THE WESTERN PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY, VANESSA CARYE (HUBER, 1812), IN ADDITION TO PRE-SENTING AN EXTENSIVE DISTRIBUTION IN SOUTH AMERICA, HAS BEEN OBSERVED FLYING IN THE CHILEAN ALTI-PLANO FROM THE COAST TO THE HIGHLANDS, FROM 0 TO 5200 M.A.S.L. AND IT IS SUGGESTED THAT COULD BE A MIGRATORY INSECT. SOME ANIMAL SPECIES MOVE FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER BY MIGRATION SEARCHING FOR FAVORABLE CONDITIONS. WINGS OF FLYING MIGRATORY ANIMALS ARE THE PRINCIPAL TRAIT INVOLVED IN MOVE-MENT, AND THEIR SHAPE HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED TO CHANGE BETWEEN MIGRATORY AND NON-MIGRATORY SPECIES OR POPULATIONS. IN THIS SENSE, LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT THE ADAPTATIONS OF BUTTERFLIES TO ELEVATIONAL GRADIENTS, SO THE V. CARYE'S WIDE LATITUDINAL AND ALTITUDINAL RANGE COUPLED WITH THE DIFFERENT CLIMATIC CONDITIONS MAKES THIS SPECIES AN INTERESTING SUBJECT FOR ADAPTATION STUDIES. THIS RESEARCH STUDIES V. CARYE AT DIFFERENT ELEVATIONAL RANGES IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS AT THE CHILEAN ALTIPLANO AND ATACAMA DESERT TO DETERMINE THE PRESENCE OF MORPHOTYPES THROUGH GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRICS ASSOCIATED WITH ALTITUDINAL PATTERNS, AND TO DETERMINE THE GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THIS SPECIES BY USING COI MOLECULAR MARKER. SUBTLE MORPHOMETRIC CHANGES BETWEEN POPULATIONS WERE FOUND, SO TWO MORPHOMETRIC LINEAGES WERE DEFINED: A """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""COASTAL"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" LINEAGE WITH MORE ELONGATED WINGS AND AN """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""ALTIPLANO"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" LINEAGE WITH MORE ROUNDED WINGS. NEVERTHELESS, LOW GENETIC DIVERSITY AND NO GENETIC STRUCTURE ASSOCIATED TO THESE MORPHOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES WERE FOUND. UNDERSTANDING THE PROCESSES UNDERLYING THE WING SHAPE OF V. CARYE MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATIONS WILL HELP TO UNDERSTAND ITS NATURAL HISTORY. RESULTS HERE MAY BE A FIRST APPROACH OF EVIDENCE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""IS THIS BUTTERFLY A MIGRATORY SPECIES?""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

THE TERRESTRIAL FAUNA OF ANTARCTICA CONSISTS OF A LIMITED NUMBER OF SPECIES, NOTABLY INSECTS, SMALL CRUSTACEANS AND OTHER MICRO-INVERTEBRATES. OVER LONG PERIODS OF EVOLUTIONARY ISOLATION, THESE ORGANISMS HAVE DEVELOPED VARYING DEGREES OF TOLERANCE TO MULTIFACETED ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES. RECENT MOLECULAR BIOGEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS THE ENDURING PERSISTENCE OF MUCH OF ANTARCTICA

HELEOBIA IS THE MOST SPECIOUS GENUS IN THE FAMILY COCHLIOPIDAE, IN WHICH MANY SPECIES ARE MORPHOLOGICALLY SIMILAR. HERE WE USED MORPHOLOGICAL, MICROSTRUCTURAL AND PHYLOGENETIC CRITERIA TO INVESTIGATE SPECIES DELIMITATION WITHIN THE HELEOBIA CHIMBAENSIS COMPLEX ON THE ATACAMA DESERT COAST. THE RANGE INCLUDED SUBDIVIDED POPULATIONS OF THE SPECIES, THE SUBSPECIES HELEOBIA CHIMBAENSIS CONICA, AND THE ALLOPATRIC SNAILS FROM LOS PERALES, FIRST RECOGNIZED AS A POPULATION OF H. CHIMBAENSIS AND MORE RECENTLY CONSIDERED A CANDIDATE SPECIES OF THE GROUP. TRADITIONAL SHELL CHARACTERS, MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS, OPERCULUM, AND PROTOCONCH WERE EITHER UNINFORMATIVE OR AMBIGUOUS TO SEPARATE TAXA. HOWEVER, THE PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS IDENTIFIED H. CHIMBAENSIS, H. CHIMBAENSIS CONICA AND FOUR ADDITIONAL POPULATIONS OF THE SPECIES AS A MONOPHYLETIC GROUP WHILE THE POPULATION FROM LOS PERALES WAS RECOVERED AS A DISTANTLY EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANT UNIT FOR WHICH THE NAME HELEOBIA PERALENSIS SP. NOV. IS PROVIDED HERE. WHILE THE GEOGRAPHIC ISOLATION AND LIMITED DISPERSAL SEEM TO HAVE INFLUENCED THE DIVERSIFICATION AND CURRENT DISTRIBUTION OF H. CHIMBAENSIS IN ATACAMA, THE ORIGIN OF HELEOBIA PERALENSIS SP. NOV. REMAINS UNCLEAR BECAUSE OF UNCERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS. A CONSERVATION STATUS ASSESSMENT ACCORDING TO IUCN CRITERIA AND NATURESERVE METHODOLOGY SUGGESTS THAT BOTH H. CHIMBAENSIS AND HELEOBIA PERALENSIS SP. NOV. FACE A HIGH RISK OF EXTINCTION.

