BMC Zoology最新文献

{"title":"A world review of the bristle fly parasitoids of webspinners.","authors":"Davide Badano,&nbsp;Alice Lenzi,&nbsp;James E O'Hara,&nbsp;Kelly B Miller,&nbsp;Andrea Di Giulio,&nbsp;Filippo Di Giovanni,&nbsp;Pierfilippo Cerretti","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00116-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00116-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Dipteran parasitoids of Embioptera (webspinners) are few and extremely rare but known from all biogeographical regions except Australasia/Oceania. All belong to the fly family Tachinidae, a hyperdiverse and widespread clade of parasitoids attacking a variety of arthropod orders.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The webspinner-parasitizing Diptera are reviewed based mostly on records from the collecting and rearing by Edward S. Ross. A new genus is erected to accommodate a new Afrotropical species, Embiophoneus rossi gen. et sp. nov. The genus Perumyia Arnaud is reviewed and a new species, Perumyia arnaudi sp. nov., is described from Central America while P. embiaphaga Arnaud is redescribed and new host records are given. A new species of Phytomyptera Rondani, P. woodi sp. nov., is described from Myanmar, representing the first report of a member of this genus obtained from webspinners. The genus Rossimyiops Mesnil is reviewed, R. longicornis (Kugler) is redescribed and R. aeratus sp. nov., R. fuscus sp. nov. and R. rutilans sp. nov. are newly described from the Oriental Region, and an updated key to species is given.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Webspinners were probably colonized independently at least four times by tachinids shifting from other hosts, most likely Lepidoptera.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127400/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9823958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Avian diversity and bird-aircraft strike problems in Bahir Dar International Airport, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.","authors":"Tsegaye Tefera,&nbsp;Dessalegn Ejigu,&nbsp;Nega Tassie","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00135-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00135-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Bahir Dar International Airport and its surrounding habitats are known for their rich avifaunal diversity, which results in bird-aircraft collisions as a fundamental problem in the area. A study on bird diversity and bird-aircraft strikes at Bahir Dar International Airport was conducted between February 2020 and August 2020. Based on its vegetation structures, the study area was classified into four habitat types namely; bushland, grassland, wetland, and modified habitats. Transect and point count methods were used to collect data on avian diversity and abundance. Questionnaire surveys, interviews, and document analysis were used to gather information about incidents and protection measures against bird-aircraft strike problems. Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Simpson's similarity index, ANOVA, and chi-square test were used for data analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 80 avian species belonging to 15 orders and 40 families were identified in the study area. The highest species diversity (H' = 3.59) and species evenness (E = 0.96) were recorded in modified habitats during the wet season. Relative abundance categories of birds in the study area showed that most were uncommon birds. Birds pose severe threats to aircraft in the airport and 92.3% of the respondents replied that most bird-aircraft strikes occurred early in the morning and late in the afternoon when birds remain more active. The majority (88.5%) of questionnaire participants confirmed that bird-aircraft strike incidents frequently occurred during the time of takeoff and landing of the aircraft. It is also known that on average forty bird-aircraft collisions per year happen at the airport.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Bahir Dar International Airport is rich in its bird diversity that recalls the aviation authority to work in collaboration with different organizations to avoid bird-aircraft strike problems using different control measures without compromising the conservation of birds.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127315/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9452982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sex determination based on morphometric measurements in yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) around Istanbul.","authors":"Gülsün Pazvant,&nbsp;Nazan Gezer İnce,&nbsp;Ermiş Özkan,&nbsp;Ozan Gündemir,&nbsp;Kozet Avanus,&nbsp;Tomasz Szara","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00133-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00133-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis), commonly found in Istanbul and their surroundings, have a monomorphic plumage, like other gull species. For this reason, sex determination cannot be made externally. In this study, a total of 60 adult Yellow-legged gulls, 33 males, and 27 females, collected from the coastal areas of Istanbul, were examined. Discriminating functions were developed to classify males and females using birds that were previously sexed by DNA analysis and abdominal dissection.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Head length and bill depth were selected to build the discriminant function by the stepwise analysis. The function classified male gulls with an accuracy of 97.0% and females with an accuracy of 92.6%. Head length alone is the most accurate predictor in terms of the percentage of correct sex determination (90.9% for males, 92.6% for females).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Functions that can easily determine sexual dimorphism for the population of Larus michahellis gulls around Istanbul have been put forward for the first time.