The Intermountain West is comprised of impressive land formations, numerous ecoregions, and a unique biota. The area has many flora and fauna that have been investigated, but the region is generally considered undersampled when it comes to insects. However, I propose the matter to be a lack of shared experience in identifying key insect species and the underutilization of professional and personal collections. These impediments are highlighted by two insect groups in the Intermountain West: spongillaflies and tiger moths.Spongillaflies can be difficult to recognize for the general entomologist and have rarely been recorded in the Intermountain West. My colleagues and I recently discovered a large population of spongillaflies in Utah that we present as a substantial additional record. I also followed the population throughout the 2016 field season to make natural history observations. I identified the spongillaflies to be Climacia californica and their associated host to be Ephydatia fluviatilis. During the season, a total of 1,731 specimens were collected, light traps were the most effective sampling technique and the population had one mass emergence event. I hope my work and figures will help investigators as they continue to search the area for spongillaflies. Tiger moths on the other hand have largely been collected in the Intermountain West and are easily recognized, generally being brightly colored. Because of these bright colors, they attract collectors and have been sampled heavily throughout the Intermountain West. However, until now, these records have not been utilized and tucked away in collections. We took the vast amount of records and used them to create predicted models of biogeography for each tiger moth species in the area. We successfully created species level ecological niche models (ENM) analyzing environmental variables such as temperature, precipitation, elevation, and vegetation. Overall, I found tiger moths can be collected almost everywhere and during each month of the year with 93 different species scattered across the region. I anticipate our ENM models to help researchers locate tiger moths of interest to investigate within the Intermountain West.During my studies, I investigated in detail the lichen feeding tiger moths (Lithosiini). Many tiger moths eat toxic plants, but only a few in the area consume lichen, an unusual host because of their secondary defensive chemicals. I investigated how these chemicals impacted Cisthene angelus caterpillars host selection by simultaneously offering them various lichens with differing chemistries. I expected these caterpillars to avoid usnic acid as it deterred other lichen feeding tiger moths. However, these caterpillars surprised me by consistently consuming the acid and being largely polyphagous. Our future work will be directed at how caterpillars balance nutritional needs and the chemicals they sequester.

The Intermountain West is comprised of impressive land formations, numerous ecoregions, and a unique biota. The area has many flora and fauna that have been investigated, but the region is generally considered undersampled when it comes to insects. However, I propose the matter to be a lack of shared experience in identifying key insect species and the underutilization of professional and personal collections. These impediments are highlighted by two insect groups in the Intermountain West: spongillaflies and tiger moths. Spongillaflies can be difficult to recognize for the general entomologist and have rarely been recorded in the Intermountain West. My colleagues and I recently discovered a large population of spongillaflies in Utah that we present as a substantial additional record. I also followed the population throughout the 2016 field season to make natural history observations. I identified the spongillaflies to be Climacia californica and their associated host to be Ephydatia fluviatilis. During the season, a total of 1,731 specimens were collected, light traps were the most effective sampling technique and the population had one mass emergence event. I hope my work and figures will help investigators as they continue to search the area for spongillaflies. Tiger moths on the other hand have largely been collected in the Intermountain West and are easily recognized, generally being brightly colored. Because of these bright colors, they attract collectors and have been sampled heavily throughout the Intermountain West. However, until now, these records have not been utilized and tucked away in collections. We took the vast amount of records and used them to create predicted models of biogeography for each tiger moth species in the area. We successfully created species level ecological niche models (ENM) analyzing environmental variables such as temperature, precipitation, elevation, and vegetation. Overall, I found tiger moths can be collected almost everywhere and during each month of the year with 93 different species scattered across the region. I anticipate our ENM models to help researchers locate tiger moths of interest to investigate within the Intermountain West. During my studies, I investigated in detail the lichen feeding tiger moths (Lithosiini). Many tiger moths eat toxic plants, but only a few in the area consume lichen, an unusual host because of their secondary defensive chemicals. I investigated how these chemicals impacted Cisthene angelus caterpillars host selection by simultaneously offering them various lichens with differing chemistries. I expected these caterpillars to avoid usnic acid as it deterred other lichen feeding tiger moths. However, these caterpillars surprised me by consistently consuming the acid and being largely polyphagous. Our future work will be directed at how caterpillars balance nutritional needs and the chemicals they sequester.