Author: Pensoft Editorial Team

Scientists discovered a new species of a peculiar cave-dwelling snail in one of the 20 deepest cave systems in the world, Lukina Jama–Trojama in Croatia. The newly discovered species belongs to a genus of minute air-breathing land snails that have lost visual orientation and are considered to be true eutroglobionts, or exclusive cave-dwellers. The study describing the new species was published in the open access journal Subterranean Biology.

The new species Zospeum tholussum is a miniature and fragile snail, with a beautifully shaped dome-like translucent shell. Only one living specimen was found during the expedition around the galleries of the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system. The animal was found at the remarkable depth of 980 m, in an unnamed chamber full of rocks and sand and a small stream running through it.

All known species from the cave-dwelling genus Zospeum possess a limited ability to move. Their preference of a muddy habitat and the fact that they are usually located near the drainage system of the cave, in a close proximity to running water, however suggest that these animals are not exactly immobile. Scientists hypothesize that dispersal is achieved through passive transportation via water or larger mammals.

The Lukina Jama–Trojama is the deepest cave system in Croatia, extraordinary for its vertical shape, long pits and great depth of -1392 m. From an ecological point of view this cave system is extremely interesting for having three microclimatic layers: firstly entrance icy part with the temperature of about 1 °C, secondly, middle part with the temperature up to 2 °C and bottom part with temperature till 4 °C. These unusual living conditions make the cave extremely interesting for scientist from a biodiversity point of view.

Original Source:

Citation: Weigand AM (2013) New Zospeum species (Gastropoda, Ellobioidea, Carychiidae) from 980 m depth in the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system (Velebit Mts., Croatia). Subterranean Biology 11: 45–53. doi: 10.3897/ subtbiol.11.5966

Metro Manila – the world’s 10th largest megacity and 6th largest conurbation, based on official statistics – is not a place one would normally expect to discover new species, even in a country that is known as a biodiversity hotspot.

In a 83-hectare green island amidst the unnatural ocean of countless man-made edifices, researchers of the Ateneo de Manila University have discovered a tiny new species of aquatic beetle, aptly named Hydraena ateneo. It was named after the University, a 154-year-old Jesuit-run institution that is recognized as one of the premier universities in the Philippines and in the region. The international open access scientific journal Zookeys has published the paper about the unusual discovery in its latest issue [329: 9 (2013)]. The publication of the fact is just timely, given that the university’s Department of Biology is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

During field training in November 2012, Biology students and a faculty member of the Department of Biology sampled small creeks, ponds, and pools in wooded areas within their sprawling university campus. The group found seven species of water beetles, of which one was a new record for the entire island of Luzon and another was Hydraena ateneo.

Arielle Vidal, at the time of the training enrolled in the Department’s B.S. Life Sciences program, says: “I was so amazed that there are new species even in the Ateneo Campus in the middle of Manila. Then I was sure that I wanted to write my thesis on a taxonomic topic.”, said Kimberly Go, her thesis partner, adds: “Then we pushed through and investigated a remote river catchment in Mindoro. We found several new species of the same genus there, too.”

Their thesis adviser and author of the recent paper, Associate Professor Dr. Hendrik Freitag, explains: “The Long-palped Water Beetles (genus Hydraena) are in fact one of the most overlooked and diverse genera of aquatic beetles. Only 14 species of this genus – all endemic – are known from the country by now, but many more wait to be named and described. All of them display these extremely enlarged palps of the maxilla. These are real mouthpart appendages and not the antennae. Those species that were found in the Ateneo campus must have re-colonized the area after the tree cover has re-established in the last 50 years and the small creeks began to flow again.”

Clister Pangantihon and Dr. Ronald Lagat, both facilitators of the “Philippine Aquatic Biodiversity Workshop” held at the Ateneo earlier this year confirm: “We found Hydraena ateneo also in the neighboring Province of Cavite during our workshop.” A few additional exemplars of the new species formerly collected in the Laguna Province were also detected among the copious collections of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria, which houses the world’s largest scientific collection of water beetles.

