Nuance in the Narrative of a Brown Poison Frog: Environmental Alkaloids and Specialized Foraging in a Presumed Toxin-Free and Diet-Generalized Species.

In poison frogs (Dendrobatidae), conspicuous colors have evolved repeatedly in tandem with high numbers and quantities of skin toxins (alkaloids). Here, we focus on an inconspicuously-colored species-Silverstoneia flotator-which has long been deemed toxin-free and thought to forage opportunistically on mites and ants. Both assumptions have received some empirical support, but there is also evidence that predators avoid S.

Species specificity and intraspecific variation in the chemical profiles of butterflies across a large geographic range.

In many animals, mate choice is important for the maintenance of reproductive isolation between species. Traits important for mate choice and behavioral isolation are predicted to be under strong stabilizing selection within species; however, such traits can also exhibit variation at the population level driven by neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes. Here, we describe patterns of divergence among androconial and genital chemical profiles at inter- and intraspecific levels in mimetic butterflies.

Using a portable hydrogen cyanide gas meter to uncover a dynamic phytochemical landscape.

Premise: Over 3000 species of plants and animals release toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gas when their tissues are crushed. To investigate the role of cyanogenesis in -herbivore interactions, we developed an inexpensive, rapid, sensitive method for measuring HCN emissions from crushed tissues.

Methods: The method includes crushed tissue confinement in a closed chamber, where cyanogenesis reactions occur, followed by evacuation of gas to a portable HCN meter.

Variation in Host Plant Usage and Diet Breadth Predict Sibling Preference and Performance in the Neotropical Tortoise Beetle Chelymorpha alternans (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae).

Specialized interactions between insects and the plants that they consume are one of the most ubiquitous and consequential ecological associations on the plant. Decades of investigation suggest that a narrow diet favors an individual phytophagous insect's performance relative to a dietary generalist. However, this body of research has tended to approach questions of diet breadth and host usage from the perspective of temperate plant-insect associations.

Male sex pheromone components in butterflies released by the androconia affect female choice.

Sex-specific pheromones are known to play an important role in butterfly courtship, and may influence both individual reproductive success and reproductive isolation between species. Extensive ecological, behavioural and genetic studies of butterflies have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of speciation. Male pheromones, although long suspected to play an important role, have received relatively little attention in this genus.

Intraspecific phytochemical variation shapes community and population structure for specialist caterpillars.

Chemically mediated plant-herbivore interactions contribute to the diversity of terrestrial communities and the diversification of plants and insects. While our understanding of the processes affecting community structure and evolutionary diversification has grown, few studies have investigated how trait variation shapes genetic and species diversity simultaneously in a tropical ecosystem. We investigated secondary metabolite variation among subpopulations of a single plant species, Piper kelleyi (Piperaceae), using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), to understand associations between plant phytochemistry and host-specialized caterpillars in the genus Eois (Geometridae: Larentiinae) and associated parasitoid wasps and flies.

Metazoans of redoxcline sediments in Mediterranean deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins.

Background: The deep-sea hypersaline anoxic basins (DHABs) of the Mediterranean (water depth ~3500 m) are some of the most extreme oceanic habitats known. Brines of DHABs are nearly saturated with salt, leading many to suspect they are uninhabitable for eukaryotes. While diverse bacterial and protistan communities are reported from some DHAB haloclines and brines, loriciferans are the only metazoan reported to inhabit the anoxic DHAB brines.