A new subgenus of leaf beetles of the genus Chrysolina (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Chrysomelinae) has been identified. It includes seven species, three of which were previously known, and four of which are described as new to science. All species are endemic to the belt of alpine coniferous forests in the northwestern part of the Chinese province of Yunnan. Representatives of the new subgenus are wingless, broadly oval, convex beetles 5-8 mm long with a bronze, purple, greenish or bluish metallic sheen. “The study of the reproductive apparatus of males (the middle lobe of the aedeagus) revealed the presence of sensilla, that is, sensitive setae, on its apex. A sexual apparatus of this type is not known in any other representative of the genus Chrysolinini, and in the whole subfamily Chrysomelinae of the world fauna, sensilla on the aedeagus are found only in some species of the genus Gonioctena, which also live in southern China,” said the author of the study, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Senior Researcher researcher of IEE RAS A.O. Benkovsky. Yunnan Province is one of the centers of the greatest species diversity of the genus Chrysolina. There are many endemic species with unusual characters and very narrow ranges in the highlands. The study was published in the journal Forests: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/1/66/html Bieńkowski, A. (2023). A New Unusual Subgenus of the Genus Chrysolina (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Chrysomelinae) from the Highland Forests of China, Yunnan Province. Forests, 14(1), 66.

A new species of crustaceans, previously unknown to world science, has been discovered on the territory of the Utrish Reserve in the Krasnodar Territory. The discovery was made by a group of scientists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution. The crustacean is named after the reserve - Niphargus utrishensis Marin et Palatov sp.n. In the reserve, freshwater invertebrates were examined in lakes, streams, wells and water outlets between rock layers in crevices and on the coast. Scientists have discovered about 12 species endemic to the Caucasus. To identify invertebrates, morphological comparisons were made, creating a DNA barcode. According to the head of the expedition, candidate of biological sciences Ivan Marin, these animals inhabited their current habitats at least five million years ago - at the end of the Miocene. “We believe that the current distribution of species is determined rather by the “growth” of the Caucasian coastal mountain ranges and the fragmentation of karst occurring over the past 2-3 million years. Due to the fact that these animals are not capable of active settlement, these unique ancient genetic lines (species) and their biotopes - underground aquatic habitats - need special protection,” Ivan Marin said. Also, a new genus and new species of gammarid amphipod Dursogammarus dromaderus Marin & Palatov, 2022 (Amphipoda: Gammaridae) was found in the Durso River at the border of the reserve. The new species is now known to be endemic to the lower reaches of the small mountain river Durso, which flows into the northwestern Black Sea. Moreover, this crustacean represents a phylogenetic lineage related to the Atlanto-Mediterranean gammarids, which apparently survives in isolation in these coastal habitats for a very long time, which indicates the uniqueness of the biotopes of this river. According to the expedition members, a serious threat to the habitat of these unique crustaceans today is the depletion of groundwater. Source: Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology Related materials: Live Kuban: "The newest species of crustaceans was discovered in the Utrish reserve" Fishnews: "A new species of crustaceans has been discovered in Russia" Ministry of Natural Resources: "A species of crustaceans previously unknown to worldscience has been discovered in the Utrish Reserve" Komsomolskaya Pravda: "An ancient invertebrate animal unknown to scientists was found inthe Kuban" Kuban News: "An unknown species of freshwater crustaceans was found in the Utrishreserve near Anapa" GLAS: "A species of crustaceans previously unknown to world science was discovered inthe Utrish Reserve" Kuban Inform: "A species of previously unknown crustaceans was discovered near Anapa" Iluki: "A previously unknown species of crustaceans has been discovered in Russia" Glas naroda: "A species of crustaceans previously unknown to world science has beendiscovered in the Utrish Reserve" YASNO: "Kuban scientists have discovered an unknown ancient invertebrate creature" Without Format: "Niphargus utrishensis: a new species of crustacean was named after theUtrish nature reserve in Anapa" Aquaculture: "A new species of crustaceans has been discovered in Russia" Gorodskoy portal: "The newest species of crustaceans was discovered in the Utrish reserve" Gorodskaya sreda: "A previously unknown species of crustaceans was discovered in theUtrish reserve" Аквакультура.info: "A new species of crustaceans has been discovered in Russia" IP Aquakultura: "A new type of crustaceans has been discovered in Russia" News of Krasnodar: "Nifargus utrishensis" Ru24: "New species of crustaceans discovered in Kuban" 59minut: "Nifargus utrishensis" Новости.Mail: "An ancient invertebrate unknown to scientists was found in the Kuban"