The study has shown that small patches of semi-natural habitats amidst the densely populated and highly urbanized capital region can accommodate an astonishing assemblage of species. This will hopefully be an inducement to protect and extend such islands of urban biodiversity in the cities.

Nevertheless, this should not lead to the illusion that the ongoing dramatic loss of biodiversity in the Philippines can be reversed. A large proportion of endemic organisms are closely associated with primary forests. Therefore, it should be an ultimate priority for nature conservation to protect the last remaining rainforests in the country.

Original source:

Freitag H (2013) Hydraena (Hydraenopsis) ateneo, new species (Coleoptera, Hydraenidae) and other aquatic Polyphaga from a small habitat patch in a highly urbanized landscape of Metro Manila, Philippines ZooKeys 329: 9. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.329.5955

Additional Information:

The Ateneo researchers are also very thankful to the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria from where additional specimens were made accessible for this study.

Only a fraction of the biodiversity on the planet is known to scientists and exploration of new places and habitats continue to yield exciting discoveries and new species to describe by taxonomists. This task is becoming increasingly urgent as a function of the continuous overexploitation of natural resources and destruction of habitats. In fact, it has recently been estimated that it takes on average 21 years from the discovery of a species in nature to its formal scientific description. The ‘shelf life’ can sometimes be significantly longer, as for the millipede Ommatoiulus schubarti found in Spain in 1863 and just very recently described in 2012.

Illustrations constitute one of the fundamental bases of any taxonomic work, but they could often be misleading and generate problems of synonymy, the Achilles’ heel of descriptive taxonomy. Thus, the demand for improving the quality of images and methods of visualization of taxonomic traits has significantly increased in the course of time, catalysed by the recent development of open access publishing. Interactive media illustrating important differences between species have the potential to further accelerate taxonomic works.

A paper, published in the open access journal ZooKeys, provides a modern revision of 12 millipedes of genus Ommatoiulus. The authors present an innovative illustration technique that allows the integration of scanning electron microscope images into an interactive rotatable model (rSEM) to visualize complex morphological features. This allows the structure in question to be seen from multiple angles of view. The development of rSEM is widely accessible, requiring no more than available scanning electron microscope and a software for image integration (Flash, Java Script based programs, etc.). The new illustrating technique can be viewed here. On the other hand, authors present a highly visual identification key to serve species identification. The key design prioritizes the visual delivery of taxonomic information via interactive media including line drawings, photographs and scanning electron micrographs of the most informative taxonomic characters in the studied group.

“Differences between species are often subtle, and the pronouncedly “3D” nature of their anatomy makes recognition of the differences difficult. In many older papers dealing with millipedes, authors have illustrated the copulatory organs as isolated pieces which has led to not only “angle-of-view” problems, but also to difficulties of relating the various components spatially to each other. By using rSEM, we have overcome these problems.”, comments the lead author of the study Dr. Nesrine Akkari, Natural History Museum of Denmark.

The slow tempo of incorporating innovative methods in taxonomic research is very likely due to the perception that sophisticated imaging requires special software, e-infrastructure, and significant funding. The multimedia driven, interactive taxonomic paper by Akkari et al. demonstrates that much can be accomplished using accessible equipment and methodology.

