Category: Uncategorized

From Sherborn to ZooBank: Moving to the interconnected digital nomenclature of the future

From the outside, it can seem that taxonomy has a commitment issue with scientific names. They shift for reasons that seem obscure and unnecessarily wonkish to people who simply want to use names to refer to a consistent, knowable taxon such as species, genus or family. However, the relationship between nomenclature and taxonomy, as two quite separate but mutually dependent systems, is a sophisticated way of balancing what we know and what is open to further interpretation.

Nomenclature is a bureaucracy that follows rules and is tied to published records and type specimens. It provides a rigid framework or skeleton for knowledge. Taxonomy, on the other hand, is a data-driven science, influenced by interpretation and resulting in concepts that are open to further test and change. To actually get the answers right, taxonomy needs to be responsive and fluid as a system of knowledge. The link between nomenclature and the published record is also the junction with the data that fuels taxonomic interpretation.

Biodiversity informatics aims to solve this issue, and its founding father is Charles Davies Sherborn. His magnum opus, Index Animalium, provided the bibliographic foundation for current zoological nomenclature. In the 43 years he spent working on this extraordinary resource, he anchored our understanding of animal diversity through the published scientific record. No work has equaled it, and it is still in current and critical use.

This special volume of the open-access journal ZooKeys celebrates Sherborn, his contributions, context and the future for the discipline of biodiversity informatics. The papers in this volume fall into three general areas of history, current practice and frontiers.

The first section presents facets of Sherborn as a man, scientist and bibliographer, and describes the historical context for taxonomic indexing from the 19th century to today. The second section discusses existing tools and innovations for bringing legacy biodiversity information into the modern age. The final section tackles the future of biological nomenclature, including digital access, innovative publishing models and the changing tools and sociology needed for communicating taxonomy.

In the late 1880s Charles Davies Sherborn recognised the need for a full index of names to the original sources that gave them legitimacy, their first publications. He set about making a complete index for names of animals, which are the largest group of described organisms (1.4 million of the current 1.8 million described species are animals). Because this work began while the very basics of nomenclatural rules were being thrashed out, the work itself affected how those rules were codified.

Sherborn’s monumental work, Index Animalium, comprises more than 9,000 pages in 11 volumes and about 440,000 names. This was on the scale of other hugely ambitious tasks at the time that changed the course of communication such as the Oxford English Dictionary. The error rates are astonishingly low, and it became, and it remains to date the most complete reference source for animal nomenclature. Taxonomic studies rely on Sherborn’s work today. While the future for information access is one of the most exciting frontiers for our increasingly interconnected, accelerated society, biodiversity information will continue to be grounded in this seminal work. The future for biodiversity informatics is built on Sherborn’s work, and is expanding to be digital, diversified and accessible.

The publisher of this volume, the journal ZooKeys, is itself a pioneer in developing a more stable and accessible scientific nomenclature. Together with PhytoKeys, ZooKeys is piloting an innovative workflow with a pre-publication automated pipeline for registration of nomenclatural acts. This initiative comes from the EU FP7 project pro-iBiosphere, and in close collaboration with ZooBank (the official online registry for scientific names of animals), Zoological Record, IPNI, MycoBank and Index Fungorum, and the Global Names project. The volume was inspired by a symposium held in Sherborn’s honour at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, on the 150th year of his birth in 2011, organised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), in collaboration with the Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH).

Sherborn was a man with a vision for the future and respect for the accomplishments of the past. He would have celebrated the new tools for the ambitious goal of linking all biological information through names that are readable for both machines and humans. He would have understood the tremendous power of interconnected names for biodiversity science overall. And he would have knuckled down and got to work to make it happen.

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Original source:

Michel E (2016) Anchoring Biodiversity Information: From Sherborn to the 21st century and beyond. In: Michel E (Ed.) Anchoring Biodiversity Information: From Sherborn to the 21st century and beyond. ZooKeys 550: 1-11. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.550.7460

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Anchoring Biodiversity Information – Sherborn Special Issue is available to read and order from here.

