3,369 research outputs found
Gryllus locorojo Weissman & Gray
No full textGryllus locorojo Weissman & Gray Crazy Red Field Cricket Figs 14–16, 54, 62, Table 1 2012 Gryllus locorojo Weissman & Gray. Zootaxa 3504: 67–88. Type locality: USA: California, Los Angeles Co., Compton, Rainbow Mealworms. Type deposited in CAS, Entomology type #18657. Distribution. Known only from pet food stores and commercial cricket farms in North America, Europe, and western Asia. Original locality still unknown, but most likely somewhere in South America, perhaps Ecuador (Weissman et al. 2012). Recognition characters and song. Body size medium-large, long or short hind wings, reddish/brownish colored (Fig. 14), head frequently with three or four longitudinal stripes. Song variable (Figs 15, 16; R 12–3), usually 2 (range 1–3) p/c, less than 1 chirp/second, PR 25–42 at 25°C. Discussion. We repeat here the same concerns as under G. bimaculatus. As discussed in Weissman et al. (2012), this is one of two non-native Gryllus (the other being G. bimaculatus) that was being commercially raised in the US, in 2012, and shipped to US pet food stores for sale to the general public. Such activities will invariably result in the release, either by accident or on purpose, of this species into the environment, similar to what has probably occurred with Acheta domesticus (Weissman et al. 1980). The effect of such releases is unknown, as is whether or not these crickets can survive and multiply outside of commercial farms. We discussed (Weissman et al. 2012) why oversight by federal and state regulatory agencies is inadequate and suspect that such surveillance has only gotten worse, since 2012, given continued tightening US federal budgets and malaise from both state and federal regulators. Additionally, we have no idea what the current commercial status is for these two non-native species because they are more aggressive and cannibalistic than the replaced A. domesticus, and tend to bite the lizard they are being fed to. Thus, the pet-food industry may be voluntarily replacing G. locorojo with the ecologically preferred (Weissman et al. 2012) Gryllodes sigillatus. We present G. locorojo here in case they establish feral populations encountered by inquiring biologist. Similar concerns were presented by Barranco (2012), who discussed the possible invasive situation of “ G. assimilis ”, which was being sold for pet food in Spain. As discussed in Weissman et al. (2012), this is probably G. locorojo, although inquiries to P. Barranco, in 2013 and 2014, as to the number of p/c in the calling song of their cricket, which would easily distinguish true G. assimilis from G. locorojo, went unanswered. G. locorojo has been used for studies on calling song and phonotactic selectivity (Rothbart & Hennig 2012) as well as courtship song (Vedenina & Pollack 2012). DNA. Multilocus G2159, from a commercial pet food store, maps (Fig. 6, p. 28) this species closest to G. assimilis and G. multipulsator, despite very different calling songs between G. locorojo and the other two species. However, as noted in Weissman et al. (2019), courtship songs of these three species are similar in having a doubletick structure unlike any other US Gryllus for which courtship song is known to us.Published as part of Weissman, David B. & Gray, David A., 2019, Crickets of the genus Gryllus in the United States (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Gryllinae), pp. 1-277 in Zootaxa 4705 (1) on page 34, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4705.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/356367
Oral history interview with Robert E. Weissman
No full textTranscript, 20 pp.Robert Weissman attended the University of Connecticut and received his Bachelor’s degree from Babson College. After various positions unrelated to the computer business, he was appointed CEO of National CSS during the 1970s when the company founders brought him in as a professional business manager. He describes how National CSS was founded and evolved from a general-purpose timesharing company using VP/CSS to a specialty processing services firm using RAMIS and Nomad to produce and run departmental applications. After selling National CSS to Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), he remained with D&B and later, as its CEO, redirected its strategy to being database focused rather than data processing oriented. He was Chairman of ADAPSO and describes its structure and values. This oral history was sponsored by the Software History Center in conjunction with the Center's ADAPSO reunion (3 May 2002).Weissman, Robert E., 1940-; Ceruzzi, Paul. (2002). Oral history interview with Robert E. Weissman. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/107707
Stenopelmatus saltillo Weissman & Vandergast & Song & Shin & Mckenna & Ueshima 2021, n. sp.
No full textStenopelmatus saltillo Weissman, n. sp. Saltillo Jerusalem Cricket Figs 126–131, Table 2Published as part of Weissman, David B., Vandergast, Amy G., Song, Hojun, Shin, Seunggwan, Mckenna, Duane D. & Ueshima, Norihiro, 2021, Generic relationships of New World Jerusalem crickets (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatoidea: Stenopelmatinae), including all known species of Stenopelmatus, pp. 1-122 in Zootaxa 4917 (1) on page 78, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4917.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/447203
Stenopelmatus mineraldelmonte Weissman & Vandergast & Song & Shin & Mckenna & Ueshima 2021, n. sp.
