Specimen Photos Research Articles

2018–2022年杨凌地区天敌瓢虫、食蚜蝇数据集

Agriculture holds a significant strategic position in Yangling.In crop cultivation management, the strategic use of insect natural enemies can effectively reduce the reliance on pesticides and mitigate the potential harm caused by pesticide residues. Among these natural enemies, Coccinellidae and Syrphidae are the most prevalent and valuable guilds preying on many pests including aphids, in the field. However, there was limited knowledge of the species and occurrence of Coccinellidae and Syrphidae due to a lack of systematic monitoring in Yangling farmland. In order to clarify the resources of Coccinellids and Syrphids in Yangling, we monitored these two groups using both Malaise traps and regular surveys in farmland in Yangling, Shaanxi Province from 2018 to 2022. In the past five years, a total of 914 predatory Coccinellids and 1440 Syrphids have been collected. Among Coccinellids, 22 species of Coccinellids were identified, with 16 species and 6 genera. Additionally, there were 14 species of Syrphids, with 12 species and 2 genera identified. The screening and identification of natural enemy insects were conducted by professionals to ensure data quality. This dataset provides basic data on the species, quantity, and occurrence dynamics of predatory Coccinellids and Syrphids. Moreover, it also offers a large number of natural enemy insect specimen photos, ecological photos, Malaise trap photos, specimen bottle photos, and photos of the surrounding environment. It can serve as valuable references for future endeavors aimed at the protection and utilization of predatory insects.

Oreocarya worthingtonii (Boraginaceae): A new species from southeastern New Mexico, U.S.A.

A new species of Oreocarya (Boraginaceae), O. worthingtonii Sivinski, is described from the Brokeoff Mountains branch of the Guadalupe Mountain range in Eddy and Otero counties, New Mexico. It is similar to Oreocarya oblata (M.E. Jones) J.F. Macbr. in pubescence, homostyly and globular, roughened fruits, but differs in its slender stems with linear leaves, subcapitate inflorescence and finely tuberculate nutlets. Specimen photos and a key to Oreocarya species with globular fruits and roughened nutlets from the northern Chihuahuan Desert are also presented.

Kengiochloa, a new bamboo genus to accommodate the morphologically unique species, Pseudosasapubiflora (Poaceae).

Pseudosasa was confirmed as polyphyletic by recent phylogenetic analyses, with Chinese species of Pseudosasa distantly related to those from Japan. Among the Chinese species of Pseudosasa, Pseudosasapubiflora is a morphologically unique as well as taxonomically problematic species endemic to South China, of which the generic designation is still uncertain. Molecular analyses based on both plastid and nuclear genomic data demonstrated that this species is closest to the recently published genus Sinosasa. Morphologically, the two are somewhat similar to each other in flowering branches developing at the nodes of every order of branches, raceme-like units of inflorescence with 3-5 short spikelets, each spikelet with few florets including a rudimentary one at the apex, and each floret with 3 stamens and 2 stigmas. However, P.pubiflora is very different from Sinosasa species in many reproductive and vegetative characters, such as the morphology of paracladia (lateral spikelet "pedicels"), the absence or existence of pulvinus at the base of paracladia, the relative length of the upper glume and the lowest lemma, the shape of lodicules and primary culm buds, the branch complement, the morphology of nodes, culm leaves and dried foliage leaf blades, and the number of foliage leaves per ultimate branchlet. The morphological and molecular evidence warrants recognition of a new genus to accommodate this unique species, which is here named Kengiochloa. After consulting related literature and examination of herbarium specimens or specimen photos, a taxonomic revision of K.pubiflora and its synonyms was made, and it was confirmed that four names, viz. P.gracilis, Yushanialanshanensis, Arundinariatenuivagina and P.parilis, should be merged with K.pubiflora, while Indocalamuspallidiflorus and Acidosasapaucifolia are distinct species.

