General and Systematic Zoology

The original descriptions of C. acco Asahina, 1997, C. kazukoae Asahina, 1984, C. montana Fraser, 1933 and C. yamasakii Asahina, 1984 are supplemented and enhanced, and new illustrations of these species are provided. A teneral form of C. yamasakii is described and figured. C. kazukoae is recorded for the first time from Vietnam.

Records of larval rearing in the Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia carried out in 2014 are presented. In total, larvae of 27 species were collected. Larvae of eleven species (22 individuals) were successfully reared out, one individual is currently still being reared. An additional three species were collected right after emergence, with the adult still sitting on its exuvia. Most notable are the samples of Orthetrum borneense, Leptogomphus cf. pendleburyi, Coeliccia cf. nemoricola 1, Coeliccia cf. nemoricola 2, Heliocypha biseriata and Elattoneura analis whose final instar larvae are undescribed.

From September 2010 until August 2011, the dragonfly fauna of several habitats in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and its buffer zone in Central Vietnam was investigated. It is the first time that research on dragonfl ies was undertaken in that area. The habitats surveyed in the buffer zone were rivers, water-filled bomb craters, paddy fields and forest streams, while the habitats where research on dragonfl ies was carried out inside the national park were forest rivers and forest streams. In total, 61 species were determined at 16 different sites, while the identifi cation of 15 more species was possible just at genus level; an identifi cation of the species requires further research. The species were identifi ed either in the fi eld, with the help of photographs or (when a specimen was collected) in the laboratory. The differences of the habitats surveyed and the species found at each location are discussed and compared with the knowledge of the dragonfly fauna of Vietnam. Fur...

Anthropogenic global change, including agricultural intensification and climate change, poses a substantial challenge to many herbivores due to a reduced availability of feeding resources. The concomitant food stress is expected to detrimentally affect performance, amongst others in dispersal-related traits. Thus, while dispersal is of utmost importance to escape from deteriorating habitat conditions, such conditions may negatively feedback on the ability to do so. Therefore, we here investigate the impact of larval and adult food stress on traits related to dispersal ability, including morphology, physiology, flight performance, and exploratory behavior, in a butterfly. We show that inadequate nutrition during development and in the adult stage diminishes flight performance, despite some re-allocation of somatic resources. Detrimental effects of food stress on flight performance were mainly caused by reductions in body mass and storage reserves. Similar results were found for explo...

Jumping spiders are known for their extraordinary cognitive abilities. The underlying nervous system structures, however, are largely unknown. Here, we explore and describe the anatomy of the brain in the jumping spider Marpissa muscosa (Clerck, 1757) by means of paraffin histology, X-ray microCT analysis and immunohistochemistry as well as three-dimensional reconstruction. In the prosoma, the CNS is a clearly demarcated mass that surrounds the esophagus. The anteriormost neuromere, the protocerebrum, comprises nine bilaterally paired neuropils, including the mushroom bodies and one unpaired midline neuropil, the arcuate body. Further ventrally, the synganglion comprises the cheliceral (deutocerebrum) and pedipalpal neuropils (tritocerebrum). Synapsin-immunoreactivity in all neuropils is generally strong, while allatostatin-immunoreactivity is mostly present in association with the arcuate body and the stomodeal bridge. The most prominent neuropils in the spider brain, the mushroom ...

The central nervous system is known to be plastic in volume and structure depending on the stimuli the organism is subjected to. We tested in the jumping spider Marpissa muscosa (Clerck, 1757), whether rearing environments affect the volume of two target higher-order brain centers: the mushroom body (MB) and the arcuate body (AB). We reared female M. muscosa (N = 39) in three environments: solitarily (D: deprived), solitarily but in a physically enriched environment (P: physically enriched) and together with several siblings (G: group). We additionally investigated spiders caught from the field (W: wild). Volumes of MB and AB were compared using microCT analysis. We hypothesized that spiders reared in treatments P and G should have larger MB and AB than the spiders from treatment D, as the enriched environments are presumably cognitively more demanding than the deprived environment. Spiders from treatment P had significantly larger absolute brain volumes than spiders from treatment D, whereas brain volumes of treatment G lay in between. The relative volume of the MB was not significantly different between the treatments, whereas relative AB volumes were significantly larger in treatment P than in D, supporting the hypothesis that the AB is a center of locomotor control. W spiders had smaller absolute brain volumes and relatively smaller AB than spiders from laboratory treatments, which suggests developmental constraints under natural, possibly food-limited conditions. Additionally, differences in the relative volume of MB substructures were found. Overall, our study demonstrates that brains of jumping spiders respond plastically to environmental conditions in that absolute brain volume, as well as the relative volume of higher-order brain centers, is affected.

Some animals have evolved task differentiation among their eyes. A particular example is spiders, where most species have eight eyes, of which two (the principal eyes) are used for object discrimination, whereas the other three pairs (secondary eyes) detect movement. In the spider speciesCupiennius saleithese two eye types correspond to two visual pathways in the brain. Each eye is associated with its own first and second order visual neuropil. The second order neuropils of the principal eyes are connected to the arcuate body, whereas the second order neuropils of the secondary eyes are linked to the mushroom body. However, eye size and visual fields are considerably different in jumping spiders. We explored the principal- and secondary eye visual pathways of the jumping spiderMarpissa muscosa. We found that the connectivity of the principal eye pathway is the same as inC. salei, while there are differences in the secondary eye pathways. InM. muscosa,all secondary eyes are connected...

Five new species of Coeliccia (Coeliccia caerulea sp. nov. [holotype: Bao Loc, Lam Dong Prov., appr. 11.449N, 107.712E], Coeliccia coronata sp. nov. [holotype: Bao Loc, Lam Dong Prov., appr. 11.726N, 107.713E], Coeliccia curua sp. nov. [holotype: Ba Be National Park, Bac Kan Prov. appr. 22.413N, 105.610E], Coeliccia diomedea sp. nov. [holotype: Tai Giang, Quang Nam Prov., appr. 16.006N, 107.507E], and Coeliccia pulchella sp. nov. [holotype: Huu Lien Nature Reserve, Lang Son Prov., appr. 21.662N, 106.373E]) are described from Vietnam. The females of C. galbina Wilson & Reels, 2003, C. hayashii Phan & Kompier, 2016 and C. suoitia Dow, 2016 are described. Coeliccia montana Fraser, 1933 is shown to be a junior synonym of C. pyriformis Laidlaw, 1932. 

Light pollution, especially artificial light at night, has been repeatedly found to affect bird behaviour, resulting in an earlier start of morning activities. However, as thus far only a limited number of species has been investigated, the generality of the effects of light pollution on animal behaviour is difficult to assess. As such effects may be less pronounced in species starting their activity at rather high light intensities, we here investigated the effects of artificial light on the morning activity of a late-active non-passerine, the Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus), within the breeding period in north-eastern Germany. Additionally, we scored prevailing weather conditions, which typically also affect morning activity. Despite pronounced differences in the distance to the nearest artificial light source and in mean radiance between urban and rural Wood Pigeons, the onset of morning activity did not differ between the two habitat types. Instead, it was affected by prevailing ...