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127090/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9806953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The mismatch between morphological and molecular attribution of three Glossogobius species in the Mekong Delta.","authors":"Ngon T Truong, Gieo H Phan, Tran T H Lam, Ton H D Nguyen, Do T Khang, Men T Tran, Nam S Tran, Quang M Dinh","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00137-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40850-022-00137-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD) is the granary for the whole country, providing animal and plant resources, especially fish. Among the fish species, the genus Glossogobius are the majority. Until now, research for this species has been solely relied on fish morphology for identification. Hence, the present study aimed to describe the morphological variations of the morphologically identified gobies and to validate them at the molecular level through the sequencing of the barcode region, the mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) gene to preliminary provide fundamental information for conservation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I genes were amplified successfully with an approximate size of 650-680 bp. Their morphometries were quite different, and the genetic distance (p-value) among groups and within groups ranged from 0.00 to 0.12. The similarity of the COI gene sequences between the analyzed samples and in the NCBI database was from 87.01 to 100%. The specimens of G. aureus, G. giuris and G. sparsipapillus were interspersed in small branches of the phylogenetic tree with a low genetic distance highlighting that the genetic diversity of COI gene was low among species. Therefore, it is recommended that a combination of morphological method and mtCOI DNA barcoding is required for accurate classification.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study helps determine three distinct lineages of Glossogobius species, so an appropriate strategy can be proposed for exploitation and conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10126994/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9447066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The natural history and ecology of melanism in red wolf and coyote populations of the southeastern United States - evidence for Gloger's rule.","authors":"Joseph W Hinton,&nbsp;Kyla M West,&nbsp;Daniel J Sullivan,&nbsp;Jacqueline L Frair,&nbsp;Michael J Chamberlain","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00138-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00138-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Gloger's rule postulates that animals should be darker colored in warm and humid regions where dense vegetation and dark environments are common. Although rare in Canis populations, melanism in wolves is more common in North America than other regions globally and is believed to follow Gloger's rule. In the temperate forests of the southeastern United States, historical records of red wolf (Canis rufus) and coyote (Canis latrans) populations document a consistent presence of melanism. Today, the melanistic phenotype is extinct in red wolves while occurring in coyotes and red wolf-coyote hybrids who occupy the red wolf's historical range. To assess if Gloger's rule could explain the occurrence and maintenance of melanistic phenotypes in Canis taxa, we investigated differences in morphology, habitat selection, and survival associated with pelage color using body measurements, GPS tracking data, and long-term capture-mark-recapture and radio-telemetry data collected on coyotes and hybrids across the southeastern United States.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found no correlation between morphometrics and pelage color for Canis taxa. However, we observed that melanistic coyotes and hybrids experienced greater annual survival than did their gray conspecifics. Furthermore, we observed that melanistic coyotes maintained larger home ranges and exhibited greater selection for areas with dense canopy cover and wetlands than did gray coyotes.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In the southeastern United States, pelage color influenced habitat selection by coyotes and annual survival of coyotes and hybrids providing evidence that Gloger's rule is applicable to canids inhabiting regions with dense canopy cover and wetlands. Greater annual survival rates observed in melanistic Canis may be attributed to better concealment in areas with dense canopy cover such as coastal bottomland forests. We suggest that the larger home range sizes of melanistic coyotes may reflect the trade-off of reduced foraging efficiency in lower quality wetland habitat for improved survival. Larger home ranges and differential use of land cover by melanistic coyotes may facilitate weak assortative mating in eastern coyote populations, in which melanistic animals may have lower success of finding compatible mates in comparison to gray conspecifics. We offer that our observations provide a partial explanation for why melanism is relatively low (< 10%) but consistent within coyote populations throughout southeastern parts of their range.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127370/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9455183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of weather on the behaviour of reintroduced Przewalski's horses in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area (Mongolia): implications for conservation.","authors":"Anna Bernátková,&nbsp;Ganbaatar Oyunsaikhan,&nbsp;Jaroslav Šimek,&nbsp;Martina Komárková,&nbsp;Miroslav Bobek,&nbsp;Francisco Ceacero","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00130-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00130-z","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Reintroduction is a common technique for re-establishing threatened species. However, the adaptation to novel habitats with distinct conditions poses a risk of failure. Weather conditions affect the behaviour of animals, and thus, their adaptation to new conditions and survival. Reintroduced Przewalski's horses living in Mongolia's continental arid climate with extreme temperature and precipitation variability, serve as an ideal model species for studying the behavioural response of selected groups to these harsh conditions.