THE SPECIES THAT INHABIT SYSTEMS HIGHLY AFFECTED BY ANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES USUALLY EXHIBIT THIS EXTERNAL INFLUENCE IN THEIR GENE POOL. IN THIS STUDY, WE INVESTIGATED THE GENETIC PATTERNS OF POPULATIONS OF HELEOBIA ATACAMENSIS, A FRESHWATER MICROGASTROPOD ENDEMIC TO THE ATACAMA SALTPAN, A SYSTEM HISTORICALLY EXPOSED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES, AND CURRENTLY SUBJECTED TO CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC MINING AND OTHER ANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES. MOLECULAR ANALYSES BASED ON NUCLEAR AND MITOCHONDRIAL SEQUENCES INDICATE THAT THE SALTPAN POPULATIONS ARE HIGHLY FRAGMENTED AND THAT THE GENETIC STRUCTURE IS MAINLY EXPLAINED BY HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHIC ISOLATION, WITH LITTLE INFLUENCE OF CONTEMPORARY FACTORS. THE MICROSATELLITE RESULTS SUGGEST A MODERATE GENETIC DIVERSITY AND SHARP DIFFERENTIATION MEDIATED BY ISOLATION BY DISTANCE. ADDITIONALLY, DESPITE THE HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL HETEROGENEITY DETECTED AND THE MARKED HISTORICAL DYNAMISM OF THE REGION, OUR DATA REVEAL NO SIGNS OF DEMOGRAPHIC INSTABILITY. THE PATTERNS OF CONTEMPORARY GENE FLOW SUGGEST A CHANGE IN THE CURRENT GENETIC STRUCTURE, BASED ON THE GEOGRAPHIC PROXIMITY AND SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS FOR EACH POPULATION. OUR RESULTS, HIGHLIGHT THE ROLE OF FRAGMENTATION AS A MODULATOR OF GENETIC DIVERSITY, BUT ALSO SUGGEST THAT THE HISTORICAL PERSISTENCE OF ISOLATED POPULATIONS IN NATURALLY DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTS COULD EXPLAIN THE APPARENT DEMOGRAPHIC STABILITY DETECTED.

