title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Wong Fu Productions is an American filmmaking group founded by Wesley Chan (born April 27, 1984), Ted Fu (born October 26, 1981), and Philip Wang (born October 28, 1984). The trio met at the University of California, San Diego in 2004 and produced a number of music videos and short films released on their website and later YouTube before establishing a professional media company, Sketchbook Media, after their graduation. Their works have been featured at a number of national and international film festivals, including the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: As of April 2021, Wong Fu Productions' YouTube channel has over 3.27 million subscribers and over 584 million video views. Since 2011, Wong Fu has developed a reputation as a springboard for Asian American acting talent.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: According to Philip Wang, Wong Fu Productions was unofficially established in 2001 during his high school junior year at Northgate High School (Walnut Creek, California). Wang mainly utilized his family's digital camcorder to film school projects in collaboration with classmates. In his first year as an undeclared freshman at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Wang and his friends released a music video of Justin Timberlake's song "Señorita". It was the first music video produced by Wang and, although he did not actively promote it, the video was quickly circulated among other fellow college students. The video was circulated in its original computer file format because it was released prior to the advent of the video sharing website YouTube.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: In 2004, Wang met classmates Wesley Chan (graduated from Mills High School in 2002) and Ted Fu through a school production, and the trio began working on small scale projects in their spare time and for class assignments. They did not originally consider filmmaking as a career when they entered university; Chan explored an interest in animation, Fu had been a student in electrical engineering and Wang considered a career in economics. After graduation in 2006, the three moved to the Los Angeles area and continued their venture under the professional name Sketchbook Media.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: After approximately five years, Wong Fu Productions garnered 1 million subscribers in 2011. On June 8, 2013, Wong Fu Productions celebrated their 10 year anniversary and produced a 13 minute short on June 29 featuring Christine Chen, the surrounding cast of Wong Fu, and many familiar faces, including Ryan Higa, Dominic Sandoval (D-Trix), Kevin Wu (KevJumba), Freddie Wong, Brandon Laatsch, Joe Penna (MysteryGuitarMan) and The Fung Brothers.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: On July 23, 2013 Wong Fu Productions launched a second channel titled "More Wong Fu" which is described as "Home of Lunch Break, WF Recess, Failed It, FIRST, bloopers, behind the scenes, and special features. It's, just.. more Wong Fu."


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Wong Fu has begun to expand their team of creators. The current team includes Taylor Chan (senior editor / writer and director), Benson Quach (producer / assistant director), Christopher Yang (director of photography), Jessica Lin (production coordinator), and Michelle Hsieh (editor).


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Wong Fu Productions was initially known for its independent music videos of contemporary hit songs such as Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning" and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours". Wong Fu released its first major short film called "Yellow Fever" on January 25, 2006. The film, which satirized the topic of interracial dating between Asian Americans and White Americans, brought Wong Fu into recognition among many college students in the United States.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: "A Moment with You", the group's first feature-length film, premiered on June 3, 2006, at their alma mater. It was also screened at the San Diego Asian Film Festival on October 18, 2006. The film revolves around two neighbors who share similar romantic situations, in which one person in each relationship cannot let go of his or her past. "A Moment with You" was promoted through a screening tour at high schools and universities around the United States and Canada. In a review for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's student newspaper "The Tech", Tina Ro wrote, "Despite its large Asian fan base, Wongfu's ["sic"] movie has a cast of equal numbers of Asians and Caucasians. Furthermore, all the characters were shaped by their own characteristics rather than by their race, a refreshing concept for a movie." According to "The Daily Texan"'s Katherine Fan, "A Moment with You" featured a "more mature, introspective mood than their previous work."


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Following the success of "A Moment with You", Wong Fu was approached to create a second film called "Sleep Shift". However, the project was abandoned after producers disagreed with casting an Asian male in the film's lead role. Since the end of its first tour, Wong Fu has created music videos for rising artists and continued producing short films. The group's merchandise line, which included original T-shirt designs, was launched in conjunction with the 2007 film "Just a Nice Guy". The short film "The Spare" was featured at the 2008 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and two additional short films—"At Musing's End" and "A Peace of Home"—were shown at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival Short Films Corner. In September 2009, Wong Fu released the short film "Poser!", a mockumentary on the history of the peace sign.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: As of November 2009, Wong Fu Productions has created more than 130 short films and music videos. Because the group does not require a fee to view its films, it gains a salary from being a YouTube partner, draws profits from merchandise sales, public speaking on university campuses, and music video production for rising Asian American artists.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: In May 2010, Wong Fu Productions and Ryan Higa opened talks about creating a major film. The movie was filmed in a one-week period during the summer, and was released to the public on November 23, while being released on YouTube a day later as "Agents of Secret Stuff" starring Ryan Higa and Arden Cho.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: On September 7, 2011, Wong Fu Productions announced that they have been hired by Taiwanese pop singer Wang Leehom to direct his upcoming music video "Still In Love With You".


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: In the addition to the group's filmmaking career, Wong Fu Productions has organized a series of multidisciplinary concerts in California. The concert series, International Secret Agents (ISA), featured musical disciplines from urban dance to deejaying with Asian American guest artists such as Far East Movement. Additional guest performances included "America's Best Dance Crew" champions Quest Crew and Poreotics, Ryan Higa (aka Nigahiga), Kevin Wu (aka KevJumba), Jay Park, and singers–songwriters David Choi and Kina Grannis. According to Chinese American rapper Jin, "ISA is about self-branding and viral marketing—using YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the Internet to promote yourself as an artist." He asserted, "We as artists are aware of this and make ourselves available [on these mediums]." Far East Movement member Virman Coquia said, "We want to give back to the community to show that Asians can have an influence today in the U.S." Additionally, Coquia believed that ISA presented the opportunity to present Asian American talent as cool and mainstream.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: The first ISA concert was held in September 2008 at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse in Los Angeles. A second concert was held in March 2009 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and both events were attended by a sold-out crowd. The concert returned to Los Angeles in September 2009 and was sponsored by department store J. C. Penney. In 2010, ISA was held in New York City for the first time. Wong Fu has also expressed interest in holding future ISA concerts in Washington, D.C. They also had another ISA concert in Los Angeles on September 5. Playing up the name "International Secret Agents", The LA leg of the 2010 ISA Concert was filled with surprises as secret guests like Nick Cannon showed up to join the performers on stage.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: On March 30, 2013, ISA held and filmed their first game show at YouTube Space Los Angeles. The event had several famous YouTubers including Anthony Lee, Brandon Laatsch, Clara C, David Choi, Freddie Wong, Jen Chae Buescher(FrmHeadToToe), Mike Song, Ted Fu, Wesley Chan as players, Kevin Wu as the gamemaster named Yoshi, and Amy Okuda and Philip Wang as the hosts.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: "Everything Before Us" is the first feature film of Wong Fu Productions. Released 23 April 2015 over Vimeo, the film was directed by Philip Wang and Wesley Chan. The film tells the story of two couples in the near future where the Department of Emotional Integrity (D.E.I.) issues 'relationship scores', somewhat like a credit score, that affect couples' everyday choices. With a nearly all-Asian cast, some of its stars include Aaron Yoo, Brittany Ishibashi, Brandon Soo Hoo, Victoria Park, Randall Park, and Ki Hong Lee. Funding for the film was crowd-sourced from Wong Fu's fans via Indiegogo, and the film's premiere release was held at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: On August 24, 2016, Wong Fu Productions released its first studio-funded project "Single by 30", an 8-episode web series starring Harry Shum Jr. and Kina Grannis, on YouTube Red. Described by NPR as an "old-fashioned romantic comedy", the series has been praised for its highly diverse cast as it reflected the diverse population of Los Angeles, where the series is set in. The series was not renewed for a second season.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: "Just Another Nice Guy" or "JANG" for short is a 3 episode web series and sequel to "Just A Nice Guy", which was released in 2007 and was one of the company's first videos.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: "Yappie" is a five-episode video series on YouTube that addresses the modern Asian American experience and the model minority myth. Yappie is a slang term for "young Asian professional". The video series stars Phillip Wang and Janine Oda, whose relationship puts them face to face with racial and social problems. "Kim's Convenience" star Simu Liu has a major supporting role. The series reflects Wong Fu Production's of bringing Asian American representation to the screen, while staying true to their mission of storytelling. The series is funded through the support of Patreon supporters, which is part of Wong Fu Production's new Wong Fu Forward goals to be a platform for artists and to create longer video series.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Short films released by Wong Fu Productions have received, cumulatively, millions of views, and the group has several thousand fans. According to Wang, the group's website received 5,000 daily hits in 2009. He expected the audience size to grow "as online video becomes part of everyday life for the up-and-coming generation of movie-watchers" but believed that movie theaters will not become obsolete. University of Southern California digital media expert David Wertheimer also believed that "Wong Fu's use of new media to tell their community stories and build a business is the wave of the future." The group's success has allowed for growth in the popularity of Asian American comedians who promote themselves primarily through YouTube, such as Kevin Wu (KevJumba), Ryan Higa (Nigahiga), Christine Gambito (HappySlip), and David Choi. Although grateful for the group's success and popularity, Wang said, "Some people who go to film school, they'll make something great but it's only seen by like, two hundred people [...] It's kind of not fair."


