New click beetle species named after Dominican Republic’s Indigenous Arawak people

Pensoft Publishers

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Lissomus arawak, dorsal habitus. 

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Credit: Image by J. Pirkl, 2025.

A new species of click beetle with a glossy and highly domed black body has been described from cloud forest sites in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, and named in honour of the Arawak peoples who lived on the island before European colonisation.

Lissomus arawak measures under a centimetre long and is easily recognised by its shining and almost hairless black body, alongside its pale-yellow antennae segments. It is only the third species of the genus Lissomus known from Hispaniola, and the third recorded anywhere in the Greater Antilles.

The study, published in the open-access journal Alpine Entomology, was carried out by Paul J. Johnson of South Dakota State University and Jiri Hodecek of the Swiss Human Institute of Forensic Taphonomy, as part of an ongoing survey of Dominican insect life. Specimens were found at three sites in montane broadleaf and cloud forest between roughly 600 and 700 metres, near the Sierra de Bahoruco and in the Cordillera Septentrional.

Rather than resembling the two other Lissomus species already known from Hispaniola, the new beetle turned out to be structurally closer to species from Central and northern South America.

“The morphological differences suggest that the Lissomus species of Hispaniola may not all descend from a single colonisation event,” the researchers explained. “One possible explanation is therefore that ancestors of these beetles reached the Greater Antilles on at least two separate occasions.” They caution, however, that “this remains a testable hypothesis rather than a demonstrated evolutionary history,” pending a fuller phylogenetic analysis.

The species is known from just five specimens, collected individually between 1985 and 2024, all of them female. “With such a small sample, chance and the opportunistic nature of the collecting are probably the simplest explanations,” the researchers said, adding that this “does not seriously weaken our confidence that L. arawak is distinct. All five females share a consistent and unique combination of morphological characters.”

The name is a deliberate tribute to the island’s first inhabitants. “We chose the name arawak to recognise the Indigenous history and continuing cultural heritage of the Antilles,” the researchers said. “We wanted the name of this distinctive endemic species to connect the biological history of the island with its human history.”

The discovery forms part of a wider effort, they added, “to document the island’s still incompletely known insect diversity,” with at least 15 further click beetle species thought to await description in the Dominican Republic alone.

The discovery forms part of EntomoDR, a long-term field and taxonomy project documenting the still incompletely known insect diversity of the Dominican Republic through repeated expeditions and collaboration with an international network of taxonomic specialists. More information about the project and its discoveries is available at https://entomodr.com

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Journal

Alpine Entomology

DOI

10.3897/alpento.10.193434

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Lissomus arawak sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Elateridae), a new species from the Dominican Republic

Lissomus arawak, ventral habitus.

Lissomus arawak, lateral habitus. 

Credit

Image by J. Pirkl, 2025.

Type locality of Lissomus arawak in Pedernales province (el. 700 m).

Credit

Paul J. Johnson et al., 2026.

 

Women leave psychological research more often than men

Global analysis of more than 78,000 career paths in psychology

Max Planck Institute for Human Development

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Publication output: Early first-authorship in particular increases the likelihood of remaining academically active on the long term.

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Credit: MPI for Human Development

Today, women are more likely than men to begin an academic career in psychology. Nevertheless, they leave research substantially more often, particularly during the first years after entering the field. This is the finding of an international study by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. The analysis of more than 78,000 academic career trajectories suggests that it is not access to academia, but long-term retention that poses the greater challenge for women. 

Unlike in many science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, women have for years constituted the majority of early-career researchers in psychology. Nevertheless, they remain significantly underrepresented in professorships and other senior positions. The new study is the first to investigate, through a global longitudinal analysis, when these differences emerge over the course of academic careers. 

“In psychology, women are well represented among doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, but far fewer reach the highest career levels,” says lead author Xinyi Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. “We wanted to understand when women are more likely to leave academia and which factors are associated with this pattern.” 

Higher exit rates early in the career  

For the study, the research team analyzed the publication histories of 78,216 psychologists worldwide who began their academic careers between 2000 and 2014. The analysis was based on the Scopus database. Scientific publication activity served as an indicator of an active research career. Researchers who had not published any scientific work for at least five years were considered to have left active research. 

The analysis first confirms a well-known trend: More than 60 percent of new entrants into psychological research are now women. Yet, on average, women remain scientifically active for a shorter period than men. 

