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Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana and his team revised the wasp genera Microplitis andSnellenius, which at time have proven to be difficult to recognize. Their findings provide new evidence for them being separate genera. The scientists also added as many as 28 new species of moth predators between the two groups.

During the research they used species from the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in Costa Rica as well as previously published detailed data. As a result, the biologists managed to make their suggestion about the relation between the different species and their hosts. The study can be found in the open-access journal Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift.

Belonging to one of the main groups of parasitizing caterpillars subfamilies, the wasp genera of Microplitis and Snellenius are quite unique in comparison to their relatives. However, some of the species from the two presently studied groups are almost identical physically. Therefore, the scientists needed to turn to ecological, biological and molecular characteristics in order to define all of them as separate taxa.

Dr. Fernandez-Triana and his team’s research was one of the first to look into the tropical populations of the Microplitis and Snellenius genera. Their work answered another unresolved question: all species from the two studied genera that live in the tropical region of Costa Rica have thick hard cocoons and most of them spend the dry months inactively in them.

Another long-argued problem has been the dependency between the localities of each genera and their specialised hosts, as it’s been concluded that they are highly selective. Although in their present study the scientists admit that additional Neotropical areas need to be studied, they have concluded that all of the species are “unambiguously specialists,” feeding on one or a few related species exclusively. Some of them are actually so specialised that they are restricted to a particular habitat or have been collected only at specific times of the year.

Specimens of the new species can now be seen in some of the most reputed natural museums, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Natural History Museum of London and the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad in Santo Domingo, Costa Rica.

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Original source:

Fernandez-Triana JL, Whitfield JB, Smith MA, Kula RR, Hallwachs W, Janzen DH (2015) Revision of the genera Microplitis and Snellenius (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) from Area de Conservacion Guanacaste, Costa Rica, with a key to all species previously described from Mesoamerica. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 62(1): 137-202. doi: 10.3897/dez.62.5276

Drs. Carole Baldwin and Ross Robertson from the Smithsonian Institution discovered a new small goby fish that differs from its relatives not only in its size and colors, but also in the depth of its habitat (70-80 m) in the southern Caribbean. Their finding comes as a part of the institution’s Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). This is why the scientists gave it the nameCoryphopterus curasub in recognition of the Curasub submersible that was used in their deep-reef exploration. Their study can be found in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Marine biodiversity inhabiting shallow Caribbean coral reefs has been studied for more than 150 years, but much less is known about what lives at depths just below those accessible with conventional SCUBA gear. Thanks to the availability of a privately owned, manned submersible on the island of Curacao, the Curasub, scientists are now able to intensively study depths to 300 m (1,000 ft).

“This is the fourth new deep-reef fish species described in two years from Curasub diving off Curacao,” explained Baldwin, “Many more new deep-reef fish species have already been discovered and await description, and even more await discovery.” She also pointed out that new species of mollusks and crustaceans have also been discovered, and a “biology bonanza” is highly likely as tropical deep reefs continue to be explored.

In addition to the new goby species, the authors report on the collection of a related goby species some 50 m (164 ft.) deeper than it was previously known. Knowledge of species’ upper and lower depth limits is information that Baldwin and Robertson are establishing for numerous fish species in the southern Caribbean, and in this study they tabulated and graphed depth information for the 14 known species of Coryphopterus gobies.

“Deep reefs are diverse ecosystems in tropical seas that science has largely missed,” Baldwin explained, “too deep to access using SCUBA gear and too shallow to be of much interest to deep-diving submersibles capable of descending thousands of meters.” “How incomplete is our picture of tropical reef biodiversity if so little attention has been devoted to depths just below those home to shallow coral reefs? We don’t know,” she admitted.

“Imagine conducting a census of people living in Washington, DC, but you only survey those inhabiting ground-level housing structures. If you don’t know about the people living on second, third, fourth, etc., floors in apartment buildings and condominiums in a city packed with them, you’re not getting a very complete picture of who lives here. Scientists’ ignorance of the biodiversity inhabiting depths within a couple hundred meters of shallow coral reefs is similar.”

“We know that in temperate coastal areas, some fish species are being found at higher latitudes than previously recorded,” Baldwin said, “presumably a response to warming surface waters.”

This hypothesis poses the question whether the fish in tropics could move deeper as well reacting to the climate change. Since no historical data on the topic is available, Baldwin’s suggestion is to carry on digging into deep-reef exploration.

“By thoroughly investigating reef ecosystems that lie just below shallow coral reefs, describing new species, documenting depth ranges of new and known species, we are providing the baseline information necessary to detect changes in the future.”

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Original source:

Baldwin CC, Robertson DR (2015) A new, mesophotic Coryphopterus goby (Teleostei, Gobiidae) from the southern Caribbean, with comments on relationships and depth distributions within the genus. ZooKeys 513: 123-142. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.513.9998

Meet the long-legged diamond frog, Rhombophryne longicrus, the newest species to increase the count of Madagascan amphibians once again. Like the rest of the diamond frogs, it is small and brown, but it is also very different.

Characterised by its unusually long slender legs, which are also the reason behind its name, the new species is unable to burrow its way through the ground like most of its relatives do. However, it makes it up with its longer leaps.