THE BIODIVERSITY OF MOLLUSCS IS HIGHLY THREATENED IN MARINE, TERRESTRIAL AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS WORLDWIDE. THIS RESEARCH AIMED AT STUDYING THE DISTRIBUTION AND CONSERVATION STATUS OF EIGHT POORLY-KNOWN MICRO-SNAILS OF THE GENERA STEPHACHAROPA AND STEPHADISCUS IN CHILE. WE PERFORMED A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND DATABASES TO DETERMINE THE OCCURRENCES OF THE SPECIES, WHICH WERE MAPPED ON VECTOR LAYERS CONTAINING PROTECTED AREAS AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INFRASTRUCTURE TO FIND POTENTIAL THREATS. CONSERVATION STATUS ASSESSMENT WAS PERFORMED FOLLOWING THE CRITERIA AND TOOLS IMPLEMENTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE (IUCN) RED LIST AND NATURESERVE. WE ALSO CONDUCTED SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELS, BASED ON MAXIMUM ENTROPY, TO IDENTIFY AREAS THAT SHOULD BE PRIORITISED FOR CONSERVATION. TWO SPECIES MEET THE CRITERIA FOR IUCN LISTING AS CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (CR), FOUR ENDANGERED (EN), ONE VULNERABLE (VU) AND ONE LEAST CONCERN (LC). THIS CLASSIFICATION IS RATHER COINCIDENT WITH EQUIVALENT CATEGORIES OBTAINED UNDER THE NATURESERVE STANDARD, IN WHICH TWO SPECIES WERE RANKED AS CRITICALLY IMPERILED (N1), FIVE IMPERILED (N2) AND ONE VULNERABLE (N3). WE FOUND THAT STEPHACHAROPA PAPOSENSIS IS THE MOST AT-RISK SPECIES, WITH ONLY ONE OCCURRENCE NOT INCLUDED IN A PROTECTED AREA, FOLLOWED BY STEPHADISCUS STUARDOI, WITH TWO OCCURRENCES, ONE OF THEM WITHIN A PROTECTED AREA. STEPHADISCUS LYRATUS WAS THE SPECIES WITH THE GREATEST GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, ACCOUNTING FOR 17 OCCURRENCES, SEVEN MATCHING A PROTECTED AREA. WE FOUND WIDER POTENTIAL RANGES IN MODELLED SPECIES THAT MAY BE USEFUL FOR PRIORITISING CONSERVATION MEASURES. CONSIDERING DISTRIBUTIONAL DATA, PROTECTED AREAS AND MORE THAN 20 PLAUSIBLE THREATS IDENTIFIED, WE PROPOSE POTENTIAL IN SITU AND EX SITU CONSERVATION ACTIONS TO PROTECT THESE NEGLECTED MICRO-SNAILS.

EVAPORITIC ECOSYSTEMS OF THE ATACAMA DESERT CONTAIN A RICH ENDEMIC FAUNA, INCLUDING MOLLUSK SPECIES. A RECENT STUDY PERFORMED IN THE FRESHWATER SNAIL HELEOBIA ATACAMENSIS, ENDEMIC TO THE ATACAMA SALTPAN, REVEALED A STRONG INTERDEPENDENCE OF GENETIC PATTERNS WITH CLIMATIC FLUCTUATIONS AND LANDSCAPE PHYSIOGRAPHY. THE SPECIES IS CURRENTLY LISTED AS CRITICALLY ENDANGERED AT REGIONAL SCALE AND AS DATA DEFICIENT ON THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE (IUCN) RED LIST. HERE, WE STUDIED GENETIC DIVERSITY AND DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY OF SEVERAL POPULATIONS OF THE SPECIES OCCURRING ON A CONNECTIVITY GRADIENT, INCLUDING SNAILS FROM NEW PERIPHERICAL LOCALITIES (PEINE AND TILOMONTE), WHICH WERE COMPARED WITH TOPOTYPE SPECIMENS. IN ADDITION, WE REASSESSED THE CONSERVATION STATUS USING THE IUCN RED LIST CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA CONSIDERING SPECIES-SPECIFIC IDIOSYNCRASY. PHYLOGENETIC AND PHYLOGEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSES INDICATED THAT SNAILS FROM PEINE AND TILOMONTE BELONG TO H. ATACAMENSIS. WE DISCOVERED SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENTIATION IN SHELL MORPHOLOGY, WHICH WAS GENERALLY GREATER IN GEOGRAPHICALLY ISOLATED POPULATIONS. WE ALSO INFERRED SIX GENETIC CLUSTERS AND A DEMOGRAPHIC EXPANSION CONGRUENT WITH THE WET PERIODS THAT OCCURRED AT THE END OF THE PLEISTOCENE. CONSIDERING THE HIGHEST RISK CATEGORY OBTAINED, H. ATACAMENSIS WAS REASSESSED AS ENDANGERED AT REGIONAL SCALE. FUTURE CONSERVATION PLANS SHOULD CONSIDER THE GENETIC ASSEMBLAGES AS CONSERVATION UNITS.

