Artículo de publicación ISIThe harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), is native to Asia but has been intentionally introduced to many countries as a biological control agent of pest insects. In numerous countries, however, it has been introduced unintentionally. The dramatic spread of H. axyridis within many countries has been met with considerable trepidation. It is a generalist top predator, able to thrive in many habitats and across wide climatic conditions. It poses a threat to biodiversity, particularly aphidophagous insects, through competition and predation, and in many countries adverse effects have been reported on other species, particularly coccinellids. However, the patterns are not consistent around the world and seem to be affected by many factors including landscape and climate. Research on H. axyridis has provided detailed insights into invasion biology from broad patterns and processes to approaches in surveillance and monitoring. An impressive number of studies on this alien species have provided mechanistic evidence alongside models explaining large-scale patterns and processes. The involvement of citizens in monitoring this species in a number of countries around the world is inspiring and has provided data on scales that would be otherwise unachievable. Harmonia axyridis has successfully been used as a model invasive alien species and has been the inspiration for global collaborations at various scales. There is considerable scope to expand the research and associated collaborations, particularly to increase the breadth of parallel studies conducted in the native and invaded regions. Indeed a qualitative comparison of biological traits across the native and invaded range suggests that there are differences which ultimately could influence the population dynamics of this invader. Here we provide an overview of the invasion history and ecology of H. axyridis globally with consideration of future research perspectives. We reflect broadly on the contributions of such research to our understanding of invasion biology while also informing policy and people

Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) has been introduced widely for biological control of agricultural pests. Harmonia axyridis has established in four continents outside of its native range in Asia and it is considered an invasive alien species (IAS). Despite a large body of work on invasion ecology, establishment mechanisms of IAS and their interactions with natural enemies remain open questions. Parasites, defined as multicellular organisms that do not directly kill the host, could potentially play an important role in regulating host populations. This study presents a review of the parasites of H. axyridis, discussing their distributions and effects on host populations across the host's native and invasive range. These parasites are: Hesperomyces virescens Thaxt. fungi, Coccipolipus hippodamiae (McDaniel and Morrill) mites, and Parasitylenchus bifurcatus Poinar and Steenberg nematodes.

Summary1. Artificial night lighting threatens to disrupt strongly conserved light-dependent processes in animals and may have cascading effects on ecosystems as species interactions become altered. Insectivorous bats and their prey have been involved in a nocturnal, co-evolutionary arms race for millions of years. Lights may interfere with anti-bat defensive behaviours in moths, and disrupt a complex and globally ubiquitous interaction between bats and insects, ultimately leading to detrimental consequences for ecosystems on a global scale. 2. We combined experimental and mathematical approaches to determine effects of light pollution on a free-living bat-insect community. We compared prey selection by Cape serotine bats Neoromicia capensis in naturally unlit and artificially lit conditions using a manipulative field experiment, and developed a probabilistic model based on a suite of prey-selection factors to explain differences in observed diet. 3. Moth consumption by N. capensis was low under unlit conditions (mean percentage volume AE SD: 5Á91 AE 6Á25%), while moth consumption increased sixfold (mean percentage volume AE SD: 35Á42 AE 17Á90%) under lit conditions despite a decrease in relative moth abundance. Predictive prey-selection models that included high-efficacy estimates for eared-moth defensive behaviour found most support given diet data for bats in unlit conditions. Conversely, models that estimated eared-moth defensive behaviour as absent or low found more support given diet data for bats in lit conditions. Our models therefore suggest the increase in moth consumption was a result of light-induced, decreased eared-moth defensive behaviour. 4. Policy implications. In the current context of unyielding growth in global light pollution, we predict that specialist moth-eating bats and eared moths will face ever-increasing challenges to survival through increased resource competition and predation risk, respectively. Lights should be developed to be less attractive to moths, with the goal of reducing effects on moth behaviour. Unfortunately, market preference for broad-spectrum lighting and possible effects on other taxa make development of moth-friendly lighting improbable. Mitigation should therefore focus on the reduction of temporal, spatial and luminance redundancy in outdoor lighting. Restriction of light inside nature reserves and urban greenbelts can help maintain dark refugia for moth-eating bats and moths, and may become important for their persistence.

Data <-read.table ('Qgen_CTL_TPC.txt', header=T, na.strings="NA") ##Loading pedigree Ped <-read.table('Pedigree.txt', header = TRUE, na.strings="NA") ##Create the inverse of the pedigree ainv <-asreml.

Summit metabolism (M sum ), the maximum rate of resting metabolic thermogenesis, has been found to be broadly correlated with climatic variables and the use of heterothermy in some endotherms. Far less is known about M sum and metabolic expansibility [ME, the ratio of M sum to basal metabolic rate (BMR)] in bats compared with many other endotherm taxa. We measured BMR and M sum during winter and summer in captive and wild populations of a pteropodid from the southern subtropics, Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi) in Pretoria, South Africa. The M sum of fruit bats ranged from 5.178±0.611 W (captive, summer) to 6.006±0.890 W (captive, winter), and did not vary significantly between seasons. In contrast, BMR decreased by 17-25% in winter. The combination of seasonally stable M sum but flexible BMR resulted in ME being significantly higher in winter than in summer, ranging from 7.24±1.49 (wild, summer) to 13.11±2.14 (captive, winter). The latter value is well above the typical mammalian range. Moreover, both M sum and ME were significantly higher in captive bats than in wild individuals; we speculate this represents a phenotypic response to a reduction in exerciseassociated heat production while in captivity. Our data for E. wahlbergi, combined with those currently available for other chiropterans, reveal that M sum in bats is highly variable compared with allometrically expected values for other mammals.KEY WORDS: Acclimatisation, Cold exposure, Helox, Phenotypic flexibility, Thermogenic capacity INTRODUCTIONThe lowest environmental temperature to which an endotherm can defend normothermic body temperature (T b ) is determined primarily by its maximum capacity for metabolic thermogenesis (Scholander et al., 1950). Summit metabolism (M sum ) is the maximum rate of resting metabolic thermogenesis in the absence of exercise-associated heat production (Swanson et al., 1996) [also referred to as cold-induced peak metabolic rate (Wiersma et al., 2007)]. Among mammals, metabolic expansibility [ME, the ratio of M sum to basal metabolic rate (BMR); also referred to as factorial aerobic scope] is typically 4-8, but may be as high as 10-13 (Careau, 2013;Hinds et al., 1993). Most avian ME values are similar to those typical of mammals, with maximum reported values of 9.0-9. production capacity is correlated with climate, with M sum generally being higher in species inhabiting colder regions (Rezende et al., 2004;Swanson and Garland, 2009).One endotherm order about which remarkably little is known in terms of resting heat production capacity is the Chiroptera. The first published estimate of M sum in a bat of which we are aware was for the molossid Tadarida brasiliensis, in which mass-specific M sum was equivalent to ~21× BMR (Canals et al., 2005). The very high ME value for T. brasiliensis contrasts with more recent data for three frugivorous phyllostomids (Artibeus lituratus, Sturnira lilium and Carollia perspicillata) in which ME ranged from 3.4 to 5.2 (Almeida and Cruz-Neto, 2011).A priori, two...