Evolution of the middle ear ossicles was a key innovation for mammals, enhancing the transmission of airborne sound. Radiation into various habitats from a terrestrial environment resulted in diversification of the auditory mechanisms among mammals. However, due to the paucity of phylogenetically controlled investigations, how middle ear traits have diversified with functional specialization re...

Amphicarpic plants produce aerial and subterranean fruits on an individual plant, and these heteromorphic diaspores give rise to plants that differ in growth and ecology. Amphicarpaea edgeworthii is a summer annual amphicarpic species that grows over a range of light levels. We aimed to compare the response to shading intensity of plants of A. edgeworthii grown throughout their life cycle from ...

Subterranean animals are currently viewed as highly imperiled, precariously avoiding extinction in an extreme environment of darkness. This assumption is based on a hypothesis that the reduction in visual systems and morphology common in cave faunas reflects a genetic inability to adapt and persist coupled with the perception of a habitat that is limited, disconnected, and fragile. Accordingly,...

It has been popularly assumed, at least since the time of Pliny the Elder [1], that the hearing of moles and other subterranean mammals is acute, perhaps to compensate for their poor vision. In recent times, behavioural audiograms of subterranean species (most studies have been of rodents) have shown that audition is biased towards unusually low frequencies for such small mammals, typically bei...

The annual feeding activity on paper baits of subterranean termites in deserti®ed (degraded-shrub dominated ecosystems) and relatively undegraded black-grama (Bouteloua eriopoda) grasslands was measured over six years on 12 sites. There were no signi®cant differences in mass losses from termite baits among the deserti®ed and undeserti®ed sites. Mass of paper consumed by termites on two sites do...

We designed a comparative study to unravel the phylogeography of two Alpine endemic spiders characterized by a different degree of adaptation to subterranean life: Troglohyphantes vignai (Araneae, Linyphiidae) and Pimoa rupicola (Araneae, Pimoidae), the latter showing minor adaptation to hypogean life. We sampled populations of the model species in caves and other subterranean habitats across t...

Many ant species construct subterranean nests. The presence of their nests may explain soil respiration "hot spots", an important factor in the high CO2 efflux from tropical forests. However, no studies have directly measured CO2 efflux from ant nests. We established 61 experimental plots containing 13 subterranean ant species to evaluate the CO2 efflux from subterranean ant nests in a tropical...

The efÞcacy and nonrepellency of indoxacarb (150 SC, 150 g [AI]/liter) and Þpronil (Termidor SC, 9.1% [AI]) against Þeld-collected eastern subterranean termite,Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar), and the Formosan subterranean termite,Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki, were evaluated for mortality and penetration into treated soil in laboratory glass tube bioassays. Both insecticides were tested at Þ...

BACKGROUND Some species of obligate cavernicolous beetles are known to possess a unique feature-a contraction of the larval cycle. In contrast to many other subterranean beetles, life-cycle contraction in Trechini ground beetles (Carabidae) is correlated with a reduction in the number of eggs and a drastic reduction in the number of ovarioles. This remarkable peculiarity has only been reported ...

Copepods have been poorly studied in subterranean habitats in Korea. Previous records have indicated mostly the presence of species already described from Japan, with very few endemic elements. This commonality has usually been explained by repeated dispersal across the land bridges that connected the two countries several times during the Pleistocene glacial cycles. However, the Korean Peninsu...