Unfortunately, the newly found diamond frog is likely at a risk of extinction. Lead-author Mark D. Scherz, a researcher at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, and his team preliminary assessed the R. longicrus frog to be Endangered in their present research, published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.

Little is known about the diamond frogs. However, one thing that has been found to apply to almost all of them is that they are burrowers. This is why they usually have short limbs, round bodies, and large, hard projections on their hands and feet, called ‘tubercles’ that help them dig. The long-legged frog described here, on the other hand, seemed unfit for this lifestyle, so the international research team looked closely into its skeleton with micro-CT scanning, producing 3D reconstructed X-ray models.

Thus, the scientists discovered that not only were the frog’s legs longer, but there was also a subtle difference to its hip, which sets it apart from its relatives. Only the minute diamond frog, R. minuta, shares the morphology of R. longicrus save its size. A genetic analyses also showed the two are closely related.

Found in Sorata, a massif in northern Madagascar, which is yet to be put under protection, the long-legged diamond frog is thought by its discoverers to be a microendemic due to its distinctiveness. If this is the case, the long-legged diamond frog could turn out to be at great risk due to the ongoing uninhibited deforestation and forest degradation in the area. They research team suggest that more surveys on the species’ full distribution ought to be made.

With over 4% of the planet’s named frog species, Madagascar is one of the most incredible amphibian hotspots in the world. Earlier this year, the number of newly found frog species surpassed three hundred and it does not look like it is going to stop its growth any time soon. While some of the species yet to be described look just like their closest relatives (so-called “cryptic” species), others, like the long-legged diamond frog, are spectacularly different.

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Original source:

Scherz, M.D., A. Rakotoarison, O. Hawlitschek, M. Vences, & F. Glaw (2015) Leaping towards a saltatorial lifestyle? An unusually long-legged new species of Rhombophryne (Anura, Microhylidae) from the Sorata massif in northern Madagascar. Zoosystematics & Evolution In Press. doi: 10.3897/zse.91.4979

A research team from the University of Lomé in Togo provide the first local scientific information on Togolese fern flora. They explored the largest family of the lower vascular plants in the country, Pteridaceae, and identified 17 species, including one recorded for the first time in the small African country. The scientists also present an identification key for the species. Their study can be found in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.

In their work the biologists use the data they have gathered during their recent field work as well as the herbaria specimens from Lomé and Paris. Thus they identified a total of 17 species spread among nine genera from the family of Pteridaceae. The two dominant genera within the group are the brake ferns (5 species) and the maidenhair ferns (4 species). The researchers also confirmed the presence of the terrestrial brake fern species, Pteris similis, after discovering it on the forested banks of Dikpéléou, Adélé area.

The Pteridaceae fern plant family has been known from Togo, but few studies have focused on it so far. The current data on Togolese biodiversity (MERF 2009) shows a diversity represented almost in its entirety within the forest zone of Togo. In addition, recent revisions of the family are not taken into account either at the herbarium of the University of Lomé, nor in the local flora.

Now, in their present study, the researchers give an identification key for all identified species with a complete list of synonyms and species descriptions as well as a map of the geographic distribution of the family in Togo.

They hope that their study sets a new beginning in the local study of ferns in Togo and could lead to more and more works on the flora in both Togo and the whole West African sub-region.

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Original source

Abotsi K, Radji A, Rouhan G, Dubuisson J, Kokou K (2015) The Pteridaceae family diversity in Togo. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e5078. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e5078

A team of Japanese scientists found and described a new species of scarab beetle from Cambodia. The beetle was named Termitotrox venus, after Venus – the Roman goddess of beauty and love. The study was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Mr. Kakizoe and Dr. Maruyama from the Kyushu University in Japan covered the new scarab beetle from fungus garden cells during their research in Cambodia.

The species belongs to the Termitotroxgenus genus and is only the second representative of its to have been found in the Indo-Chinese subregion after the discovery of T. cupido in 2012. The close relation between the two is the reason why it was named after Venus, often illustrated next to her male divine counterpart, Cupid.

Seven out of the eight recovered samples were found in the fungus garden cells of a termite species, Macrotermes cf. gilvus, where they were camouflaged and moving slowly so that their collection was hindered.

The researchers found that the termites are usually indifferent to the T. venus species, but the beetle is also treated amicably at times.

Compared to its relative, the T. cupido, the T. venus beetles are larger. According to the scientists, this is due to their different hosts.

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Original source:

Kakizoe S, Maruyama M (2015) Termitotrox venus sp. n. (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae), a new blind, flightless termitophilous scarab from Cambodia. ZooKeys 513: 13-21. doi:10.3897/zookeys.513.9958

The application of new information technologies in natural history museums collections is not only making herbaria collections easily manageable. The datasets also facilitate the access to a large volume of biodiversity information. Databases with specimens information and images of high priority, such as nomenclatural types, simultaneously preserve the specimens physically and increase the impact of the collections. This represents a major advance in the preservation of sensitive materials, which has been fully described in the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal.