A botanical survey to help understand change in our wild flora

Volunteers in the north-east of England have created a benchmark survey of common plants with which to identify change in the countryside, its result and causes. This survey will be used in future to monitor the effects of climate change on plants; assess the success of conservation measures and predict future change. Its findings are published in the open-access journal Biodiversity Data Journal, contributing an additional 35,000 observations to the 200,000 observations collected by local recorders since the turn of the millennium .

Many people remark on the changes that are occurring in the countryside, the disappearance of some species and the spread of others. Yet, these anecdotes cannot substitute for hard facts. There are also many suggested causes for all these changes such as warmer climate, different agricultural practices, eutrophication, or alien species. Botanical observations tend to be biased. For example, common species are often ignored in the interest of exceptional ones. Therefore, what was needed was a dedicated survey with a clear and repeatable methodology.

Common plant species are the mainstay of habitats, they create our woodlands, hedgerows and meadows. They also provide the food for herbivores and pollinators and create homes for birds and mammals. Changes in the abundance of rare species have little impact on other species, but change in the abundance of common species can have cascading effects on whole ecosystems of which we are a part.

For these reasons volunteer botanists in the north-east of England conducted a four-year survey to benchmark the abundance of common plants. Led by the Botanical Societies vice county recorders, John Durkin Ecology, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, and Botanic Garden Meise, the volunteers surveyed the plants in a randomly selected sample of 1km2 grid squares in the vice counties of Durham and South Northumberland.

They created a solid foundation that can be used to qualify the abundance of common species and compare against previous and future studies. The project was conducted over four years and required volunteers to go to various places. Some surveyed post-industrial brown-field sites, while others walked for miles across bleak moorland to reach sites high in the hills. Although these moors are arguably wilder and natural, the industrial wastelands turn out to be far more biodiverse.

Botanical surveying continues in the region despite the end of the project. Volunteers continue to monitor rare plants in the region and are currently working towards the next atlas of Britain and Ireland, coordinated by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland.

“Good biological conservation in the 21st century will have as much to do with sensitive adaption to change as it is about preserving what we have,” point out the authors. “Human memory is short and fickle and it is only with benchmark surveys, such as this that we can hope to understand and manage that change.”

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Original source:

Groom Q, Durkin J, O’Reilly J, Mclay A, Richards A, Angel J, Horsley A, Rogers M, Young G (2015) A benchmark survey of the common plants of South Northumberland and Durham, United Kingdom. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e7318. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.3.e7318

Seventy-four cuckoos in the nest: A new key to all North European cuckoo wasp species

Captivating with their bright, vivid and brilliantly metallic bodies, the cuckoo wasps are also fascinating with their curious lifestyle, which has given them this common name. However, in terms of their taxonomic grouping, they have been quite problematic due to similarities between species and a wide range of variations within them.

To shed light on the issue, an international research team, led by MSc Juho Paukkunen, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, provides descriptions and illustrations of all 74 species found in the Nordic and Baltic countries, including one new, in their recent publication in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Beautiful in appearance, the cuckoo wasps penetrate the nests of unrelated solitary wasps and solitary bees to lay their eggs, similar to how a cuckoo bird does in songbird nests. With their armoured bodies and the ability to curl up into a tight ball the cuckoo wasps are well-defended against the owners of the nests and their stings and jaws. At the larval stage, they take advantage of their hosts by either parasitising them or stealing their food, eventually killing the host’s offspring.

Within the Nordic representatives of the family there are an exceptionally large number of red-listed and endangered species. This is one of the reasons why the authors intend to trigger more interest among their fellow entomologists about these curious wasps. They have compiled all relevant information concerning their distribution, abundance, habitats, flight season and host species. The authors have tried to keep their identification key as comprehensive and concise as possible, by singling out the essential information on diagnostic characters.

