Draft genome of the globally widespread and invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile).

Ants are some of the most abundant and familiar animals on Earth, and they play vital roles in most terrestrial ecosystems. Although all ants are eusocial, and display a variety of complex and fascinating behaviors, few genomic resources exist for them. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of a particularly widespread and well-studied species, the invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), which was accomplished using a combination of 454 (Roche) and Illumina sequencing and community-based funding rather than federal grant support. Manual annotation of >1,000 genes from a variety of different gene families and functional classes reveals unique features of the Argentine ant's biology, as well as similarities to Apis mellifera and Nasonia vitripennis. Distinctive features of the Argentine ant genome include remarkable expansions of gustatory (116 genes) and odorant receptors (367 genes), an abundance of cytochrome P450 genes (>110), lineage-specific expansions of yellow/major royal jelly proteins and desaturases, and complete CpG DNA methylation and RNAi toolkits. The Argentine ant genome contains fewer immune genes than Drosophila and Tribolium, which may reflect the prominent role played by behavioral and chemical suppression of pathogens. Analysis of the ratio of observed to expected CpG nucleotides for genes in the reproductive development and apoptosis pathways suggests higher levels of methylation than in the genome overall. The resources provided by this genome sequence will offer an abundance of tools for researchers seeking to illuminate the fascinating biology of this emerging model organism.

Controlled experiment finds no detectable citation bump from Twitter promotion.

Multiple studies across a variety of scientific disciplines have shown that the number of times that a paper is shared on Twitter (now called X) is correlated with the number of citations that paper receives. However, these studies were not designed to answer whether tweeting about scientific papers causes an increase in citations, or whether they were simply highlighting that some papers have higher relevance, importance or quality and are therefore both tweeted about more and cited more. The authors of this study are leading science communicators on Twitter from several life science disciplines, with substantially higher follower counts than the average scientist, making us uniquely placed to address this question. We conducted a three-year-long controlled experiment, randomly selecting five articles published in the same month and journal, and randomly tweeting one while retaining the others as controls. This process was repeated for 10 articles from each of 11 journals, recording Altmetric scores, number of tweets, and citation counts before and after tweeting. Randomization tests revealed that tweeted articles were downloaded 2.6-3.9 times more often than controls immediately after tweeting, and retained significantly higher Altmetric scores (+81%) and number of tweets (+105%) three years after tweeting. However, while some tweeted papers were cited more than their respective control papers published in the same journal and month, the overall increase in citation counts after three years (+7% for Web of Science and +12% for Google Scholar) was not statistically significant (p > 0.15). Therefore while discussing science on social media has many professional and societal benefits (and has been a lot of fun), increasing the citation rate of a scientist's papers is likely not among them.

ATLANTIC ANTS: a data set of ants in Atlantic Forests of South America.

Ants, an ecologically successful and numerically dominant group of animals, play key ecological roles as soil engineers, predators, nutrient recyclers, and regulators of plant growth and reproduction in most terrestrial ecosystems. Further, ants are widely used as bioindicators of the ecological impact of land use. We gathered information of ant species in the Atlantic Forest of South America. The ATLANTIC ANTS data set, which is part of the ATLANTIC SERIES data papers, is a compilation of ant records from collections (18,713 records), unpublished data (29,651 records), and published sources (106,910 records; 1,059 references), including papers, theses, dissertations, and book chapters published from 1886 to 2020. In total, the data set contains 153,818 ant records from 7,636 study locations in the Atlantic Forest, representing 10 subfamilies, 99 genera, 1,114 ant species identified with updated taxonomic certainty, and 2,235 morphospecies codes. Our data set reflects the heterogeneity in ant records, which include ants sampled at the beginning of the taxonomic history of myrmecology (the 19th and 20th centuries) and more recent ant surveys designed to address specific questions in ecology and biology. The data set can be used by researchers to develop strategies to deal with different macroecological and region-wide questions, focusing on assemblages, species occurrences, and distribution patterns. Furthermore, the data can be used to assess the consequences of changes in land use in the Atlantic Forest on different ecological processes. No copyright restrictions apply to the use of this data set, but we request that authors cite this data paper when using these data in publications or teaching events.

County-Level Records for Culex stigmatosoma and Culex thriambus in Texas.