Mollusk Trinchesia ornata examines a prey polyp (left) and eats it (right) / Source: Irina Ekimova, Moscow State University. Photo: Andrey Shpatak A team of Russian scientists from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University and IEE RAS studied how nudibranch molluscs of the family Fionidae steal stinging capsules from stinging coelenterates and how the choice of a robbery victim affects the anatomy of a thief. The results of the work were published in the prestigious scientific journal Frontiers in Zoology. Nudibranch molluscs, like snails, belong to the class of gastropods. Only, unlike most of their fellows, they do not have a shell, and their gills are branched tender outgrowths exposed on the sides or on the back, which is where they got their name. These mollusks live mainly in the seas, where they crawl along the bottom in search of prey. Many nudibranch molluscs feed on cnidarians. Cnidaria serve not only as food for nudibranchs. Mollusks digest their soft tissues, including the stinging cells, the protective weapon of the stingers. But the burning organelles contained in these cells - the cnidocyst - nudibranch mollusks are embedded in the cnidosac sacs, which end in the outgrowths of their own body. Zoologists call this phenomenon kleptocnidia. When danger occurs, the mollusk uses the stolen weapon as its own: a cnidocyst twisted into a spiral or into a spring with poison unfolds sharply inside the cnidosac, rushes with its end towards the victim and digs into it, injecting poison. Few studies are known of kleptocnidia, and many obscure phenomena are associated with it. For example, how exactly the nudibranch mollusk distinguishes stinging cells from the rest during digestion, why it does not digest capsules, but builds them into its body, or how its immune system reacts to the presence of foreign organelles. A team of Russian zoologists led by Irina Ekimova, a senior researcher at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, has made significant progress in unraveling the unresolved issues related to kleptocnidia. For this study, scientists have chosen 13 species from the Fionidae family, whose representatives are characterized by high selectivity in nutrition. The average species specializes in feeding 1-3 types of coelenterates. Scientists observed selected species in nature and in the laboratory, experimented with the diet of experimental subjects, studied in detail the structure of their cnidosacs, trying to trace the relationship between cnidosac morphology and diet or species relatedness. “For the first time, we have identified a clear relationship between the structure of the radula, the mechanism of food production, the spectrum of nutrition and the structure of cnidosacs. Cnidosacs of different groups of fionids are characterized by great interspecies variability in microanatomical characters, which correlates both with differences in food objects (different types of cnidocysts in different cnidarians) and with feeding mechanisms (mollusks that feed on the same species of cnidarians, but on different parts of them, will have different cnidosacs), — explains the main author of the study Irina Ekimova. “Thus, the structure of cnidosacs does not reflect evolutionary changes, but depends on the ecological characteristics of the species. The transition to an unusual type of food can lead to a complete loss of the ability of kleptocnidia - for example, mollusks that feed on fish caviar have lost the ability to select stinging capsules. The same is true for molluscs that feed on coral polyps: although they also belong to the intestinal animals, corals do not have burning stinging cells. There are only those that glue the prey. The mollusk recognizes such cells as incorrect, and selection does not occur”.

The A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS opened the exhibition "Illustrations to the Red Book of the Russian Federation". The opening is dedicated to the 95th anniversary of V.E. Sokolov. (On February 2, the Sokolov Readings will be held at the IEE RAS). Vladimir Evgenievich played an important role in the creation of the Red Book - first of the Soviet Union, then of the RSFSR and then of the Russian Federation. Photos from the opening of the exhibition can be viewed in the album in the IEE RAS group on VKonakte. Illustrations for the Red Book of the Russian Federation are presented in the small conference hall of the IEE RAS (room 230),. The authors of the works - Ph.D. Koblik E.A. and Ph.D. Mosalov A.A. Employees and guests of the Institute can visit the exhibition. If you do not work at IEE RAS, but would like to attend the exhibition, you can contact us by email or by phone (89262551977 - WhatsApp/Telegram).

