The New World fauna of Zeuzerinae remains insufficiently studied in faunistic and biogeographical terms, despite the economic importance of some species and the broad distribution of the subfamily. It currently comprises 45 valid species in 10 genera, including the introduced species Zeuzera pyrina. The present study is based on museum material, literature data, and verified publicly available occurrence records. Using these data, we characterise the geographical distribution of the subfamily in the New World, identify the principal distribution patterns of its species, evaluate taxonomic diversity across major biogeographical units, countries, and biomes, identify the main centres of endemism, compare faunal similarity among regions, and assess the distinctiveness of the New World fauna in relation to other parts of the world.
Abstract By the beginning of the second millennium AD, agro-pastoralist societies in the territory that nowadays is included in the northwest of Argentina experienced deep changes regarding their way of life. Among the most notorious of them are a change in the type and localization of settlements (pucaras) and the development of new “styles” of material culture that show vast areas of dispersion, some of them, mutually exclusive. This latter phenomenon is referred to by terms such as “local” or “regional” developments, which are characteristic of the Late Intermediate period (1000–1450 AD). Population increase and war, together with the increase in the number and extension of exchange networks, are some of the factors that may have been responsible for the changes, but the nature of their combination is still unknown. In this chapter, we revise the available evidence along the vast geographical space involved in these historical events.
Planning husbandry tasks and experiments with Drosophila melanogaster requires converting a target date into development times that depend on the rearing temperature. This calculation needs to be done for each cross, genotype, and temperature, and the risk of error grows quickly. Available laboratory management tools let users register stocks, crosses, and track them, but they do not create schedules based on a clear, adjustable thermal model. To fill that gap, we developed DrosoTracker, a self-contained web application that works offline and predicts Drosophila development with a thermal summation model recalibrated through regression on data from Powsner (1935) (T0 = 11.78 °C, DD = 116.38 °C·days, R² = 0.997). The model offers an optional two-level calibration driven by user observations. A wild-type strain first adjusts the model to the laboratory’s own conditions. Then each genotype is calibrated against that reference using a random-effects shrinkage estimator that accounts for measurement error and between-batch variability. The model creates schedules for husbandry tasks, evaluates adult cohort survival with the Kaplan-Meier estimator and the log-rank test, and calculates sample size for lifespan studies using Schoenfeld’s formula. The quantitative components were checked against independent references, including R’s survival package and manual calculations. Ongoing work is focused on validating the calibrated model using cohorts specifically bred for this purpose. DrosoTracker runs entirely in the browser, stores data locally, and is available in English and Spanish. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. The DrosoTracker application, the calibration script, the estimator simulation and sensitivity scripts, the test suite and the primary data used to fit the thermal-summation model are openly available at under the MIT licence, which permits use, modification and redistribution provided that the copyright notice and the licence text are retained. The release described here (v1.0) is archived at Zenodo, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21867404. The live application runs at . No restrictions apply to data access. Intramural Fund of Fundacion Científica Felipe Fiorellino, Universidad Maimonides, grant PIP 11220210100502CO from CONICET, directed by A. C. Liberman, and by grant AARG-D-23-1050853 from the Alzheimer's Association to promote Diversity, awarded to A. C. Liberman
Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX, la necesidad de abordar la organización, el almacenamiento y la difusión de lainformación científica (IC) propició el desarrollo de tecnologías novedosas, el surgimiento de la ciencia de la información como disciplina y la consolidación de perfiles profesionales especializados a nivel internacional.En paralelo, diversos países formularon políticas públicas destinadas a fortalecer las infraestructuras nacionales e internacionales para la circulación de la IC. Estas infraestructuras pueden concebirse como entramados complejos que articulan tecnologías, estándares, instituciones, actores y prácticas. El trabajo analiza las transformaciones en las acciones de adquisición, registro, almacenamiento y difusión de la IC en la Argentina desde la creación del CONICET en 1958 hasta el año 1995 en que Internet comenzó a estar disponible comercialmente. A través del análisis documental,el trabajo examina la construcción de las infraestructuras de información para el desarrollo científico en el país atendiendo alos cambios en las soluciones tecnológicas desarrolladas,en los saberes y competencias requeridas para su operación y en las instituciones creadas para su administración.
Environmental temperature is a key determinant of animal welfare, and rising global temperatures increase the risk of heat stress. While thermal tolerance is critical for predicting wildlife vulnerability to climate change, physiological responses in South American wild rodents remain understudied. Here, we assessed heat stress responses in the plains vizcacha (Lagostomus maximus), a semi-fossorial rodent with key ecological functions, to establish upper critical Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) thresholds. Within an observed THI range of 18.5 to 30.7, non-invasive longitudinal monitoring and terminal metabolic indicators were utilized to identify critical shifts in thermoregulatory strategy. Fourteen adults were randomly assigned to either a Control (n = 6) or Heat Stress group (n = 8). All animals were housed at 22 ± 1 °C for 7 days, while Heat-Stress animals experienced a daily 8-h thermal wave peaking at 32 °C. At thermal peak, nasal surface temperature (Tnose) was significantly higher in Heat Stress animals (37.6 ± 0.09 °C) compared to Controls (35.1 ± 0.08 °C; P < 0.001) but consistently returned to baseline after exposure. Tnose plotted against THI revealed a marked slope increase above THI = 25, indicating the transition from comfort to mild stress, with overt signs of exhaustion emerging above THI = 30. Despite this, no cumulative effects were detected: hematocrit, cortisol, kidney function, body weight gain, and total activity remained unchanged. Heat exposure did, however, shift resting behavior toward recumbency and modestly increased feeding, consistent with energy allocation to thermoregulation. Based on these findings and within the observed range, we propose species-specific thresholds for vizcachas: comfort (<25), mild stress (25-30), and moderate stress (30-30.7). This profile, early sensitivity but resilience to moderate heat, likely reflects adaptation to their wide geographic distribution, though long-term resilience under intensifying climate conditions remains uncertain.
