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A study was conducted that compared the effectiveness of a sweepnet versus a vacuum suction device for collecting arthropods in cotton. The study differs from previous research in that body-mounted action cameras (B-MACs) were used to record the activity of the person conducting the arthropod collections. The videos produced by the B-MACs were then analyzed with behavioral event recording software to quantify various aspects of the sampling process. The sampler's speed and the number of sampling sweeps or vacuum suctions taken over a fixed distance (12.2 m) of cotton were two of the more significant sampling characteristics quantified for each method. The arthropod counts obtained, combined with the analyses of the videos, enabled us to estimate arthropod sampling efficiency for each technique based on fixed distance, time, and sample unit measurements. Data revealed that the vacuuming was the most precise method for collecting arthropods in the relatively small cotton research plots. However, data also indicates that the sweepnet method would be more efficient for collecting most of the cotton-dwelling arthropod taxa, especially if the sampler could continuously sweep for at least 1 min or ≥80 m (e.g., in larger research plots). The B-MACs are inexpensive and non-cumbersome, the video images generated are outstanding, and they can be archived to provide permanent documentation of a research project. The methods described here could be useful for other types of field-based research to enhance data collection efficiency.

Over the past decade, many new peptide families have been identified via in silico analyses of genomic and transcriptomic datasets. While various molecular and biochemical methods have confirmed the existence of some of these new groups, others remain in silico discoveries of computationally assembled sequences only. An example of the latter are the CCRFamides, named for the predicted presence of two pairs of disulfide bonded cysteine residues and an amidated arginine-phenylalanine carboxyl-terminus in family members, which have been identified from annelid, molluscan, and arthropod genomes/transcriptomes, but for which no precursor proteinencoding cDNAs have been cloned. Using routine transcriptome mining methods, we identified four Homarus americanus (American lobster) CCRFamide transcripts that share high sequence identity across the predicted open reading frames but more limited conservation in their 5' terminal ends, suggesting the Homarus gene undergoes alternative splicing. RT-PCR profiling using primers designed to amplify an internal fragment common to all of the transcripts revealed expression in the supraoesophageal ganglion (brain), eyestalk ganglia, and cardiac ganglion. Variant specific profiling revealed a similar profile for variant 1, eyestalk ganglia specific expression of variant 2, and an absence of variant 3 expression in the cDNAs examined. The broad distribution of CCRFamide transcript expression in the H. americanus nervous system suggests a *