Brachionus is an suitable live foods for fishes larve of Brachionidae family, in the present study inter and interapopulation variations of two species of family Brachionidae were investigated. For this purpose 90 individuals of geographical populations of these species were collected from different parts of Arak country and for each habitat five ecological factors were examined. Totally eleven...

Phylogenetic trees reconstructed from molecular sequences are often considered more reliable than those reconstructed from morphological characters, in part because convergent evolution, which confounds phylogenetic reconstruction, is believed to be rarer for molecular sequences than for morphologies. However, neither the validity of this belief nor its underlying cause is known. Here comparing...

Hybrids of Lucilia sericata and Lucilia cuprina have been shown to exist in previous studies using molecular methods, but no study has shown explicitly that these hybrids can be identified morphologically. Published morphological characters used to identify L. sericata and L. cuprina were reviewed, and then scored and tested using specimens of both species and known hybrids. Ordination by multi...

Adaptive convergence in morphological characters has not been thoroughly investigated, and the processes by which phylogenetic relationships may be misled by morphological convergence remains unclear. We undertook a case study on the morphological evolution of viverrid-like feliformians (Nandinia, Cryptoprocta, Fossa, Eupleres, Prionodon) and built the largest morphological matrix concerning th...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The aims of this investigation were to highlight the qualitative and quantitative diversity apparent between nine diploid Fragaria species and produce interspecific populations segregating for a large number of morphological characters suitable for quantitative trait loci analysis. METHODS A qualitative comparison of eight described diploid Fragaria species was performed a...

Alnicola (=Naucoria, pro parte) is a mushroom genus of strictly temperate, obligately ectomycorrhizal species, traditionally included in the family Cortinariaceae. Most Alnicola spp. are primarily host specific on Alnus, although a few are mycobionts of Salix or other hosts. The different species of Alnicola exhibit unique morphological (cystidia, pileipellis) and cytological (dikaryotic or mon...

The Sunda region of Southeastern Asia is rich in termite fauna, but termites from this region have been poorly described. In this study, we described eight species from two diverse genera from this region, and from the family Termitidae. We describe Bulbitermes 4 spp. and Nasutitermes 4 spp. from new field collections. Where possible we examine original holotype specimens, and describe the esse...

This study examines the evolution hindwing shape in Chinese dung beetle species using morphometric and phylogenetic analyses. Previous studies have analyzed the evolution of wing shape within a single or very few species, or by comparing only a few wing traits. No study has analyzed wing shape evolution of a large number of species, or quantitatively compared morphological variation of wings wi...

In this research phylogenetic relationships of the two genera Fragaria and Duchesnea, including four species ( Fragaria viridis, F. vesca, Duchesnea indica and D. chrysantha) and 2 of their closely related species (Potentilla reptans and P. micrantha) plus 2 Fillipendulla species ( representing outgroups) were carried out using morphological traits. Primarily, morphological evidences of 30 taxa...

The morphological variability of the genus Nymphaea is described on the basis of detailed studies of fresh material from 49 populations in European Russia and southern Siberia. Macromorphological characters in the field (including analysis of leaf shape using geometrical morphometry), pollen size and exine sculpture have been analyzed. One polymorphic widespread species, N. candida, grows in mo...