The Fall of Icarus: X-ray μCT assisted dissection of the rarely collected, montane genus <i>Nipponosphadasmus</i> (Curculionidae: Conoderitae) reveals highly atypical flightlessness in the supertribe
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract The weevil genus Nipponosphadasmus Morimoto, 1959 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Conoderitae), is a rarely collected, Shikoku Island (Japan) endemic lineage that has remained unstudied since its description. Here, we use X-ray μCT to dissect Nipponosphadasmus type material and also examine newly procured nontype material. Our dissections revealed complete reduction in the hindwings, an extremely rare example of flightlessness in the supertribe Conoderitae (approx. 2,200 species). Although species in Conoderitae are especially recognized as charismatic, strong, arboreal fliers with some species even mimicking flies, the flightless genus Nipponosphadasmus represents a novel shift away from the habits that characterize the group. Furthermore, collection data of the newly procured specimens and original type specimens suggest higher elevation, montane habitat preferences in Nipponosphadasmus. Flight loss is frequently observed in mountain-dwelling lineages across the insect orders, and the higher elevation habitat preferences of Nipponosphadasmus may have played a role in the evolution of hindwing reduction in this species as well. Traditional morphological examination of type material and the newly procured specimens also support N. yanoi Morimoto, 1959 syn. nov. as a new junior subjective synonym of N. coxalis Morimoto, 1959. To facilitate future molecular identification of Nipponosphadasmus, we publish the first DNA (CO1) barcodes for the genus.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".