The largest differences appear between the fourth and sixth year after a researcher’s first scientific publication. During this period, the risk of leaving research rises substantially overall—but more sharply for women than for men. The gender gap is most pronounced about five years after the start of a research career. 

By the 13th year of their careers, around half of female researchers had stopped publishing. Among men, this point was not reached until about five years later. 

Publication output alone does not explain the gender gap  

To investigate possible causes, the research team considered a range of factors, including publication output, citations, collaboration networks, and institutional characteristics such as the scientific reputation of the researcher’s institution. 

The strongest predictor of long-term retention in research was early publication output. In particular, a high number of first-authored papers—publications for which researchers carry primary responsibility—was associated with a higher likelihood of remaining scientifically active. In later career stages, the number of last-authored papers, as an indicator of scientific independence and leadership responsibility, became more important. Collaboration networks and institutional conditions were also associated with retention, but these relationships were considerably smaller. 

Even after these factors were taken into account, women remained more likely than men to leave research. The difference was especially pronounced during the early years of academic careers. 

“Our findings should not be interpreted as reflecting differences in scientific potential,” says Zhao. “Rather, they suggest that structural conditions and challenges during certain stages of life influence the career paths of female and male researchers differently.” 

Indications of structural causes 

Why women are more likely to leave research cannot be established from the available data. Information on starting a family, caregiving responsibilities, or individual career decisions was not available for the analysis. 

However, another recent study led by Zhao provides some clues. It drew on a survey of more than 8,000 researchers with children from 119 countries. The results show that early parenthood is associated with greater career disruption for women than for men. Women are more likely to postpone starting a family until after completing their PhD. When parenthood occurs during the doctoral phase, their chances of completing a doctorate, achieving high scientific visibility, and remaining in research on the long term are lower. 

“The two studies complement each other,” says Zhao. “Our current work shows when women are more likely to leave research. The survey findings suggest that the challenges of balancing an academic career with starting a family may be an important part of the explanation.” 

The research team concludes that science policy should place greater emphasis on the early career phase. Mentoring programs, transparent evaluation procedures, and better conditions for balancing research and family responsibilities could help retain more women in academia on the long term. 

The findings draw attention to a previously underexamined aspect of gender equality in academia: While discussions often focus on women’s access to academic careers, the analysis suggests that the decisive barriers emerge later. In follow-up studies, the researchers plan to survey scientists around the world, asking directly about their career decisions and experiences. 

At a glance: 

• 78,216 career trajectories analyzed: The study examines the academic careers of psychologists worldwide who began publishing between 2000 and 2014. 

• Women are well represented at entry into the field: Women account for more than 60 percent of new entrants into psychological research. 

• Early career phase is decisive: The greatest differences in retention in research become apparent about five years after the first academic publication. 

• Publication output is important: Early first-authorship in particular increases the likelihood of remaining academically active on the long term. 

• Gender gap persists: Even when publication output, collaboration networks, and institutional conditions are comparable, women are more likely to leave research than men. 

• Structural factors likely: The results suggest that other factors—such as starting a family or institutional conditions—influence the career trajectories of female and male researchers differently. 

Original publications: 
Zhao, X., Thoma, A. I., Hertwig, R., & Wulff, D. U. (2026). Mapping the gender attrition gap in academic psychology. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001778  
 
Zhao, X., Derrick, G. E., Sugimoto, C. R., & Larivière, V. (2026). Starting a PhD and becoming a parent: Gendered life-course trajectories in academic careers. Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-026-01668-4 

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Journal

American Psychologist

DOI

10.1037/amp0001778

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Mapping the Gender Attrition Gap in Academic Psychology

 

A swarm is more than the sum of its parts

A study involving genetically identical fish reveals the principles of group behavior

Technische Universität Berlin – Science of Intelligence

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Amazon mollies, a clonal species 

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Credit: © David Bierbach

Schooling fish have long fascinated us with their mesmerizing collective movements and seemingly perfect coordination. But a new study on clonal mollies suggests that this behavior is not innate. During their first days of life, the fish still display distinct individual behaviors, and it is only around one month of age that they begin to form cohesive shoals, developing the coordinated movements characteristic of the group. However, several shoals of genetically identical clones begin to behave differently after a few weeks. The study was conducted by the Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence (SCIoI)’, the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and UC Davis and published in Current Biology.

In the study, the research team analyzed the behavior of the Amazon molly (Poecilia formosa), a naturally clonal fish. Because these fish share an identical genetic heritage, they provide a unique opportunity to study how behavior develops. Using video recordings the scientists observed ten groups of four siblings over 55 days. All the fish were reared together from birth under identical environmental conditions. Despite this standardization, significant differences in behavior developed between the groups.