The public organization "Expert Council on Reserve Affairs" sent an appeal to the Chairman of the State Duma with specific proposals to amend the draft law № 1130300-7 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" (regarding the regulation of recreational activities in specially protected natural areas). The need for such an appeal is due to the obvious lapses that this bill abounds in; its adoption in the current version will have negative consequences for the system of state nature reserves and national parks in Russia. The appeal was signed by the co-chairs of the Expert Council on Reserve Affairs Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, Doctor of Economics, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific Director of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Vsevolod Stepanitsky, Honored Ecologist of the Russian Federation, Advisor to the General Director of ANO "Far Eastern Leopards". A number of members of the Expert Council, prominent scientists and professional practitioners in the field of ecology and nature management, also took part in the preparation of the conclusion on the draft law and proposals for introducing priority changes and additions to it. Among them are Academician, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the Ecology of Biological Systems Vyacheslav Rozhnov, Professors Sergei Buzmakov and Alexander Khoroshev, Honored Ecologists of the Russian Federation Yuri Darman and Evgeny Schwartz, Director of the Ecological and Educational Center "Zapovedniki" Natalia Danilina and others. This draft law, which is awaiting the second reading, provides for fundamental changes to a number of legislative acts and, first of all, to the Federal Law “On Specially Protected Natural Territories”. In the materials presented, the members of the Expert Council, in particular, noted that the bill runs counter to the repeatedly expressed public position of the President of Russia on the development of eco-tourism in specially protected natural areas (SPNA). Thus, in an address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in 2019, the President noted that “it is necessary to fix it in law: only ecological tourism is possible in reserves.” However, this draft law does not at all provide for the use of the term ecotourism itself in the Federal Law “On Protected Areas”, moreover, it excludes from the law the concept of educational tourism that is close to it, replacing it with the generalized concept of “tourism”. Thus, this makes it possible to develop other types of tourism (sports, pilgrimage, fishing, etc.) in nature reserves and specially protected areas of national parks that are incompatible with their functionality. At the same time, the drafters of the bill ignored numerous comments and suggestions from the professional community, incl. those expressed during the discussion in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. The President of Russia, in his speech on June 17, 2022 at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, said: “The State Duma is already considering a bill that is designed to regulate the organization of tourism in specially protected areas, to create a civilized basis for such activities. In this regard, I would like to draw attention to the following: all decisions made here must be calculated and balanced.” However, this bill contains a significant number of provisions that are decidedly not calculated or balanced. In this regard, the Expert Council on Reserve Affairs considers it necessary to postpone the adoption of the draft law No. 1130300-7 for the second reading and ensure its further significant revision, including with the involvement of a professional expert community. The link to get acquainted with the text of the appeal and proposals for changing the bill: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/fRq_WCAMTMy10w Reference: The interregional public organization "Expert Council on Reserve Affairs" was established on January 10, 2023 with the aim of consolidating the efforts of an independent professional expert community in the field of territorial nature protection. The members of the Expert Council are 90 well-known highly qualified specialists with many years of practical experience in the environmental field. Among them - 1 academician and 5 corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 6 professors, 57 doctors and candidates of science, 9 honored ecologists of the Russian Federation, 1 honored worker of science of the Russian Federation. The website of the Expert Council on Reserve Affairs - http://zapovedcouncil.ru/ Contact:Chestina Tatyana, executive secretary of the Expert Council on Reserve Affairs,+79645319131, zapovedcouncil@gmail.com

Pikas are small hare-like animals that live in the highlands. Scientists analyzed the genomic data of pikas of the subgenus Ochotona living in Tibet and found that one of its species, O. thibetana, appeared as a result of crossing with an ancient and now unknown species of these high-altitude animals. Scientists from the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences worked on the study together with colleagues from the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Pikas are mammals from the order of lagomorphs, in appearance most reminiscent of large hamsters. Among the pikas there is a subgenus Ochotona, which includes eight species of burrowing alpine animals that inhabit Tibet and its environs. A feature of this group was interspecific hybridization (crossing) between all its species. A few years ago, within the subgenus Ochotona, Chinese scientists described a new species of pika, Ochotona qionglaiensis, based on genetic data. It was later discovered that the species status of this pika was erroneously assigned: an analysis of nuclear genes conducted by Russian and Nepalese scientists in 2019 indicated that the newly described pika belongs to the long-known species O. thibetana (one of the species of Ochotona living in Sino-Tibetan mountains). In their new study, the scientists analyzed the genomic data of this species of pika and its relatives for the first time. It turned out that a new species of pika, erroneously described by Chinese scientists, appeared as a result of ancient hybridization of one of the populations of O. thibetana with a currently unknown species of pika. It was the DNA of this unknown species that caused the error of scientists. As the researchers note, only a few genes were borrowed from the ancient ancestor, this phenomenon is called gene introgression and is quite common. Interestingly, among the genes borrowed from an ancient unknown species, there are loci responsible for the formation of hair (associated with the synthesis of keratin). At the same time, it is the variability of the skin color of O. thibetana that has long attracted the attention of researchers. Borrowed genes associated with the synthesis of keratin were found not only in one "hybrid" population, but also in neighboring ones, in the territory of most of Sichuan. “It is these pikas (subgenus Ochotona) that are being studied now and will continue to be studied, because they allowed us to discover a unique evolutionary phenomenon - mass interspecific hybridization. Eight species entered into mass hybridization with each other at different times. At the same time, they did not lose their uniqueness - they remained unchanged, and did not become an average between the parent species. How this is done is currently not very clear. These pikas are a unique experiment of nature that we were lucky to find,” says Andrey Lisovsky, senior researcher at the Laboratory of Mammal Microevolution, Candidate of Biological Sciences, IEE RAS. In the future, scientists plan to study the complete genomes of all species and find out which genes the pikas borrowed from each other. Research published in Diversity and Distributions. Related materials: Search: "Greetings from an ancestor. Geneticists have found traces of unknown DNA in Tibetan pikas"