A nomenclatural type is a particular sample of an organism to which a scientific name is formally attached. It serves to anchor or centralize the defining features of a particular taxon. Because access to type specimen data is fundamental for taxonomists, types constitute a very important and special sub-collection at any herbarium. Publication of data related to types and their associated metadata (including images) is critical for quality taxonomic research. This is the model that many collections are adopting now.

Recently, the Herbarium of the University of Granada developed several projects to digitalize images of high-priority specimens in order to preserve them and make them available on the Internet. As a result of the reviewing process, catalogues of type specimens of different groups were compiled, published, and made accessible on the Internet through the “Biodiversity Image Portal of Spanish collections” at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility Hosting and Publishing Service in Spain (GBIF.ES) and at the institutional network of the Herbarium of the University of Granada.

The catalogue of type specimens of fungi and lichens has been one of the first published on the GBIF.ES Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT). This dataset contains 88 type specimens, most of which belong to the Agaricales order and the Cortinarius genus, described by Antonio Ortega (the main collector and researcher in the fungus collection) and his Spanish, French, and Italian colleagues. These types are from the western Mediterranean, mainly Spain, and a few others from France and Italy.

This dataset is associated with an image collection named “Colección de imágenes de los tipos nomenclaturales de hongos, líquenes, musgos y algas incluidos en el Herbario de la Universidad de Granada (GDA y GDAC)”, which is accessible at GBIF.ES and at the Herbarium GDA institutional web. The image collection contains 113 images of types, documents, and specimens or microscopy photographs which are included in the herbarium specimens of fungi.

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Original source:

Vizoso M, Quesada C (2015) Catalogue of type specimens of fungi and lichens deposited in the Herbarium of the University of Granada (Spain). Biodiversity Data Journal. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e5204

Andrew Hicks from the Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado and his team discovered a previously unknown leafhopper species in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, located just east of the megalopolis that extends from New York City to Washington, DC. This was the first time an insect has been reported from the state-listed threatened pinebarren smokegrass, Muhlenbergia torreyana. The study can be found in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The discovery was made with the help of Dr. Gerry Moore of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Greensboro, NC, and Uli Lorimer of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Called F. whitcombi, the leafhopper was named after the author’s “extraordinary” mentor, colleague and friend, Dr. Robert Whitcomb. “Among many other accomplishments,” in the fields of microbiology and ornithology, Mr. Hicks points to Whitcombs’ “major contributions” to leafhopper taxonomy and ecology.

Actually, it is exactly the ecology factor that could make it or break it for the “charismatic” new leafhopper. Not only is pinebarren smokegrass, which the insect inhabits, a threatened species, but it is known that the rest of the leafhoppers from the genus Flexamia, with a few exceptions, are each dependent on a very specific plant.

Although pinebarren smokegrass is still relatively well-distributed in the Pine Barrens, the Pine Barrens themselves have already been seen to suffer the effects of a warming climate. Various human activities could also pose a further threat to the leafhopper’s host and the its habitat.

“The description of any new species may serve as a catalyst for additional research, and this will be best accomplished while the species still can be found in nature–something that can no longer be taken for granted,” stressed the scientist. “To delay the publication of a species description until the time of a genus revision is to deny the pace of change in the natural world in the 21st century and may consign said new species to a future status of “known from a single collection”, or, “presumed extinct, life history unknown,” he added.

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Original source:

Hicks A (2015) In the shadow of a megalopolis, a new Flexamia from a threatened grass species in the New Jersey Pine Barrens (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Deltocephalinae, Paralimnini). ZooKeys 511: 69-79. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.511.9572

Discovered forty years ago, the two roundworm species, A. isokaryoni and P. paradoxus, are yet to be studied in detail. To obtain new information on the worms’ morphology and taxonomic position, a research team from Bulgaria were the first to implement scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study these nematodes. The research was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Through their initiative, the scientists also concluded that the Pararhyssocolpus genus can be considered endemic to the Maritime Antarctic.

So far has been known that the two worm species are widespread in the Antarctic Islands and they live in different microhabitats, having various diet. Nevertheless, all data has been derived from light microscopy analysis and therefore, it has been insufficient.

The new SEM pictures revealed curious peculiarities of lip region and spear, shape of vulva and other external characters. Along with new data about the worms’ postembryonic development and the evidences produced by molecular analyses, the micrographs helped in solving the taxonomic problems around these remarkable species.

Roundworms are the most diverse and numerous representatives of high-latitude invertebrate fauna in Antarctica. Very well adapted to its severe climate conditions, they are even called glacial survivors. However, there is still the need for further studies on the nematode diversity in these overwhelming habitats, the research team pointed out.

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Original source:

Elshishka M, Lazarova S, Radoslavov G, Hristov P, Peneva V (2015) New data on two remarkable Antarctic species Amblydorylaimus isokaryon (Loof, 1975) Andrássy, 1998 andPararhyssocolpus paradoxus (Loof, 1975) n. gen., n. comb. (Nematoda: Dorylaimida). Zookeys511: 25-68. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.511.9793

Additional information:

This study was partly funded by project ANIDIV2, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and several previous projects supported by the National Scientific Fund.