Populations of Culex stigmatosoma and Cx. thriambus have been documented in the southwestern USA with a southward range extension to northern South America and Central America, respectively. Studies conducted in California indicate both species are potential vectors of West Nile virus. However, vector competence studies are lacking for other parts of the USA. During a multicounty regional surveillance study west of San Antonio, Texas, multiple errors were observed in the Texas distributional literature of these species. These errors involved incorrect distributional information in Texas and US publications. Evidence to correct these errant records was found upon further analysis of Texas literature and curated specimens. Therefore, the aims of this study were to present that evidence and then combine the corrected records with additional records from the Texas Department of State Health Services and from larval collections made during other Texas surveillance studies.

Evaluating nuclear protein-coding genes for phylogenetic utility in beetles.

Although nuclear protein-coding genes have proven broadly useful for phylogenetic inference, relatively few such genes are regularly employed in studies of Coleoptera, the most diverse insect order. We increase the number of loci available for beetle systematics by developing protocols for three genes previously unused in beetles (alpha-spectrin, RNA polymerase II and topoisomerase I) and by refining protocols for five genes already in use (arginine kinase, CAD, enolase, PEPCK and wingless). We evaluate the phylogenetic performance of each gene in a Bayesian framework against a presumably known test phylogeny. The test phylogeny covers 31 beetle specimens and two outgroup taxa of varying age, including three of the four extant beetle suborders and a denser sampling in Adephaga and in the carabid genus Bembidion. All eight genes perform well for Cenozoic divergences and accurately separate closely related species within Bembidion, but individual genes differ markedly in accuracy over the older Mesozoic and Permian divergences. The concatenated data reconstruct the test phylogeny with high support in both Bayesian and parsimony analyses, indicating that combining data from multiple nuclear loci will be a fruitful approach for assembling the beetle tree of life.

Niche differentiation and fine-scale projections for Argentine ants based on remotely sensed data.

Modeling ecological niches of species is a promising approach for predicting the geographic potential of invasive species in new environments. Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) rank among the most successful invasive species: native to South America, they have invaded broad areas worldwide. Despite their widespread success, little is known about what makes an area susceptible--or not--to invasion. Here, we use a genetic algorithm approach to ecological niche modeling based on high-resolution remote-sensing data to examine the roles of niche similarity and difference in predicting invasions by this species. Our comparisons support a picture of general conservatism of the species' ecological characteristics, in spite of distinct geographic and community contexts.

Geographical potential of Argentine ants (Linepithema humile Mayr) in the face of global climate change.

Determining the spread and potential geographical distribution of invasive species is integral to making invasion biology a predictive science. We assembled a dataset of over 1000 occurrences of the Argentine ant (Linepithema humile), one of the world's worst invasive alien species. Native to central South America, Argentine ants are now found in many Mediterranean and subtropical climates around the world. We used this dataset to assess the species' potential geographical and ecological distribution, and to examine changes in its distributional potential associated with global climate change, using techniques for ecological niche modelling. Models developed were highly predictive of the species' overall range, including both the native distributional area and invaded areas worldwide. Despite its already widespread occurrence, L. humile has potential for further spread, with tropical coastal Africa and southeast Asia apparently vulnerable to invasion. Projecting ecological niche models onto four general circulation model scenarios of future (2050s) climates provided scenarios of the species' potential for distributional expansion with warming climates: generally, the species was predicted to retract its range in tropical regions, but to expand at higher latitude areas.

Fast-evolving homoplastic traits are best for species identification in a group of neotropical wasps.

Biological characters can be employed for both taxonomy and phylogenetics, but is conscripting characters for double duty a good idea? We explore the evolution of characters designed for taxonomic diagnosis in Costa Rican heterospiline wasps, a hyperdiverse lineage of parasitoid Braconidae, by mapping them to a robust multi-locus molecular phylogeny. We discover a strong positive relationship between the amount of evolutionary change a character undergoes and how broadly useful the characters are in the context of an interactive identification key--e.g., how evenly the character states are distributed among taxa. The empirical finding that fast characters are the most useful for species identification supports the idea that characters designed for taxonomic diagnoses are likely to underperform--or be positively misleading--in phylogenetic analyses.