Original Source:

Akkari N, Cheung DK-B, Enghoff H, Stoev P (2013) Revolving SEM images visualising 3D taxonomic characters: application to six species of the millipede genus Ommatoiulus Latzel, 1884, with description of seven new species and an interactive key to the Tunisian members of the genus (Diplopoda, Julida, Julidae). ZooKeys 328: 5. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.328.5763

See also:

Cheung DK-B, Brunke AJ, Akkari N, Souza CM, Pape T (2013) Rotational Scanning Electron Micrographs (rSEM): A novel and accessible tool to visualize and communicate complex morphology. ZooKeys 328: 47. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.328.5768

Stoev P, Penev L, Akkari N, Cheung DK-B, Enghoff H, Brunke A, de Souza CM, Pape T, Mietchen D, Erwin T (2013) Revolving images and multi-image keys open new horizons in descriptive taxonomy: ZooKeys working examples. ZooKeys 328: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.328.6171

Contact:

Nesrine Akkari
Email: nakkari@snm.ku.dk ; nes.akkari@gmail.com
Tel: +45 35 32 10 01 (switchboard)

The tiny diamondback moth (scientific name: Plutella xylostella) gets its common name from the array of diamond shapes along the margin of its forewing. Despite their diminutive size, the caterpillars of the diamondback moth exert tremendous damage on many crops including cabbage, broccoli, and crucifers at large. More than $1 billion is spent globally each year in efforts to control damage by this moth, reflecting its amazing capacity to evolve resistance to both insecticides and biological control agents.

A global study of DNA barcodes by two Canadian entomologists revealed unexpected complexity: the occurrence of two distinct species among Australian diamondback moths. One of them is the well-known diamondback pest which is found nearly everywhere. The other is a new species, named Plutella australiana by Dr. Jean-François Landry of the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa and Dr. Paul Hebert of the University of Guelph, Ontario, the authors of the study. Their results have been published in the open access journal ZooKeys. The new species has so far been found only in Australia, where it occurs together with typical Plutella xylostella.

The new species was initially detected by Dr. Hebert in a general survey of Australian moths aimed at developing a library of DNA barcodes representing all the species of the fauna. Subsequent study of the anatomy revealed significant, previously unsuspected, differences in internal reproductive organs between typical diamondbacks and the new species.

DNA barcodes are short fragments of DNA used to identify organisms. They provide genetic traits that complement traditional morphology/anatomy. DNA barcoding is increasingly used in applications to identify species, especially cryptic organisms.

Although the new species of diamondback moth has now gained recognition and a name, key aspects of its biology remain uncertain. For example, what is its role as a crop pest in Australia and does it pose a threat to agriculture?

Original source:

Landry J-F, Hebert PDN (2013) Plutella australiana (Lepidoptera, Plutellidae), an overlooked diamondback moth revealed by DNA barcodes. ZooKeys 327: 43–63. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.327.5831

Much as human siblings can have vastly different personalities despite their similar resemblance and genetics, two closely related species of electric fish from the Amazon produce very different electric signals. These species, new to science, are described in the open access journal ZooKeys by Drs. John Sullivan of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Jansen Zuanon of the National Amazonian Research Institute in Manaus, Brazil and Cristina Cox Fernandes of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The two new species are bluntnose knifefish, genus Brachyhypopomus, that live under rafts of unrooted grasses and water hyacinth along the margins of the Amazon River called “floating meadows.” These are weakly electric relatives of South America’s famous electric “eel” (not a true eel) that can produce strong electric discharges of hundreds of volts. By contrast, these weakly fishes produce pulses of only a few hundred millivolts from an organ under the body that extends out onto a filamentous tail. Nearby objects in the water create distortions to the electric field that are sensed by receptor cells on the fishes’ skin. In this way, they are able to “electrolocate” through their complex aquatic environment at night. Their short electric pulses, too weak to be sensed by touch, are also used to communicate the sender’s species identity and gender to other electric fishes.

“The most striking differences between these two similar species have to do with their electric organs and their electric organ discharges, or EODs.”, says lead author John Sullivan, Curatorial Affiliate at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates. “If it weren’t for these traits, we undoubtedly would have thought they were a single species. The one we are calling Brachyhypopomus bennetti has a huge electric organ, a short, fat tail, and produces a monophasic EOD; the other one that we’re calling Brachyhypopomus walteri has a more typical electric organ, a long thin tail, and a more typical biphasic EOD.”