Now the employee of the IEE RAS, who has become the youngest doctor of science, will receive a challenge award - an eagle on a stand made of optical calcite (Icelandic spar) from the Lower Tunguska. The statuette was presented to Aleksey Sergeevich Opaev in 2021, when he defended his doctoral dissertation "Song of songbirds (Passeri): structure, evolution and role in communication". At the time of the defense, Alexei Sergeevich was 38 years old, and now he is 40. The reward will be passed down to the next doctor of sciences younger than Alexei Sergeevich. The names and surnames of all award holders will be engraved on the statuette. We wish active work on doctoral dissertations to all colleagues!

(Dated phylogenetic tree of the gerbil subfamily. Numbers in white circles show the average age (in Ma) of nodes based on molecular clock estimates, red horizontal bars show 95% confidence intervals.) Russian scientists have determined the phylogenetic position of Ammodila, a species that is one of the last few unsolved mysteries in the fauna of African rodents. The species was described by the British zoologist Edward D'Winton in 1898 as a member of the Gerbillinae subfamily, but due to the lack of modern material suitable for molecular genetic analysis, its phylogenetic position on the evolutionary tree of gerbils has remained unknown up to the present day. Joint work of scientists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (Moscow) and the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University (Moscow), performed by sequencing the sequences of mitochondrial and nuclear genes from a specimen caught in Ethiopia, showed that Ammodilus is a taxon sister to all living members of the Gerbillinae subfamily. Using paleontological data to date the phylogenetic tree, it was possible to establish that the separation of the evolutionary line of Ammodila from other groups of gerbils occurred at the border of the middle and late Miocene, about 11.7 million years ago. Despite such an ancient age of isolation, Ammodilus is by no means a “living fossil”, since it has a number of rather progressive morphological features. To describe the phenomenon in which the evolutionary line, throughout its history, does not experience further branching, the term "Ancient loner" was proposed. The results obtained support the assumption of an African origin of the subfamily, although the question of whether these were the vast territories of the Horn of Africa, or whether the areas lying in northern Africa should be considered the cradle of the gerbils, remains open. The results of the study were supported by grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Russian Science Foundation and published in the journal Zoologica Scripta. Kostin, D. S., Martynov, A. A., Lebedev, V. S., Zemlemerova, E. D., Gromov, A. R., & Lavrenchenko, L. A. (2022). Position of the ammodile and the origin of Gerbillinae (Rodentia): Out of the Horn of Africa? Zoologica Scripta, 51(5), 522-532. Related materials: Ministry of Education and Science: ""Ancient loner": scientists have established when ammodilus separated from other groups of gerbils" RAS: ""Ancient loner": when ammodilus separated from other groups of gerbils" Scientific Russia: "Scientists have established when ammodilus separated from other groups of gerbils" Ministry of Education and Science: ""Ancient loner": scientists have found a rodent whose evolutionary line has not been divided for 11.7 million years"