No full textStenopelmatus mineraldelmonte Weissman, n. sp. Mineral del Monte Jerusalem Cricket Figs 81–83, Tables 1, 2Published as part of Weissman, David B., Vandergast, Amy G., Song, Hojun, Shin, Seunggwan, Mckenna, Duane D. & Ueshima, Norihiro, 2021, Generic relationships of New World Jerusalem crickets (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatoidea: Stenopelmatinae), including all known species of Stenopelmatus, pp. 1-122 in Zootaxa 4917 (1) on page 55, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4917.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/447203
Stenopelmatus hondurasito Weissman & Vandergast & Song & Shin & Mckenna & Ueshima 2021, n. sp.
No full textStenopelmatus hondurasito Weissman, n. sp. Honduras Small Black Jerusalem Cricket Figs 66–70, Tables 1, 2Published as part of Weissman, David B., Vandergast, Amy G., Song, Hojun, Shin, Seunggwan, Mckenna, Duane D. & Ueshima, Norihiro, 2021, Generic relationships of New World Jerusalem crickets (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatoidea: Stenopelmatinae), including all known species of Stenopelmatus, pp. 1-122 in Zootaxa 4917 (1) on page 49, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4917.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/447203
Stenopelmatus sanfelipe Weissman & Vandergast & Song & Shin & Mckenna & Ueshima 2021, n. sp.
No full textStenopelmatus sanfelipe Weissman, n. sp. San Felipe Jerusalem Cricket Figs 132–142, Tables 1, 2Published as part of Weissman, David B., Vandergast, Amy G., Song, Hojun, Shin, Seunggwan, Mckenna, Duane D. & Ueshima, Norihiro, 2021, Generic relationships of New World Jerusalem crickets (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatoidea: Stenopelmatinae), including all known species of Stenopelmatus, pp. 1-122 in Zootaxa 4917 (1) on page 81, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4917.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/447203
Stenopelmatus ecuadorensis Weissman & Vandergast & Song & Shin & Mckenna & Ueshima 2021, n. sp.
No full textStenopelmatus ecuadorensis Weissman, n. sp. Ecuador Jerusalem Cricket Figs 41–44, Table 1, 2Published as part of Weissman, David B., Vandergast, Amy G., Song, Hojun, Shin, Seunggwan, Mckenna, Duane D. & Ueshima, Norihiro, 2021, Generic relationships of New World Jerusalem crickets (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatoidea: Stenopelmatinae), including all known species of Stenopelmatus, pp. 1-122 in Zootaxa 4917 (1) on page 37, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4917.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/447203
Weissman et al. (2020, Experiment 2) on non-homologous fingers (ABCD-1234)
No full textThe congruency sequence effect (CSE) refers to a smaller congruency effect after incongruent trials than after congruent trials. Robust CSEs often appear in the prime-probe task, wherein an initial prime (usually a distractor) precedes a subsequent probe (usually a target). Recent findings indicate a CSE appears in mean probe reaction time (RT) and mean probe error rate (ER), even when subjects respond to both the initial prime and the subsequent probe, such that there are no distractors (Grant & Weissman, 2019; Weissman, 2019; Weissman et al., 2017). Furthermore, a CSE appears in this “modified prime-probe task” even when subjects respond to the prime and probe in each trial using fingers on different hands (Weissman, Grant, and Jones, 2020).
In Experiment 1 of Weissman et al. (2020), the prime and probe in congruent trials were the same letter (both A, both B, both C, or both D). Further, these letters were mapped to anatomically corresponding (i.e., homologous) fingers on the left and right hands. Here, control processes could be using four types of congruency relations to produce the observed CSE: 1) perceptual congruency relations, since the prime and probe were the same letter in congruent trials but not incongruent trials; 2) categorical congruency relations, since the prime and probe came from the same letter category in congruent trials but not incongruent trials; 3) anatomical congruency relations, since the prime and probe were mapped to homologous finger responses in congruent but not incongruent trials; and 4) spatial congruency relations, since the prime and probe were mapped to spatially corresponding (i.e., from inner to outer on each hand) finger responses in congruent but not incongruent trials. Experiment 2 of Weissman et al. (2020) demonstrated that control processes can engender a CSE in the absence of perceptual congruency relations, since the primes (A, B, C, and D) were different than the probes (1, 2, 3, and 4) across all trial types.
More recently, this research group showed that anatomical congruency relations are not necessary to observe a CSE. This was accomplished using a prime-probe task wherein the primes (A, B, C, and D) and probes (A, B, C, and D) were mapped to spatially, but not anatomically, corresponding fingers in congruent but not incongruent trials (i.e., non-homologous fingers; Tran et al., unpublished). The results indicated a robust CSE, which could only have been driven by perceptual congruency relations, categorical congruency relations, or spatial congruency relations between the responses.
To better understand which congruency relations control processes use to produce a CSE, we will conduct a second experiment. The second experiment will be a variant of Experiment 2 from Weissman et al. (2020), wherein neither perceptual stimulus relations nor anatomical response relations can be used to produce a CSE. More specifically, we will investigate whether control processes can engender a CSE (Weissman et al., 2020) when the prime (A, B, C, or D) and probe (1, 2, 3, or 4) differ in both congruent and incongruent trials and are mapped to spatially, but not anatomically, corresponding fingers (i.e., non-homologous fingers) in congruent trials. In this task, control processes can use only categorical congruency relations and/or spatial congruency relations between the responses to engender a CSE
Gryllus assimilis Weissman, Gray, Pham & Tijssen, 2012, n. sp.
