Is a molecule-for-molecule duplicate D of some entity always a perfect duplicate of it? And in particular: is D a being with consciousness if its original is? These questions summarize a certain diagnostic tool used by metaphysicians, and prominently used in service of a form of dualism that is supposed to support an autonomous science of consciousness. This essay argues that this diagnostic to...

Certain species of bumblebees are difficult to distinguish based on morphology alone due to a lack of diagnostic characters and extensive intraspecific variation in colour patterns. The discussion concerning whether Bombus lapponicus and Bombus monticola are the same species or not, seems to be ongoing. We present a study of 16 speciemens of B. monticola/B. lapponicus from Norway, identified wi...

The morphology and ultrastructure of the antennal sensilla of male Hydrotaea (Hydrotaea) armipes (Fallén) are examined via scanning electron microscopy in order to highlight the importance of antennal sensilla as a source of morphological characters for taxonomy and phylogeny of Hydrotaea. Antennal scape and pedicel have only one type of sensilla, the sharp-tipped chaetic sensilla, whereas ante...

A systematic study of the genus Ormyrus (Chalcidoidea, Ormyridae) was conducted based on the morphology and biology of the terminal-instar larvae of ten west European species that are parasitoids of gall wasps and gallflies of the families Cynipidae, Eurytomidae and Tephritidae. The first detailed descriptions are provided of the terminal-instar larvae of these ten species using SEM images to i...

OUTLINE Nematodes are considered one of the most difficult organisms to identify due to their microscopic size, morphological similarity, limited number of distinguishable taxonomic characters and overlapping morphometric measurements. However, there are few trained nematode taxonomists remaining, primarily due to retirement without replacement and/or young scientists’ lack of interest in class...

Scientific publications carry a practical moral duty: they must last. Along that line of thinking, some methods are proposed to allow economically and structurally viable publication of DNA sequence data of any size in printed matter and PDFs. The proposal is primarily aimed at contributing for preserving information for the future, while allowing authors to avoid information splitting and comp...

Anacanthobatis ori is one of the least known species of the family Anacanthobatidae with only four juvenile specimens reported. The species remained assigned to the genus Anacanthobatis sensu lato due to the lack of an adult male as external and skeletal clasper characters are the essential diagnostic features for the differentiation of genera and subgenera within the family Anacanthobatidae. S...

Acmaeopleura parvula Stimpson, 1858, the type species of the varunid Acmaeopleura Stimpson, 1858, is redescribed, and a neotype is designated. Examination of all three species of the gaeticine Sestrostoma Davie & N.K. Ng, 2007, revealed that, although the diagnostic characters of Sestrostoma proposed by the previous study are variable and mostly overlap with those of Acmaeopleura, they can stil...

Urticaceae is a family with more than 2000 species, which contains remarkable morphological diversity. It has undergone many taxonomic reorganizations, and is currently the subject of further systematic studies. To gain more resolution in systematic studies and to better understand the general patterns of character evolution in Urticaceae, based on our previous phylogeny including 169 accession...