Structural and Genetic Investigation of the Egg and First-Instar Larva of an Egg-Laying Population of Blaesoxipha plinthopyga (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), a Species of Forensic Importance.

Flies in the family Sarcophagidae incubate their eggs and are known to be ovoviviparous (i.e., ovolarviparous), but a laboratory-maintained colony of Blaesoxipha plinthopyga (Wiedemann) deposited clutches of viable eggs over 10 generations. A description of the egg and first-instar larva of this species is provided along with genetic data (genome size and cytochrome oxidase I sequences). The egg is similar to previously described eggs of other Sarcophagidae but differs in the configuration of the micropyle. In the first-instar larva, the oral ridges are much more developed than has been described for other species. B. plinthopyga has forensic importance, and the present descriptive information is critical for proper case management.

Four new species of Tanycarpa (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Alysiinae) from the Palaearctic Region and new records of species from China.

Four new species of Tanycarpa (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Alysiinae), T. gymnonotum Yao sp. n., T. similis Yao sp. n., T. areolata Yao sp. n., and T. lineata Yao sp. n., are described from the Palaearctic Region of China, and T. chors Belokobylskij is newly recorded from China. Significant range extensions are given for T. bicolor (Nees von Esenbeck), T. gracilicornis (Nees von Esenbeck), and T. mitis Stelfox. A key to the Palaearctic species of Tanycarpa is provided.

Predicted secondary structure for 28S and 18S rRNA from Ichneumonoidea (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apocrita): impact on sequence alignment and phylogeny estimation.

We utilize the secondary structural properties of the 28S rRNA D2-D10 expansion segments to hypothesize a multiple sequence alignment for major lineages of the hymenopteran superfamily Ichneumonoidea (Braconidae, Ichneumonidae). The alignment consists of 290 sequences (originally analyzed in Belshaw and Quicke, Syst Biol 51:450-477, 2002) and provides the first global alignment template for this diverse group of insects. Predicted structures for these expansion segments as well as for over half of the 18S rRNA are given, with highly variable regions characterized and isolated within conserved structures. We demonstrate several pitfalls of optimization alignment and illustrate how these are potentially addressed with structure-based alignments. Our global alignment is presented online at (http://hymenoptera.tamu.edu/rna) with summary statistics, such as basepair frequency tables, along with novel tools for parsing structure-based alignments into input files for most commonly used phylogenetic software. These resources will be valuable for hymenopteran systematists, as well as researchers utilizing rRNA sequences for phylogeny estimation in any taxon. We explore the phylogenetic utility of our structure-based alignment by examining a subset of the data under a variety of optimality criteria using results from Belshaw and Quicke (2002) as a benchmark.