Habitat destruction is the single greatest anthropogenic threat to biodiversity. Decades of research on this issue have led to the accumulation of hundreds of data sets comparing species assemblages in larger, intact, habitats to smaller, more fragmented, habitats. Despite this, little synthesis or consensus has been achieved, primarily because of non‐standardized sampling methodology and analyses of notoriously scale‐dependent response variables (i.e., species richness). To be able to compare and contrast the results of habitat fragmentation...

Along elevational gradients, phylogenetic relatedness patterns constitute a considerable source of information, and may shed light on ecological processes that structure communities. This study focuses on community phylogenetic structure of planthoppers, specifically the species-rich and abundant Fulgoromorpha families (Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha), Cixiidae and Derbidae+Achilidae, along an elevational gradient on Mount Wilhelm (Papua New Guinea). In order to assess the factors driving planthoppers community composition, we recorded abundance data for planthoppers species at each elevation and we...

The middle (Wuliuan Stage) Cambrian Burgess Shale is famous for its exceptional preservation of diverse and abundant soft-bodied animals through the “thick” Stephen Formation. However, with the exception of the Walcott Quarry (Fossil Ridge) and the stratigraphically older Tulip Beds (Mount Stephen) which are both in Yoho National Park (British Columbia), quantitative assessments of the Burgess Shale have remained limited. Here we first provide a detailed quantitative overview of the diversity and structure of the...

The recent interest in animal personality has sparked a number of studies on the heritability of personality traits. Yet, how the sources variance these traits can be decomposed remains unclear. Moreover, whether genetic correlations with life-history traits, personality traits and other phenotypic traits exist as predicted by the pace-of-life syndrome hypothesis remains poorly understood. Our aim was to compare the heritability of personality, life-history, and morphological traits and their potential genetic correlations in a small...

Disentangling the multiple factors controlling species diversity is a major challenge in ecology. Island biogeography and environmental filtering are two influential theories emphasizing respectively island size and isolation, and the abiotic environment, as key drivers of species richness. However, few attempts have been made to quantify their relative importance and investigate their mechanistic basis. Here, we applied structural equation modelling, a powerful method allowing test of complex hypotheses involving multiple and indirect effects, on an...

Phenotypic plasticity has been repeatedly suggested to facilitate adaptation to new environmental conditions, as in invasions. Here we investigate this possibility by focusing on the worldwide invasion of Drosophila suzukii: an invasive species that has rapidly colonized all continents over the last decade. This species is characterized by a highly developed ovipositor, allowing females to lay eggs through the skin of ripe fruits. Using a novel approach based on the combined use of SEM and...

The living tree sloths Choloepus and Bradypus are the only remaining members of Folivora, a major xenarthran radiation that occupied a wide range of habitats in many parts of the western hemisphere during the Cenozoic, including both continents and the West Indies. Ancient DNA evidence has played only a minor role in folivoran systematics, as most sloths lived in places not conducive to genomic preservation. Here we utilize collagen sequence information, both separately and in...

Aim: We mapped the geographical pattern of body sizes in sphingid moths and investigated latitudinal clines. We tested hypotheses concerning their possible environmental control, i.e., effects of temperature (negative: temperature size rule or Bergmann’s rule; positive: converse Bergmann rule), food availability, robustness to starvation during extreme weather, and seasonality. Location: Old World and Australia/Pacific region Methods: Body size data of 950 sphingid species were compiled and related to their distribution maps. Focusing on body length,...

Mite houses, or acarodomatia, are found on the leaves of over 2,000 living species of flowering plants today. These structures facilitate tri-trophic interactions between the host plant, its fungi or herbivore adversaries, and fungivorous or predaceous mites by providing shelter for the consumers. Previously, the oldest acarodomatia were described on a Cenozoic Era fossil leaf dating to 49 million years in age. Here, we report the first occurrence of Mesozoic Era acarodomatia in the fossil...

Predation is a ubiquitous and strong selective pressure on living organisms. Transparency is a predation defence widespread in water but rare on land. Some Lepidoptera display transparent patches combined with already cryptic opaque patches. A recent study showed that transparency reduced detectability of aposematic prey with conspicuous patches. However, whether transparency has any effect at reducing detectability of already cryptic prey is still unknown. We conducted field predation experiments with free avian predators where we...

Aim: Islands provide opportunities for isolation and speciation. Many landmasses in the Indo-Australian Archipelago (IAA) are oceanic islands, and founder-event speciation is expected to be the predominant form of speciation of volant taxa on these islands. We studied the biogeographic history of flying foxes, a group with many endemic species and a predilection for islands, to test this hypothesis and infer the biogeographic origin of the group. Location: Australasia, Indo-Australian Archipelago, Madagascar, Pacific Islands Taxon:...

Loire grayling was already known to belong to a distinct lineage, compared to other European population, according to molecular data (enzymatic polymorphism, mtDNA sequencing and microsatellites). In this paper, we consider this lineage as a new species, Thymallus ligericus n. sp., which is endemic to the Loire drainage (France). Compared with the other species, T. ligericus n. sp. is characterized by a more elongated body, the presence of a pointed snout and a strait or...

Deficiency in several of the classical human RAD51 paralogs [RAD51B, RAD51C, RAD51D, XRCC2 and XRCC3] is associated with cancer predisposition and Fanconi anemia. To investigate their functions, isogenic disruption mutants for each were generated in non-transformed MCF10A mammary epithelial cells and in transformed U2OS and HEK293 cells. In U2OS and HEK293 cells, viable ablated clones were readily isolated for each RAD51 paralog; in contrast, with the exception of RAD51B, RAD51 paralogs are cell-essential in MCF10A...

Mushroom-forming fungi (Agaricomycetes) have the greatest morphological diversity and complexity of any group of fungi. They have radiated into most niches and fulfill diverse roles in the ecosystem, including wood decomposers, pathogens or mycorrhizal mutualists. Despite the importance of mushroom-forming fungi, large-scale patterns of their evolutionary history are poorly known, in part due to the lack of a comprehensive and dated molecular phylogeny. Here, using multigene and genome-based data, we assemble a 5,284-species phylogenetic tree...

Male senescence has detrimental effects on reproductive success and offspring fitness. When females mate with multiple males during the same reproductive bout, post-copulatory sexual selection that operates either through sperm competition or cryptic female choice might allow females to skew fertilization success towards young males and as such limit the fitness costs incurred when eggs are fertilized by senescing males. Here, we experimentally tested this hypothesis. We artificially inseminated female North African houbara bustards with...