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: In a feature by CNN, newscaster Ted Rowlands reported that Wong Fu's primary audience were "young Asian Americans who often can't find accurate depictions of themselves in mainstream media". Through its films, Wong Fu Productions hoped to break the different stereotypes of Asian Americans.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Despite this goal, Wong Fu's films were inspired by the members' life experiences rather than racial experiences. The group also does not promote political messages through their works but, rather, raises "many APA issues that we feel would fit our brand and image." They are often considered role models for Asian Americans aspiring to enter the entertainment industry. In response to this, group member Ted Fu said, "We actually didn't set out to be the 'heroes' of Asian Americans. It just happened by accident. But now that we're given this huge responsibility, almost, I feel like it's our duty to take it seriously." Wong Fu presented "one of the most antipicated workshops" on sustaining an independent production company at the 2008 Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association Midwest Conference. They were also the keynote speakers at the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association 2010 West Coast Conference, which was hosted at their alma mater, UC San Diego.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: In February 2012, Wang and Chan flew from Los Angeles to Malaysia for the first leg of their Southeast Asia Tour, meeting and greeting over 1000 fans, even to a point of having a live radio appearance on the radio station HITZ fm. In July 2012, Chan gave the commencement speech at UC San Diego to the graduating class. In June 2016, Philip Wang gave the commencement speech at UCSD to its graduating class.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: In 2018, to continue creating content for their fans, Wong Fu created the Patreon page, Wong Fu Forward where supporters can directly fund Wong Fu Productions. By joining Patreon, Wong Fu hopes to continue its mission in storytelling, creating longer video series for their supporters on YouTube and acting as a platform for artists.


title: Wong Fu Productions

text: Fans sometimes refer to actors who have appeared in Wong Fu video as part of the "Wong Fu universe", a reference to the cinematic universe employed by superhero films and how many of their alumni have gone on to star in superhero projects. Actors such as Randall Park ("WandaVision"), Justin H. Min ("The Umbrella Academy"), Anna Akana ("Ant-Man"), Brittany Ishibashi ("Runaways"), Victoria Park ("The Flash"), and Simu Liu ("Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings") have all previously starred in Wong Fu films prior to their appearances on their respective superhero projects.


title: Loyalty program

text: A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Today, such programs cover most types of commerce, each having varying features and rewards schemes, including in banking, entertainment, hospitality, retailing and travel. The market approach has shifted from product-centric to a customer-centric one due to a highly competitive market and a wide array of services offered to customers, therefore, it's important that marketing strategies prioritize growing a sustainable business and increasing customer satisfaction.


title: Loyalty program

text: A loyalty program typically involves the operator of a particular program set up an account for a customer of a business associated with the scheme, and then issue to the customer a loyalty card (variously called rewards card, points card, advantage card, club card, or some other name) which may be a plastic or paper card, visually similar to a credit card, that identifies the cardholder as a participant in the program. Cards may have a barcode or magstripe to more easily allow for scanning, although some are chip cards or proximity cards.


title: Loyalty program

text: By presenting a card, customers typically receive either a discount on the current purchase or an allotment of points that they can use for future purchases. Hence, the card is the visible means of implementing a type of what economists call a two-part tariff. Application forms for cards usually entail agreements by the store concerning customer privacy, typically non-disclosure (by the store) of non-aggregate data about customers. The store uses aggregate data internally (and sometimes externally) as part of its marketing research. Over time the data can reveal, for example, a given customer's favorite brand of beer, or whether they are a vegetarian. Where a customer has provided sufficient identifying information, the loyalty card may also be used to access such information to expedite verification during receipt of cheques or dispensing medical prescription preparations, or for other membership privileges such as access to an airport lounge using a frequent-flyer card. In recent years, businesses now offer these loyalty cards in the form of a loyalty app, which means users are less likely to lose their cards. Almost all major casino chains also have loyalty cards, which offer members tier credits, reward credits, comps, and other perks based on card members' "theo" from gambling, various demographic data, and spend patterns on various purchases at the casino, within the casino network, and with the casino's partners. Examples of such programs include Caesars Rewards (formerly called Total Rewards) and MGM Resorts International's Mlife.


title: Loyalty program

text: Loyalty programs have been described as a form of centralized virtual currency, one with unidirectional cash flow, since reward points can be exchanged into a good or service but not into cash.


title: Loyalty program

text: Betty Crocker's loyalty points program, introduced 1929, ended in 2006, one of the longest running loyalty programs.


title: Loyalty program

text: Co-operative Membership: the Co-op Group offers a 2% (previously 5%) refund to members on Co-op branded products with 2% also going to the cardholder's nominated charity. This is only available in Co-op Group stores. It replaced the dividend benefit previously used. Other Co-op chains continue with the dividend scheme, eg Midcounties Co-operative. Many of these accept other Co-operative loyalty cards but generally without the same benefits. For instance Midcounties Co-operative accept Co-operative Group cards but there is no charity donation or cardholder refund.


title: Loyalty program

text: There has been a move away from traditional magnetic card, stamp, or punchcard based schemes to online and mobile online loyalty programs. While these schemes vary, the common element is a push toward eradication of a traditional card, in favour of an electronic equivalent. The choice of medium is often a QR code. Some prominent examples are Austrian based mobile-pocket established in 2009, the US-based Punchd (discontinued from June 2013,), which became part of Google in 2011. and an Australian-based loyalty card application called Stamp Me which incorporates iBeacon technology. Others, like Loopy Loyalty (HK), Loyalli (UK), Perka (US), and Whisqr Loyalty (CA), have offered similar programs. Passbook by Apple is the first attempt to standardize the format of mobile loyalty cards.


title: Loyalty program

text: With the introduction of host card emulation (HCE) and near field communication (NFC) technology for mobile applications, traditional contactless smart cards for prepaid and loyalty programs are emulated in a smartphone. Google Wallet adopted these technologies for mobile off-line payment applications.


title: Loyalty program

text: The major advantage of off-line over the online system is that the user's smartphone does not have to be online, and the transaction is fast. In addition, multiple emulated cards can be stored in a smartphone to support multi-merchant loyalty programs. Consequently, the user does not need to carry many physical cards anymore.


title: Loyalty program

text: In three cities, some independent coffee shops have set up experimental 'disloyalty card' programs, which reward customers for visiting a variety of coffee shops.


title: Loyalty program

text: Evidence for the effectiveness of loyalty programs is controversial. Many companies are unsure whether and how to use customer loyalty programs profitably. Many programs (regardless of location, size, or industry) are run without the appropriate metrics or target parameters.


title: Loyalty program

text: Some companies complain that loyalty programs discount goods to people who are buying goods anyway. Moreover, the expense of participating in these programs rarely generates a good return on investment. The Forte Consultancy Group regards loyalty programs as bribes. In the case of infrequent spenders, loyalty fees provide a means of subsidizing discounts.


title: Loyalty program

text: A 2015 study found that most supermarket loyalty cards in the United States do not offer any real value to their customers. Furthermore, commercial use of customers' personal data – collected as part of loyalty programs – has the potential for abuse; it is highly likely that consumer purchases are tracked and used for marketing research to increase the efficiency of marketing and advertising, which is one of the purposes of offering the loyalty card. For some customers, participating in a loyalty program (even with a fake or anonymous card) funds activities that violate privacy. Consumers have also expressed concern about the integration of RFID technology into loyalty-card systems.


title: Loyalty program

text: Employees who need to buy something (such as an airline flight or a hotel room) for a business trip, but who have discretion to decide which airline or hotel chain to use, have an incentive to choose the payment method that provides the most cash-back,


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: The contraceptive sponge combines barrier and spermicidal methods to prevent conception. Sponges work in two ways. First, the sponge is inserted into the vagina, so it can cover the cervix and prevent any sperm from entering the uterus. Secondly, the sponge contains spermicide.


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: The sponges are inserted vaginally prior to intercourse and must be placed over the cervix to be effective.


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: Sponges provide no protection from sexually transmitted infections. Sponges can provide contraception for multiple acts of intercourse over a 24-hour period, but cannot be reused beyond that time or once removed.


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: Sponge's effectiveness is 91% if used perfectly by women who never gave birth, and 80% if used perfectly by women who have given at least one birth. Since it is hard to use the sponge perfectly every time having vaginal sex, the real effectiveness of the method is actually lower than the figures mentioned. It is advised to combine sponges with other birth control methods, like withdrawal of penis before ejaculation or condoms.


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: To use the sponge, wet the sponge and squeeze it, fold it and put it in the vagina covering the cervix. A sponge works for 24 hours once put in, during which the female can have sex multiple times. Once the sponge is pulled out, it should not be reused and should be trashed, not flushed. The sponge should be left in place for 6 hours after having sex. A sponge should not be in the vagina for more than 30 hours.


