Despite a large and multifaceted effort to understand the vast landscape of phenotypic data, their current form inhibits productive data analysis. The lack of a community-wide, consensus-based, human- and machine-interpretable language for describing phenotypes and their genomic and environmental contexts is perhaps the most pressing scientific bottleneck to integration across many key fields in biology, including genomics, systems biology, development, medicine, evolution, ecology, and systematics. Here we survey the current phenomics landscape, including data resources and handling, and the progress that has been made to accurately capture relevant data descriptions for phenotypes. We present an example of the kind of integration across domains that computable phenotypes would enable, and we call upon the broader biology community, publishers, and relevant funding agencies to support efforts to surmount today's data barriers and facilitate analytical reproducibility.

The thirty-nine extant genera of Conoderinae known to occur in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean are reviewed based on external morphology. An identification key is provided along with diagnoses, distributions, species counts, and natural history information, when known, for each genus. Morphological character systems of importance for weevil classification are surveyed, potential relationships among the tribes and genera are discussed, and groups most in need of taxonomic and phylogenetic attention are identified. The following genera are transferred to new tribes:AcoptusLeConte, 1876 from the Lechriopini to the Othippiini(new placement)and the South American genusHedyceraPascoe, 1870 from the Lechriopini to the Piazurini(new placement).PhilidesChampion, 1906 andPhilinnaChampion, 1906 are transferred from the Lechriopini to Conoderinaeincertae sedis(new placement)although their placement as conoderines is uncertain. The speciesCopturomimus cinereusHeller, 1895 is designated as the type species of the genusCopturomimusHeller, 1895.

The Conoderinae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) are one of the most distinctive Neotropical weevil groups in behaviour and appearance, attracting numerous hypotheses regarding the evolution and function of widespread apparent mimetic convergence. Conoderines have a poorly documented natural history, and a large fraction of the diversity of the group remains undescribed, presenting challenges to their study. In this analysis, 128 species of conoderine weevils previously or herein hypothesized to belong to three mimicry complexes are analysed in the first quantitative test of conoderine mimicry. Fifteen continuous and categorical characters describing the size, shape and coloration of these weevils were analysed using non-metric multidimensional scaling while statistically testing the resulting clusters in ordination space. Three similar, putatively mimetic complexes are recognized: (1) the ‘red-eyed fly’ complex of weevils, which are hypothesized to be evasively mimetic on various species of red-eyed flies; (2) the ‘striped/spotted’ complex, composed of weevils with a brightly coloured pronotum and red to white elytral stripes or spots; and (3) the ‘shiny blue’ complex of species with iridescent blue to blue–green pronotal scales. Each of these groups covers a wide geographical distribution and has evolved independently in multiple genera, although the red-eyed fly complex appears to be both the most species rich and widely distributed phylogenetically. Groupings were found to be statistically significant, although variation within each group suggests that the similarity in appearance of species in each group could be attributable to independent convergence on different, but phenotypically similar, models. Several avenues for future research on conoderine mimicry are discussed.

Among some of the most unusual traits of the gasteruptiid wasps is their unique hovering flight and the expansion of their hind tibiae. Tibial expansions in female parasitoid hymenopterans often involve an enlarged sensory structure for vibration detection, the subgenual organ, thus enabling refined substrate-borne detection of concealed hosts. In the present paper, we utilize a combination of microscopy, chemical analysis, gene expression, and behavior to explore the function of the expanded hind tibia of gasteruptiid wasps. We find that the expanded hind tibia of gasteruptiids is filled largely with fat body, a cell cluster thought not typically to occur in insect legs. Based on its position relative to flexible tibial structures and the subgenual organ, the gasteruptiid tibial fat body may function to amplify vibrational signals. We show the tibial fat body to be filled with both trophocytes and, depending on gasteruptiid lineage, oenocytes. Transcriptomics reveals enrichment for fat-related genes more than expected in an insect leg and raises several additional possibilities for functions of fat in the leg including detoxification. Finally, our flight observations support the hypothesis that this structure may also function in balance and maneuvering in the unusual leg-dangling flight behavior of this wasp.

Robert S. Anderson, Roberto Caldara, and Salvatore S. Anzaldo (2018) Mecinus linnavuori (Korotyaev) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Curculioninae: Mecinini), an Iraqi Weevil Species New to Southwestern North America. The Coleopterists Bulletin: Vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 126-128. https://doi.org/10.1649/0010-065X-72.1.126