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Miscanthus sacchariflorus (Maxim.) Hack. is a highly productive C4 perennial rhizomatous biofuel grass crop. M. sacchariflorus is among the most widely distributed species in the genus, particularly at cold northern latitudes, and is one of the progenitor species of the commercial M. × giganteus genotypes. We generated a 2.54 Gb whole-genome assembly of the diploid M. sacchariflorus cv. “Robustus 297” genotype, which represented ~59% of the expected total genome size. We later anchored this assembly using the chromosomes from the M. sinensis genome to generate a second assembly with improved contiguity. We annotated 86,767 and 69,049 protein-coding genes in the unanchored and anchored assemblies, respectively. We estimated our assemblies included ~85% of the M. sacchariflorus genes based on homology and core markers. The utility of the new reference for genomic studies was evidenced by a 99% alignment rate of the RNA-seq reads from the same genotype. The raw data, unanchored and anchored assemblies, and respective gene annotations are publicly available.Predator-prey interactions are important evolutionary drivers of defensive behaviors, but they are usually difficult to record. This lack of data on natural history and ecological interactions of species can be overcome through museum specimens, at least for some reptiles. When facing aggressive interactions, reptile species may exhibit the defensive behavior of autotomy by losing the tail, which is also known as “urotomy”. The inspection of preserved specimens for scars of tail breakage can reveal possible ecological and biological correlates of urotomy. Herein, we investigated how the probability of urotomy in the worm lizard Amphisbaena vermicularis is affected by sex, body size, temperature, and precipitation. We found higher chances of urotomy for specimens with larger body size and from localities with warmer temperatures or lower precipitation. There was no difference in urotomy frequency between sexes. Older specimens likely faced – and survived – more predation attempts through their lifetime than smaller ones. Setanaxib Specimens from warmer regions might be more active both below- and aboveground, increasing the odds to encounter predators and hence urotomy. Probability of urotomy decreased with increased precipitation. Possibly, in places with heavier rainfall worm lizards come more frequently to the surface when galleries are filled with rainwater, remaining more exposed to efficient predators, which could result in less survival rates and fewer tailless specimens. This interesting defensive behavior is widespread in squamates, but yet little understood among amphisbaenians. The novel data presented here improve our understanding on the correlates of tail breakage and help us to interpret more tales of lost tails.Assemblages of insect herbivores are structured by plant traits such as nutrient content, secondary metabolites, physical traits, and phenology. Many of these traits are phylogenetically conserved, implying a decrease in trait similarity with increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plant taxa. Thus, a metric of phylogenetic distances and relationships can be considered a proxy for phylogenetically conserved plant traits and used to predict variation in herbivorous insect assemblages among co-occurring plant species.Using a Holarctic dataset of exposed-feeding and shelter-building caterpillars, we aimed at showing how phylogenetic relationships among host plants explain compositional changes and characteristics of herbivore assemblages.Our plant-caterpillar network data derived from plot-based samplings at three different continents included >28,000 individual caterpillar-plant interactions. We tested whether increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plants leads to a decrease in caterpillar assemblages is becoming increasingly available, further large-scale studies are needed to investigate to what degree plant phylogeny structures herbivore assemblages in other biomes and ecosystems.In aquatic environments, prey perceive predator threats by chemical cues called kairomones, which can induce changes in their morphology, life histories, and behavior. Predator-induced defenses have allowed for prey, such as Daphnia pulex, to avert capture by common invertebrate predators, such as Chaoborus sp. larvae. However, the influence of additional stressors, such as ultraviolet radiation (UVR), on the Daphnia-Chaoborus interaction is not settled as UVR may for instance deactivate the kairomone. In laboratory experiments, we investigated the combined effect of kairomones and UVR at ecologically relevant levels on induced morphological defenses of two D. pulex clones. We found that kairomones were not deactivated by UVR exposure. Instead, UVR exposure suppressed induced morphological defense traits of D. pulex juveniles under predation threat by generally decreasing the number of neckteeth and especially by decreasing the size of the pedestal beneath the neckteeth. UVR exposure also decreased the body length, body width, and tail spine length of juveniles, likely additionally increasing the vulnerability to Chaoborus predation. Our results suggest potential detrimental effects on fitness and survival of D. pulex subject to UVR stress, with consequences on community composition and food web structure in clear and shallow water bodies.Post-traumatic high-flow priapism is a rare occurrence, with potentially debilitating long-term erectile dysfunction if left unaddressed. Even rarer, however, is for the priapism symptoms to be caused by a single cavernosal arterial pseudoaneurysm, with feeding vessels from the distal branched vessels of ‘both’ the left and right internal pudendal arteries. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first documented case of endovascular salvage utilizing superselective microcoil embolization in the treatment of high-flow priapism caused by a singular pseudoaneurysm with bilateral inflow. Timing of symptoms, interpretation of imaging, multidisciplinary discussions, procedural risk, arterial anatomy and choice of embolic agent were all careful considerations in this case. Following embolization, this young gentleman ultimately had a successful angiographic result, normalization of his cavernosal artery peak systolic velocity on ultrasound and a full return to normal erectile function by 6 months.