The Doryctinae (Braconidae) of Costa Rica: genera and species of the tribe Heterospilini.

A comprehensive taxonomic study is presented for the four genera and 286 species of the doryctine tribe Heterospilini occurring in Costa Rica. The tribe is represented almost entirely by the 280 species of the genus Heterospilus Haliday. Keys for identification of the genera and species are provided and the genera and species are described and illustrated. An interactive key to the species of Heterospilus also was prepared using Lucid Builder. The following new genus and species are described from Costa Rica: Paraheterospilus gen. n., P. ceciliaensis sp. n., P. eumekus sp. n., P. wilbotgardus sp. n., Heterospilus achi sp. n., H. achterbergi sp. n., H. aesculapius sp. n., H. agujas sp. n., H. agujasensis sp. n., H. alajuelus sp. n., H. albocoxalis sp. n., H. alejandroi sp. n., H. amuzgo sp. n., H. angelicae sp. n., H. angustus sp. n., H. aphrodite sp. n., H. apollo sp. n., H. arawak sp. n., H. areolatus sp. n., H. artemis sp. n., H. athena sp. n., H. attraholucus sp. n., H. aubreyae sp. n., H. austini sp. n., H. azofeifai sp. n., H. bacchus sp. n., H. barbalhoae sp. n., H. bennetti sp. n., H. bicolor sp. n., H. boharti sp. n., H. borucas sp. n., H. braeti sp. n., H. brethesi sp. n., H. breviarius sp. n., H. brevicornus sp. n., H. bribri sp. n., H. brullei sp. n., H. bruesi sp. n., H. cabecares sp. n., H. cacaoensis sp. n., H. cachiensis sp. n., H. cameroni sp. n., H. cangrejaensis sp. n., H. careonotaulus sp. n., H. caritus sp. n., H. carolinae sp. n., H. cartagoensis sp. n., H. catiensis sp. n., H. catorce sp. n., H. cero sp. n., H. chaoi sp. n., H. chilamatensis sp. n., H. chocho sp. n., H. chorotegus sp. n., H. chorti sp. n., H. cinco sp. n., H. cocopa sp. n., H. colliletus sp. n., H. colonensis sp. n., H. complanatus sp. n., H. conservatus sp. n., H. cora sp. n., H. corcovado sp. n., H. corrugatus sp. n., H. costaricensis sp. n., H. cressoni sp. n., H. cuatro sp. n., H. curtisi sp. n., H. cushmani sp. n., H. dani sp. n., H. demeter sp. n., H. dianae sp. n., H. diecinueve sp. n., H. dieciocho sp. n., H. dieciseis sp. n., H. diecisiete sp. n., H. diez sp. n., H. doce sp. n., H. dos sp. n., H. dulcus sp. n., H. eberhardi sp. n., H. ektorincon sp. n., H. emilius sp. n., H. empalmensis sp. n., H. enderleini sp. n., H. escazuensis sp. n., H. fahringeri sp. n., H. fischeri sp. n., H. flavidus sp. n., H. flavisoma sp. n., H. flavostigmus sp. n., H. foersteri sp. n., H. fonsecai sp. n., H. fournieri sp. n., H. gahani sp. n., H. garifuna sp. n., H. gauldi sp. n., H. golfodulcensis sp. n., H. gouleti sp. n., H. granulatus sp. n., H. grisselli sp. n., H. guanacastensis sp. n., H. guapilensis sp. n., H. hachaensis sp. n., H. halidayi sp. n., H. hansoni sp. n., H. hansonorum sp. n., H. haplocarinus sp. n., H. hedqvisti sp. n., H. hera sp. n., H. heredius sp. n., H. hespenheidei sp. n., H. holleyae sp. n., H. huddlestoni sp. n., H. huetares sp. n., H. hypermekus sp. n., H. itza sp. n., H. ixcatec sp. n., H. ixil sp. n., H. jabillosensis sp. n., H. jakaltek sp. n., H. janzeni sp. n., H. jennieae sp. n., H. jonmarshi sp. n., H. jupiter sp. n., H. kellieae