Retraction notice to “Effect of different fibre types on the structural performance of recycled aggregate concrete beams with spliced bars” [J. Build. Eng. 38 (2021) 102090

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editors-in-Chief. Following an investigation of this and a related paper https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2021.113362, the Editors-in-Chief no longer have confidence in the scientific integrity of this paper, as the same set of images has been used in two articles in different journals claiming varying conditions, which violates our publishing policies. In this article, six identical photos of tested specimens in two figures are presented as in another paper, only for different geometric (lap splice length) & material (aggregate type and fiber percentage) conditions. Furthermore, certain test specimen, testing setup, and loading condition geometric features of all eight tested specimen photos across the two figures are inconsistent with other figures presented in the paper, and there are photos presented in two other figures (to show coarse aggregates and fibers) that have been taken from internet sources without attribution. Communication with one co-author, Jorge De Brito, raised further concerns about the integrity of this work, to the extent that he expressed no longer having confidence in the content of the article.

Cyclic Bi-Axial Tests on Assembly of Metal Rods Under Constant-Volume Condition to Study Re-Liquefaction Behavior

As a part of fundamental studies on re-liquefaction behavior of sandy soils, cyclic bi-axial tests on assembly of aluminum rods having circular cross section were conducted under constant-volume condition, while focusing on the effects of strain amplitude during the previous liquefaction stage. By conducting image analyses on the specimen photos, possible changes in the local void conditions were evaluated and discussed. As a result, with increase in the maximum double amplitude vertical strain from 2.0 to 7.5% during the previous liquefaction stage, decrease in the re-liquefaction resistance was observed, which was consistent with results from past relevant studies on sands. Formation of locally loosened zone was observed during the liquefaction stage up to the double amplitude vertical strain of 7.5%, which may have affected the decrease in the subsequent re-liquefaction resistance. These zones were partly re-formed during the re-liquefaction stage. By the liquefaction history that was followed by re-consolidation, homogenization was observed in terms of the change of local void ratio. In addition to overall densification, such change may be regarded as one of the factors that would cause increase in the re-liquefaction resistance, as observed in the tests with liquefaction stages up to the double amplitude vertical strain of 2.0 and 5.0%.

Fine-Grained Butterfly Classification in Ecological Images Using Squeeze-And-Excitation and Spatial Attention Modules

Most butterfly larvae are agricultural pests and forest pests, but butterflies have important ornamental value and the ability to sense and respond to changes in the ecological environment. There are many types of butterflies, and the research on classification of butterfly species is of great significance in practical work such as environmental protection and control of agricultural and forest pests. Butterfly classification is a fine-grained image classification problem that is more difficult than generic image classification. Common butterfly photos are mostly specimen photos (indoor photos) and ecological photos (outdoor photos/natural images). At present, research on butterfly classification is more based on specimen photos. Compared with specimen photos, classification based on ecological photos is relatively difficult. This paper mainly takes ecological photos as the research object, and presents a new classification network that combines the dilated residual network, squeeze-and-excitation (SE) module, and spatial attention (SA) module. The SA module can make better use of the long-range dependencies in the images, while the SE module takes advantage of global information to enhance useful information features and suppress less useful features. The results show that the integrated model achieves higher recall, precision, accuracy, and f1-score than the state-of-the-art methods on the introduced butterfly dataset.

The Dafoe Property Minerals, Pierrepont, St. Lawrence County, New York

Unless otherwise noted, all specimen photos taken by Michael R. Walter of specimens from the Dafoe property The Powers farm black tourmaline locality at Pierrepont is one of the best-known mineral ...

Mission: Implausible — Revealing rogue marine species in records across biodiversity data platforms

