Trichocorixa verticalis (Corixidae) is native to North America but is well established as an alien in the Western Mediterranean region, where it is invasive in permanent coastal wetlands with high salinities. The annual cycle and generation time of T. verticalis was investigated in the introduced range in south-west Spain, through a combination of field surveys and laboratory experiments.

A study analysed and distributed the existing information on several impacts that are simultaneously affecting the Mediterranean Sea: from climate impacts like the rise of temperatures in the sea, to the fishing pressure on natural resources or changes in physical and chemical conditions. The result is a map of the places that are most affected by human activity such as the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea, the African coast and the Catalan sea, among others. According to the researchers, this...

Haemosporidians are the most important vector-borne parasites due to their cosmopolitan distribution and their wide range of hosts, including humans. Identification of their vectors is critical to highlight ecologically and epidemiologically relevant features such as host specificity or transmission routes. Biting midges of the genus Culicoides are considered the main vectors of Haemoproteus spp., yet important information on aspects such as vector feeding preferences or vector-host...

Pigments determine the appearance of organisms. However, pigment production can be associated to physiological constraints as in the case of pheomelanin, the sulphurated form of melanin whose synthesis in melanocytes consumes cysteine and consequently reduces the availability of glutathione (GSH) to exert antioxidant protection. Pheomelanogenesis may thus increase the susceptibility to suffer chronic oxidative stress. The possibility that environmental lability in the expression of genes...

Genome size varies enormously from one species to another, and amphibians are the group of vertebrates where genome size varies the most. Amphibians are also really old lineages that have been evolving for millions of years, diversifying and adapting to highly contrasting environments, from the warm and humid tropics to cold regions at high latitudes or high elevations. Amphibians have also evolved a frenzy of reproductive modes ranging from the well known case of aquatic tadpoles that...