It turns out the monophasic EOD of the new species Brachyhypopomus bennetti is highly unusual. Most species of this kind of knifefish produce EOD waveforms with both a positive and negative phase to them, as viewed on an oscilloscope: essentially alternating current. In this way, there is no net positive or negative current generated by the signal. “All of this fish’s relatives, including its newly described sister species, have biphasic EODs.”, says Sullivan, “For that reason we know that this trait evolved in this species’ lineage. The interesting question is why.”

One widely accepted idea is that the biphasic EOD with its reduced amount of direct current (DC) is an adaptation to hide from predatory fish, like catfishes and electric eels, that are equipped with a type of electroreceptor that are sensitive to DC. So why would one species seemingly court danger by evolving a monophasic EOD?

The only other electric fish in the Amazon with a similar monophasic EOD is the fearsome electric eel. This fish has both a weak EOD used for electrolocation and communication as well as a much more powerful EOD used to stun prey and for defense. A theory proposed by Dr. Philip Stoddard of Florida International University contends that, in much the same way that the Viceroy butterfly—a species tasty to birds—evolved wing color patterns to mimic the distasteful Monarch butterfly, the harmless B. bennetti ‘s EOD waveform evolved to mimic that of the electric eel, a species electroreceptive predatory fishes may have learned to avoid.

In this paper, the authors suggest an additional possible benefit of of B. bennetti’s monophasic EOD. Unlike biphasic species, B. bennetti’s EOD waveform is largely unaffected after their tails are partially bitten off by predators, a common type of injury in this species. They suggest that this species’ preference for floating meadow habitat near river channels may put them at particularly high risk of predation and ”tail grazing” by other fishes.

The authors show that the EOD waveforms of Brachyhypopomus species with biphasic EODs are severely altered after such injuries, whereas those of B. bennetti are not. “Any change to the EOD waveform likely impairs electroreception and communication and the monophasic EOD waveform may have been favored by natural selection in a species that suffers a lot of tail injuries.”, says Sullivan, “Selection for both EOD stability and mimicry of electric eels could be going on simultaneously…both hypotheses make predictions that should be tested.”

###

The research that led to the discovery of the two new Brachyhypopomus species was funded by the National Science Foundation of the United States and CNPq of Brazil.

Original Source:

Sullivan JP, Zuanon J, Cox Fernandes C (2013) Two new species and a new subgenus of toothed Brachyhypopomus electric knifefishes (Gymnotiformes, Hypopomidae) from the central Amazon and considerations pertaining to the evolution of a monophasic electric organ discharge. ZooKeys 327: 1–34. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.327.5427

African mountain bamboos are something of a mystery, as nearly all bamboos are found in Asia or South America. Hidden away up mountains in the tropics where they provide food for gorillas, just as China’s bamboos provide food for the Giant Panda, there are apparently only 2 species, and they had not been examined in very great detail, except by the gorillas.

It had been thought that they were very closely related to the hundreds of similar bamboos in Asia, but their respective ranges are separated by thousands of miles. As flowering in bamboos is such a rare event, spreading by seed takes a very long time, and the suspicion arose that they might be old enough to represent new genera, and possibly could even be remnants of the earliest temperate bamboos, which spread to Asia on drifting tectonic plates. A new study published in the open access journal PhytoKeys, studies the diversity and evolution of African bamboo.

Having studied bamboos in the Himalayas extensively, and edited the descriptions of all the bamboos of China for the Flora of China Project of Academia Sinica and Missouri Botanical Gardens, Dr. Chris Stapleton turned his attention to the bamboos of Africa. He found that the features of the mountain bamboos were significantly different to those of Asia, and together with the large geographic separation, the differences were sufficient for the recognition of 2 new African genera, now named Bergbambos and Oldeania, after their local names in the Afrikaans and Maasai languages. The species are now Bergbambos tessellata Fig. 2, and Oldeania alpina Fig. 3.

