The jumping organ (furcula) is the most characteristic structure among collembolans, and it is of great taxonomical values at higher levels. The largest superfamily Entomobryoidea is traditionally classified into four families only by the morphology of the furcula. Actually, many taxa among these families are strikingly similar in morphology without considering furcula. The phylogeny of Entomob...

Wheat is a very important crop in Italy, and is infested by wheat bugs belonging to the genera Eurygaster (Hemiptera: Scutellaridae) and Aelia (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). Many wheat bug infestations have been reported in the north, south, and center of Italy, both in the past as well as recently. The present study was carried out in Sardinia, Italy, during two years (2007 and 2008). The objectiv...

Recent discoveries of feathered dinosaurs from Early Cretaceous deposits in Liaoning, China, have not only lent strongest support for the dinosaurian hypothesis of bird origins, but have also provided much-needed information about the origins of feathers and avian flight. Preliminary analysis of character evolution suggests that the major avian osteological characters were acquired during the e...

The crops are attacked by several species of bugs. Sunn pest, is the most important pest constitutes a major threat to wheat production and, to a lesser extent, barley production. Sunn pests are a complex of true bugs which belong to the genera Eurygaster (Scutelleridae), Aelia, Carpocoris and Dolycoris (Pentatomidae). Eurygaster integriceps is probably the most important species in Afghanistan...

A major unknown in avian biology is the morphological basis of flight style diversity. While certain aspects pectoral anatomy, such as an enlarged sternum and hypertrophied muscles, clearly relate to aerial locomotion general, finer details form-function correspondence are less apparent. Nevertheless, furcula shape has been used infer extinct avians because cranial origin largest muscle, m. pec...