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PCA and ADMIXTURE analysis also identified three genetic clusters (North, South, West), which corresponded to their locations, suggesting that geographic factors were important in maintaining within population homogeneity and between population divergence. Analyses of SNP data confirmed the monophyly of certain subspecies on islands, while other subspecies (e.g., T. d. septentrionalis) were found to be polyphyletic and nested in more than one lineage. AMOVA demonstrated high level of differentiation among populations/groups. Also, pairwise F ST values revealed high differentiation, particularly between South and West, as well as between North and South. Despite the differentiation, measurable gene flow was inferred between genetic clusters but at varying rates and directions. Our study demonstrated that SLAF-seq derived markers outperformed 16S and COII sequences and provided improved resolution of the genetic differentiation of rhinoceros beetle populations from a large part of the species' range.Ensuring the provision of essential ecosystem services in systems affected by multiple stressors is a key challenge for theoretical and applied ecology. see more Trait-based approaches have increasingly been used in multiple-stressor research in freshwaters because they potentially provide a powerful method to explore the mechanisms underlying changes in populations and communities. Individual benthic macroinvertebrate traits associated with mobility, life history, morphology, and feeding habits are often used to determine how environmental drivers structure stream communities. However, to date multiple-stressor research on stream invertebrates has focused more on taxonomic than on functional metrics. We conducted a fully crossed, 4-factor experiment in 64 stream mesocosms fed by a pristine montane stream (21 days of colonization, 21 days of manipulations) and investigated the effects of nutrient enrichment, flow velocity reduction and sedimentation on invertebrate community, taxon, functional diversity and trait variables after 2 and 3 weeks of stressor exposure. 89% of the community structure metrics, 59% of the common taxa, 50% of functional diversity metrics, and 79% of functional traits responded to at least one stressor each. Deposited fine sediment and flow velocity reduction had the strongest impacts, affecting invertebrate abundances and diversity, and their effects translated into a reduction of functional redundancy. Stressor effects often varied between sampling occasions, further complicating the prediction of multiple-stressor effects on communities. Overall, our study suggests that future research combining community, trait, and functional diversity assessments can improve our understanding of multiple-stressor effects and their interactions in running waters.The metric of functional evenness FEve is an example of how approaches to conceptualizing and measuring functional variability may go astray. This index has several critical conceptual and practical drawbacks Different values of the FEve index for the same community can be obtained if the species have unequal species abundances; this result is highly likely if most of the traits are categorical.Very minor differences in even one pairwise distance can result in very different values of FEve.FEve uses only a fraction of the information contained in the matrix of species distances. Counterintuitively, this can cause very similar FEve scores for communities with substantially different patterns of species dispersal in trait space.FEve is a valid metric only if all species have exactly the same abundances. However, the meaning of FEve in such an instance is unclear as the purpose of the metric is to measure the variability of abundances in trait space. We recommend not using the FEve metric in studies of functional variability. Given the wide usage of FEve index over the last decade, the validity of the conclusions based on those estimates is in question. Instead, we suggest three alternative metrics that combine variability in species distances in trait space with abundance in various ways. More broadly, we recommend that researchers think about which community properties (e.g., trait distances of a focus species to the nearest neighbor or all other species, variability of pairwise interactions between species) they want to measure and pick from among the appropriate metrics.There is a growing agreement that conservation needs to be proactive and pay increased attention to common species and to the threats they face. The blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) plays a key ecological role in sensitive high-altitude ecosystems of Central Asia and is among the main prey species for the globally vulnerable snow leopard (Panthera uncia). As the blue sheep has been increasingly exposed to human pressures, it is vital to estimate its population dynamics, protect the key populations, identify important habitats, and secure a balance between conservation and local livelihoods. We conducted a study in Manang, Annapurna Conservation Area (Nepal), to survey blue sheep on 60 transects in spring (127.9 km) and 61 transects in autumn (134.7 km) of 2019, estimate their minimum densities from total counts, compare these densities with previous estimates, and assess blue sheep habitat selection by the application of generalized additive models (GAMs). Total counts yielded minimum density estimates of 6.0-7.7The degree to which loci promoting reproductive isolation cluster in the genome-that is, the genetic architecture of reproductive isolation-can influence the tempo and mode of speciation. Tight linkage between these loci can facilitate speciation in the face of gene flow. Pheromones play a role in reproductive isolation in many Lepidoptera species, and the role of endogenously produced compounds as secondary metabolites decreases the likelihood of pleiotropy associated with many barrier loci. Heliconius butterflies use male sex pheromones to both court females (aphrodisiac wing pheromones) and ward off male courtship (male-transferred antiaphrodisiac genital pheromones), and it is likely that these compounds play a role in reproductive isolation between Heliconius species. Using a set of backcross hybrids between H. melpomene and H. cydno, we investigated the genetic architecture of putative male pheromone compound production. We found a set of 40 significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) representing 33 potential pheromone compounds.