Scorpions are "living but sophisticated fossils" that have changed little in their morphology since their first appearance over the past 450 million years ago. To provide a genetic resource for understanding the evolution of scorpion genome and the relationships between scorpions and other organisms, we first determined the genome size of the scorpion Mesobuthus martensii Karsch (about 600 Mbp)...

31 We examined chromosomal distribution of major ribosomal DNAs (rDNAs), clustered in the nucleolar 32 organizer regions (NORs), in 18 species of moths and butterflies using fluorescence in situ 33 hybridization (FISH) with a codling moth (Cydia pomonella) 18S rDNA probe. Most species showed 34 one or two rDNA clusters in their haploid karyotype but exceptions with four to eleven clusters also ...