression of relationship satisfaction amongst women

Las redes sociales (RS) proporcionan nuevas oportunidades para la auto-presentación on line de millones de usuarios. La fotografía del perfil (FDP), junto con información escrita sobre estado civil es un componente central de la auto-presentación en línea, a pesar de su relación con las relaciones románticas reales no son claras. Se investigaron las relaciones entre la presencia de una pareja romántica actual en el FDP y el estado de la relación y satisfacción de la pareja, la violencia dirigida a la pareja y la competetividad intrasexual de las mujeres con sus iguales. Un total de 28% de 158 mujeres con un perfil en Facebook involucradas en una relación romántica tenían a sus parejas sentimentales en su FDP. Como se predijo, las mujeres con sus parejas en su FDP estaban más satisfechas con su relación romántica que otras. Por otra parte, las mujeres que no tienen su pareja en su FDP tendían a ocultar o mentir sobre su estado civil lo que sugiere que esto puede ser una estrategia para atraer a otra pareja potencial. Las hipótesis sobre violencia y competencia intrasexual no fueron confirmadas. En general, el FDP y un status de relación que se muestra sinceramente es una expresión de satisfacción en la relación de pareja de las mujeres

Parasites enhance self-grooming behaviour and information retention in humans.

Self-grooming is a common behavioural strategy used by various animals to reduce parasite loads. We experimentally tested the adaptive significance of self-grooming model in a sample of Slovak participants. Propensity to self-grooming was activated by visual presence of parasites with verbal information about health risks caused by parasites suggesting that the programmed grooming model works in humans. People who think of themselves as more vulnerable to disease transmission reported higher frequency of self-grooming suggesting that there is a link between the immune system and parasite avoidance behaviour. Considering that the emotion of disgust plays a role in activation of parasite avoidance behaviour, we suggested that knowledge of disgusting stimuli (parasites) would be better retained than knowledge of non-disgusting (hormones), and, thus, non-life-threatening stimuli. As expected, knowledge on parasites tested immediately after the experiment was significantly better than knowledge on hormones suggesting that survival-relevant information is better retained than survival-irrelevant data. However, scores on memory tests did not seem to be influenced by the individual's immune system. Overall, this study showed that self-grooming in humans is functional when disease threat is salient. Human memory systems are tuned to information relevant to survival providing further evidence that human cognition is shaped by natural selection.

Associations between body morphology, mating success and mate preferences among Slovak males and females.

Human body morphology is thought to be correlated with sexual behaviour and sociosexuality (defined as an increased willingness to engage in sex without commitment) influences the perception of certain cues of physical attractiveness. Based on a sample of Slovak university students, we investigated relationships between 1) male and female mating success and reported body morphology (body mass index, BMI and waist-to-hip ratio, WHR) and 2) mate preference characteristics and mating success. Both males and females reported a similar number of long-term sexual partners and frequency of engaging in extra-pair copulation (EPC). The mating success of both sexes was positively mediated by self-perceived attractiveness. However, female BMI was inversely associated with mating success whereas increasing BMI was positively associated with male mating success (the total number of lifetime sexual partners) as well as with the likelihood of engaging in EPC. Unrestricted sociosexuality positively correlated with direct and indirect benefits from mating and negatively with the religious/political background of a potential mate and with the desire for a home/ children. These results confirm the hypothesis that human body morphology is associated with sexual behaviour and that cues of direct/indirect benefits in a potential mate positively correlate with sociosexuality.

Hydrolutos gransabanensis sp.n. (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae), a new semi-aquatic Lutosini species from Gran Sabana (Venezuela).

Hydrolutos gransabanensis, a new species of Lutosini (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) from the cave Cueva El Tigre (Santa Elena de Uairén, SE Venezuela) is described and figured for both sexes. This is the first record of Hydrolutos species out of tepui systems. The genus is recently known by 6 apterous species from Venezuelan Guayana region.