sp. n., H. kiefferi sp. n., H. kikapu sp. n., H. kulai sp. n., H. kuna sp. n., H. lapierrei sp. n., H. lasalturus sp. n., H. laselvus sp. n., H. leenderti sp. n., H. leioenopus sp. n., H. leiponotaulus sp. n., H. lenca sp. n., H. levis sp. n., H. leviscutum sp. n., H. levitergum sp. n., H. limonensis sp. n., H. longinoi sp. n., H. longisulcus sp. n., H. longius sp. n., H. luteogaster sp. n., H. luteoscutum sp. n., H. luteus sp. n., H. macrocarinus sp. n., H. macrocaudatus sp. n., H. magnus sp. n., H. malaisei sp. n., H. mam sp. n., H. maritzaensis sp. n., H. mars sp. n., H. masneri sp. n., H. masoni sp. n., H. mellosus sp. n., H. menkei sp. n., H. mercury sp. n., H. milleri sp. n., H. miskito sp. n., H. mixtec sp. n., H. monteverde sp. n., H. mopanmaya sp. n., H. muertensis sp. n., H. muesebecki sp. n., H. nahua sp. n., H. neesi sp. n., H. nemestrinus sp. n., H. nephilim sp. n., H. nephus sp. n., H. nigracapitus sp. n., H. nigragonatus sp. n., H. nigricoxus sp. n., H. nixoni sp. n., H. noyesi sp. n., H. nueve sp. n., H. nunesi sp. n., H. once sp. n., H. orbitus sp. n., H. orosi sp. n., H. paloverde sp. n., H. pappi sp. n., H. parkeri sp. n., H. parvus sp. n., H. pech sp. n., H. penosa sp. n., H. petiolatus sp. n., H. petralbus sp. n., H. phaeocoxus sp. n., H. phaeoskelus sp. n., H. pharkidodus sp. n., H. phytorius sp. n., H. pitillaensis sp. n., H. poqomchi sp. n., H. poqomom sp. n., H. puertoviejoensis sp. n., H. puntarensis sp. n., H. qanjobal sp. n., H. quickei sp. n., H. quitirrisi sp. n., H. racostica sp. n., H. rama sp. n., H. ramirezi sp. n., H. ratzeburgi sp. n., H. reagani sp. n., H. reinhardi sp. n., H. retheospilus sp. n., H. rhabdotus sp. n., H. ricacosta sp. n., H. rinconensis sp. n., H. robbieae sp. n., H. rohweri sp. n., H. rojasi sp. n., H. romani sp. n., H. rugosus sp. n., H. sabrinae sp. n., H. saminae sp. n., H. sanjosensis sp. n., H. santarosensis sp. n., H. sanvitoensis sp. n., H. saturn sp. n., H. seis sp. n., H. sergeyi sp. n., H. sharkeyi sp. n., H. shawi sp. n., H. shenefelti sp. n., H. shonan sp. n., H. siete sp. n., H. similis sp. n., H. sinuatus sp. n., H. smithi sp. n., H. spiloheterus sp. n., H. staryi sp. n., H. stelfoxi sp. n., H. strazanaci sp. n., H. sumo sp. n., H. szepligeti sp. n., H. terrabas sp. n., H. thereospilus sp. n., H. tobiasi sp. n., H. tolupan sp. n., H. townesi sp. n., H. trece sp. n., H. tres sp. n., H. tricolor sp. n., H. trienta sp. n., H. tuberculatus sp. n., H. turrialbaensis sp. n., H. tzutujil sp. n., H. ugaldei sp. n., H. uno sp. n., H. variabilis sp. n., H. veinte sp. n., H. veintidos sp. n., H. veintitres sp. n., H. veintiuno sp. n., H. vierecki sp. n., H. villegasi sp. n., H. vittatus sp. n., H. vulcanus sp. n., H. wahli sp. n., H. warreni sp. n., H. washingtoni sp. n., H. wesmaeli sp. n., H. whartoni sp. n., H. whitfieldi sp. n., H. wildi sp. n., H. wilkinsoni sp. n., H. wrightae sp. n., H. xanthus sp. n., H. xerxes sp. n., H. xinca sp. n., H. yaqui sp. n., H. ypsilon sp. n., H. zapotec sp. n., H. zeus sp. n., H. zitaniae sp. n., H. zoque sp. n., H. zunigai sp. n., H. zurquiensis sp. n. One new combination is proposed, Pioscelus costaricensis (Marsh) comb. n.