 “A swarm is more than the sum of its parts. This study of clonal fish shows that social experiences during development play a key role in the emergence of group behavior,” said Dr. David Bierbach, author of the study from the Cluster of Excellence “Science of Intelligence”.

The fish become more social as the grow

The young mollies did not immediately behave like they typically do in the cohesive groups consisting of older fish. During the first two weeks of life, the distance between group members was largely what would be expected if the fish were moving independently. From around three weeks onwards, however, the fish increasingly began to stay together, with particularly pronounced changes beginning around day 30. Their movements also became more correlated, indicating that individuals were increasingly responding to one another. This gradual convergence suggests that social interactions become more important with age.

Differences between the groups emerge very early

The researchers observed clear differences between the groups from the very first day of life. This was the case even though the fish were genetically identical within each group and were raised under standardized environmental conditions. For some behaviors, these differences were relatively stable. Mean swimming speed (i.e. how fast a fish swims on average over a certain distance or period of time) and distance from the center of the tank, for example, showed fairly consistent differences between groups over development.

Group behavior is not simply the average of individual behaviors

The researchers wanted to find out whether the shoal’s behavior remained consistent over time. And indeed, it did not: The collective phenotype (i.e. the observable characteristics of the group’s behavior) during its first five days was very different from that during the final five days of the experiment: in other words, the group’s behavior had changed significantly over the first weeks of the mollies’ lives. What makes this sound like a paradox is that individual Amazon mollies are known to maintain consistent behavioral differences over time. If group behavior were simply the average of the behavioral tendencies of its members, one would expect those differences to remain relatively stable as well. Instead, researchers observed that social behavior changed in ways that could not be explained by the individuals alone. This suggests that interactions between the fish play an active role in shaping the behavior of the group, allowing a collective phenotype to emerge and change over time.

Social interactions may change the trajectory of a group

One possible explanation is that social interactions become increasingly important as the fish mature. Early in life, when the fish show little social attraction, differences between groups may largely reflect differences that already exist between their individual members. As the fish become more socially responsive, interactions among group members can feed back on individual behavior. One fish changes its movement, another responds, and that response in turn influences the others. Such interactions can reinforce existing differences, reduce them or move groups onto different behavioral trajectories. The study cannot directly identify which specific social interactions generate which trajectories. It does, however, show that group-level differences become less predictable during the period in which social responsiveness change rapidly, i.e. in the first stages of life. The authors therefore suggest that increasing social feedback may contribute to the divergence of group phenotypes during development.

“The findings add another layer to our understanding of individual differences and collective behavior. Animal groups are often treated as relatively stable entities, with characteristic patterns of movement or social organization. But the results from the Amazon mollies suggest that these group-level characteristics can change substantially during development,” said David Bierbach.

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A deeper look at the scientific approach

Understanding how group-level differences arise is a longstanding problem in the study of collective behavior. Groups are normally composed of different individuals and experience different environments, making it difficult to determine whether a group behaves differently because of the individuals it contains or because of interactions among its members. Being naturally clonal (i.e. consisting of genetically identical individuals throughout the entire species), the Amazon molly provides a particularly useful system for addressing this question. Previous work has shown that individual Amazon mollies can nevertheless develop consistent differences in behavior, even when raised under similar conditions.

The researchers therefore turned the logic around: instead of asking how genetically different individuals contribute to collective behavior, they asked what happens when genetically identical individuals are placed together in different groups. Automated video tracking recorded the position of the fish throughout daylight hours, providing a detailed picture of how each group's behavior changed during development. This “Big Brother Setup” allowed the researchers to follow groups from the moment they formed rather than studying groups that had already developed over weeks.

 

AT A GLANCE

• Using video recordings, researchers from Cluster of Excellence ‘Science of Intelligence (SCIoI)’, the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, and UC Davis observed ten groups of four Amazon molly siblings over 55 days.
• Amazon mollies are a clonal species, meaning that all individuals are genetically identical.
• The researchers observed that the young Amazon mollies do not immediately form coordinated groups. During their first weeks of life, they mostly move independently, and increasingly stay close together from three weeks of age.
• Even though the fish were genetically identical and raised under the same conditions, clear differences between groups appeared from the very beginning and developed further over time.
• Around day 30 the fish become more responsive to one another, suggesting that interactions with their peers play an important role in the development of coordinated group behavior.
• The study suggests that interactions between fish can actively shape how a group develops, and that group behavior is more than the sum of individual behaviors.