DNA had been extracted from these bamboos and examined on several occasions, but the results of analyses were variable and could not prove a close relationship to any of the bamboos of Asia. What is clear when looking at all the DNA results together is that the African bamboos represent two separate lineages, and neither can be included in any known Asian genus.

Earlier work on the global distribution of bamboos has shown that bamboos evolved in the southern hemisphere on a landmass called Gondwanaland, parts of which spread apart to form South America, Africa and Asia when it broke up as a result of continental drift, the slow movement of tectonic plates on the earth’s surface. The incredible variety of temperate bamboos in China is thought to be a result of the early bamboos spreading out from either Africa or India when the plates collided and allowed the hitch-hiking bamboos to jump across into new territory.

The features and DNA of the African bamboos are certainly different to those of East Asia, but it is still not clear whether they are really different enough to represent ancestors of all the Asian bamboos. It will be necessary to hunt out and study mountain bamboos of Sri Lanka and Madagascar and to include them in a broader analysis to be sure. From this review, however, it looks as though African bamboos evolved about the same time as the bamboos of E Asia. The miriad temperate bamboos of China are more likely to have been a gift from India, rather than another ”Out of Africa” story, but further work is needed to be sure. What is clear is that Africa has two more endemic genera, and the bamboos are seen to be as unique as the animals that depend upon them.

Original source:

Stapleton CMA (2013) Bergbambos and Oldeania, new genera of African bamboos (Poaceae, Bambusoideae). PhytoKeys 25: 87. doi:10.3897/phytokeys.25.6026

Additional Information:

Stapleton CMA, Ní Chonghaile G, Hodkinson TR (2004) Sarocalamus, a New Sino-Himalayan Bamboo Genus (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) Novon 14 (3): 345-349. http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/novon/novo-14-03-345.pdf

Stapleton CMA, Hodkinson TR, Ní Chonghaile G (2009) Molecular phylogeny of Asian woody bamboos: Review for the Flora of China. Bamboo Science and Culture, J. of the American Bamboo Society 22(1): 5.http://www.bamboo-identification.co.uk/MPAWB_open.pdf Hodkinson TR, Ní Chonghaile G, Sungkaew S, Chase MW, Salamin N, Stapleton CMA (2010) Phylogenetic analyses of plastid and nuclear DNA sequences indicate a rapid late Miocene radiation of the temperate bamboo tribe Arundinarieae (Poaceae, Bambusoideae). Plant Ecology & Diversity 3(2): 109.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2010.521524

Flora of China Bamboo Account:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=20753

Bamboo Identification website:
http://www.bamboo-identification.co.uk

Acknowledgements:

The American Bamboo Society kindly provided the open access publication fees for the PhytoKeys paper.

A collaborative biological survey that focused on the insects of French Polynesia has resulted in the discovery of over 100 tiny predatory beetle species in Tahiti, 28 of these species newly described in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The predatory beetles range in size from 3-8 mm long, and have evolutionarily lost their flight wings, making them homebodies living in small patches of mountain forest. The author, James Liebherr of Cornell University, states: “It is exhilarating working with such a fauna, because every new locality or ecological situation has the high probability of supporting a species nobody has seen before.”

This adaptive radiation has evolved on an oceanic island less than 1.5 million years old, within an area of just over 1000 square kilometers. These beetles have diversified by speciating as fast as any animals worldwide, with each species estimated to last only 300,000 years before splitting into daughter species.

Tahiti’s geological history has much to do with this evolutionary rate, as these beetles prefer to live in rain forests on high mountains that have become isolated through extensive erosion that has produced the broad, low-elevation river valleys so characteristic of the island. Yet some closely related species live on the same mountain ridge, just at different elevations or in different types of habitat.

This level of specialization is what characterizes an adaptive radiation, where species exist within narrow ecological or geographic boundaries that mainland species would simply ignore or fly over. Yet this exuberant evolution may face a dark future, as invasive species from the mainland threaten the highly specialized island species. Predatory ants, such as the little fire ant, have invaded Tahiti, and have been recorded from some localities where native beetle species were collected by French entomologists in the 1970’s.