Online biodiversity platforms publish datasets with graphic tools to help with quality control of submitted records, but more could be done to make the data robust for ecological analyses. Attention has focused mostly on automating tools for obvious errors, including misspelled names and synonyms, dates, or coordinates. However, a manual review of species identifications and distributions may uncover improbable records, such as a species reported in an area far from its usual range, or a rare species found in an area that has many more records of a related species. Examples are shown by constructing checklists in the Northwest Atlantic, using information from the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS, http://www.marinespecies.org) and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS, https://obis.org). Reviewing rare species records revealed some misidentifications, but in other instances, the rare species was valid while it was the commonly reported species that needed correction. Confirmations were obtained by comparing records from different regions, but also across platforms, including photos from observers on iNaturalist Canada (https://inaturalist.ca), genetic analyses on Barcode of Life Data systems (BOLD, http://www.boldsystems.org), and literature in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org). While this exercise succeeded in validating the marine taxa of a region, it is an obvious candidate for automation in three areas: 1) flagging records of improbable taxa in a region, 2) comparing records with different types of information (e.g., specimen photos, genetic groupings, or literature records), and 3) updating users and providers when records get flagged as unusual or are modified. The first approach could be explored using online graphics tools or R software packages (rOpenSci, https://ropensci.org). The second toolset, comparing records across platforms, is partially realized with some linkages already operating between WoRMS, OBIS, BOLD, BHL, iNaturalist, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, https://www.gbif.org). The third target will be the most difficult to implement, requiring reliable platform cross-linkages and specimen record identifiers to send notifications of changed status of records to both users and the original data source. Ongoing work is discussed on communicating the need to review records across platforms, with the hope that toolsets will be developed to make this task easier.

Quartz Crystals from the Devil's Den Locality, Mount Tabor, Rutland County, Vermont

Except where noted, all specimen photos by Brian Miller of specimens from the Earl Melendy and Barbara Rowe collectionsTHERE ARE SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT QUARTZ LOCALITIES IN VERMONT, of which the Devil...

Wisconsin's Elusive Wavellite

All specimen photos by William S. Cordua of specimens in his collectionThe Late Cambrian sandstones in Wisconsin are known for their frac sand* resources but not for much of interest to mineral col...

Percolation effect of a Cu layer on a MWCNT/PP nanocomposite substrate after laser direct structuring and autocatalytic plating.

Percolation behavior of a copper (Cu) layer on a multi-walled carbon nanotube/polypropylene (MWCNT/PP) nanocomposite substrate after laser-direct-structuring (LDS) and subsequent autocatalytic Cu deposition (ACD) is presented. The inverse sheet resistance showed percolation type dependence on the area fraction of Cu on MWCNT/PP measured by digital image processing of specimen photos.

Fluorite in Arizona

Unless otherwise noted, all specimen photos by Jeff ScovilWhen one thinks about outstanding Arizona minerals, fluorite may be far down on the species list. Azurite, malachite, wulfenite, vanadinite...

Road-cut Mineral Occurrences of St. Lawrence County, New York, Part 6: The Rock Island Road Cut

Unless otherwise noted, all specimen photos by Steven C. Chamberlain (SCC) of specimens in his collectionThis sixth article in our road-cut series describes mineralization in a large road cut just ...

The Life and Collection of Eberhardt W. Heinrich

All specimen photos by the author of specimens from the Heinrich collection in the A. E. Seaman Mineral MuseumLike all major public mineral collections, that at the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum at M...

Beyond memorization: an intermediate-level paleontology activity that integrates anatomy, ecology, and macroevolutionary theory using trilobites

Here we present a stand-alone, upper level undergraduate laboratory exercise that integrates organismal ecology and evolutionary concepts and minimizes the need for student memorization. This laboratory seeks to integrate both anatomical and conceptual content into paleontology lab pedagogy by demonstrating how taxon-specific anatomical information are the fundamental data by which scientists evaluate big picture questions related to the study of macroevolution and ecology. Real specimen photos are provided to familiarize students with a relatively limited suite of anatomical terms and taxonomic detail while allowing schools lacking large paleontology collections to participate in specimen-based inquiry. A matching exercise requires students to assign various trilobite morphologies to their interpreted ecological niches, thus reinforcing the students’ new anatomical knowledge and helping students to distinguish between primary and secondary interpretation of scientific evidence. The use of trilobites as a macroevolutionary case study introduces students to questions still being actively investigated by scientists and provides an effective refutation of creationist arguments. By deemphasizing systematics and highlighting intriguing patterns from the recent published literature, this laboratory hopes to promote paleontology as a vibrant and relevant field, and avoid the misconception that paleontologists are simply stamp collectors, intent on naming and categorizing fossils. We hope that the broad implementation of this laboratory exercise will generate the data necessary to evaluate the validity of this approach and its ease of use in the classroom.