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: Sponges are a physical barrier, trapping sperm and preventing their passage through the cervix into the reproductive system. The spermicide is an important component of pregnancy prevention.


title: Contraceptive sponge

text: People sensitive to Nonoxynol-9, an ingredient in the spermicide used in the sponge, may experience unpleasant irritation and may face increase risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Sponge users may have a slightly higher risk of Toxic shock syndrome.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: Haathi Mere Saathi () is a 1971 Indian Hindi-language drama film, directed by M. A. Thirumugam, with screenplay written by Salim–Javed and dialogues by Inder Raj Anand. The movie has a Disneyesque appeal with an Indian twist. "Haathi Mere Saathi" was the biggest hit of 1971 going by box office collections, and was also critically acclaimed. The film stars Rajesh Khanna and Tanuja. The film at that point in time was the biggest hit ever made by a South Indian producer in Hindi.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: The story was written by producer Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar who is of Tamil origin and owned Devar Films in Tamil Nadu. Thevar also played a small cameo in the film. Directed and edited by Thevar's brother M.A.Thirumugham, it had music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal and lyrics by Anand Bakshi. The film was also the first collaboration of Salim-Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar), who were officially credited as screenplay writers. The film was based on Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar's 1967 Tamil movie "Deiva Cheyal". After the success of this movie, Thevar remade it in Tamil again in 1972 as "Nalla Neram". This film is counted among the 17 consecutive hit films of Rajesh Khanna between 1969 and 1971, by adding the two-hero films "Marayada" and "Andaz" to the 15 consecutive solo hits he gave from 1969 to 1971.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: Orphaned Raju (Rajesh Khanna), in the company of four elephants, has to perform with them at street corners, in order to survive. The back-story is that as an orphan, they have saved his life from a leopard. In time, he makes it big, and starts Pyar Ki Duniya (The World of Love), a zoo in which various wild animals reside along with his elephants, among whom Ramu is closest to him. Slowly he amasses a fortune, and is able to build his own private zoo, housing tigers, lions, bears, and of course the four elephants. He treats all the animals as his friends. He meets with Tanu (Tanuja), and both fall in love. Tanu's rich dad, Ratanlal (Madan Puri), is opposed to this alliance, but subsequently relents, and permits the young couple to get married. However, trouble looms soon after as Tanu feels neglected. Things worsen when their child is born, and Tanu, fearing physical harm to her child from the elephants, tells Raju to choose between the elephants and his family. When Raju chooses his lifelong friends over wife and son, Ramu decides to bring the estranged couple together, but to save the family and the child from the villainous Sarwan Kumar (K.N. Singh), he sacrifices his life.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: Javed Akhtar on being questioned as to how the film came about, said "One day, he Rajesh Khanna went to Salimsaab and said that Mr. Devar had given him a huge signing amount with which he could complete the payment for his bungalow Aashirwad. But the film was a remake [of "Deiva Cheyal"] and the script of the original was far from being satisfactory. He told us that if we could set right the script, he would make sure we got both money and credit. "I can't do such a terrible script," he said. "And I can't leave it because I need the money!'".


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: "Haathi Mere Saathi" was the highest-grossing Indian film of 1971. In India, its net income was and its total domestic gross was (), equivalent to () with inflation.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: The film was an overseas blockbuster in the Soviet Union, where it sold 34.8million tickets in 1974. The film's overseas Soviet gross was 8.7millionrubles (, or ), equivalent to US$ million () with inflation. The film's total worldwide gross (including India and the Soviet Union) was (), equivalent to () in 2017.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: Earlier titled "Pyar Ki Duniya", the film also won a special award from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) for lyricist Anand Bakshi. Its music on HMV (as Saregama was known then) won a Silver Disc for its sales, making it the first-ever Indian gramophone record to do so.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: Times of India noted that 40 years down the line, "Haathi Mere Saathi" remains unmatched in its enduring magic, and Hindi cinema has yet to make another children's feature to match its stature and success.


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: In an interview, Tanuja said, "I showed them the film when Kajol was six and Tanishaa around three years old, and for two weeks Kajol did not speak to me!! "Mummy, you killed the elephant! Because of you, he had to die!" screamed Kajol! "And Tanishaa was annoyed too!" Tanuja loved working with the elephants after some initial apprehensions. "They really began to like me, especially the she-elephant who played Ramu. There is a sequence where he had to push me through a door and fight a snake that was about to bite the baby, but the elephant had got so fond of me that he refused to do so! Finally, they had to shoot separate close-ups of the elephant and my back and of me falling down!"


title: Haathi Mere Saathi (1971 film)

text: On its 40th anniversary on 5 May 2011, Pyarelal recalled, "Laxmi (Laxmikant) and Devar got along fabulously well! Devar had an innate music sense and a feel for rhythm, and he loved our title-track. But the tussle came up over the sad song, "Nafrat Ki Duniya", which was the only song sung by (Mohammed) Rafisaab in the film. I recall voicing my doubts. But Laxmi, the director and Rajesh Khanna were staunchly in favour of keeping that song. And the audience cried with the song and Anand Bakshisaab's lyrics."


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: In the United States of America, individuals and corporations pay U.S. federal income tax on the net total of all their capital gains. The tax rate depends on both the investor's tax bracket and the amount of time the investment was held. Short-term capital gains are taxed at the investor's ordinary income tax rate and are defined as investments held for a year or less before being sold. Long-term capital gains, on dispositions of assets held for more than one year, are taxed at a lower rate.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Long-term capital gains are taxed at lower rates shown in the table below. (Qualified dividends receive the same preference.)


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: However, taxpayers pay no tax on income covered by deductions: the standard deduction (for 2022: $12,950 for an individual return, $19,400 for heads of households, and $25,900 for a joint return), or more if the taxpayer has over that amount in itemized deductions. Amounts in excess of this are taxed at the rates in the above table.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Separately, the tax on collectibles and certain small business stock is capped at 28%. The tax on unrecaptured Section 1250 gain — the portion of gains on depreciable real estate (structures used for business purposes) that has been or could have been claimed as depreciation — is capped at 25%.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The income amounts ("tax brackets") were reset by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 for the 2018 tax year to equal the amount that would have been due under prior law. They are adjusted each year based on the Chained CPI measure of inflation.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Capital gains do not push ordinary income into a higher income bracket. The Capital Gains and Qualified Dividends Worksheet in the Form 1040 instructions specifies a calculation that treats both long-term capital gains and qualified dividends as though they were the last income received, then applies the preferential tax rate as shown in the above table. Conversely, however, this means an increase in ordinary income will withdraw the 0% and 15% brackets for capital gains taxes.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The capital gain that is taxed is the excess of the sale price over the cost basis of the asset. The taxpayer reduces the sale price and increases the cost basis (reducing the capital gain on which tax is due) to reflect transaction costs such as brokerage fees, certain legal fees, and the transaction tax on sales.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: In contrast, when a business is entitled to a depreciation deduction on an asset used in the business (such as for each year's wear on a piece of machinery), it reduces the cost basis of that asset by that amount, potentially to zero. The reduction in basis occurs whether or not the business claims the depreciation.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: If the business then sells the asset for a gain (that is, for more than its adjusted cost basis), this part of the gain is called depreciation recapture. When selling certain real estate, it may be treated as capital gain. When selling equipment, however, depreciation recapture is generally taxed as ordinary income, not capital gain. Further, when selling some kinds of assets, none of the gain qualifies as capital gain.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: If a business develops and sells properties, gains are taxed as business income rather than investment income. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in "Byram v. United States" (1983), set out criteria for making this decision and determining whether income qualifies for treatment as a capital gain.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Under the stepped-up basis rule, for an individual who inherits a capital asset, the cost basis is "stepped up" to its fair market value of the property at the time of the inheritance. When eventually sold, the capital gain or loss is only the difference in value from this stepped-up basis. Increase in value that occurred before the inheritance (such as during the life of the decedent) is never taxed.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: If a taxpayer realizes both capital gains and capital losses in the same year, the losses offset (cancel out) the gains. The amount remaining after offsetting is the net gain or net loss used in the calculation of taxable gains.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: For individuals, a net loss can be claimed as a tax deduction against ordinary income, up to $3,000 per year ($1,500 in the case of a married individual filing separately). Any remaining net loss can be carried over and applied against gains in future years. However, losses from the sale of personal property, including a residence, do not qualify for this treatment.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Corporations with net losses of any size can re-file their tax forms for the previous three years and use the losses to offset gains reported in those years. This results in a refund of capital gains taxes paid previously. After the carryback, a corporation can carry any unused portion of the loss forward for five years to offset future gains.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Corporations may declare that a payment to shareholders is a return of capital rather than a dividend. Dividends are taxable in the year that they are paid, while returns of capital work by decreasing the cost basis by the amount of the payment, and thus increasing the shareholder's eventual capital gain. Although most qualified dividends receive the same favorable tax treatment as long-term capital gains, the shareholder can defer taxation of a return of capital indefinitely by declining to sell the stock.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: From 1913 to 1921, capital gains were taxed at ordinary rates, initially up to a maximum rate of 7%. The Revenue Act of 1921 allowed a tax rate of 12.5% gain for assets held at least two years. From 1934 to 1941, taxpayers could exclude from taxation up to 70% of gains on assets held 1, 2, 5, and 10 years. Beginning in 1942, taxpayers could exclude 50% of capital gains on assets held at least six months or elect a 25% alternative tax rate if their ordinary tax rate exceeded 50%. From 1954 to 1967, the maximum capital gains tax rate was 25%. Capital gains tax rates were significantly increased in the 1969 and 1976 Tax Reform Acts. In 1978, Congress eliminated the minimum tax on excluded gains and increased the exclusion to 60%, reducing the maximum rate to 28%. The 1981 tax rate reductions further reduced capital gains rates to a maximum of 20%.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The Tax Reform Act of 1986 repealed the exclusion of long-term gains, raising the maximum rate to 28% (33% for taxpayers subject to phaseouts). The 1990 and 1993 budget acts increased ordinary tax rates but re-established a lower rate of 28% for long-term gains, though effective tax rates sometimes exceeded 28% because of other tax provisions. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 reduced capital gains tax rates to 10% and 20% and created the exclusion for one's primary residence. The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 reduced them further, to 8% and 18%, for assets held for five years or more. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 reduced the rates to 5% and 15%, and extended the preferential treatment to qualified dividends.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The 15% tax rate was extended through 2010 as a result of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, then through 2012. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 made qualified dividends a permanent part of the tax code but added a 20% rate on income in the new, highest tax bracket.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 caused the IRS to introduce Form 8949, and radically change Form 1099-B, so that brokers would report not just the amounts of sales proceeds but also the amounts of purchases to the IRS, enabling the IRS to verify reported capital gains.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 exempted taxes on capital gains for angel and venture capital investors on small business stock investments if held for 5 years. It was a temporary measure but was extended through 2011 by the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 as a jobs stimulus.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: In 2013, provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obama-care") took effect that imposed the Medicare tax of 3.8% (formerly a payroll tax) on capital gains of high-income taxpayers.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: From 1998 through 2017, tax law keyed the tax rate for long-term capital gains to the taxpayer's tax bracket for ordinary income, and set forth a lower rate for the capital gains. (Short-term capital gains have been taxed at the same rate as ordinary income for this entire period.) This approach was dropped by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, starting with tax year 2018.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki> This rate was reduced one-half percentage point for 2001 and one-half percentage point for 2002 and beyond.<br>