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The research was conducted in The Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area, Mongolia. In summer 2018, three groups were recorded (Azaa, Tsetsen and Mares18) involving 29 individuals. In Spring 2019, 4 groups were recorded (Azaa, Tsetsen, Hustai1 and Mares19) involving 34 individuals. In Autumn 2019, 4 groups were recorded (Azaa, Tsetsen, Hustai2 and Tanan) involving 35 individuals. Thirteen weather variables were recorded in 10-min intervals, together with the percentage representation of selected behavioural categories (feeding, locomotion, resting, and social). The effect of weather on behaviour was analysed through GLMM. Influence of the group-history factors (recently reintroduced, long-term reintroduced and wild-born) was also analysed.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Feeding significantly increased with cloudy and windy conditions and was more frequent in autumn than spring and summer. Locomotion was positively explained by temperature and cloudiness and was higher in summer than spring and autumn. Resting behaviour decreased with altitude and cloudiness, and the dispersion of the group was lower when resting. Increased social interactions were observed with higher temperatures and were more frequent in summer compared to spring and autumn. Differences were found in the display of the behaviours among the selected harems, showing interesting patterns when grouping them according to their origin and experience.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Weather patterns seem to influence the behaviour of Przewalski's horse. These results might assist in further management plans for the species, especially in the view of intensifying climate change and alteration of weather patterns. As previously suggested, after approximately 1 year, horses adapt to novel conditions and display the typical behavioural pattern of wild-born Przewalski's horses.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127430/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9823967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microscopic Observations on Form and Structure of the Worm Enchytraeus buchholzi (Clitellata: Enchytraeidae).","authors":"Limin Zhao,&nbsp;Xiuchao Xie,&nbsp;Dejing Chen,&nbsp;Guilan Ma,&nbsp;Ya Sun","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00123-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00123-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The worm Enchytraeus buchholzi is a new record species for Shaanxi, China, and a key pest on American ginseng Panax quinquefolium. To distinguish the species, the authors prepared its whole mounts and paraffin-embedded sections, and microscopically observed, photographed and measured. Besides, we conducted an experimental study on its DNA barcode.  RESULTS: Cells, tissues and organs related to nervous, digestive, circulatory, excretory and reproductive systems were found, photomicrographed and described, including: prostomium, peristomium, segments, clitellum, pygidium, lateral and ventral chaetae; brain, cranial nerves, sensory papillae, ventral nerve cord; pharyngeal pad and glands, retractor muscles and muscular bundles, peptonephridia, esophagus, intestine; dorsal, lateral, ventral and intestinal parietal vessels, coelomocytes, coelomic cavity; nephridia, chloragogen cells; ovaries, groups of germ cells with developing oocytes, mature eggs, spermathecae; testes, seminal vesicles, sperm funnels, penial bulbs. Their shapes and sizes were given, and functions discussed briefly. The visual effect of staining specimens with hematoxylin plus eosin ranked the first, and that with acetocarmine the second.  CONCLUSIONS: The supplementary and objective descriptions, with the microphotographs as forceful pieces of evidence, have expanded biological knowledge in aspects of the form, structure and function of the worm, which is helpful for professionals to recognize and understand this species and provide a solid basis for its integrated pest management.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127080/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9446620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Short- and long-distance avian migrants differ in exercise endurance but not aerobic capacity.","authors":"Steffen Hahn,&nbsp;Tamara Emmenegger,&nbsp;Sara Riello,&nbsp;Lorenzo Serra,&nbsp;Fernando Spina,&nbsp;William A Buttemer,&nbsp;Silke Bauer","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00134-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00134-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Migratory birds differ markedly in their migration strategies, particularly those performing short- versus long-distance migrations. In preparation for migration, all birds undergo physiological and morphological modifications including enlargement of fat stores and pectoral muscles to fuel and power their flights, as well as cardiovascular and biochemical adjustments that improve lipid and oxygen delivery and uptake by flight muscles. While the magnitude of these changes varies in relation to migration strategy, the consequence of these variations on aerobic performance is unknown. We tested whether the aerobic performance of four Old-world flycatcher species (Muscicapidae) varied according to migration strategy by comparing minimum resting metabolic rates (RMR_min), exercise-induced maximum metabolic rates (MMR), and exercise endurance times of short-distance and long-distance migratory birds.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>As expected, RMR_min did not vary between short-distance and long-distance migrants but differed between the species within a migration strategy and between sexes. Unexpectedly, MMR did not vary with migration strategy, but MMR and blood haemoglobin content were positively related among the birds tested. Exercise endurance times differed substantially between migration strategies with long-distance migrants sustaining exercise for > 60% longer than short-distance migrants. Blood haemoglobin content had a significant positive effect on endurance among all birds examined.