Abstract genital characteristics have peculiar morphological patterns. They show great divergence between species. At the same time, they are assumed to vary little within species by taxonomists who frequently use genital features to delimit species. I studied moth (Lepidoptera) genital size and shape variation within and between species. I also tested hypotheses proposed to explain rapid genital diversification among species. Studies were carried out using traditional distance measurement morphometrics and modern geometric morphometrics. Several moth species were analyzed. d that genital structures show variation that in closely related species may show structural overlap. More surprisingly, the amount of variation in internal genitalia was equal to non-genital traits. These and some other findings are against the predictions of the lock-and-key hypothesis, which suggests that genital differences form a mechanical isolation system between species. Meanwhile, the findings are in good accordance with the various mechanisms of the sexual selection hypothesis. I found that external genital traits express varying amounts of variability. However, both external and internal genitalia consistently show small variation in size so that large individuals have disproportionately small genitalia and vice versa. This finding is consistent with the lock-and-key theory, but also with the cryptic female choice hypothesis. In conclusion, the results suggest that sexual selection plays a major role in genital diversification, but the exact mechanism remained unclear in this study. Some structures in moth genitalia strongly suggest that sexual conflict is present as well. It is possible that several mechanisms of sexual selection are in action simultaneously. dings have implications to insect taxonomy. Genital characters, although often useful, should not be considered superior to other characters because they may vary considerably within species. I have shown that subjective visual evaluation of genital characteristics and a priori assumption of their low variability may easily lead to unsound taxonomic conclusions. Sophisticated morphometric tools are very useful and objective in delimiting sibling species. Geometric morphometrics is particularly useful since it helps to evaluate limits of variation. There are, however, no theoretical grounds to assume that genitalia are not subject to intraspecific geographic variation. Such variation was detected in this study as well. Geographic relationships should therefore be taken into consideration more frequently when delimiting populations into different species.

The working life has since the industrialization gone through big changes in the entire world. With these structural changes being made in the working life, the labor market and the operative businesses now have new demands on their coworkers as a response to the increasing competition. At the same time progress has been made in both technology and communication, individuals now have the opportunity to work from other places than a physical office and at any given time. In total, these changes have led to what’s often referred to as "boundaryless work. In boundaryless work the individual has to draw the line between working life and personal life. Previous research has shown that the personal life and working life are getting harder to keep apart, and organizations are focusing more on task orientation rather than working time orientation. This essay has the purpose of investigating how people draw lines between their working life and their personal life when work can be done everywhere and at any given time. It also looks at to what extent individuals working boundaryless experience classic bureaucracy principles such as strict accountability, hierarchy and expert power. This is done through qualitative interviews with white collar workers. The results provided by this essay shows that the individuals tend to experience classical bureaucracy principles in some respects. The results show a positive attitude towards the boundaryless work, and the responsibility to draw the boundaries between work and private life. It’s also shown that almost every respondent uses a strategy where they go offline on their phone to draw these boundaries. / Arbetslivet har sedan industrialiseringen genomgått stora förändringar världen över. Strukturella förändringar i arbetslivet innebär att arbetsmarknaden och verksamma företag har nya förväntningar på deras medarbetare till följd av en ökad konkurrens. Samtidigt har det gjorts stora framsteg inom både teknologi och kommunikation, individer har nu möjlighet att arbeta från andra platser än ett fysiskt kontor och på andra tider än kontorstider. Sammantaget har dessa förändringar lett till vad som kallas "gränslöst arbete". I det gränslösa arbetet förväntas individen att själv dra gränser mellan vad som är arbete- och vad som är privatliv, annars tenderar arbetet att tränga in i privatlivet. Tidigare forskning visar att privatliv och arbetsliv blir allt svårare att hålla isär, samtidigt som organisationer blir mer fokuserade på uppgiftsorientering snarare än arbetstidsorientering. Tidigare forskning visar också att organisationer blir mer individualiserade och flexibla. Denna uppsats har som syfte att undersöka hur individer drar gränser mellan arbets- och privatliv när arbetet kan utföras överallt och under vilken tid som helst på dygnet. Den kollar också på hur mycket individer upplever klassiska byråkratiska principer såsom tydlig ansvarsfördelning, hierarki och expertmakt. Uppsatsen undersöker också hur individer i dessa arbeten upplever sin work- life balance. Detta görs genom kvalitativa intervjuer med tjänstemän. Resultaten i denna uppsats visar att individer inom gränslösa arbeten upplever klassiska byråkratiska principer i vissa avseenden samtidigt som de inte upplever dessa avseenden i andra aspekter. Resultaten visar också en positiv attityd gentemot det gränslösa arbetet och ansvaret att själva dra gränser mellan arbete och privatliv. Det har också visat sig att nästan varje respondent använder en strategi där de går offline på deras telefon för att dra dessa gränser.