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: <nowiki>**</nowiki> There was a two percentage point reduction for capital gains from certain assets held for more than five years, resulting in 8% and 18% rates.<br>


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Most states tax capital gains as ordinary income. States that don't tax income (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) don't tax capital gains either, nor do two (New Hampshire and Tennessee) that do or did tax only income from dividends and interest.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Capital gains taxes are disproportionately paid by high-income households, since they are more likely to own assets that generate the taxable gains. While this supports the argument that payers of capital gains taxes have more "ability to pay,"


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: it also means that the payers are especially able to defer or avoid the tax, as it only comes due if and when the owner sells the asset.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Low-income taxpayers who do not pay capital gains taxes directly may wind up paying them through changed prices as the actual payers pass through the cost of paying the tax. Another factor complicating the use of capital gains taxes to address income inequality is that capital gains are usually not recurring income. A taxpayer may be "high-income" in the single year in which he or she sells an asset or invention.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Debate on tax rates is often partisan; the Republican Party tends to favor lower rates, whereas the Democratic Party tends to favor higher rates.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The existence of the capital gains tax is controversial. In 1995, to support the Contract with America legislative program of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Stephen Moore and John Silvia wrote a study for the Cato Institute. In the study, they proposed halving of capital gains taxes, arguing that this move would "substantially raise tax collections and increase tax payments by the rich" and that it would increase economic growth and job creation. They wrote that the tax "is so economically inefficient...that the optimal economic policy...would be to abolish the tax entirely."


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: More recently, Moore has written that the capital gains tax constitutes double taxation. "First, most capital gains come from the sale of financial assets like stock. But publicly held companies have to pay corporate income tax...Capital gains is a second tax on that income when the stock is sold."


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Richard Epstein says that the capital-gains tax "slows down the shift in wealth from less to more productive uses" by imposing a cost on the decision to shift assets. He favors repeal or a rollover provision to defer the tax on gains that are reinvested.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The fact that the long-term capital gains rate is lower than the rate on ordinary income is regarded by the political left, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, as a "tax break" that excuses investors from paying their "fair share." The tax benefit for a long-term capital gain is sometimes referred to as a "tax expenditure" that government could elect to stop spending. By contrast, Republicans favor lowering the capital gain tax rate as an inducement to saving and investment. Also, the lower rate partly compensates for the fact that some capital gains are illusory and reflect nothing but inflation between the time the asset is bought and the time it is sold. Moore writes, "when inflation is high...the tax rate can even rise above 100 percent", as when a taxpayer owes tax on a capital gain that does not result in any increase in real wealth.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The one-year threshold between short-term and long-term capital gains is arbitrary and has changed over time. Short-term gains are disparaged as speculation and are perceived as self-interested, myopic, and destabilizing, while long-term gains are characterized as investment, which supposedly reflects a more stable commitment that is in the nation's interest. Others call this a false dichotomy.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The holding period to qualify for favorable tax treatment has varied from six months to ten years (see History above). There was special treatment of assets held for five years during the Presidency of George W. Bush. In her 2016 Presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton advocated holding periods of up to six years with a sliding scale of tax rates.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Carried interest is the share of any profits that the general partners of private equity funds receive as compensation, despite not contributing any initial funds. The manager may also receive compensation that is a percentage of the assets under management.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Tax law provides that when such managers take, as a fee, a portion of the gain realized in connection with the investments they manage, the manager's gain is afforded the same tax treatment as the client's gain. Thus, where the client realizes long-term capital gains, the manager's gain is a long-term capital gain—generally resulting in a lower tax rate for the manager than would be the case if the manager's income were not treated as a long-term capital gain. Under this treatment, the tax on a long-term gain does not depend on how investors and managers divide the gain.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: This tax treatment is often called the "hedge-fund loophole", even though it is private equity funds that benefit from the treatment; hedge funds usually do not have long-term gains. It has been criticized as "indefensible" and a "gross unfairness", because it taxes management services at a preferential rate intended for long-term gains. Warren Buffett has used the term "coddling the super rich". One counterargument is that the preferential rate is warranted because a grant of carried interest is often deferred and contingent, making it less reliable than a regular salary.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The 2017 tax reform established a three-year holding period for these fund managers to qualify for the long-term capital-gains preference.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The capital gains tax raises money for government but penalizes investment (by reducing the final rate of return). Proposals to change the tax rate from the current rate are accompanied by predictions on how it will affect both results. For example, an increase of the tax rate would be more of a disincentive to invest in assets, but would seem to raise more money for government. However, the Laffer curve suggests that the revenue increase might not be linear and might even be a decrease, as Laffer's "economic effect" begins to outweigh the "arithmetic effect." For example, a 10% rate increase (such as from 20% to 22%) might raise less than 10% additional tax revenue by inhibiting some transactions. Laffer postulated that a 100% tax rate results in no tax revenue.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Another economic effect that might make receipts differ from those predicted is that the United States competes for capital with other countries. A change in the capital gains rate could attract more foreign investment, or drive United States investors to invest abroad.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Congress sometimes directs the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate the effects of a bill to change the tax code. It is contentious on partisan grounds whether to direct the CBO to use dynamic scoring (to include economic effects), or static scoring that does not consider the bill's effect on the incentives of taxpayers. After failing to enact the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act of 2014, Republicans mandated dynamic scoring in a rule change at the start of 2015, to apply to the Fiscal Year 2016 and subsequent budgets.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Supporters of cuts in capital gains tax rates may argue that the current rate is on the falling side of the Laffer curve (past a point of diminishing returns) — that it is so high that its disincentive effect is dominant, and thus that a rate cut would "pay for itself." Opponents of cutting the capital gains tax rate argue the correlation between top tax rate and total economic growth is inconclusive.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Mark LaRochelle wrote on the conservative website "Human Events" that cutting the capital gains rate increases employment. He presented a U.S. Treasury chart to assert that "in general, capital gains taxes and GDP have an inverse relationship: when the rate goes up, the economy goes down". He also cited statistical correlation based on tax rate changes during the presidencies of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ronald Reagan.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: However, comparing capital gains tax rates and economic growth in America from 1950 to 2011, Brookings Institution economist Leonard Burman found "no statistically significant correlation between the two", even after using "lag times of five years." Burman's data are shown in the chart at right.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Economist Thomas L. Hungerford of the liberal Economic Policy Institute found "little or even a negative" correlation between capital gains tax reduction and rates of saving and investment, writing: "Saving rates have fallen over the past 30 years while the capital gains tax rate has fallen from 28% in 1987 to 15% today ... This suggests that changing capital gains tax rates have had little effect on private saving".