Empirical Trials of Plant Field Guides

We designed 3 image-based field guides to tropical forest plant species in Ghana, Grenada, and Cameroon and tested them with 1095 local residents and 20 botanists in the United Kingdom. We compared users' identification accuracy with different image formats, including drawings, specimen photos, living plant photos, and paintings. We compared users' accuracy with the guides to their accuracy with only their prior knowledge of the flora. We asked respondents to score each format for usability, beauty, and how much they would pay for it. Prior knowledge of plant names was generally low (<22%). With a few exceptions, identification accuracy did not differ significantly among image formats. In Cameroon, users identifying sterile Cola species achieved 46-56% accuracy across formats; identification was most accurate with living plant photos. Botanists in the United Kingdom accurately identified 82-93% of the same Cameroonian species; identification was most accurate with specimens. In Grenada, users accurately identified 74-82% of plants; drawings yielded significantly less accurate identifications than paintings and photos of living plants. In Ghana, users accurately identified 85% of plants. Digital color photos of living plants ranked high for beauty, usability, and what users would pay. Black and white drawings ranked low. Our results show the potential and limitations of the use of field guides and nonspecialists to identify plants, for example, in conservation applications. We recommend authors of plant field guides use the cheapest or easiest illustration format because image type had limited bearing on accuracy; match the type of illustration to the most likely use of the guide for slight improvements in accuracy; avoid black and white formats unless the audience is experienced at interpreting illustrations or keeping costs low is imperative; discourage false-positive identifications, which were common; and encourage users to ask an expert or use a herbarium for groups that are difficult to identify.

The Rediscovery of Long-Lost Aquamarine from The Sierrita Mountains, Arizona

All specimens from the author's collection unless otherwise noted; all specimen photos by Jeff Scovil Figure 1. Aquamarine crystal, 3 inches in length, on a matrix of quartz and mica, recovered fro...

Evaluating the Accuracy of Morphological Identification of Larval Fishes by Applying DNA Barcoding

Due to insufficient morphological diagnostic characters in larval fishes, it is easy to misidentify them and difficult to key to the genus or species level. The identification results from different laboratories are often inconsistent. This experiment aims to find out, by applying DNA barcoding, how inconsistent the identifications can be among larval fish taxonomists. One hundred morphotypes of larval fishes were chosen as test specimens. The fishes were collected with either larval fish nets or light traps in the northern, southern and northwestern waters of Taiwan. After their body lengths (SL) were measured and specimen photos were taken, all specimens were delivered, in turn, to five laboratories (A–E) in Taiwan to be identified independently. When all the results were collected, these specimens were then identified using COI barcoding. Out of a total of 100 specimens, 87 were identified to the family level, 79 to the genus level and 69 to the species level, based on the COI database currently available. The average accuracy rates of the five laboratories were quite low: 80.1% for the family level, 41.1% for the genus level, and 13.5% for the species level. If the results marked as “unidentified” were excluded from calculations, the rates went up to 75.4% and 43.7% for the genus and species levels, respectively. Thus, we suggest that larval fish identification should be more conservative; i.e., when in doubt, it is better to key only to the family and not to the genus or species level. As to the most misidentified families in our experiment, they were Sparidae, Scorpaenidae, Scombridae, Serranidae and Malacanthidae. On the other hand, Mene maculata and Microcanthus strigatus were all correctly identified to the species level because their larvae have distinct morphology. Nevertheless, barcoding remains one of the best methods to confirm species identification.

Copper-bearing Minerals of Colorado

All specimen photos by author unless otherwise noted 10.1080/00357529.2012.690336-F0001 Figure 1. Camp Bird mine, level 2, Sneffels district, Ouray County. Raines-Pettem collection, photographer un...

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