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Two new species of root mealybugs (Hemiptera: Rhizoecidae) from South America are described and illustrated based on the morphology of the adult females: Coccidella advena Schneider & LaPolla, sp. nov. from Peru and Rhizoecus peripotaro Schneider & LaPolla, sp. nov. from Guyana and Peru. Both species were collected with colonies of Acropyga ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) but only R. peripotaro was found to be trophobiotic; C. advena was ignored by the ants and is considered to be free-living. A guide to aid in identification is provided for each species.  

The purpose of this work is to determine if global engagement interventions without extended international travel can help engineering students develop a global learner mindset and build towards the overarching goal of developing a holistic global engineering educational approach to meet the current and future needs of the engineering profession. The global learner mindset refers to how engineers perceive and interpret the global environment, and is assumed to be foundational in developing global engineering competence, how they define problems and formulate and implement solutions. This project has focused on assessing the global learner mindset elements, which include cultural humility, global citizenship, and critical reflection within the context of four distinctly different global engagement interventions. These interventions include international engineering case studies in a quantitative analysis course, intentional formation of multi-national student teams within a capstone design course, a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) research project in a fluid flow course, and an engineering short course coupled to a community engaged project. The PIs conducted pilot implementations of the four interventions during the spring 2023 semester and collected pre and post assessment data from the Global Engagement Survey (GES) and Global Engineering Competency Scale (GECS) instruments. The results have been used to determine a path forward to improve the next implementation of the interventions during the Spring 2024 semester. This path includes the development of a focus group with students participating in each intervention to obtain a deeper understanding through qualitative data, specifically targeting global engineering mindset formation that will help better contextualize the quantitative results from the GES and GECS instruments. This work aspires to expand the required development of global competencies in engineering beyond the current research focused on the development of intercultural competence in international or study-abroad experiences. Our focus is on the development of a holistic global engineering education process able to reach all engineering students even when institutions are not able to provide opportunities to fully immerse in other cultures, either because of global crises (such as a pandemic or violent conflicts), financial limitations, or the need for more sustainable methods of globally connecting. 

Abstract Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) have great potential to exert influence over the morphological evolution of their obligate mutualist partners. Obligately myrmecophilic mealybugs are noted for their unusual morphology, and while this is often attributed to their relationship with ants, a quantitative assessment of this link is lacking. We address this need by evaluating morphological change among mealybugs as a function of ant association. This study considers the associates of 2 independent ant clades—Acropyga Roger, 1862 ants associated with root mealybugs from the families Xenococcidae and Rhizoecidae and herdsmen ants from the Dolichoderus cuspidatus (Smith, F., 1857) species-group associated with mealybugs from the tribe Allomyrmococcini (Pseudococcidae)—and compares them to free-living or potentially myrmecophilic species sampled from among the mealybugs and root mealybugs. We use a combination of geometric morphometric and linear datasets to evaluate characteristics of body shape, body size, leg metrics, and ostiole development. Obligate myrmecophily significantly influences both body shape and size. Myrmecophilous mealybugs are smaller than their free-living counterparts and are either pyriform or rotund in shape rather than oval. Ant-associates from Rhizoecidae also have significantly reduced anterior pairs of ostioles compared to free-living species. Ostioles are involved in defense against natural enemies and mutualist ants typically protect their partners, presumably supplanting the need for structures like ostioles among myrmecophilous species. We discuss the influence ants have on the evolution of their associates in the context of domestication and offer avenues for future exploration. 

We describe a new pair of trophobiotic partners from the ant genus Acropyga and the root mealybug genus Neochavesia . A recent field study on Acropyga ants and associated root mealybugs, conducted in the Peruvian Amazon, led to the discovery of Acropyga manuense LaPolla & Schneider, sp. nov. and its root mealybug symbiont Neochavesia podexuta Schneider & LaPolla, sp. nov. The new root mealybug belongs to the family Xenococcidae, whose members are all obligate associates of Acropyga ants. Providing joint descriptions of new mutualist partners in the same article is a novel approach for this system, and it offers benefits to the ongoing study of mutualism and patterns of association among these symbiotic ants and scales. Here, we also begin to revise the species-group composition of Acropyga by establishing the smithii species-group, and we provide updated information to aid in identifying the new ant species and root mealybug species. 

We describe five new Neotropical species ofRipersiellaliving in association withAcropygaants:R. campensissp. nov.,R. illicianssp. nov.,R. montanaesp. nov.,R. pediandensissp. nov., andR. telaliasp. nov.We also redescribeR. andensisandR. colombiensisbased on type specimens and other collections. Together, these seven species form a morphologically similar group that we informally refer to as theandensis-complex ofRipersiella. All members of theandensis-complex are confirmed or are speculated to be mutualists ofAcropygaants. We discuss the implications of these associations and provide an identification key to the Neotropical species ofRipersiellathat are lacking bitubular cerores, including the new species. 

An increasingly global environment expects graduating Engineering students to perform, live and work across cultures. Most intercultural competence research and associated global engineering education is focused on developing the global engineering skill set through long-term travel experiences such as study abroad programs. These programs can be expensive from both a time and money standpoint, limiting the participation to more privileged members of a community, and are not scalable to support broader participation. This work-in-progress addresses this research gap by focusing on the development of the students’ global learner mindset without requiring extensive travel. The project will investigate four different global engagement interventions, including the use of engineering case studies, the intentional formation of multi-national student teams, a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) research project, and a community engaged project within a short course. These interventions can be used to develop a holistic global learner mindset and global engineering education approach to foster global competence in undergraduate engineering students. The four global engagement interventions will be grounded in the global engineering competency (GEC) theoretical framework and assessed for their ability to foster a global learner mindset in engineering students. A mixed-methods approach will be used to assess students’ global learner mindset and skill set. This research will use the Global Engagement Survey (GES), the Global Engineering Competency Scale (GECS) and specific questions developed by the researchers to evaluate improvements in the participating students’ global engineering skill set and answer specific research questions including: 1) To what extent can global competence be developed in engineering students through the use of the proposed global engagement interventions; and 2) what are the relative strengths of each of the proposed global engagement interventions in developing global engineering competence? Combined, these research measures will provide both an accurate picture of how each global engagement intervention impacts the formation of a global learner mindset in engineering education, and also its associated ability to develop and/or improve global engineering skills. The outcomes of this study will generate valuable knowledge to understand how each global engagement intervention impacts the formation of global engineering competence. In this work-in-progress study, the authors discuss the four global engagement interventions with specific learning objectives that have been mapped to the overall student outcomes for the project. These objectives have also been mapped to the GES and GECS instruments. Finally the faculty members have developed qualitative tools to augment the GES and GECS to identify the global engineering skill sets each intervention is generating. This paper lays the foundation before implementing the interventions and performing their associated assessments over the several subsequent semesters. 

A new myrmecophilous species of root mealybug, Williamsrhizoecus udzungwensis sp. n., is described from individuals found living within a nest of Acropyga silvestrii in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. Acropyga ants are highly specialized, obligate associates of scale insects, typically members of the scale family Xenococcidae. Acropyga are best known for vertically transmitting trophobiotic partners during their nuptial flights and for housing them within brood chambers. This article presents the first record of trophobiosis between a species of Williamsrhizoecus and Acropyga, and only the second record of an association between Acropyga and rhizoecids in the Old World. This discovery contributes important information about the few species of Rhizoecidae confirmed to engage in these unique symbioses, each putatively the result of a past horizontal transmission event from a xenococcid to a rhizoecid lineage. Included is a discussion on the diagnosis of Williamsrhizoecus and an updated key to the species.