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Researchers usually use the top marginal tax rate to characterize policy as high-tax or low-tax. This figure measures the disincentive on the largest transactions per additional dollar of taxable income. However, this might not tell the complete story. The table Summary of recent history above shows that, although the marginal rate is higher now than at any time since 1998, there is also a substantial bracket on which the tax rate is 0%.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Another reason it is hard to prove correlation between the top capital gains rate and total economic output is that changes to the capital gains rate do not occur in isolation, but as part of a tax reform package. They may be accompanied by other measures to boost investment, and Congressional consensus to do so may derive from an economic shock, from which the economy may have been recovering independent of tax reform. A reform package may include increases and decreases in tax rates; the Tax Reform Act of 1986 increased the top capital gains rate, from 20% to 28%, as a compromise for reducing the top rate on ordinary income from 50% to 28%.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The ability to use capital losses to offset capital gains in the same year is discussed above. Toward the end of a tax year, some investors sell assets that are worth less than the investor paid for them to obtain this tax benefit.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: A wash sale, in which the investor sells an asset and buys it (or a similar asset) right back, cannot be treated as a loss at all, although there are other potential tax benefits as consolation.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: In January, a new tax year begins; if stock prices increase, analysts may attribute the increase to an absence of such end-of-year selling and say there is a January effect. A Santa Claus rally is an increase in stock prices at the end of the year, perhaps in anticipation of a January effect.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: A taxpayer can designate that a sale of corporate stock corresponds to a specified purchase. For example, the taxpayer holding 500 shares may have bought 100 shares each on five occasions, probably at a different price each time. The individual lots of 100 shares are typically not held separate; even in the days of physical stock certificates, there was no indication which stock was bought when. If the taxpayer sells 100 shares, then by designating which of the five lots is being sold, the taxpayer will realize one of five different capital gains or losses. The taxpayer can maximize or minimize the gain depending on an overall strategy, such as generating losses to offset gains, or keeping the total in the range that is taxed at a lower rate or not at all.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: To use this strategy, the taxpayer must specify "at the time of a sale" which lot is being sold (creating a "contemporaneous record"). This "versus purchase" sale is versus (against) a specified purchase. On brokerage websites, a "Lot Selector" may let the taxpayer specify the purchase to which a sell order corresponds.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Section 121 lets an individual exclude from gross income up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple filing jointly) of gains on the sale of real property if the owner owned and used it as primary residence for two of the five years before the date of sale. The two years of residency do not have to be continuous. An individual may meet the ownership and use tests during different 2-year periods. A taxpayer can move and claim the primary-residence exclusion every two years if living in an area where home prices are rising rapidly.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The tests may be waived for military service, disability, partial residence, unforeseen events, and other reasons. Moving to shorten one's commute to a new job is not an unforeseen event. Bankruptcy of an employer that induces a move to a different city is likely an unforeseen event, but the exclusion will be pro-rated if one has stayed in the home less than two years.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The amount of this exclusion is not increased for home ownership beyond five years. One is not able to deduct a loss on the sale of one's home.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The exclusion is calculated in a pro-rata manner, based on the number of years used as a residence and the number of years the house is rented-out. For example, if a house is purchased, then rented-out for 4 years, then lived-in for 3 years, then sold, the owner is entitled to 3/7 of the exclusion. This method of calculating the primary residence exclusion was implemented in 2008, aimed at eliminating a loophole where owners could rent out a house for many years, then move into it for two years and get the full exclusion.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: In 2011, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13531 establishing the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the "Simpson-Bowles Commission") to identify "policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run". The Commission's final report took the same approach as the 1986 reform: eliminate the preferential tax rate for long-term capital gains in exchange for a lower top rate on ordinary income.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The tax change proposals made by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform were never introduced. Republicans supported the proposed fiscal policy changes, yet Obama failed to garner support among fellow Democrats; During the 2012 election, presidential candidate Mitt Romney faulted Obama for "missing the bus" on his own Commission.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Tax policy was a part of the 2016 presidential campaign, as candidates proposed changes to the tax code that affect the capital gains tax.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: President Donald Trump's main proposed change to the capital gains tax was to repeal the 3.8% Medicare surtax that took effect in 2013. He also proposed to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, which would reduce tax liability for taxpayers with large incomes including capital gains. His maximum tax rate of 15% on businesses could result in lower capital gains taxes. However, as well as lowering tax rates on ordinary income, he would lower the dollar amounts for the remaining tax brackets, which would subject more individual capital gains to the top (20%) tax rate. Other Republican candidates proposed to lower the capital gains tax (Ted Cruz proposed a 10% rate), or eliminate it entirely (such as Marco Rubio).


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton proposed to increase the capital gains tax rate for high-income taxpayers by "creating several new, higher ordinary rates", and proposed a sliding scale for long-term capital gains, based on the time the asset was owned, up to 6 years. Gains on assets held from one to two years would be reclassified short-term and taxed as ordinary income, at an effective rate of up to 43.4%, and long-term assets not held for a full 6 years would also be taxed at a higher rate. Clinton also proposed to treat carried interest (see above) as ordinary income, increasing the tax on it, to impose a tax on "high-frequency" trading, and to take other steps. Bernie Sanders proposed to treat many capital gains as ordinary income, and increase the Medicare surtax to 6%, resulting in a top effective rate of 60% on some capital gains.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The Republican Party introduced the American Health Care Act of 2017 (House Bill 1628), which would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ACA" or "Obamacare") to repeal the 3.8% tax on all investment income for high-income taxpayers and the 2.5% "shared responsibility payment" ("individual mandate") for taxpayers who do not have an acceptable insurance policy, which applies to capital gains. The House passed this bill but the Senate did not.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: House Bill 1 (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) was released on November 2, 2017 by Chairman Kevin Brady of the House Ways and Means Committee. Its treatment of capital gains was comparable to current law, but it roughly doubled the standard deduction, while dropping personal exemptions in favor of a larger child tax credit. President Trump advocated using the bill to also repeal the shared responsibility payment, but Rep. Brady believed doing so would complicate passage. The House passed H.B. 1 on November 16.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The Senate version of H.B. 1 passed on December 2. It zeroed out the shared responsibility payment, but only beginning in 2019. Attempts to repeal "versus purchase" sales of stock (see above), and to make it harder to exclude gains on the sale of one's personal residence, did not survive the conference committee. Regarding "carried interest" (see above), the conference committee raised the holding period from one year to three to qualify for long-term capital-gains treatment.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: The tax bills were "scored" to ensure their cost in lower government revenue was small enough to qualify under the Senate's reconciliation procedure. The law required this to use dynamic scoring (see above), but Larry Kudlow claimed that the scoring underestimated economic incentives and inflow of capital from abroad. To improve the scoring, changes to the personal income tax expired at the end of 2025.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Both houses of Congress passed H.B. 1 on December 20 and President Trump signed it into law on December 22.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: In March 2018, Trump appointed Kudlow the assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council, replacing Gary Cohn. Kudlow supports indexing the cost basis of taxable investments to avoid taxing gains that are merely the result of inflation, and has suggested that the law lets Trump direct the IRS to do so without a vote of Congress. The Treasury confirmed it was investigating the idea, but a lead Democrat said it would be “legally dubious” and meet with “stiff and vocal opposition”. In August 2018, Trump said indexation of capital gains would be "very easy to do", though telling reporters the next day that it might be perceived as benefitting the wealthy.


title: Capital gains tax in the United States

text: Trump and Kudlow both announced a "phase two" of tax reform, suggesting a new bill that included a lower capital gains rate. However, prospects for a follow-on tax bill dimmed after the Democratic Party took the House of Representatives in the 2018 elections.


title: Darkling beetle

text: Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae. The number of species in the Tenebrionidae is estimated at more than 20,000 and the family is cosmopolitan in distribution.


title: Darkling beetle

text: "Tenebrio" is the Latin generic name that Carl Linnaeus assigned to some flour beetles in his "10th edition of Systema Naturae" 1758-59. The word means "seeker of dark places" (or figuratively a trickster); an English language analogy is "darkling".


title: Darkling beetle

text: Numerous Tenebrionidae species do inhabit dark places, however, there are many species in genera such as "Stenocara" and "Onymacris", which are active by day and inactive at night.


title: Darkling beetle

text: The family covers a varied range of forms, such that classification presents great difficulties. These eleven subfamilies were listed in the 2021 review by Bouchard, Bousquet, "et al.", updating a similar catalog from 2005.


title: Darkling beetle

text: Ongoing phylogenetic studies are showing that some taxonomic changes are needed. For instance the tribal classification of tribe Pedinini has recently been altered.


title: Darkling beetle

text: The misspelling "Terebrionidae" occurs frequently enough to be easily overlooked. The error appears to have no particular significance, but to be the product of misreadings, mis-scans and mis-typings.


title: Darkling beetle

text: The oldest known member of the family is "Jurallecula" from the Late Jurassic Karabastau Formation of Kazakhstan, assigned to the subfamily Alleculinae.


title: Darkling beetle

text: Tenebrionid beetles occupy ecological niches in mainly deserts and forests as plant scavengers. Most species are generalistic omnivores, and feed on decaying leaves, rotting wood, fresh plant matter, dead insects, and fungi as larvae and adults. Several genera, including "Bolitotherus", are specialized fungivores which feed on polypores. Many of the larger species are flightless, and those that are capable, such as "T. molitor", only do so when necessary, such as when dispersing or malnourished.


title: Darkling beetle

text: The larvae, known as mealworms or false wireworms, are usually fossorial, heavily armored and nocturnal. They may possibly be an important resource for certain invertebrates and small mammals. However, the adults of many species have chemical defenses and are relatively protected against predators. Adults of most species, except grain pests, have slow metabolisms, and live long lives compared to other insects, ranging from approximately six months to two years.


title: Darkling beetle

text: Some species live in intensely dry deserts such as the Namib, and have evolved adaptions by which they collect droplets of fog that deposit on their elytra. As the droplets accumulate the water drains down the beetles' backs to their mouthparts, where they swallow it.


title: Darkling beetle

text: Humans spread some species such that they have become cosmopolitan, such as "Tribolium castaneum", the red flour beetle, which was spread through grain products.


title: Darkling beetle

text: The larval stages of several species are cultured as feeder insects for captive insectivores or as laboratory subjects:


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Marta del Castillo Casanueva (July 19, 1991 – January 24, 2009) was a Spanish high school student who disappeared and was presumably murdered on January 24, 2009. Despite extensive searches and the conviction of Miguel Carcaño Delgado in 2011, her body has never been found. The case is popularly known in Spain as the Disappearance of Marta del Castillo () or simply as the Marta del Castillo Case ().