This thesis deals with the problem of specifying of peripheral areas in dissertations at the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development of the Faculty of Science at Charles University in Prague. There have been many thesis concentrating on the identification of peripheral areas in particular territory in last twenty years. Authors of these dissertations created their own methodologies of this specifying. This work aims to further discover and examine ways the authors try to identify peripheral areas using secondary data and tries to find potential common features of this identification. The thesis applies different methods of identifying of peripheral areas from analyzed dissertations in the region of Rokycany district. The work describes similarities and differences of results. In the end the most appropriate method of identifying of peripheral areas is recommended.

Accurate species delimitation has critical implications for ecological and conservation studies; and for understanding factors driving diversification. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that morphology-based species circumspection in lichenized ascomycetes often fails to accurately represent the number of fungal species. The use of molecular data in lichen systematics provides an important alternative to traditional morphological characters for identifying natural groups and assessing evolutionary histories in challenging lichen taxa. In this work, I examined two common lichen-forming genera in western North America, Rhizoplaca and Xanthoparmelia, as models for investigating character evolution, species delimitation in morphologically and chemically diverse species, and identification of lineages in the early stages of divergence. Phylogenetic hypotheses were reconstructed to assess character evolution using sequence data from four nuclear ribosomal markers and fragments from two nuclear loci. I applied a multifaceted approach to delimit species in Rhizoplaca and Xanthoparmelia by assembling multiple lines of evidence using DNA sequence data, and genealogical and population genetic analyses. I have found that traditionally circumscribed species are not supported by molecular data. For example, in Rhizoplaca previously unrecognized lineages were identified within what has thus far been considered a single species. In contrast, morphologically and chemically distinct species within Xanthoparmelia were not supported by molecular data. Distinct medullary chemistries, growth forms, and the production of vegetative diaspores appear to have evolved independently multiple times in Xanthoparmelia. This work clearly indicates that morphological and chemical characters do not always accurately reflect lichen species diversity within even the best known and studied genera. My study of the Rhizoplaca melanophthalma species complex demonstrates that the genus Rhizoplaca, as presently circumscribed, is more diverse in western North American than previously thought. I present these analyses as a working example of species delimitation in morphologically cryptic lichenized fungi. In Xanthoparmelia diagnostic morphological and chemical characters have evolved in a highly homoplasious manner. In contrast to other studies documenting previously undiscovered fungal lineages masked within lichen species circumscribed by traditional morphological and chemical characters, my work suggests that species diversity has been overestimated in the lichen genus Xanthoparmelia.

Phylogeography and molecular phylogenetics have proven remarkably useful for understanding the patterns and processes influencing historical diversification of biotic lineages at and below the species level, as well as delimiting morphologically cryptic species. In this dissertation, I used an integrative approach coupling comparative phylogeography and coalescent-based species delimitation to improve our understanding of the biogeography and species limits of Central American freshwater fishes. In Chapter 1, I conducted a literature review of the contributions of phylogeography to understanding the origins and maintenance of lower Central American biodiversity, in light of the geological and ecological setting. I highlighted emerging phylogeographic patterns, along with the need for improving regional historical biogeographical inference and conservation efforts through statistical and comparative phylogeographic studies. In Chapter 2, I compared mitochondrial phylogeographic patterns among three species of livebearing fishes (Poeciliidae) codistributed in the lower Nicaraguan depression and proximate uplands. I found evidence for mixed spatial and temporal divergences, indicating phylogeographic “pseudocongruence” suggesting that multiple evolutionary responses to historical processes have shaped population structuring of regional freshwater biota, possibly linked to recent community assembly and/or the effects of ecological differences among species on their responses to late Cenozoic environmental events. In Chapter 3, I used coalescent-based species tree and species delimitation analyses of a multilocus dataset to delimit species and infer their evolutionary relationships in the Poecilia sphenops species complex (Poeciliidae), a widespread but morphologically conserved group of fishes. Results indicated that diversity is underestimated and overestimated in different clades by c. ±15% (including candidate species); that lineages diversified since the Miocene; and that some evidence exists for a more probable role of hybridization, rather than incomplete lineage sorting, in shaping observed gene tree discordances. Last, in Chapter 4, I used a comparative phylogeographical analysis of eight codistributed species/genera of freshwater fishes to test for shared evolutionary responses predicted by four drainage-based hypotheses of Neotropical fish diversification. Integrating phylogeographic analyses with paleodistribution modeling revealed incongruent genetic structuring among lineages despite overlapping ancestral Pleistocene distributions, suggesting multiple routes to community assembly. Hypotheses tests using the latest approximate Bayesian computation model averaging methods also supported one pulse of diversification in two lineages diverged in the San Carlos River, but multiple divergences of three lineages across the Sixaola River basin, Costa Rica, correlated to Neogene sea level events and continental shelf width. Results supported complex biogeographical patterns illustrating how species responses to historical drainage-controlling processes have influenced Neotropical fish diversification.

