Halipegus eccentricus is a common hemiurid trematode in the eustachian tubes of North America frogs. However, the life cycle of this species has never been completely elucidated. Studies on H. eccentricus suggest that it has a 3-host life cycle. Here, we show through fieldwork and host specificity experimental infections that the life cycle of Halipegus eccentricus utilizes 4 hosts. Metamorphos...

Summer blooms of filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria in the Baltic Sea are normally dominated by Aphanizomenon sp. and the toxin-producing Nodularia spumigena. In a 2-week laboratory experiment, we followed the uptake by representative benthic meiofauna species of 14C-labeled organic carbon from blooms, each dominated by one of these cyanobacteria. Natural bloom material was collected and...

BACKGROUND Fully asexually reproducing taxa lack outcrossing. Hence, the classic Biological Species Concept cannot be applied. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We used DNA sequences from the mitochondrial COI gene and the nuclear ITS2 region to check species boundaries according to the evolutionary genetic (EG) species concept in five morphospecies in the putative ancient asexual ostracod gener...

Aquatic environments can be restricted with the amount of available food resources especially with changes to both abiotic and biotic conditions. Mosquito larvae, in particular, are sensitive to changes in food resources. Resource limitation through inter-, and intra-specific competition among mosquitoes are known to affect both their development and survival. However, much less is understood a...