The toxic effects of selected Malaysian timbers (Madhuca utilis, Anisoptera laevis and Endospermum malaccense) heartwood extracts were studied with the aim to determine and understanding the function of wood extracts as a natural protection against termite. The results show that no-choice experiments revealed toxic properties of all investigated extracts by the contact against Coptotermes gestr...

This account shows the distribution of elastic elements in hind wings in the scarabaeid Pachnoda marginata and coccinellid Coccinella septempunctata (both Coleoptera). Occurrence of resilin, a rubber-like protein, in some mobile joints together with data on wing unfolding and flight kinematics suggest that resilin in the beetle wing has multiple functions. First, the distribution pattern of res...

Interacting with a moving object poses a computational problem for an animal's nervous system. This problem has been elegantly solved by the dragonfly, a formidable visual predator on flying insects. The dragonfly computes an interception flight trajectory and steers to maintain it during its prey-pursuit flight. This review summarizes current knowledge about pursuit behavior and neurons though...

Large-scale digitization of museum specimens, particularly of insect collections, is becoming commonplace. Imaging increases the accessibility of collections and decreases the need to handle individual, often fragile, specimens. Another potential advantage of digitization is to make it easier to conduct morphometric analyses, but the accuracy of such methods needs to be tested. Here we compare ...

Sinoeuthemis daohugouensis gen. et sp. n. is the first record of the isophlebiopteran family Euthemistidae from Middle Jurassic of northeast China, while previously this family was restricted to the early Late Jurassic Kazakhstan. This new finding allows us to emend the family diagnosis with hindwing characters. This new species shows a mixture of characters alternatively present in different g...

Sarasaeschna chiangchinlii sp. nov. collected from Daxi, Taoyuan County in northern Taiwan is described and diagnosed. Judging from male penile structure, this species is considered to belong to the pryeri-group of its genus. It is easily distinguished from all known congeners in having peculiar sickle-shaped cerci in male. The habitats of S. chiangchinlii are mainly shaded brooks in lowland ar...

Johnson et al. (2013) found that morphometric measurements of dragonfly wings taken from actual specimens and measurements taken from whole-drawer images of those specimens were equally accurate. We do not believe that their conclusions are justified by their data and analysis. Our reasons are, first, that their study was constrained in ways that restrict the generalisability of their results, ...

Model organisms, such as rodents, monkeys, or Drosophila, have driven much of recent research in neuroscience. However, studies in other, more unusual systems have broadened the types of questions that are being asked and have revealed the diverse ways in which species tackle common problems. Cell editor Mirna Kvajo talked with Nachum Ulanovsky, Gilles Laurent, and Anthony Leonardo about their ...