Candidate of Biological Sciences, Leading Researcher of A.N. Severtsov IEE RAS Ilya Mordvintsev talked about the current state of research and plans for the future. This year, work on the study of the polar bear and the Atlantic walrus, which began in 2020–2021 with the support of Rosneft, was completed. “Field work has been going on for two years on Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, and this year we had a year of office processing. We received data on the movement of polar bears that we tagged, observed their individual and annual habitats. We still have two females transmitting signals - it looks like they have settled in dens,” said the scientist. The specialists also managed to obtain data on toxicology, pollution of polar bears with various heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. All values are within the normal range and do not cause any harm to the health of animals, Ilya Mordvintsev noted. By all indications, the bears are in good condition. “As for diseases, except for trichinosis, we did not find anything serious. But this is a disease that affects most adult bears throughout the Arctic, not just in the Russian sector,” he said. As the specialist admitted, not all planned trips were carried out, but one expedition turned out to be very interesting. “In October of this year, we worked for the first time on the Bear Islands, an archipelago in the East Siberian Sea. Quite an interesting place, which is very little explored. In the spring, employees of the Medvezhiy Islands Reserve recorded a large number of birth lairs. This is a new place that can be called another maternity home for polar bears in our Arctic,” said Mordvintsev. In the course of aerial monitoring work, scientists were interested in the condition and number of bears that remained on these islands during the ice-free period. “We worked in October, which is the month without ice covering. We counted more than 60 individuals - both single bears, and females with one-year-old cubs and with two-year-old and underyearlings. And they are all in such good condition, well-fed,” said the expert. Therefore, next year, joint work will continue on this territory with the Medvezhiy Islands State Nature Reserve, the Lena Pillars National Park and the Institute for Biological Problems of the Permafrost of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Next year we plan to visit the same islands, but already during the period when the females leave the birth dens, we will see exactly the number, the location of the dens, the number of cubs in broods, and what condition the females are in. This is a very interesting work that needs to be done annually,” concluded Ilya Mordvintsev. Related materials: Arctic Universe: "В ИПЭЭ РАН подведены итоги работы по изучению белых медведей"

Established in 2022, the Evolutionary Trophology Laboratory specializes in the study of feeding habits, digestion and parasites of fish, amphibians and reptiles living in various natural conditions from the Arctic to the tropics. The work of the laboratory became possible thanks to the Megagrant within the framework of the competition "State support for scientific research conducted under the guidance of leading scientists in Russian educational institutions of higher education, scientific institutions and state research centers of the Russian Federation" (9th stage). The laboratory is headed by the leading international scientist Enric Gisbert Casas, Spain. In addition to him, the laboratory includes, along with students, graduate students and support staff, the leading Russian experts in the field of metagenomic studies of the digestive system and ecology of vertebrates. To date, the laboratory is equipped with a set of equipment for the genetic sector of work. The equipment allows solving a wide range of tasks from routine processes of DNA and RNA isolation, purification and amplification to the creation of genetic libraries for subsequent whole genome sequencing. The laboratory is also equipped with equipment for the quantitative determination of PCR products. The laboratory staff organized ten expeditions: to the Baunt system of lakes (Republic of Buryatia), Lake Teletskoye (Republic of Altai), Lake Kronotskoye (Kamchatka Peninsula), to Armenia, and to the Zvenigorod Biological Station (Moscow Region). During the expeditions, the staff collected material to determine the features of the functioning of the digestive tract and the degree of infection of fish with various groups of helminths (cestodes, trematodes, nematodes, and acanthocephalans). In addition, new specialized forms of chars were found in the basin of Lake Kronotskoye and the Kamchatka River. As a result of the expeditions, it was possible to collect and successfully deliver to the laboratory for experimental work the fertilized eggs of sympatric forms of whitefish from the lake Teletskoye and chars from the lake Kronotsky. In addition to working in aquatic ecosystems, laboratory staff began research on the trophic interaction of reptiles and amphibians occupying similar ecological niches. In Armenia, materials were collected to study the trophic interactions of parthenogenetic and hermaphroditic species of rock lizards; in Zvenigorod, primary materials were selected for the reconstruction of the mechanisms of functioning of the digestive system in amphibians during the transition from the aquatic environment to the terrestrial one. In the course of the work under the grant, seminars and practical exercises were held for young employees of the laboratory, which allowed them to independently use the created instrument base. During the first year of research, the working group published one article each in the journals of the first and second quartiles of the Web of Science database, and 5 more articles are currently under review. Next year, the laboratory staff plans to complete the organization of the chemical laboratory, process the data obtained in the first year of the laboratory's operation, and conduct several expeditions to collect field material to the subarctic regions of our country and to the tropics in Vietnam.