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical research on the efficient assignment of policy tasks to different levels of government and applies the results on the delimitation of competences within the European Union. The main results are: (i) A precise derivation of an optimal degree of decentralisation is not possible because of mixed theoretical suggestions. The adequate degree of decentralisation has to be detected case-by-case. (ii) Systematic evidence on direct relationships between economic performance and fiscal decentralisation is ambiguous and scarce. (iii) Comparing the de facto delimitation of EU-competences with the normative recommendations, remarkable discrepancies arise in the fields of agriculture and defence. (iv) The establishment of a flexible assignment-scheme by the European Convention is an undeniable necessity in order to guarantee reversibility and to cope efficiently with changing general conditions. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

Les chênes sessiles et pédonculés sont deux espèces sympatriques interfertiles occupant des places distinctes dans la succession écologique. Elles constituent pour cela un bon modèle pour l’étude de la spéciation écologique. Malgré leur écologie contrastée, les deux espèces de chênes coexistent naturellement dans de nombreuses forêts, rendant possible l’étude de leur système de reproduction intra- et interspécifique. Des travaux précédents ont suggéré que l’hybridation entre ces deux espèces serait fréquence-dépendante. Elle dépendrait de la proportion de pollen allospécifique (c'est-à-dire de pollen de l’autre espèce) que reçoit l’arbre mère étudié. Ce phénomène d’hybridation fréquence-dépendante est appelé effet Hubbs, du nom d’un ichtyologue qui découvrit ce mécanisme en 1955. Mon travail a consisté à étudier, dans une parcelle mixte de chênes, les barrières à l’hybridation qui permettent la coexistence de ces deux espèces. Pour cela, j’ai effectué une étude de paternité de grande ampleur (près de 3500 individus typés sur 12 marqueurs microsatellites). Tout d’abord, je me suis intéressée à la délimitation des deux espèces en appliquant pour la première fois in situ le critère d’interfertilité. Je me suis ensuite concentrée sur les facteurs qui influencent l’hybridation au travers d’une modélisation des croisements à l’échelle de l’individu. Les résultats montrent que le maintien de ces deux espèces est régi par deux composantes environnementales importantes : la fréquence de chaque espèce et leur distribution, qui influencent la quantité de pollen reçue. Grâce à cette étude empirique et à l’approche de modélisation de ces croisements, nous avons désormais une bien meilleure vision de l’effet de l’environnement sur l’hybridation. J’ai par la suite comparé les caractéristiques du système de reproduction de chaque espèce (dispersion du pollen et fécondité mâle) en cherchant si un lien existait avec leur stratégie écologique. Les résultats suggèrent que les différences de dynamique écologique pourraient être à l’origine de la spéciation du fait de l’existence de compromis différents en termes d’allocation de ressources mais qu’à plus court terme la stabilité de l’environnement est essentielle au maintien des espèces. / Quercus petraea and Q. robur are two interfertile sympatric species. They occupy distinct stages during forest succession and constitute therefore good models for ecological speciation studies. Despite their differences, they often grow together in mixed stands, allowing the study of their intra- and interspecific reproductive system. Hybridization between these two oak species has been suggested to be frequency-dependent. The effect of the relative species abundance on hybridization is known as the “Hubbs’ effect”, from the name of an ichthyologist who described this mechanism in 1955. My work was to study the processes that limit hybridization between these two species, thereby allowing their coexistence. I conducted an extensive paternity analysis (almost 3500 individuals genotyped at 12 microsatellite markers). First, I tried to delimitate the two oak species by applying for the first time in situ the interfertility criterion. Then, I focused on interspecific crosses by studying those factors influencing hybridization. Results showed that the maintenance of these two species depends on the frequency of each species and their distribution, as both factors influence the quantity of pollen received by female flowers. Thanks to this empirical study and to this modeling approach, we have now a much better view of environmental effects on hybridization. I then compared the characteristics of the reproductive system of each species (pollen dispersal and male fertility) in relation with their ecological strategies. The results suggest that differences in species ecological dynamics are at the origin of the speciation process but that at a finer scale the stability of the environment is crucial for species’ maintenance.

