Neurodegenerative diseases are a burden of our century. Although significant efforts were made to find a cure or relief to this scourge, their pathophysiology remains vague and the cellular function of the key involved proteins is still unclear. However, in the case of amyloid β (Aβ), a key protein concerned in Alzheimer disease, we are now a step closer in the unscrambling of its cellular func...

Cossyphodini Wasmann, 1899 (Tenebrionidae: Pimeliinae) from South Africa, Namibia and adjacent regions are revised, and newly collected material is presented. All species are figured, including as much as possible type specimens of African taxa for comparison. New species are described: Cossyphodes andreaei sp. n. and Cossyphodes caecus sp. n. (both South Africa), Cossyphodes naukluftensis sp. ...

The pupal stage of eleven Opatrini species occuring in the northern China are described and a key for their identifiaction is provided. The species are Scleropatrum horridum horridum Reitter, Gonocephalum reticulatum Motschulsky, Opatrum (Opatrum) subaratum Faldermann, Eumylada potanini (Reitter), Eumylada punctifera (Reitter), Penthicus (Myladion) alashanicus (Reichardt), Penthicus (Myladion) ...

A new genus, Pumiliofossorum Silvestro & Giraldo gen. nov. (Tenebrioninae: Scotobiini) and two new Peruvian species, Pumiliofossorum moche Silvestro & Flores sp. nov. and P. sechurae Giraldo & Flores sp. nov. are described and illustrated. Distributional data, habitat records, photographs, and SEM images are included. A revised key for the six genera of Scotobiini is provided. Morphology of the...

cantharidin is one of the most well- known compounds which has ever been fascinating in medicine due to its effects on human and domestic animals. it is produced naturally by beetles of family meloidae and oedemeridae, however a considerable spectra of other insects sequestered it too. cantharidin along with the other analogue, palasonin, which has a methyl group less than it, found in the hemo...

Long distance dispersal to locate suitable breeding sites is recognized as a key trait influencing the population dynamics and distribution of bark beetles and other saprophytic insects. While dispersal behavior has been studied for a range of aggressive 'tree killing' bark beetles, few have considered the dispersal behaviour of non-aggressive saprophytic bark beetles that utilize kairomones (h...

Beetles in the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae are unusual in that they burrow as adults inside trees for feeding and oviposition. Some of these beetles are known as ambrosia beetles for their obligate mutualisms with asexual fungi--known as ambrosia fungi--that are derived from plant pathogens in the ascomycete group known as the ophiostomatoid fungi. Other beetles in these subf...

Non-native bark and ambrosia beetles represent a threat to forests worldwide. Their invasion patterns are, however, still unclear. Here we investigated first, if the spread of non-native bark and ambrosia beetles is a gradual or a discontinuous process; second, which are the main correlates of their community structure; third, whether those correlates correspond to those of native species. We u...