THE SPECIES OF THE GENUS POTAMOLITHUS INHABITING THE SOUTHWESTERN BASIN OF THE ANDES ARE DIFFICULT TO DISTINGUISH DUE TO SMALL SIZE AND SIMILAR SHELL MORPHOLOGY. ONLY POTAMOLITHUS AUSTRALIS AND POTAMOLITHUS SANTIAGENSIS HAVE BEEN TRADITIONALLY RECOGNIZED IN THIS REGION, BUT THE OCCURRENCE OF SEVERAL MORPHOLOGICALLY SIMILAR UNDESCRIBED POPULATIONS COULD INCREASE THE REGIONAL RICHNESS. HERE WE DELIMIT DESCRIBED AND POTENTIALLY UNDESCRIBED CRYPTIC SPECIES OF THE GENUS USING PARTIAL SEQUENCES OF THE MITOCHONDRIAL CYTOCHROME C OXIDASE SUBUNIT I (COI) GENE. NETWORK ANALYSIS AND DIVERSITY INDICES INFERRED SIX HIGHLY DIFFERENTIATED HAPLOGROUPS, MANY OF THEM SYMPATRIC AND WIDESPREAD IN THE STUDY AREA. PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC ANALYSES SUGGEST A SCENARIO OF RECENT DIVERSIFICATION AND THE OCCURRENCE OF MULTIPLE REFUGES DURING THE SUCCESSIVE PLEISTOCENE GLACIATIONS. PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS ALSO RECOVERED SIX MAJOR CLADES THAT SHOWED NO RELATIONSHIP WITH PHYSIOGRAPHY. SPECIES DELIMITATION ANALYSES CONSISTENTLY RECOGNIZED THREE OR FOUR CANDIDATE SPECIES APART FROM P. AUSTRALIS AND P. SANTIAGENSIS. DIVERGENCE TIMES INDICATE THAT SPECIATION OF CHILEAN POTAMOLITHUS BEGAN AT THE END OF THE PLIOCENE, PROBABLY DRIVEN BY CLIMATIC RATHER THAN GEOGRAPHIC EVENTS. CONSIDERING THE HIGH INTER- AND INTRA-BASIN GENETIC DIVERSITY, CONSERVATION EFFORTS SHOULD BE FOCUSED ON PROTECTING SYMPATRIC TAXA IN THE BASINS WITH THE HIGHEST SPECIES RICHNESS.

KNOWING THE REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF THREATENED SPECIES IS ESSENTIAL FOR CONSERVATION AND TO ESTABLISH PROPER MANAGEMENT PLANS. HELEOBIA ATACAMENSIS, A FRESHWATER SNAIL ONLY KNOWN FROM TWO LOCATIONS IN THE ATACAMA SALTPAN, NORTHERN CHILE, IS CURRENTLY CLASSIFIED AS DATA DEFICIENT ON THE IUCN RED LIST AND CRITICALLY ENDANGERED BY THE MINISTERIO DEL MEDIO AMBIENTE OF CHILE. BASED ON SIZE-FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION, MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF SHELL MEASUREMENTS, AND MICRODISSECTIONS, WE STUDIED THE REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGY, RECRUITMENT PERIOD, SEX RATIO AND SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN THIS SPECIES. HELEOBIA ATACAMENSIS IS AN OVIPAROUS SPECIES, WITH DIRECT DEVELOPMENT (NON-PLANKTOTROPHIC). FEMALES LAY CAPSULES OF A SINGLE EGG FROM WHICH A JUVENILE RESEMBLING A MINIATURE ADULT HATCHES AFTER INTRACAPSULAR METAMORPHOSIS IS COMPLETED. THE DEVELOPMENT TYPE WAS CONFIRMED BY THE OBSERVATION OF A PAUCISPIRAL PROTOCONCH (= PROTOCONCH I) USING SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY. RECRUITMENT WAS OBSERVED ACROSS THE FOUR SEASONS OF THE YEAR, WITH AN INCREMENT AT THE END OF AUSTRAL SUMMER. RESULTS ALSO SHOWED THAT SEX RATIO WAS 1:1, WHEREAS SEXUAL DIMORPHISM WAS NOT DETECTED USING UNIVARIATE AND MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF THE SHELL. THE REPRODUCTIVE DATA PROVIDED IN THIS STUDY ARE A STARTING POINT FOR FUTURE MANAGEMENT PLANS.