Section Restricti is one of the last sections of the genus Aspergillus that hasn't been revised in the modern taxonomic era. All species are osmophilic, have simple morphology and they are mainly important because of the food, feed and seed spoilage, some of them also have negative influence to the indoor air. The section consists of seven species according to the last taxonomic revision from 2008 based only on molecular data. It currently consists of six asexual and one homothalic species. 126 isolates from the section coming from four continents were studied in this thesis, including ex-type strains. Revision of the section was carried out combining molecular phylogenetic analysis and conventional taxonomic methods. Modern methods of species delimitation based on multispecies coalescent model were used for the phylogenetic reconstruction. From the conventional methods analysis of morphology (macro- and micromorphology including scanning electron microscopy) and physiology (ability of growing in osmotic gradient and several different temperatures) was performed. Apart from the seven known species, eight new undescribed species were discovered. Majority of the new species belongs to the Aspergillus penicillioides species complex. Key words: Aspergillus restrictus, osmophilic fungi, species...

This study is part of the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative (STI) - one of the most ambitious all taxa biodiversity inventories in the world. One of the pillars in STI is to support taxonomic research on the most neglected taxonomic groups with the aim to lift the level of knowledge of biodiversity in the country. There is still a lot to be discovered, especially in the microscopic world, and this includes mites. Many aspects of mite biology and diversity are poorly known, such as species richness, abundance, distribution, lifestyle and behavior of species. Mites inhabits all sorts of aquatic, terrestrial, arboreal and parasitic habitats, nevertheless even in well-studied systems mites are often overlooked. Despite being among the smallest of arthropods, they are of medical and economical importance and may be very abundant in the ecosystems they inhabit. This thesis focuses on Parasitengona (Acariformes: Prostigmata), one of the most diverse taxa among the arachnids. It includes the aquatic Hydrachnidia (water mites) and the terrestrial Trombidia (e.g. velvet mites, chiggers). A unifying characteristic of Parasitengona is their complex life cycle of active and inactive stages, parasitic larvae and predatory deutonymphs and adults. They typically parasitize and prey on arthropods, except the chiggers which have vertebrates as hosts. The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the phylogeny and taxonomy of Parasitengona with emphasis on the Swedish fauna. To achieve this, mites were collected from different localities throughout the country between the years 2007-2016. Water mites were sampled with a hand net. Larvae of terrestrial Parasitengona were collected with sweeping nets and sorted out from malaise trap samples from the Swedish Malaise Trap Project. To collect the adults Berlese-Tullgren extractor and pitfall traps were used as well as hand collecting and sifting with litter reducer. The material collected abroad was kindly provided through collaboration.  Methods used in the papers included morphometrics, multivariate analyses, experimental rearing, DNA extraction and sequencing, Bayesian phylogenetic analyses and molecular species delimitation. In paper I and II, we combine molecular species delimitation models and morphological data to resolve taxonomical issues. This integrative taxonomic approach of combining data resulted in Piona dispersa Sokolow, 1926 as a valid species and redescriptions, new synonyms and neotypes provided for Erythraeus phalangoides (De Geer, 1778),  E. cinereus (Dugès, 1834) and E. regalis (C.L. Koch, 1837). Based on the new inventories we produce an updated and annotated checklist of 105 terrestrial Parasitengona species for Fennoscandia in paper III, and use metadata to increase the knowledge on distribution, habitat preferences, life stages and abundance. Out of these, 20 species are new findings for the region and five are potential new species for science. In paper IV, we provide a molecular phylogeny of Parasitengona based on the genes 18S, 28S and COI for 80 taxa with a sampling focus on the terrestrial lineages. Based on the results we offer a revised higher-level classification of the group. In particular the analyses supported Tanaupodoidea Thor, 1935 as a separate superfamily, but Trombiculoidea Ewing, 1929 was not monophyletic and was synonymized, along with Chyzerioidea Womersley, 1954, with Trombidioidea Leach, 1815. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