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Del Castillo was chatting with a friend, Silvia Fernández, through Messenger when she left the conversation with the line ("Fatty, I leave you because "[e]l Migue" is downstairs and I'm going to talk to him. I'll call you later and tell you about it. Love you."). "El Migue" was the nickname of 19-year old Miguel Carcaño Delgado, a boy she had been casually seeing for approximately one month. Around 17:00, Del Castillo told her family that she would spend the evening with friends, and she left the family home in Seville's Argantonio Street. Del Castillo's mother had previously warned her about Carcaño, claiming that he had the "profile of a domestic abuser."


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: When Del Castillo was late getting home, her family called her cell phone, which was on for the first hours, but she didn't respond. They then called her friends, including some of the people who would be later accused of her disappearance, like Carcaño and Samuel Benítez. Carcaño admitted that he had seen her that evening, but claimed that he had left her near the entrance of her apartment block around 21:30. Del Castillo's mother was suspicious and told Carcaño that she'd "throw the police over" him if something bad had happened to her daughter. Carcaño attracted further suspicions from Del Castillo's family and friends when he moved immediately to nearby Camas, rather than joining the search for Del Castillo. Carcaño resided from then on in Camas with his latest girlfriend, 14-year old Rocío P. G., and her family. Among other places, Del Castillo's friends looked for her in the apartment where Carcaño had lived before with his older half-brother, Francisco Javier Delgado Moreno, in Seville's 78 León XIII Street, and they noticed that the place smelled strongly of bleach and ammonia. Del Castillo's family reported her disappearance to the police around 2:00 AM.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: The case was investigated by the Underage People Task Force () of the Spanish National Police. After Carcaño's confession, it was joined by the Homicide Task Force (). Carcaño denied his involvement in repeated interrogations, but P. G. claimed to have seen blood on Carcaño's pants, and the lining of Carcaño's jacket tested positive for Del Castillo's blood. A luminol test in León XIII also revealed a large bloodstain on the bedroom floor.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Carcaño was interviewed again on February 14. Upon hearing of P. G.'s testimony and the existence of forensic evidence, he collapsed and confessed to the murder. According to this testimony, Carcaño murdered Del Castillo during an argument on the night of January 24. The reason for the argument was Carcaño's relationship with P. G. and Del Castillo's threat to tell P. G. about her own continued relationship with Carcaño if he didn't stop seeing her. The murder weapon was a heavy ashtray which was never found, but that Carcaño claimed to have used to hit Del Castillo on the left side of the parietal bone, killing her. Carcaño also claimed to have called a friend, Samuel Benítez Pérez, from a payphone in León XIII Street, and to have requested his help moving the body to Camas. Once there, they threw the body in the Guadalquivir River near a point called Charco de la Pava. Police suspected that Carcaño was not telling the whole truth. Among other things, he claimed that the vehicle used to move the body was his own moped, but tests showed that it was not stable enough to transport three people in that area, even without accounting for one of them being dead.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On February 16, the Minister of the Interior Alfredo Pérez-Rubalcaba announced that Carcaño and Benítez were both arrested under charges of homicide and illegal detention. Also arrested were Carcaño's half-brother and a 15-year old friend of Carcaño and Benítez, later identified as Francisco Javier García Marín, alias "El Cuco".


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Specialist Groups, and the Military Emergencies Unit searched the Guadalquivir between Camas and the stuary at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, using 22 vessels, 3 jet skis, 2 helicopters, 13 scent hounds, and a sonar and specialized underwater body retrieval technology lent by the Dutch Police. A Gelves dock engineer also designed, built and volunteered a rake-like tool capable of removing mud from the bottom of the river.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Three separate tests with pig carcasses weighing 50 kilograms were made. The bodies submerged several times, but in all three cases, they ended on the surface and stuck in a particular stretch of riverbank that was only 20 kilometers long. However, no trace of Del Castillo was found. Police worked with the hypothesis that the large volume of the Guadalquivir in January and the three weeks between the murder and Carcaño's confession had been enough to either wash the body out to sea before the search began or to entomb it in the bottom mud, which can be two meters thick in some areas.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Also searched were over 40 wells, canals, sewage plants, and pipes. A "bloodstained cloth" found in an irrigation canal near Camas was revealed to be just painted red after testing.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: In his own testimony (later recanted), "El Cuco" stated that he arrived in León XIII with Benítez, where they found Carcaño wrapping Del Castillo's body in a blanket under the supervision of Delgado. Delgado then threatened him and his family to silence him and stayed at the apartment to clean the evidence while the other three disposed of the body. Police believed that Delgado planned the strategy to follow after the murder, based on this testimony and phone conversations between Carcaño and Delgado while both were in remand. In one conversation, Delgado told Carcaño to "say nothing, because the police has nothing."