No full textGryllus assimilis (Fig. 2 a, b) Originally described from Jamaica in 1775 where it is one of three native Gryllus species on the island (Weissman et al. 2012), this taxon goes by various common names: Jamaican field cricket, Jamaican brown cricket, and brown silent cricket by European breeders (e.g. Bugs-International of Germany). G. assimilis is also presently known from several Caribbean Islands (Otte & Perez-Gelabert 2009), southern Texas, the east coast of Mexico south into Costa Rica, and possibly into South America (Weissman et al. 2009). The species is introduced in south Florida (Alexander & Walker 1962). Many commercial breeders in Europe claim to sell G. assimilis, but they are actually selling G. locorojo n. sp. (see below). In fact, we are unable to document any European dealer selling verified G. assimilis. In contrast, several USA cricket farms have USDA approved, verified (by DBW) G. assimilis cultures. These growers were originally supplied (pers. comm. to DBW by several growers, spring, 2012) “starter crickets” by Anthony Zera (University of Nebraska), who began his cultures (pers. comm. to DBW, November, 2011) with specimens supplied by Thomas Walker (University of Florida) in 1992 and collected in Gainesville, Florida (see Alexander & Walker 1962). A. Zera reports (pers. comm. to DBW, November, 2011) that he gets some six generations per year of G. assimilis when raised at 28–30 °C. After some 120 generations, he notes no signs of inbreeding depression or changes in calling song. Its distinctive calling song consists of 6–10 pulses/chirp given at 1–2 chirps/second all with a pulse rate greater than 70 at 25 °C. G. assimilis has a morphologically indistinguishable sister species, G. multipulsator Weissman, the latter known from southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, Baja California, Mexico, and along the Mexican mainland west coast (Weissman et al. 2009).Published as part of Weissman, David B., Gray, David A., Pham, Hanh Thi & Tijssen, Peter, 2012, Billions and billions sold: Pet-feeder crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), commercial cricket farms, an epizootic densovirus, and government regulations make for a potential disaster, pp. 67-88 in Zootaxa 3504 on page 70, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21009
Phymonotus Lightfoot, Weissman and Ueshima
No full textPhymonotus Lightfoot, Weissman and Ueshima new genus Type species. Phymonotus jacintotopos Lightfoot, Weissman and Ueshima, here designated. Diagnosis and description. See Table 1. Known only from San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside Co., California (Fig 3). As with other Nedubini world-wide, Phymonotus males possess modified and enlarged paraprocts, or pseudocerci, that extend posteriorly from beneath the supra-anal plate or tergum 10, and which function as clasping organs (Rentz and Colless, 1990). The supra-anal plate, or epiproct, of Phymonotus males is unique among North American Nedubini in that it is hour-glass shaped. Phymonotus is most similar and closely related to the endemic North American genera Agalothorax and Neduba, and can be separated from the latter two genera by a combination of characters presented in Table 1, including obvious features such as a dome-shaped metazona, two lateral lobes on each side of the pronotum, concave posterior margin of the metazona, calling song, and the apical indentation of the female subgenital plate. As with Agalothorax and Neduba, Phymonotus possesses an enlarged metazonal pronotal disk relative to other Tettigoniinae genera. However, in Phymonotus this disk is uniquely shaped, being considerably dorsally elevated and dome-shaped with a concave posterior margin. The dome of the metazona of Phymonotus includes both the dorsal disk and the lateral lobes, and is more pronounced in males than females. The height of the metazona in adult male Phymonotus averages 1.6 times the height of the prozona, while the height of the metazona in female Phymonotus and both sexes of Neduba and Agalothorax is close to equal to the height of the prozona. The pronotum of Phymonotus males has two lateral lobes, one on the prozona, and another on the metazona, unlike Agalothorax and Neduba males that have one lateral lobe shared by both the prozona and metazona. We name and describe the male dorsal and ventral lobes of the titillators (referenced as fleshy lobes but not named by Rentz and Gurney (1985)), and the dorsal sclerites of the titillators (see species description below). All three genera possess both dorsal and ventral lobes of the titillators. The dorsal lobes of the titillators in Agalothorax and Neduba are simple soft membranes that lack dorsal sclerites. In contrast, Phymonotus possesses dorsal sclerites of the titillators, which are developed as a sclerotized bi-lobed structure on the dorsal lobes of the titillators. All three genera possess ventral lobes of the titillators. In Agalothorax the ventral lobes possess sclerotized teeth, and in Neduba the ventral lobes possess ventral sclerites (Rentz and Birchim 1968). In contrast, Phymonotus lacks any sclerotized structures on the ventral lobes of the titillators.Published as part of Lightfoot, David C., Weissman, David B. & Ueshima, Norihiro, 2011, Phymonotus jacintotopos: A new genus and species of shield-backed katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Tettigoniinae: Nedubini) from the San Jacinto Mountains of California, USA, pp. 49-65 in Zootaxa 2937 on page 50, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20374
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