Concerns about global biodiversity are rising dramatically, yet we are lagging behind in the most basic prerequisite for its understanding and conservation: the inventory. Insect species may make up five or ten times the number of all other plant and animal species combined, and as such they represent one of the major challenges in biosystematic science. World Catalogue of Insects is an initiative aiming at compiling worldscale, authoritative catalogues of monophyletic insect taxa. Volumes in this series contain standard nomenclatoral information on all names pertaining to the taxon treated, including type locality and distribution to the extent this is relevant. Additional information is optional, e.g., location, status and condition of types; biology; bibliographical information; pest status; vector status; etc. This volume nine focuses on Drosophilidae (Diptera). (Series: World Catalogue of Insects)

It is not often that one has the opportunity to send a public birthday greet ing to a friend and colleague of many years, and to congratulate him on having reached the age of reason. In fact it happens only once, and comes then as a surprise. Surely it was only a few years ago that we sat together at an International Genetics Congress in Ithaca, and only yesterday that we became members of the same department. The eighth floor of Schermerhorn Hall had a north end where the flies were and a south end furnished with mice, and in between, a seminar room and laboratory. There the distances were short and the doors open and the coffee pot busy. But it now appears that yesterday has fallen thirty years behind and that we have grown up. I find it interesting and appropriate that Dobzhansky's lifetime spans the period of maturation of the fields to which this volume is devoted. This is true in a chronological sense for his birth occurred in the same year, 1900, in which modern genetics began. The rediscovery of Mendel's princi ples and the interpretation of the nature of heredity and variation to which this event led were necessary prerequisites to the development of evolution ary biology as presented in this collection of essays.

This book focuses on drosophila as an especially useful model organism for exploring questions of evolutionary biology in the full range of evolutionary studies: population genetics, ecology, ecological genetics, speciation, phylogenetics, genome evolution, molecular evolution, and development. The author presents an integrated view of evolutionary biology as elucidated in this single organism. Special effort is made to point out holes in our knowledge and areas particularly ripe for new investigation.

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are among the most destructive agricultural pests in the world, eating their way through acres and acres of citrus and other fruits at an alarming rate and forcing food and agriculture agencies to spend millions of dollars in control and management measures. But until now, the study of fruit flies has been traditionally biased towards applied aspects (e.g., management, monitoring, and mass rearing)-understandable, given the tremendous economic impact of this species. This work is the first that comprehensively addresses the study of the phylogeny and the evolution of fruit fly behavior. An international group of highly renowned scientists review the current state of knowledge and include considerable new findings on various aspects of fruit fly behavior, phylogeny and related subjects. In the past, the topics of phylogeny and evolution of behavior were barely addressed, and when so, often superficially. Fruit Flies (Tephritidae): Phylogeny and Evolution of Behavior is a definitive treatment, covering all behaviors in a broad range of tephritids. This volume is divided into eight sections:

1 On Some Fundamental Concepts of Darwinian Biology.- Vitalism, Mechanism, and Compositionism.- Adaptedness and Adaptation.- Adaptedness to Survive and to Reproduce.- Adaptability.- Evolutionary Plasticity.- The Problem of Quantification of Adaptedness.- Darwinian Fitness.- Varieties of Natural Selection.- Darwinian Fitness and Adaptedness.- Evolutionary Opportunism and Adaptive Radiation.- Progressive Evolution.- References.- 2 Cave Ecology and the Evolution of Troglobites.- Animal Life in Caves.- The Cave Ecosystem.- Regressive Evolution in Cave Animals.- Speciation and Adaptation in Troglob.

Anyone wishing to tap the research potential of the hundreds of Drosophila species in addition to D.melanogaster will finally have a single comprehensive resource for identifying, rearing and using this diverse group of insects. This is the only group of higher eukaryotes for which the genomes of 12 species have been sequenced.The fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster continues to be one of the greatest sources of information regarding the principles of heredity that apply to all animals, including humans. In reality, however, over a thousand different species of Drosophila exist, each with the potential to make their own unique contributions to the rapidly changing fields of genetics and evolution. This book, by providing basic information on how to identify and breed these other fruitflies, will allow investigators to take advantage, on a large scale, of the valuable qualities of these other Drosophila species and their newly developed genomic resources to address critical scientific questions.* Provides easy to use keys and illustrations to identify different Drosophila species* A guide to the life history differences of hundreds of species* Worldwide distribution maps of hundreds of species* Complete recipes for different Drosophila diets* Offers an analysis on how to account for species differences in designing and conducting experiments* Presents useful ideas of how to collect the many different Drosophila species in the wild

Evolutionary Biology, of which this is the eighteenth volume, con tinues to offer its readers a wide range of original articles, reviews, and commentaries on evolution, in the bro~dest sense of that term. The topics of the reviews range from anthropology and behavior to molecular biology and systematics. In recent volumes, a broad spectrum of articles have appeared on such subjects as natural selection among replicating molecules in vitro, mate recognition and the reproductive behavior of Drosophila, molecular systematics ofCrocodilia, evolution of the monocotyledons, and the com munication network made possible among even distantly related genera of bacteria by plasmids and other transposable elements. Articles such as these, often too long for standard journals , are the stuff of Evolutionary Biology. The editors continue to solicit manuscripts on an international scale in an effort to see that everyone of the many facets of biological evolution is covered. Manuscripts should be sent to anyone of the following: Max K. Hecht, Department of Biology, Queens College of the City University of New York, Flushing, New York 11367; Bruce Wallace, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacks burg, Virginia 24061; Ghillian T. Prance, New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York 10458.