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On March 18, during the customary reconstruction of the crime at Leon XIII, Carcaño surprised the police when he requested to recant his previous testimony and make a new one. In this second statement, Carcaño blamed the murder on "El Cuco", saying that he had strangled Del Castillo in Delgado's living room while Carcaño was in the bedroom under the influence of "substances". Afterward, he phoned Benítez and they disposed of the body in a dumpster in the cross between León XIII and Jorge de Montemayor streets.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Carcaño claimed that he had felt pressured by the police to make his first testimony. Following this second testimony, the other three accused were requested to make new statements of their own, and they were confronted with Carcaño and each other to study their reaction. Benítez and "El Cuco" claimed to not be involved at all, and to not have visited Delgado's apartment on the day of the crime. "El Cuco"'s lawyer called Carcaño's second statement a joke and remarked the innocence of his client. Also critical was Del Castillo's father Antonio, who accused the suspects of being deliberately misleading about the body's location because they were hiding additional crimes against his daughter. Del Castillo speculated that his daughter had been cremated in an incinerator where P. G.'s father had been employed in previously.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Because of Carcaño's new statement, the search team was alerted and directed from the river to the Montemarta-Cónica landfill near Alcalá de Guadaíra, where the trash generated in Seville is processed.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On March 19, confronted with the "unbelievability" of the crime reconstruction in León XIII, Carcaño requested to recant and make yet another statement before the examining magistrate. This time, Carcaño said that he had been drinking, smoking and taking drugs with Del Castillo and "El Cuco" at León XIII. Around midnight, the two males attempted to have sex with Del Castillo, and when she resisted, they beat her and took her to the bedroom, where they threatened her with a knife and Carcaño raped her, followed by "El Cuco". Afterward, they tied her to the bed with insulating tape and the cord from a heart monitor. Carcaño punched her hard enough to make her bleed, and they strangled her together. The body was disguised with two trash bags, moved out of the apartment on a wheelchair previously used by Carcaño's dead mother, and thrown in the dumpster while "El Cuco" disposed of the knife on a sewer. Though authorities were not entirely convinced by this version, it explained the finding of the knife in the sewer in front of the apartment, the presence of Del Castillo's blood and DNA of both Carcaño and "El Cuco" in the bedroom, the finding of cells belonging to both Carcaño and Del Castillo in the wheelchair's handlers, and the testimony of a neighbor who had met Carcaño when he returned to the building with the empty wheelchair.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Witnesses to the statement claimed that Carcaño had looked the magistrate in the eye for the first time and appeared to have taken a load off his mind after he was finished. Carcaño's lawyer renounced to continue representing him after this point. When asked about why he had implicated Benítez and said that he had disposed of the body in the river, he claimed that he had told the police what they wanted to hear. He also denied any involvement from his half-brother, who he claimed had left the apartment at 20:30, ten minutes after Carcaño arrived there with Del Castillo. Carcaño also denied having talked about the murder with P. G., in contradiction with her own testimony, which stated that he had told her "everything." It was estimated that in the time between the disappearance and Carcaño's new version, around 65,000 tons of trash had arrived at the landfill. As a result, it would be "very difficult" to locate the body. Landfill employees and policemen revised 60,000 tons over the course of 32 days unsuccessfully, even though they knew a particular area where the trash was dumped in the days following the murder. They also found no human DNA in the dumpsters that Carcaño had said were used to dispose of the body. Eventually, Police concluded that Carcaño had not thrown the body in a dumpster, and speculated that he had falsely confessed a rape with the intention of obtaining a bench trial rather than a trial by jury.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On May 21, Delgado was released with the condition that he visited the courthouse every Monday. Reasons included the fact that Delgado's part in the crime was necessarily small if any, and that his alibi had been partly confirmed by mobile phone tracking placing him on the road to Carmona at 21:01. Delgado, who had always denied his involvement, offered to take a polygraph test, but the magistrate rejected the idea. After his release, Delgado made a press statement accusing his half-brother of lying to him, and about his involvement in the case.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Benítez was released on December 10. He had requested to be released on two previous occasions, but he was denied arguing gravity of the suspected crime and a risk of tampering with evidence after release. "El Cuco", being under 18 years of age, was placed in a juvenile detention center for the maximum legal time (9 months), and moved to a supervised home afterward.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: "El Cuco" first claimed that the trio used his mother's Volkswagen Polo to move the body from León XIII to the Guadalquivir. This car was washed a few days after Del Castillo's disappearance, but it tested positive for blood in luminol and benzidine tests. However, no DNA could be extracted from the blood as it was too degraded. Police also found the DNA of a man and a woman in the car, which belonged to neither the victim nor the suspects. It was assumed to belong to "El Cuco"'s mother and her boyfriend, but neither agreed to provide a DNA sample for comparison.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: In December, it was discovered that a Renault 19 and a Ford Escort abandoned since August on Seville's streets, with flat tires and no license plates, also belonged to "El Cuco"'s mother and her boyfriend, contradicting their claims that they only owned the Polo. The Renault was retired and destroyed on November 27, before the discovery was made, but the Ford could be retrieved for testing. DNA of a man and a woman that was neither Del Castillo nor any of the accused was found in the Ford. The female DNA belonged to the same woman as the DNA in the Polo.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: A pre-trial hearing was held on March 13, 2010. Rocío P. G., who faced no charges, was declared for an hour and a half. She said that Carcaño had told her that he had thrown Del Castillo's body in a wooded area near Camas. Previously, she had claimed that he had buried it in a ditch some 600 meters from this new location, which led to two unsuccessful searches there earlier in had not been at her home in the night of the crime, as he had claimed, but that he had left his cell phone there, explaining why mobile phone tracking data placed him there at the time. When questioned about a threatening call that she had received during the investigation, she denied that she had identified Francisco Javier Delgado as the maker of the call, and remarked that she had merely picked his voice among several anonymous recordings played to her by police. Journalists speculated that this clarification was a result of P. G. feeling intimidated after Delgado sued her for perjury in the week leading to the hearing. Nevertheless, P. G. cast doubt on her own reliability as a witness when she nonchalantly claimed to have lied to police and flaunted that "If I lie to Police, I [can] lie to anyone," in a statement found baffling by the present. P. G.'s mother and grandmother also testified in regard to their three-week cohabitation with Carcaño in the family home. At the end of her declaration, P. G. walked pass Carcaño and suffered a panic attack.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Carcaño declined to make a new statement. The judge only questioned him once, in regards to the location of Del Castillo's body. Carcaño lowered his head and said, "I don't know." The last person to testify was the mother of "El Cuco", who said that her son had no access to her car because she kept the only existing key.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: The first trial, presided by Judge Francisco de Asís Molina, began on April 12, 2010. Miguel Carcaño was charged with two instances of rape, one of murder, one of the crimes against moral integrity and one of corpse desecration. Francisco Javier Delgado, his girlfriend María García Mendaro, and Samuel Benítez each faced a charge of concealment of a crime, corpse desecration and crimes against moral integrity, with Delgado receiving an additional charge for making threats. The prosecution's version of the crime largely followed Carcaño's third version of the murder, with the differing claim that Delgado and García made it to the apartment after Benítez and were involved in the disposal of the body. It also mentioned "El Cuco" as one of the main perpetrators, who was to be tried separately in juvenile court. The prosecution requested a sentence of 52 years in prison for Carcaño, eight for Delgado, and five for Benítez. It also requested all four adults to pay the expenses of the unsuccessful search for the body and to compensate Del Castillo's parents with 160,000 euro and each of her sisters with 30,000 euro. In addition, Benítez should stay away from Del Castillo's family and not contact them for six years after his incarceration.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On February 1, 2011, Carcaño testified before Court, stating this time that Del Castillo wasn't raped, he killed her alone with the ashtray and stayed in León XIII to clean up the crime scene while Benítez and "El Cuco" disposed of the body in the river. On October 18, Carcaño added that he had falsely accused "El Cuco" of rape and murder in vengeance for "El Cuco" implicating Delgado in the murder and that Benítez and "El Cuco" did not arrive until after the murder had already happened. Delgado claimed that he left the house without ever meeting Del Castillo or knowing that she was in a relationship with his brother; that Carcaño's bedroom door was closed when he left and he didn't look inside; and that he was with his ex-wife and daughter between 21:00 and 23:30, in his pub until 2:00, and in a bar until 4:00 when he called García to let him in the apartment. He denied to have threatened anyone or to know where the body was, but he refused to explain what he meant when he was heard saying "There is nothing to look for" in the aftermath of Del Castillo's disappearance. García testified that she asked Delgado's permission to study in his home and that she went there after driving Delgado to his pub around 23:50. She claimed to have never seen Del Castillo or her body, but that she smelled something strange behind Carcaño's door, which was closed. She then retracted this last statement. She denied accusations that her testimony was intended to fabricate an alibi for Delgado. Benítez testified that he never was at León XIII and had no involvement in the crime, attributing his original confession to have helped dispose of the body to police pressure.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: "El Cuco", already convicted in his own trial, testified as a witness on the ordinary trial on October 26. He claimed to not know where the body was and that his early confessions of helping in the disposal of the body were lies made due to police pressure and their threat to implicate his mother and other relatives. On November 3, Rocío P. G. testified that Carcaño had told her about how he and Delgado had murdered Del Castillo during an argument, cleaned the murder scene, disposed of the body with "two others" in the wooden area near Camas, and entered her home through a window in the early morning. He also took her to the wooden area, but she wasn't sure if he was telling the truth. She explained inconsistencies in her previous versions with the claim that she had been threatened. P. G.'s mother testified that Carcaño had murdered Del Castillo but had no part in the body disposal, and explained her daughter's inconsistencies due to being both afraid and in love with Carcaño. The early witness statement by P. G.'s grandmother, who had died before the trial proper started, was read again. It stated that she had washed Carcaño's clothes in the morning and found nothing strange in them. Antonio T. D., a barman in León XIII, testified that he saw two thin individuals in hoodies pushing a wheelchair with a large package to the dumpsters, around 2:00 AM, and then returning with the wheelchair empty. Delgado's ex-wife testified that he was with her and their daughter between 21:15 and 23:30.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On November 14, a taxi driver testified as a surprise witness for the prosecution, claiming he drove Delgado to León XIII "in the first hours of the morning", thus contradicting the testimonies of Delgado and García. When asked why he didn't come forward until the week before, he said that he didn't realize the value of his testimony before then. "El Cuco"'s father testified that he sent home his son early and that while he did not check if he was there, as he was at work, his wife did. "El Cuco"'s mother said that she arrived home at 1:30 AM and saw her son asleep in his room. Her testimony was polemic because she had repeatedly requested to delay or cancel it claiming illness, yet she had been interviewed the week before in Telecinco's prime-time talk show "La Noria" and paid for it. In response, Telecinco was subjected to a boycott by viewers and all sponsors pulled out of the show, leading to the relegation of the program to the early morning and its eventual cancelation.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On January 16, 2012, Carcaño was sentenced to 20 years in prison and to compensate Del Castillo's parents and sisters with 340,000 Euros for the murder; he was acquitted of every other charge. All other accused were acquitted of all charges due to lack of evidence. The sentence stated that Carcaño had disposed of the body with the help of "El Cuco" (convicted in his own trial) and a third, unknown person, but the evidence identifying such person as Benítez was deemed insufficient.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: "El Cuco"'s trial began on January 24, 2011. The presiding judge was Alejandro Vián. "El Cuco" stood charges for rape, murder and a crime against moral integrity due to his prevention of Del Castillo's receiving a funeral; he plied innocence and claimed to not know the location of the body, blaming his four previous confessions to have concealed the murder on Police's pressures. Carcaño, Delgado, Benítez, and García were called to testify as witnesses, while "El Cuco"'s father declined to testify. The prosecution requested six years of internment in a juvenile detention center, three under supervised freedom, and a 616,319 euro fine, the cost of the unsuccessful search for Del Castillo's body.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On March 24, 2011, "El Cuco" was found guilty of the charge of concealment and was sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention center and one month of supervised freedom. The verdict allowed "El Cuco"'s past internment to be counted as part of his sentence, meaning that he would be released less than a year after the trial. He was found innocent of the charges of rape and murder, and not liable to pay for the expenses incurred during the unsuccessful search for the body. The verdict caused controversy because it relied on the identity of Carcaño as the main perpetrator, even though this wasn't proven yet since Carcaño's own trial had not finished.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Citing contradictions and "illogical" assumptions on the Ordinary Court ruling, the prosecution requested that the sentence be overturned by the Supreme Court of Spain and a new trial take place. This was rejected by the Supreme Court and the verdicts were upheld, but Carcaño's sentence was changed after considering that his ever-changing statements about the murder and fate of the body went beyond his right to not testify and incriminate himself. These had caused unnecessary, additional grief to the relatives of Del Castillo and constituted a crime against moral integrity. As a result, Carcaño was given an additional one-year and three months in prison, and he was also fined with the cost of the unsuccessful searches estimated on 616,319.27 Euros.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: In 2013, Carcaño told Police that Delgado was the real, and only murderer of Del Castillo. According to this new version (the sixth), Delgado pistol-whipped Del Castillo with his security guard's firearm after she tried to intervene in a fight between the brothers, and they subsequently buried the body together in a farm of La Rinconada called "La Majaloba", returning 24 hours later to cover the remains with lime. When asked why he had not said any of that earlier, Carcaño replied that he was afraid of his brother. The prosecution considered the story unbelievable and journalists noted obvious parallels with the killing of Lasa and Zabala by the paramilitary group GAL. Following Delgado's new interrogation, the judge cleared him and criticized the Police for questioning Carcaño for a crime he was already convicted of. Despite general scepticism, La Majaloba was searched months later and no trace of a body was found.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: In 2014, search operations were made in an illegal dumpsite located near the road used by Carcaño to move between Seville and Camas, and not far from the river shore where he claimed to have thrown the body in his first version. The new location was deemed promising according to the results of a P300 study Carcaño was subjected to in Zaragoza's university hospital. While human bone fragments were recovered at the site, they belonged to three or more people who had died between 100 and 200 years before. Carcaño reiterated his last version before Court, insisting that the body was in La Majaloba, not the dump, and saying that he didn't understand why the Police were searching there.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: In 2015, Antonio del Castillo offered Carcaño 18,000 euro if he pinpointed the exact location of the body, with the promise that he would not seek additional charges against him and that he could spend it in Seville or wherever he wished, after his incarceration. Carcaño rejected the offer, saying that it wouldn't "make up for him."


