The study of the copepod Eurytemora affinis has provided unprecedented insights into mechanisms of invasive success. In this invited review, I summarize a subset of work from my laboratory to highlight key insights gained from studying E. affinis as a model system. Invasive species with brackish origins are overrepresented in freshwater habitats. The copepod E. affinis is an example of such a b...

We compare the sequences for the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase II gene of 13 species of the Drosophila obscura group. The survey includes six members of the D. affinis subgroup, four of the D. pseudoobscura subgroup, and three of the D. obscura subgroup. In all species, the gene is 688 nucleotides in length, encoding a protein of 229 amino acids plus the first position T of the stop codon. T...

Feeding ecology of white perch Morone americana larvae, a major component of the ichthyoplankton community in the estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM) region of upper Chesapeake Bay, was evaluated in years of contrasting physical conditions. In 1998, high river flow led to an ETM with high turbidity and pronounced salinity stratification. In 1999, under low river flow conditions, turbidities in th...

We present the results of surveys of diversity in sets of >40 X-linked and autosomal loci in samples from natural populations of Drosophila miranda and D. pseudoobscura, together with their sequence divergence from D. affinis. Mean silent site diversity in D. miranda is approximately one-quarter of that in D. pseudoobscura; mean X-linked silent diversity is about three-quarters of that for the ...

In Drosophila species of the obscura group, males exhibit sperm-heteromorphism, simultaneously producing both long sperm, capable of fertilization, and short sperm that are not. The production of multiple sperm types calls into question whether mating system correlates, such as sperm length and number trade-offs and female remating behavior, are the same as previously described in sperm-monomor...

The dynamics of mitochondrial and multilocus nuclear genotypic frequencies were monitored for 2 yr in experimental populations established with equal numbers of two poeciliid fishes (Gambusia affinis and Gambusia holbrooki) that hybridize naturally in the southeastern United States. In replicated "small-pool" populations (experiment I), 1018 sampled individuals at six time periods revealed an i...

Zimmer et al. (2001) documented two morphological and vocal forms within what was then known as Suiriri suiriri affinis, and described the short-billed form as Suiriri islerorum. However, studies of the Burmeister type material held at the Natural History Collections of the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, revealed the types of Suiriri s. affinis (Burmeister, 1856) to be the ...

We studied the growth and feeding response of the ciliate Euplotes affinis when exposed to algal cultures of Prymnesium parvum and Rhodomonas cf. baltica as monocultures or as mixtures. Cultures of P. parvum grown under nutrient-limited (N or P) or nutrient-sufficient conditions were tested for toxicity against E. affinis. Ciliates grew well when fed R. cf. baltica, but avoided grazing on monoc...

The investigation of the hexane extract from aerial parts of Lychnophora pinaster provided, besides others substances, the E-isomer of lychnophoric acid, a sesquiterpene derivative previously isolated from L. affinis.

A taxonomic study of the genus Ocellarnaca Gorochov, 2004 was presented. Four new species were described: O. omeica sp. nov., O. coomani sp. nov., O. xiai sp. nov., O. brevicauda sp. nov.. A key to the species and the distributional data of Ocellarnaca were provided.