BENEFICIAL PLANT-ASSOCIATED MICROORGANISMS, SUCH AS FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES, ARE KEY PARTNERS THAT NORMALLY IMPROVE PLANT SURVIVAL UNDER DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL STRESSES. IT HAS BEEN SHOWN THAT MICROORGANISMS FROM EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS, LIKE THOSE ASSOCIATED WITH THE ROOTS OF ANTARCTICA PLANTS, CAN BE GOOD PARTNERS TO INCREASE THE PERFORMANCE OF CROP PLANTS AND TO RESTORE ENDANGERED NATIVE PLANTS. NOTHOFAGUS ALESSANDRII AND N. GLAUCA, ARE AMONG THE MOST ENDANGERED SPECIES OF CHILE, RESTRICTED TO A NARROW AND/OR LIMITED DISTRIBUTIONAL RANGE ASSOCIATED MAINLY TO THE MAULINO FOREST IN CHILE. HERE WE EVALUATED THE EFFECT OF THE INOCULATION WITH A FUNGAL CONSORTIUM OF ROOT ENDOPHYTES ISOLATED FROM THE ANTARCTIC HOST PLANT COLOBANTHUS QUITENSIS ON THE ECOPHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE [PHOTOSYNTHESIS, WATER USE EFFICIENCY (WUE), AND GROWTH] OF BOTH ENDANGERED TREE SPECIES. WE ALSO, TESTED HOW ANTARCTIC ROOT-FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES COULD AFFECT THE POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION OF N. ALESSANDRII THROUGH NICHE MODELING. ADDITIONALLY, WE CONDUCTED A TRANSPLANT EXPERIMENT RECORDING PLANT SURVIVAL ON 2 YEARS IN ORDER TO VALIDATE THE MODEL. LASTLY, TO EVALUATE IF INOCULATION WITH ANTARCTIC ENDOPHYTES HAS NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON NATIVE SOIL MICROORGANISMS, WE COMPARED THE BIODIVERSITY OF FUNGI AND BACTERIAL IN THE RHIZOSPHERIC SOIL OF TRANSPLANTED INDIVIDUALS OF N. ALESSANDRII INOCULATED AND NON-INOCULATED WITH FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES. WE FOUND THAT INOCULATION WITH ROOT-ENDOPHYTES PRODUCED SIGNIFICANT INCREASES IN N. ALESSANDRII AND N. GLAUCA PHOTOSYNTHETIC RATES, WATER USE EFFICIENCIES AND CUMULATIVE GROWTH. IN N. ALESSANDRII, SEEDLING SURVIVAL WAS SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER ON INOCULATED PLANTS COMPARED WITH NON-INOCULATED INDIVIDUALS. FOR THIS SPECIES, A SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION MODELING REVEALED THAT, INOCULATION WITH ROOT-FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES COULD POTENTIALLY INCREASE THE CURRENT DISTRIBUTIONAL RANGE BY ALMOST THREEFOLD. INOCULATION WITH ROOT-FUNGAL ENDOPHYTES, DID NOT REDUCE NATIVE RHIZOSPHERIC MICROBIOME DIVERSITY.

THE NEW ZEALAND MUDSNAIL, POTAMOPYRGUS ANTIPODARUM, HAS INVADED NUMEROUS COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING CHILE. AIM. WE AIMED TO DETERMINE VARIATION IN SHELL MORPHOLOGY AND FECUNDITY IN 12 POPULATIONS SCATTERED IN SIX HYDROLOGICAL BASINS IN THIS COUNTRY. METHODS. POPULATIONS WERE COMPARED USING SHELL MORPHOMETRY, PRINCIPAL-COMPONENT ANALYSIS (PCA), AND BROOD SIZE. INDEPENDENT LINEAR MIXED MODELS (LMM) WERE APPLIED TO STUDY SPATIALLY CORRELATED DATA. RESULTS. THE MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS SHOWED SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN SHELL VARIABLES, WHEREAS THE PCA SHOWED A HIGH DEGREE OF OVERLAP OF SPECIMENS AS WELL AS SEPARATION OF POPULATIONS IN THE MORPHOMETRIC SPACE. BROOD SIZE DIFFERED SIGNIFICANTLY AMONG POPULATIONS, RANGING FROM 0 TO 63 OFFSPRING. ALTITUDE AND SHELL LENGTH HAD AN EFFECT ON BROOD SIZE, WHEREAS SHELL LENGTH SHOWED VARIATION AMONG BASINS. LATITUDE DID NOT HAVE A DIRECT EFFECT ON ANY OF THE TWO VARIABLES. CONCLUSIONS. POTAMOPYRGUS ANTIPODARUM EXHIBITS GREAT MORPHOLOGICAL AND LIFE HISTORY TRAIT VARIATION, WHICH COULD BE FAVOURING ITS RAPID EXPANSION IN CHILE. THE LACK OF GENETIC VARIATION OF THIS SPECIES, PREVIOUSLY REPORTED IN THE COUNTRY, SUGGESTS THAT DIFFERENCES FOUND IN OUR STUDY ARE LIKELY TO BE DUE TO ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION. IMPLICATIONS. FURTHER STUDIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO ASSESS THE ORIGIN OF THE VARIANCE.