Considerable technological advances have been made towards the generation of genetically modified mosquitoes for vector control. In contrast, less progress has been made towards field evaluations of transformed mosquitoes which are critical for evaluating the success of, and hazards associated with, genetic modification. Oceanic islands have been highlighted as potentially the best locations for such trials. However, population genetic studies are necessary to verify isolation. Here, we used a panel of genetic markers to assess for evidence of genetic isolation of two oceanic island populations of the African malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae s.s. We found no evidence of isolation between the Bijagós archipelago and mainland Guinea-Bissau, despite separation by distances beyond the known dispersal capabilities of this taxon. Conversely, the Comoros Islands appear to be genetically isolated from the East African mainland, and thus represent a location worthy of further investigation for field trials. Based on assessments of gene flow within and between the Comoros islands, the island of Grande Comore was found to be genetically isolated from adjacent islands and also exhibited local population structure, indicating that it may be the most suitable site for trials with existing genetic modification technologies.

Presence of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a sample of Anopheles gambiae s.s., A. melas and A. pharoensis collected in Guinea-Bissau during October and November 2009. The percentage of P. falciparum infected samples (10.2% overall) was comparable to earlier studies from other sites in Guinea-Bissau (9.6-12.4%). The majority of the specimens collected were identified as A. gambiae which had an individual infection rate of 12.6 % across collection sites. A small number of specimens of A. coluzzii, A. coluzzii x A. gambiae hybrids, A. melas and A. pharoensis were collected and had infection rates of 4.3%, 4.1%, 11.1% and 33.3% respectively. Despite being present in low numbers in indoor collections, the exophilic feeding behaviors of A. melas (N=18) and A. pharoensis (N=6) and high infection rates observed in this survey suggest falciparum-malaria transmission potential outside of the protection of bed nets.

Power amplification allows animals to produce movements that exceed the physiological limits of muscle power and speed, such as the mantis shrimp’s ultrafast predatory strike and the flea’s jump. However, all known examples of nonhuman, muscle-driven power amplification involve anatomical structures that store energy from a single cycle of muscular contraction. Here, we describe a nonhuman example of external power amplification using a constructed device: the web of the triangle-weaver spider, Hyptiotes cavatus, which uses energy stored in the silk threads to actively tangle prey from afar. Hyptiotes stretches its web by tightening a separate anchor line over multiple cycles of limb motion, and then releases its hold on the anchor line when insects strike the web. Both spider and web spring forward 2 to 3 cm with a peak acceleration of up to 772.85 m/s2 so that up to four additional adhesive capture threads contact the prey while jerking caused by the spider’s sudden stop subsequently wraps silk around the prey from all directions. Using webs as external “tools” to store energy offers substantial mechanical advantages over internal tissue-based power amplification due to the ability of Hyptiotes to load the web over multiple cycles of muscular contraction and thus release more stored energy during prey capture than would be possible with muscle-driven anatomical elastic-energy systems. Elastic power amplification is an underappreciated component of silk’s function in webs and shows remarkable convergence to the fundamental mechanical advantages that led humans to engineer power-amplifying devices such as catapults and ballistae.

Presence of Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein (CSP) was detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a sample of Anopheles gambiae s.s., A. melas and A. pharoensis collected in Guinea-Bissau during October and November 2009. The percentage of P. falciparum infected samples (10.2% overall) was comparable to earlier studies from other sites in Guinea-Bissau (9.6-12.4%). The majority of the specimens collected were identified as A. gambiae which had an individual infection rate of 12.6 % across collection sites. A small number of specimens of A. coluzzii, A. coluzzii x A. gambiae hybrids, A. melas and A. pharoensis were collected and had infection rates of 4.3%, 4.1%, 11.1% and 33.3% respectively. Despite being present in low numbers in indoor collections, the exophilic feeding behaviors of A. melas (N=18) and A. pharoensis (N=6) and high infection rates observed in this survey suggest falciparum-malaria transmission potential outside of the protection of bed nets.

For almost a century, the scale insect genus Puto Signoret (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea) was considered to belong to the family Pseudococcidae (the mealybugs), but recent consensus accords Puto its own family, the Putoidae. This paper reviews the taxonomic history of Puto and family Putoidae, compares the morphology of Puto to that of Ceroputo Šulc and Phenacoccus Cockerell, and reassesses the status of all species that have been placed in Puto to determine whether they belong to the Putoidae or to the Pseudococcidae. For 49 of 57 species that have been placed in Puto, as listed in the online database ScaleNet, we score and tabulate features that are diagnostic for Putoidae and then list all species in their correct family placement. For comparison, we include a few species of Pseudococcidae, namely five species of Phenacoccus, including the type species Phenacoccus aceris (Signoret), and the type species of Ceroputo, C. pilosellae Šulc. We provide revised synonymy lists for Puto and Ceroputo, a brief diagnosis of each genus, synonymy lists and notes for several species for which we suggest recombinations or additional synonyms, or for which we have additional data on morphology. We provide a brief diagnosis of Phenacoccus for comparison with Ceroputo and Puto. As a result of our study, we recognise 47 extant and two fossil species of Puto, and six species of Ceroputo. The New World species Puto mimicus McKenzie and Puto nulliporus McKenzie are transferred to the mealybug genus Ceroputo as Ceroputo mimicus (McKenzie) comb. nov. and Ceroputo nulliporus (McKenzie) comb. nov., respectively, and the Old World species Puto pini Danzig and Puto vaccinii Danzig are recognised as Ceroputo pini (Danzig) comb. rev. and Ceroputo vaccinii (Danzig) comb. rev., respectively, in agreement with Tang (1992). The Old World species Puto graminis Danzig is transferred to Ceroputo as Ceroputo graminis (Danzig) comb. nov. Based only on a study of the literature, the following two names are treated here as junior subjective synonyms of Ceroputo pilosellae: Phenacoccus asteri Takahashi syn. nov. and Puto jarudensis Tang syn. nov. We agree with Tang (1992) that Leococcus erigeroneus Kanda should be treated as a junior subjective synonym of C. pilosellae and thus the genus name Leococcus Kanda, erected for L. erigeroneus and formerly treated as a junior synonym of Puto, is a junior synonym of Ceroputo.