Exploring Phylogenetic Relationships of the Mecocephala Group (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) Using Continuous and Discrete Characters, with Notes on Taxonomy.

The Mecocephala group comprises about 50 species, restricted to the Neotropics and with the highest species richness in Neotropical South America. Several species use rice as host plants and their identification is facilitated by the presence of exaggerated head proportions and a unique male genitalic morphology. The taxonomy of the group has been extensively explored, but inferring its monophyly and especially its internal phylogenetic relationships has been challenging. Here, we inferred the phylogenetic relationships for the group assembling the most complete taxonomic sampling to date, analyzing discrete and continuous morphological characters through equal and implied weighted parsimony analyses. The monophyly of the group was recovered, but internal relationships varied slightly according to the dataset tested. Thus, we propose internal arrangements for the group and provide a formal description of the Mecocephala group, diagnoses for each genus, a dichotomous key to identify its genera, and illustrations of the morphological characters and type species.

Diversity of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomoidea) in the Brazilian Pampa and the Parque Estadual de Itapuã, Rio Grande do Sul.

Biological surveys represent important contributions to the knowledge of species diversity, conservation, taxonomy, and biogeography. Few surveys of stink bugs and allied groups (Pentatomoidea) were produced in Brazil, especially regarding the Brazilian Pampa, an overlooked biome. Here, a list of Pentatomoidea species of the Brazilian Pampa is presented for the first time, composed of seven families and 152 species. The results of five years of sampling in the Parque Estadual de Itapuã (PEI) are also presented. A total of 693 individuals were sampled, representing 41 species, 29 genera, and five families of Pentatomoidea. Pentatomidae presented a higher richness (28 species), followed by Cydnidae, Scutelleridae, Dinidoridae, and Megarididae. The most abundant species collected in the PEI was Brachystetus geniculatus (Fabricius) sampled in Bromelia balansae Mez (32.76%), followed by Oebalus poecilus (Dallas) found in Persicaria hydropiper (Linnaeus) (11.99%), Pallantia macula (Dallas) collected in B. balansae (10.92%), Dinidor saucius Stål (8.57%) in Smilax cf. campestris Griseb., and Caonabo pseudoscylax (Bergroth) (5.35%) found in Homolepis glutinosa (Sw.) Zuloaga & Soderstrom. This is the first time that a list of species is presented for the Brazilian Pampa and Parque Estadual de Itapuã, providing a baseline to develop further studies with Pentatomoidea in the biome.

Antifungal activities of different extracts of marine macroalgae against dermatophytes and Candida species.

Algae are bioactive natural resources, and due to the medical importance of superficial mycoses, we focused the action of macroalgae extracts against dermatophytes and Candida species. Seaweed obtained from the Riacho Doce beach, Alagoas (Brazil), were screened for the antifungal activity, through crude extracts using dichloromethane, chloroform, methanol, ethanol, water and chloroform and hexane fractions of green, brown and red algae in assays with standard strains of the dermatophytes Trichophyton rubrum, T. tonsurans, T. mentagrophytes, Microsporum canis, M. gypseum and yeasts Candida albicans, C. krusei, C. guilliermondi and C. parapsilosis. The M44-A and M27-A2/M38A manuals by CLSI were followed, and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranged from 0.03 to 16.00 µg ml(-1), and an inhibition halo of 10.00-25.00 mm was observed for dermatophytes, while for yeast, it was from 8.00 to 16.00 µg ml(-1) and 10.00-15.00 mm. M. canis showed MIC of 0.03 µg ml(-1) and the largest inhibition halo in T. rubrum (25.00 mm) through the use of the methanol extract. For C. albicans, dichloromethane, methanol and ethanol extracts formed the largest inhibition halo. The ethanol extract was shown to be the best inhibiting fungi growth, and chloroform and hexane fractions of H. musciformis inhibited the growth of all dermatophytes and C. albicans, yielding the conclusion that apolar extracts obtained from algae presented the best activity against important pathogenic fungi.

New species and new distributional records of Elanela Rolston, 1980 (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae).

Two new species are described, Elanela colombiana sp. nov. from Colombia, with disk of scutellum callused, ivory and abdominal sternite VIII immaculate medially, and Elanela ecuatoriana sp. nov., from Ecuador, distinguished by legs with black spots and the dorsal rim and ventral rim of pygophore with a medial process. Illustrations of habitus and genitalia of each species are provided and the distributional map was updated to include the new species and a new record of E. jordi. Additionally, the identification key to the species of Elanela is updated to include the new species.

Larvicidal Activity against Aedes aegypti and Molluscicidal Activity against Biomphalaria glabrata of Brazilian Marine Algae.

This study investigated the biological activities of five benthic marine algae collected from Northeastern Region of Brazil. The tested activities included larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti, molluscicidal activity against Biomphalaria glabrata, and toxicity against Artemia salina. Extracts of Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta), Padina gymnospora, Sargassum vulgare (Phaeophyta), Hypnea musciformis, and Digenea simplex (Rhodophyta) were prepared using different solvents of increasing polarity, including dichloromethane, methanol, ethanol, and water. Of the extracts screened, the dichloromethane extracts of H. musciformis and P. gymnospora exhibited the highest activities and were subjected to bioassay-guided fractionation in hexane and chloroform. The chloroform fractions of the P. gymnospora and H. musciformis extracts showed molluscicidal activity at values below 40 µ g·mL(-1) (11.1460 µ g·mL(-1) and 25.8689 µ g·mL(-1), resp.), and the chloroform and hexane fractions of P. gymnospora showed larvicidal activity at values below 40 µ g·mL(-1) (29.018 µ g·mL(-1) and 17.230 µ g·mL(-1), resp.). The crude extracts were not toxic to A. salina, whereas the chloroform and hexane fractions of P. gymnospora (788.277 µ g·mL(-1) and 706.990 µ g·mL(-1)) showed moderate toxicity, indicating that the toxic compounds present in these algae are nonpolar.