Male-killing bacteria are common in insects, and are thought to persist in host populations primarily by indirect fitness benefits to infected females, while direct fitness effects are generally assumed to be neutral or deleterious. Here, we estimated the effect of male-killer infection on direct fitness (number of eggs laid, as a measure of fecundity, together with survival) and other life-history traits (development time and body size) in seven ladybird host/male-killer combinations. Effects of male-killers on...

A new polyconitid rudist, Magallanesia canaliculata gen. et sp. nov., of probably late Albian age, is described from the Pulangbato area, central Cebu Island, the Philippines in the western Central Pacific and Takuyo Daini Seamount, now located in the Northwest Pacific. It is similar to Praecaprotina Yabe and Nagao, 1926, a Japanese – Central Pacific endemic genus of late Aptian – early Albian age, but differs in having canals that developed by partitioning of the...