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On September 7, 2015 Antena 3's "Espejo Público" interviewed a man with the pseudonym "Óscar", who claimed to be a police consultant infiltrated for the past two and a half years in the circle of "El Cuco", and who had 600 hours of conversations with them on tape. The interviewee claimed that when Carcaño and "El Cuco" transported the body on the wheelchair, they did not bring it to the dumpster or the river, as they had claimed, but to another apartment where it was dismembered with the help of a friend of Carcaño who wasn't Spanish. It was then taken out in different bags, whose fate was ignored by Carcaño, thus explaining his incapability to locate the body exactly. The same source claimed that "El Cuco"'s family felt "no sadness nor empathy" for Del Castillo's family, that they laughed about the unsuccessful search for the body, and that they had considered having someone beat up Del Castillo's mother and grandfather.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On October 29, the examining magistrate accepted the tapes as potential evidence. Some seconds were played in "Espejo Público", revealing that "El Cuco"'s mother had helped create an alibi for her son, and that she was worried about the possibility that he had raped Del Castillo and that "El Cuco"'s father might compromise his case by talking too much. "Óscar" also said that "El Cuco"'s mother "may have" helped in the disposal of the body by lending her vehicle, that "El Cuco" was silent because he wanted to protect his mother, and that he had proof of Delgado's involvement in the murder. In January 2016, "Óscar" was publicly identified by Police as Pablo Bonilla R., a common criminal and one of many people who had tried to infiltrate themselves into the high-profile case. It was denied that he ever worked for Police in any capacity, and the tapes were dismissed as a hoax. These revelations were made during a trial against both the parents of "El Cuco" and Bonilla himself for breaking the restraining order that forbid "El Cuco" from getting within 50 kilometers of Seville. Bonilla, charged for driving the car used by "El Cuco" and his family to travel to Seville, claimed that he had alerted Police about the family's intentions, and that Police had told him to drive them into the road control where they were arrested. Bonilla's claims were dismissed and all three accused were sentenced to pay small fines.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: On March 16, 2016, the Del Castillo family sued "El Cuco" and his parents for false testimony at the ordinary court trial, which happened when "El Cuco" was already of age and legally liable. As their evidence, they cited other witness testimonies, the dismissed tapes, and TV statements of the parents claiming that they lied to create an alibi for their son. "El Cuco"'s family rejected the tapes both as a forgery and illegally taken, and refused to testify in the new trial.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: Judge Molina ordered a new search in a section of the Guadalquivir on February 7, 2017, after receiving a report commissioned by Antonio del Castillo. The area, placed a 10-minute walk away from León XIII, and near the , was identified as the likely location of the body disposal by criminologist Ignacio Abad and geophysicist Luis Avial, who used a georadar to locate 16 "exogen" points on the river bed susceptible of being the body. The area was consistent with the testimony of a nurse in the , who claimed to have seen three men in black hoodies pushing a wheelchair. When they stopped, the "very little one" was approached by a couple who talked to him. The search ended on February 24 after finding unrelated objects only.


title: Murder of Marta del Castillo

text: The same day, Antonio del Castillo met Carcaño in . Carcaño claimed that he didn't know the location of Del Castillo's daughter and that it was his brother who disposed of the body. This time, he claimed that Delgado transported the body in his ex-wife's car and that he buried it in a farm of La Algaba. He added that Delgado had probably dug it up later and reburied it elsewhere. Carcaño also claimed that he was threatened by Delgado into accompanying him to dispose of the body, but that he barely collaborated and fled as soon as he could. As for his ever-changing versions of the murder, he claimed that he always followed the advice of his brother.


title: Phallus indusiatus

text: Phallus indusiatus, commonly called the bamboo mushrooms, bamboo pith, long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn or veiled lady, is a fungus in the family Phallaceae, or stinkhorns. It has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical areas, and is found in southern Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia, where it grows in woodlands and gardens in rich soil and well-rotted woody material. The fruit body of the fungus is characterised by a conical to bell-shaped cap on a stalk and a delicate lacy "skirt", or indusium, that hangs from beneath the cap and reaches nearly to the ground. First described scientifically in 1798 by French botanist Étienne Pierre Ventenat, the species has often been referred to a separate genus "Dictyophora" along with other "Phallus" species featuring an indusium. "P. indusiatus" can be distinguished from other similar species by differences in distribution, size, color, and indusium length.


title: Phallus indusiatus

text: Mature fruit bodies are up to tall with a conical to bell-shaped cap that is wide. The cap is covered with a greenish-brown spore-containing slime, which attracts flies and other insects that eat the spores and disperse them. An edible mushroom featured as an ingredient in Chinese "haute cuisine", it is used in stir-fries and chicken soups. The mushroom, grown commercially and commonly sold in Asian markets, is rich in protein, carbohydrates, and dietary fiber. The mushroom also contains various bioactive compounds, and has antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. "Phallus indusiatus" has a recorded history of use in Chinese medicine extending back to the 7th century AD, and features in Nigerian folklore.


title: Phallus indusiatus

text: "Phallus indusiatus" was initially described by French naturalist Étienne Pierre Ventenat in 1798, and sanctioned under that name by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801. One author anonymously gave his impressions of Ventenat's discovery in an 1800 publication:


title: Phallus indusiatus

text: This beautiful species, which is sufficiently characterised to distinguish it from every other individual of the class, is copiously produced in Dutch Guiana, about 300 paces from the sea, and nearly as far from the left bank of the river of Surinam. It was communicated to me by the elder Vaillant, who discovered it in 1755 on some raised ground which was never overflowed by the highest tides, and is formed of a very fine white sand, covered with a thin stratum of earth. The prodigious quantity of individuals of this species which grow at the same time, the very different periods of their expansion, the brilliancy and the varied shades of their colours, present a prospect truly picturesque. The fungus was later placed in a new genus, "Dictyophora", in 1809 by Nicaise Auguste Desvaux; it was then known for many years as "Dictyophora indusiata". Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck placed the species in "Hymenophallus" in 1817, as "H. indusiatus". Both genera were eventually returned to synonyms of "Phallus" and the species is now known again by its original name.


title: Phallus indusiatus

text: Curtis Gates Lloyd described the variety "rochesterensis" in 1909, originally as a new species, "Phallus rochesterensis". It was found in Kew, Australia. A form with a pink-coloured indusium was reported by Vincenzo de Cesati in 1879 as "Hymenophallus roseus", and later called "Dictyophora indusiata" f. "rosea" by Yosio Kobayasi in 1965; it is synonymous with "Phallus cinnabarinus". A taxon described in 1936 as "Dictyophora lutea" and variously known for years as "Dictyophora indusiata" f. "lutea", "D. indusiata" f. "aurantiaca", or "Phallus indusiatus" f. "citrinus", was formally transferred to "Phallus" in 2008 as a distinct species, "Phallus luteus".


title: Phallus indusiatus

text: The specific epithet is the Latin adjective "indūsǐātus", "wearing an undergarment". The former generic name "Dictyophora" is derived from the Ancient Greek words ("diktyon", "net"), and ("pherō", "to bear"), hence "bearing a net". "Phallus indusiatus" has many common names based on its appearance, including long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn, basket stinkhorn, bridal veil fungus, and veiled lady. The Japanese name , derived from the word "kinugasa", refers to the wide-brimmed hats that featured a hanging silk veil to hide and protect the wearer's face. A Chinese common name that alludes to its typical growth habitat is "bamboo mushroom" ().