A Amazônia inclui uma grande proporção da biodiversidade encontrada atualmente na Terra. Apesar disso, nosso conhecimento sobre a biodiversidade Amazônica ainda é limitado, dificultando nosso entendimento dos padrões de diversidade nesta região. Entender os processos que levaram à diversidade encontrada na Amazônia representa um grande desafio para a biologia evolutiva. Este estudo foca em Pachyptera (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae), um pequeno gênero de lianas neotropicais, centrado na Amazônia. Pachyptera tem uma história taxonômica complicada, incluindo problemas na circunscrição genérica e específica. Este estudo visa: (i) reconstruir o parentesco filogenético entre espécies do gênero, (ii) produzir uma revisão taxonômica, incluindo nova circunscrição genérica e específica, (iii) entender a história biogeográfica do grupo e, (iv) desenvolver marcadores microssatélites (SSRs) para futuros estudos filogeográficos. Em primeiro lugar, reconstruímos a filogenia do gênero usando uma ampla amostragem de taxa e uma combinação de marcadores de cpDNA (ndhF and rpl32-trnL) e nDNA (PepC). Em segundo lugar, analisamos a filogenia de Pachyptera utilizando análises de coalescência (GMYC e *BEAST) e morfologia para esclarecer limites específicos dentro do complexo P. kerere. Em terceiro lugar, produzimos uma filogenia datada de Pachyptera, a qual foi utilizada como base para reconstruir a história biogeográfica do gênero utilizando BSSVS e RASP. Por fim, desenvolvemos SSRs utilizando sequenciamento de próxima geração, os quais serão utilizados para guiar estudos filogeográficos futuros com o grupo. Nosso estudo indica que P. ventricosa é mais proximamente relacionada à Mansoa do que Pachyptera, levando ao reestabelecimento de M. ventricosa. Além disso, nossos estudos moleculares e morfológicos sustentam o reconhecimento de P. kerere var. incarnata como uma espécie separada e a descrição de uma espécie nova (P. linearis). Desta forma, reconhecemos um gênero com cinco espécies: (i) P. aromatica, (ii) P. erythraea, (iii) P. incarnata, (iv) P. kerere, e (v) P. linearis. Estas espécies são tratadas em uma revisão taxonômica do gênero. As análises biogeográficas indicam que Pachyptera surgiu durante o Eoceno Tardio, e diversificou durante o Mioceno, um período de intensas perturbações provocadas na América do Sul (i.e., soerguimento dos Andes, eventos de incursões marinhas, e formação de sistemas florestais secos e úmidos). Vinte-e-um SSRs foram desenvolvidos para Pachptera e servirão como base para estudos filogeográficos futuros com este grupo. Esta dissertação faz parte de um projeto multi-disciplinar que visa compreender a evolução da biota amazônica e seu ambiente (FAPESP 2012/50260-6) / The Amazon houses a large proportion of the overall biodiversity currently available on Earth. Despite that, our knowledge of Amazonian biodiversity is still limited, complicating our understanding of diversity patterns within this region. Understanding the drivers of Amazonian biodiversity represents a major challenge in evolutionary biology. This study focuses on Pachyptera (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae), a small genus of neotropical lianas centered in the Amazon. Pachyptera has a complicated taxonomic history, including problematic generic and species circumscriptions. This study aims to: (i) reconstruct phylogenetic relationships among species of the genus (ii) produce a taxonomic revision, including clear generic and species circumscriptions, (iii) understand the biogeographic history of the group, and (iv) develop microsatellite markers (SSRs) for future phylogeographic and population genetic studies. First, we inferred phylogenetic relationships within a broad sampling of taxa and a combination of cpDNA (ndhF and rpl32-trnL) and nuclear (PepC) markers. Second, we analyzed the phylogeny of Pachyptera using coalescent approaches (GMYC and *BEAST) and morphology to clarify species limits within the P. kerere species complex. Third, we produced a time-calibrated phylogeny of Pachyptera that was used as basis to reconstruct the biogeographical history of the genus using BSSVS and RASP. Lastly, we developed SSRs using next-generation sequencing (NGS) that will be used to guide future phylogeographic studies within this group. Our study indicates that P. ventricosa is more closely related to Mansoa than Pachyptera, leading to the reestablishment of Mansoa vetricosa. Furthermore, our molecular and morphological analyses support the recognition of P. kerere var. incarnata as a separate species, and the description of a new taxon (P. linearis). As such, we here recognize a genus with five species: (i) P. aromatica, (ii) P. erythraea, (iii) P. incarnata, (iv) P. kerere, and (v) P. linearis. These species are treated in a taxonomic revision of Pachyptera. The biogeographical analyses indicate that Pachyptera originated during the Late Eocene, and diversified during the Miocene, a time of intense perturbations in South America (e.g., uplift of the Andes, marine incursions, and formation of dry and wetland systems). Twenty-one SSRs were developed for P. kerere and will serve as basis for future phylogeographic studies. This dissertation is part of a multidisciplinary project that aims to understand the evolution of the Amazonian biota and its environment (FAPESP 2012/50260-6)