 

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2026.08.073

Article Title

Group-level phenotypes are idiosyncratic yet unpredictable over development in a clonal fish

 

Fine-tuning cobalt for cleaner chemical transformations

Controlling cobalt’s oxidation state during electrolysis enables highly selective hydrogenation without relying on scarce precious metals

Yokohama National University

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A carbon-supported cobalt catalyst dynamically balances metallic Co and residual CoOx under electrolysis conditions, enabling selective hydrogenation of nitrogen-containing aromatic compounds using water as the hydrogen source. Controlling this mixed cobalt state provides an earth-abundant alternative to platinum-group-metal catalysts.

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Credit: YOKOHAMA National University

Finding alternatives to precious metals in chemical manufacturing may be less like sourcing a substitute and more like tuning an instrument already in hand.

YOKOHAMA National University scientists have found that an earth-abundant cobalt catalyst can selectively hydrogenate nitrogen-containing compounds when the balance between metallic cobalt and cobalt oxide is carefully tuned. Their findings could allow for more sustainable approaches to chemical manufacturing that do not depend on the use of very valuable, very rare metals.

The study will be published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on September 29.

From medicines to plastics, many products we rely on every day begin with chemical transformations that require carefully designed catalysts. One important example is hydrogenation, which adds hydrogen to molecules to produce useful chemical compounds.

Conventional hydrogenation commonly relies on hydrogen gas, but electrocatalytic hydrogenation can generate hydrogen equivalents from water using electricity. This offers a potentially more sustainable approach to reductive chemical transformations, particularly when powered by renewable electricity.

This technology, however, has its own shortcomings.

“A major challenge in electrocatalytic hydrogenation is replacing scarce platinum-group metals with earth-abundant catalysts without sacrificing activity or selectivity,” said Mahito Atobe, professor at YOKOHAMA National University’s Faculty of Engineering and a corresponding author of the study.

In a quest for alternatives, the team turned to cobalt, an abundant and economical metal.

“We wanted to understand how the oxidation state of cobalt changes under operating conditions and whether controlling the balance between metallic cobalt and cobalt oxide could provide an effective catalyst,” said Naoki Shida, associate professor from the same Faculty and co-corresponding author.

The researchers prepared their catalyst from cobalt sulfate and calcined it at 750 °C. They then tested it in an anion-exchange membrane electrolyzer, in which electricity drives hydrogenation reactions.

The optimized catalyst converted pyridine to piperidine with a yield of more than 99% under ambient electrolysis conditions. In other words, almost all of the pyridine that reacted was converted into the desired product rather than unwanted byproducts. Piperidine is an important building block in synthetic and medicinal chemistry, making this reaction a useful test of the catalyst’s ability to carry out selective hydrogenation.

Such performance, however, is not always guaranteed.

“We found that the catalytic performance of cobalt is determined not simply by its elemental composition, but by its dynamic oxidation state during electrolysis,” Atobe said.

During electrolysis, cobalt can shift between metallic Co(0) and cobalt oxide, CoOx. The researchers found that catalysts containing too much of either form were less active. Instead, the best performance came from an intermediate Co(0)/CoOx ratio.

To understand why, the team combined experimental characterization with in situ X-ray spectroscopy and theoretical calculations. The results suggest that the coexistence of metallic Co and residual CoOx creates a favorable environment for pyridine adsorption and hydrogenation.

“Maintaining an appropriate balance between metallic Co and residual CoOx enables highly selective hydrogenation,” Atobe said.

The catalyst also selectively hydrogenated a broad range of nitrogen-containing compounds, including pyridines, quinolines, pyrazines, nitriles and nitroarenes. It also suppressed undesired hydrogenation pathways that are observed with rarer rhodium-based catalysts.

The researchers then addressed a practical challenge: prolonged electrolysis can over-reduce the catalyst, pushing it away from its optimal state. The team introduced intermittent electrolysis to help maintain the appropriate Co(0)/CoOx balance. The strategy enabled gram-scale conversion of pyridine to piperidine with an 89% yield while maintaining a stable cell voltage.

The findings highlight a broader principle for catalyst design: controlling a catalyst’s chemical state while it operates can be as important as choosing the catalyst itself.

