Diapause which enhances survival during unfavourable periods is one of the most common seasonal adaptations of insects. A typical 'diapause syndrome' includes an arrest of development (or of reproduction is the case of adult diapause), a decrease in metabolism, an increase in the resistance to adverse environmental conditions, an accumulation of reserves, etc. In contrast to quiescence, facultative diapause is an 'anticipatory response', that is it is induced by environmental cues before the beginning of the adverse sea

Insect invasions are often accompanied by changes in the phenotypic structure of the populations and in the photoperiodic responses that regulate seasonal cycles. The Asian ladybird Harmonia axyridis has been recently discovered in Krasnodar Territory, from whence it is now gradually colonizing Central Russia. Our comparative study of individuals collected in 2020 in Sochi, Belgorod Province, and Moscow Province shows that interpopulation differences in their phenotypic structure are nonsignificant. The proportion of the light morph succinea is 77–83%; the proportion of the most common dark morph, spectabilis, is 13–20%. Laboratory experiments show that females from all the studied populations exhibit only a weak photoperiodic response. Comparative analysis reveals that females from the more northerly Moscow and Belgorod populations have a somewhat greater tendency to diapause and slightly delay reproductive maturation.

The field surveys were conducted in the Maninjau Lake region, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia, in February 2020, mainly on the north-eastern slope of the Maninjau caldera at 450–600 m a.s.l. The slopes of the Maninjau caldera are naturally covered by a tropical rainforest that remains quite undisturbed from an altitude of 900 m up to the crater ridge. Natural vegetation of the northern and eastern slopes at altitudes from 450 and 500 to 600 m a.s.l. is replaced by rice plantations or mixed forest gardens. The typical habitat consisted of an evergreen broad-leaved forest on the slopes along a mountain creek and around a waterfall. Herein, we report 11 new species records for the Maninjau caldera; 9 new species records for Agam Regency; 3 new species records for Sumatra and Indonesia and 1 species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 new for science. The morphology of rare and poorly known species of the bent toed gecko, Cyrtodactylus agamensis (Bleeker, 1860) is described for the first time. A high diversity of Cyrtodactylus Gray, 1827 occurs in Indochina and on the Thai-Malay Peninsula (150 species) but only six species in Sumatra. The Malay-Indochinese genus Cnemaspis has a recent spurt of diversity and now reaches eight species in Sumatra and only one species reaches Java. Current gecko diversity in Sumatra comprises 29 species in eight genera. The level of endemism level in geckos is very high and reaches 48%. The herpetofauna of Maninjau Caldera includes 26 amphibian and 46 reptile species. The faunistic core of the West Sumatran herpetofauna consists of Malay-Sundaic, Sumatran endemic, Sunda-Indochinese and widely distributed Oriental elements. The West Sumatran herpetofauna is characterized by the presence of a mutual species with Indochina, Malaysia, east India, Myanmar, the Andaman and Nicobar islands and Sri Lanka, often with disjunction in the huge territory of Indochina; species with continuous distribution from the Indian subcontinent to Papua and Oceania; and generalist species with wide pan-Indopacific distribution.

No abstract

Hybridogenesis is well-known attributes of water frogs of the genus Pelophylax. The P. esculentus complex consists of two parental species, P. lessonae and P. ridibundus, as well as their hemiclonal (sometimes meroclonal) hybrid, P. esculentus. DNA flow cytometry, genetic and morphometric analyses were used to examine water frog compositions in 27 localities (n = 212) throughout the Dniester River valley in Moldova. Two species were revealed in the studied region (42% individuals were P. esculentus and 58% P. ridibundus). All frogs proved to be diploid. We registered the first species in 74% localities and the second in 78%. Populations, where we found only P. ridibundus occurred in 26% localities and only P. esculentus in 22%, while mixed population systems in 52%. Both species were usually observed in open water bodies and rivers that flow down through agricultural land and urban areas. In populations of P. esculentus the number of males strongly exceeded (90%) the number of females. The half of studied hybrid males was sterile, and most of fertile hybrid males produced sperm with the genome of P. lessonae. Several hybrid males gave the mixture of sperm with genomes of P. lessonae and P. ridibundus (amphispermy) and only one male with the P. ridibundus genome. Both species had the mitochondrial DNA of P. ridibundus. Based on nuclear markers, in P. esculentus and P. ridibundus we revealed the presence of alleles of the closely related Anatolian species P. cf. bedriagae. This might affect the successful reproduction of hybridogenetic P. esculentus. However, comparison of percentage of sterile males and alleles of P. cf. bedriagae among hybrids showed no correlation.