“Now that the 101 species of small predatory beetles currently known from Tahiti can be identified, field sampling can be used to evaluate their conservation status relative to alien threats.”, says Liebherr. Moreover he says: “Everybody who makes landfall on Tahiti, either by air or sea, should endeavor to disembark pest free so as to protect the many denizens of the mountain forests who make the native ecosystems work.”

Original Source:

The Mecyclothorax beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Moriomorphini) of Tahiti, Society Islands. ZooKeys 322: 1-170. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.322.5492

The 8th issue of the open access Biorisk journal is devoted to the topic of development and standardization of monitoring of genetically modified plants (GMP). The new issue, compiled by professionals under the umbrella of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), provides up-to-date research on the issue of developing VDI guidelines for GMP monitoring; now also capturing new faunal species groups as indicators.

Each application for approval of GM plants must contain a tailored monitoring plan. However, in Germany current experience with the cultivation of insect-resistant maize (MON810) and starch-modified potatoes (Amflora) shows that – from a conservation point of view – past monitoring plans are not suitable to detect relevant environmental effects.

Professional experts have now suggested a wide range of guidelines for GMP monitoring, among others collecting faunal species data for GMP impact monitoring, also broadly applicable for general biodiversity assessments in agricultural landscapes. The current issue contains articles from professionals in the field suggesting the introduction and implementation of VDI guidelines of faunal species, like butterflies, amphibians, soil organisms and wild bees.

The creation and adoption of VDI guidelines follows a strict procedure and the professionals involved in their production are strictly volunteers. In the European guidelines for GMP monitoring the use of such standardized methods is strongly recommended in order to ensure high quality, durability, reproducibility and comparability of data across Europe. Addressee for the VDI guidelines are all actors and institutions involved in the assessment of environmental effects of genetically modified plants. The guidelines are bilingual in German and English.

The creation of the VDI guidelines was funded by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment as part of a research and development project.

Butterflies and moths were the first biological indicators considered for the purpose of GMO monitoring within the VDI guidelines series. The European community stipulates a monitoring plan in order to trace and identify any harmful effects on human health or the environment of GMO after they have been placed on the market. Butterflies and moths are widely accepted as relevant protection goals and have often been suggested and applied as suitable indicators for the monitoring of environmental quality and changes as one of the major indicators to monitor and assess biodiversity change in Europe.

Adverse effects of genetically modified (GM) plants on Lepidoptera have already been reported, which strongly supports their quality and significance for an appropriate GMO monitoring. The VDI guidelines provide the state-of-the-art of a GMO monitoring of Lepidoptera as required by the European Community. They describe the best possible treatment of the demands of a Lepidopteran GMO monitoring.

The paper recently published in the open access journal BioRisk, reports known and potential effects of GM plants on Lepidoptera. The study aims at an increase in the detection success of such effects, thus meeting the required criteria for a GMO monitoring formulated by the EC. Information is provided on the sampling and monitoring of day-active Lepidoptera, of night-active moths and of the recording of Lepidopteran larvae, as well as to sample design and strategy. Though specifically designed for GM crops, the VDI guidelines may also serve as a template to monitor the effects of a wider range of adverse factors on Lepidoptera in agriculture

The guidelines describe and ensure a suitable approach for a powerful and cost-efficient monitoring, which is not equivalent to being cheap, but means generating data of high (or sufficient) quality with an acceptable and justified effort. An iterative quality control of the monitoring results is paramount, regularly checking the relation between invested efforts and value of generated data, and continuously adapting the monitoring programme to scientific progress and new knowledge.

Original Source:

Lang A, Theißen B, Dolek M (2013) Standardised methods for the GMO monitoring of butterflies and moths: the whys and hows. BioRisk 8: 15–38. doi: 10.3897/biorisk.8.32