The team plans to extend this oxidation-state-control strategy to other earth-abundant transition-metal catalysts and a broader range of synthetically important reactions.

“Our ultimate goal is to develop scalable electrochemical processes in which catalyst states can be actively controlled under operating conditions,” Shida said. “This could enable selective chemical manufacturing without relying on scarce precious metals.”

Funding 

• JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP22K14541, JP23H04916 (Green Catalysis Science), JP23K23386, JP23K17370, JP24K01279.
• Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) as a part of PRESTO program (JST Grant No. JPMJPR2373 and JPMJPR2471),
• Adopting Sustainable Partnerships for Innovative Research Ecosystem (ASPIRE), Grant Number JPMJAP2528.

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YOKOHAMA National University (YNU) is a leading research university dedicated to academic excellence and global collaboration. Its faculties and research institutes lead efforts in pioneering new academic fields, advancing research in artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum information, semiconductor innovation, energy, biotechnology, ecosystems, and smart city development. Through interdisciplinary research and international partnerships, YNU drives innovation and contributes to global societal advancement.

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Journal

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.6c12207

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Oxidation-State Control of Cobalt Electrocatalysts Enables Selective Hydrogenation of Nitrogen-Containing Aromatics

 

Chinese mangrove sediments reveal scale-dependent assembly of fungal communities

Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

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The bar chart on the left illustrates the distribution of fungal diversity across depths. On the right, piecewise structural equation model (pSEM) path diagrams depict how multiscale factors influence fungal diversity and community structure.

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Credit: Mycology-An International Journal on Fungal Biology

Mangrove wetlands are unique coastal ecosystems at the tropical and subtropical land-sea interface, characterized by extreme environmental conditions including high salinity, low oxygen, and high organic matter content. Fungi in mangrove sediments contribute to the decomposition of organic matter, particularly lignocellulose, and participate in nutrient cycling. However, despite their ecological importance, the diversity, distribution patterns, and assembly mechanisms of fungal communities in mangrove sediments have remained poorly understood.

A research team led by Dr. Meng Li at the Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, systematically collected 300 sediment samples from seven representative mangrove wetlands across six national nature reserves along the southeastern coast of China. The team employed dual-amplicon high-throughput sequencing, targeting the fungal ITS2 region and the prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene, to simultaneously characterize fungal and prokaryotic communities. Co-occurrence network analysis and piecewise structural equation modeling were applied to examine the relationships among environmental variables, biotic interactions, and fungal community structure.

The sequencing data yielded 14,771 fungal operational taxonomic units spanning 15 phyla, 51 classes, and 594 genera. Approximately one-third of the fungal diversity could not be assigned to known phyla, indicating that mangrove sediments contain a substantial amount of unclassified fungal diversity. In addition, early-diverging fungal lineages such as Rozellomycota and Chytridiomycota were found to be relatively diverse and widely distributed across the sampled sites.

The analysis showed that geographic location had a stronger effect on fungal community composition than mangrove plant identity. Fungal communities clustered primarily by sampling site, and mean annual temperature and dispersal limitation were associated with the observed biogeographic patterns. The patchy distribution of mangrove forests along the coast likely restricts long-distance dispersal of fungi, contributing to differences among wetlands.

At the local scale, salinity and the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio were identified as the main environmental factors associated with fungal community variation. High salinity limits fungal growth to taxa capable of tolerating osmotic stress, while elevated carbon-to-nitrogen ratios reflect an imbalance between carbon availability and nitrogen supply, which may constrain the range of taxa that can persist. Total phosphorus was found to have an indirect positive association with fungal diversity, likely through its influence on nutrient availability and co-occurrence network connectivity.

The co-occurrence network constructed from the most abundant fungal and prokaryotic taxa contained 777 nodes and 3,680 edges, of which 99% were positive correlations. Bacteria and archaea had higher average connectivity than fungi, forming the main structural backbone of the network, while certain fungal nodes occupied central positions that may link fungal and prokaryotic community components. Using piecewise structural equation modeling, the authors integrated these results into a framework describing fungal community assembly across three scales: regional-scale filtering by temperature and dispersal limitation, local-scale filtering by salinity and nutrient conditions, and micro-scale effects of cross-kingdom interactions. The study provides a basis for further research on how fungal communities in coastal sediments may respond to environmental change.

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Journal

Mycology: An International Journal on Fungal Biology

DOI

10.1080/21501203.2026.2728463

Article Title

Diversity, biogeography, and assembly of fungal communities in Chinese mangrove sediments