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The lack of difference in RMR_min and MMR between long- and short-distance migrants during this stage of migration suggests that the attributes favouring the greater aerobic endurance of long-distance migrants did not come at the expense of increased maintenance costs or require greater aerobic capacity.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127025/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9806959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Personality matters: exploring the relationship between personality and stress physiology in captive African lions.","authors":"Janice Vaz,&nbsp;Alana Bartley,&nbsp;John Hunt","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00126-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00126-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Considering animals as individuals and not as species is becoming increasingly essential to animal welfare management in captive settings. Recent studies on big cat personalities and coping strategies suggest personality can help big cats cope in their surroundings. Yet a large portion of the published literature focuses on understanding either the personality or stress physiology of big cats. Our research shows how integrating an improved understanding of the personality of big cats with stress physiology may enhance welfare, especially for endangered species like African lions. By using a wild cat personality checklist, this study compared the key personality dimensions of 22 African lions with its faecal glucocorticoids and assessed factors influencing their personality and stress physiology.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We found two reliable personality dimensions for African lions (dominance and agreeableness) and identified key factors (sex, age and location) that may influence their personality. Further, on testing if these factors influenced the stress physiology through variations in glucocorticoid levels, there was no significant difference. However, there was a strong negative association between agreeableness and glucocorticoid levels. These results suggest that the behavioural traits loading positively and higher for agreeableness are associated with lower glucocorticoid stress levels, which may assist a lion to cope with stressors in its surroundings.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings highlight this integrated approach of linking personality and stress physiology of big cats can be beneficial for caretakers. For example, during stressful veterinary procedures or in reintroduction programs, recognizing the personality of lions can help in designing or providing them with resources that will alleviate stress. Thus, there is a need for more interdisciplinary approaches that will contribute towards enhancing the individual and overall welfare of big cats.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127340/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9453870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The mixed phylogenetic origin of northern pike (Esox lucius Linnaeus 1758) populations in the Middle Danubian drainage.","authors":"Péter Takács,&nbsp;Bálint Bánó,&nbsp;István Czeglédi,&nbsp;Tibor Erős,&nbsp;Árpád Ferincz,&nbsp;Blanka Gál,&nbsp;Bernadett Bánó-Kern,&nbsp;Balázs Kovács,&nbsp;András Attila Nagy,&nbsp;Krisztián Nyeste,&nbsp;Vera Lente,&nbsp;Bálint Preiszner,&nbsp;Sándor Sipos,&nbsp;Ádám Staszny,&nbsp;Zoltán Vitál,&nbsp;András Weiperth,&nbsp;Eszter Csoma","doi":"10.1186/s40850-022-00129-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40850-022-00129-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Pikes, members of genus Esox, are widespread freshwater predators of the northern hemisphere, and important sport fish also. From the Carpathian basin only one species, the northern pike (E. lucius) is noted. At the same time the pike stocks living in this area show high level of phenotypic variance (e.g. various body pattern) and its growth varies highly both among and within populations. These features usually explained by the environmental diversity of the area. Whereas we think that genetic reasons -e.g. the appearance of other/new pike species in the area- may also be responsible for these observed features. Since as no detailed information have been published from the pike populations of this area, so far; we conducted phylogenetic and morphological assay on 88 pike specimens, collected from 49 Middle Danubian sampling sites.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our phylogenetic surveys showed that the northern pike appear in the study area solely, but all the three of its major lineages (Northern, Circumpolar, Southern) were indicated. Only six specimens represent the Northern lineage, collected from the western part of the study area. The Circumpolar and Southern lineages were common in the Carpathian basin, but the Southern lineage showed higher levels of haplotype diversity than the Circumpolar clade. Which indicates that only the Southern lineage is native in the area, while the other two groups could have appeared in the Middle Danubian system either spontaneously or by human introduction. Moreover, the different clades appeared in the same populations, suggesting the opportunity of inter-lineage hybridisation. From the studied morphologicalal features, the number of scales on the lateral line and the head length showed significant differences among the lineages. At the same time the body pattern of the studied individuals seems to be rather influenced by the ontogenic changes than phylogeny.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The high phenotypic variability of Middle Danubian northern pike populations may be due that all of its three major clades appeared and came in secondary contact in the area. In the within watershed spread of the non-native lineages the human stocking/transfer may play a considerable role.</p>","PeriodicalId":48590,"journal":{"name":"BMC Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10127386/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10300616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}