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-22T22:14:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO-ALEXANDRE.PDF: 10763079 bytes, checksum: 1fa828c53b0ab96a7d096e8f63ec9af0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-10-15 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas / Sponges are filters animals fixed in stones submerged and/or on branches of trees in places of periodical floods. The freshwater poriferans, known in the Amazon region as cauixi, cauxi or cauí, are reported from the beginning of the twentieth century as causing of dermatosis. Differently from marine sponges, which are studied in a such relation to their biological properties, the chemistry of sponges freshwater in the Amazon region, are not known, this way this gap still open to research. With the objective to define which part of the poriferan is causing the dermatological reaction, it was done an experimental study using three forms of tillage freshwater sponges (sponges undamaged, macerated and the isolated spikes). To perform the experiment was used the freshwater Sponge Drulia uruguayensis. The experiment was divided in two stages: The first one, was to determined the kinetics of dermatosis caused by sponge (using a macerating sponge), obtaining as control, a hypoallergenic microporous plaster; as second action, were tested the other two forms of process: full sponge and isolated spikes using the schedules 2, 4 and 12 hours came from kinetics. The cells of common action in an inflammatory reaction (mast cells, eosinophils, neutrophils) more intra-epithelial lymphocytes and degranulated mastocytes, were counted, to serve as a parameter, in order to determine which of the forms of trim induced a higher reaction of sponges. Histopathological studies evaluated the effects of the sponge in the tegument. The results obtained by ANOVA, showed that the full sponge caused more inflammatory reaction (p = 0.000005) stimulating mainly, the mastocytes (p = 0.0018). The Histopathological analysis showed small loss of continuity of the epidermis in applications with isolated spikes and full sponge, and streamlining in the application with macerating sponge besides the mild thickening on the epidermis in the plaster control. These studies allow to deduce that, in a first contact, a full structurally sponge, may cause major inflammatory reaction by its capacity to cause drilling in the skin and allowing the entrance of inflammatory agents. The macerating sponge, does not achieve bore the tegument, caused streamlining of the epidermis with lower inflammatory reaction, possibly by containing rigid fragments and possible by unknow chemical process. The isolated spikes, cleaned and autoclaved, do not cause dermal reaction resulting the activity in a restricted mechanical action. The studies suggests the using of undamaged sponges, cleaned and autoclaved to verify the maintenance of the capacity to induce dermatosis, beyond the use of the other parts of sponges to verify the participation of these components in the inflammatory reaction. / Esponjas são animais filtradores, fixados em pedras submersas e/ou galhos de árvores em locais de enchentes periódicas. As poríferas de água doce, conhecidas na região Amazônica como cauixi, cauxi ou cauí, são relatadas desde o início do século XX como causadoras de dermatose. Diferentemente das esponjas marinhas, que são estudadas de forma corrente em relação às suas propriedades biológicas, a química das esponjas dulciaqüícolas, na Amazônia, não é conhecida, permanecendo aberta esta lacuna. Com o objetivo de determinar a parte da porífera que provoca a reação dermatológica, foi realizado um estudo experimental utilizando três formas de preparo de esponjas de água doce (esponjas íntegras, maceradas e suas espículas isoladas). Para o experimento foi utilizada a esponja dulciaqüícola Drulia uruguayensis. O experimento foi dividido em duas fases: primeiro, foi determinada a cinética da dermatose causada pela esponja (utilizando a esponja macerada), tendo, como controle, esparadrapo microporoso hipoalérgico; e segundo, foram testados as outras duas formas de preparo: esponja íntegra e espículas isoladas, utilizando os horários de 2, 4 e 12 horas, provenientes da cinética. As células de ação comum em uma reação inflamatória (mastócitos, eosinófilos, neutrófilos) mais linfócitos intra-epiteliais e mastócitos degranulados, foram contados, para servir de parâmetro, a fim de determinar qual das formas de preparo das esponjas induziu maior reação. Estudo histopatológico avaliou os efeitos da esponja no tegumento. Os resultados obtidos, utilizando ANOVA fatorial, mostraram que a esponja íntegra provocou maior reação inflamatória (p = 0,000005) ativando, principalmente, mastócitos (p = 0,0018). A análise histopatológica mostrou pequena perda de continuidade da epiderme nas aplicações com espículas isoladas e esponja íntegra, e adelgaçamento na aplicação com esponja macerada, além de leve espessamento da epiderme no controle-esparadrapo. Esses achados permitem deduzir que, em um primeiro contato, a esponja estruturalmente íntegra, pode causar maior reação inflamatória pela sua capacidade de causar perfurações na pele e permitir a entrada de agentes inflamatórios. A esponja macerada, por não conseguir perfurar o tegumento, provocou adelgaçamento da epiderme com menor reação inflamatória, possivelmente por conter fragmentos rígidos e possíveis químicos não conhecidos. As espículas isoladas, limpas e autoclavadas, não causam reação dérmica, ficando seu papel restrito à ação mecânica. O estudo sugere o uso de esponjas íntegras, limpas e autoclavadas, para verificar a manutenção da capacidade de induzir dermatose. Além do uso dos outros componentes da esponja para verificar a participação destes na reação inflamatória.