In the present study, the researchers describe a new species, called Chrysis borealis, which can be translated as ‘Northern’ cuckoo wasp. Although the male and female individuals are very similar, there is a significant variation in the colouration within the species. It is especially noticeable between the specimens collected from the northern localities and those from the southern ones. For instance, while the middle section of the body in southern specimens is either bright blue or violet with a greenish shimmer, in northern individuals it is nearly black, turning to greenish or golden green at the periphery.

The varying shades within a certain species are quite common among the cuckoo wasps. While it is often that distinctive colouration among other wasps and insects indicates their separate origin and therefore, taxonomic placement, within the emerald family it can be a mere case of habitat location with the northern populations typically darker.

Such tendencies often lead to doubts such as the one the authors have faced regarding their new species. It has been suggested that the Northern cuckoo wasp is in fact yet another variation of the very similar C. impressa, which is generally slightly brighter in colour, but at the same time distributed in warmer localities. However, using DNA sequence information and morphometric analysis, the team shows that there are enough consistent differences to separate them as distinct species, although they are defined as evolutionarily young siblings.

With their research the authors intend to provide a basis for further and more detailed studies on the distribution, biology and morphology of the North European representatives of these intriguing wasps.

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Original source:

Paukkunen J, Berg A, Soon V, Odegaard F, Rosa P (2015) An illustrated key to the cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae) of the Nordic and Baltic countries, with description of a new species. ZooKeys 548: 1-116. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.548.6164

What will be your good cause this Christmas? Name a Tanzanian Tree, Save a Tropical Forest

Every new species is given a name, but usually this privilege remains with the scientists who discovered it. Now, Dr Andy Marshall*, Senior Lecturer in York’s Environment Department and Director of Conservation Science at Flamingo Land, gives up this right to his latest discovery in order to colleges and schools the opportunity to have a unique new Tanzanian tree species named after them, while raising funds to protect tropical forest biodiversity. Watch a video about the initiative.

Schools can take part in the competition until March 30th 2016, and what is a better time to start fundraising than Christmas!

Finding a new tree species is not an easy job, but to Dr Andy Marshall it came as a providence. In June 2011 while the scientist was surveying a remote forest in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, with the completely different aim of understanding the habitat needs of one of the world’s rarest primates – the kipunji monkey, his attention was drawn by a curious tree that he just could not identify.

This prompted the researcher to collect some material and soon afterwards, while idly rummaging through dried specimens at the National Museums of Kenya, it turned out that, to his surprise, this was an entirely new species from the genus Polyceratocarpus.

“The tree grows as large as an oak tree, so I was amazed to find that scientists had not named it before,” explains Dr. Marshall. “If there are still species as large as a tree that remain unnoticed, imagine the treasure trove of smaller ones that are still awaiting discovery!”

For Dr. Marshal, it is particularly important to conserve tropical forests like those in Tanzania that yielded his unlikely discovery. They provide many benefits both locally and globally, and hold many endemic species that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

This is how the idea behind School 4 Forests came about. Supported by the CIRCLE (Collaboration for Integrated Research, Conservation and Learning), a partnership between the University of York and the UK’s most visited zoo, Flamingo Land, the initiative calls for school and colleges around the world to take part in a fundraising competition to help tropical forests, while at the same time offers them resources to teach students about their importance.

The initiative is a double win for biodiversity, safeguarding not only financial support for tropical forests, but also investing in a green next generation. And the first prize is sweet – the school which rises the most gets to choose a name for the new Tanzanian tree species, which will be later on formally described in the open access journal Phytokeys.

Apart from the top prize, School 4 Forests has a lot more to give to its helpers:

Monkey t-shirts for anyone raising over £50! (Yes! Individuals can take part too.)
Free educational school trips to Flamingo Land!
A chance to be twinned with a school or college in Tanzania!
Free entry to an awards ceremony and rainforest activity day at Flamingo Land!

The rules are simple. Every school and college around the world can join the fundraising competition Schools 4 Forests by simply holding a small fundraiser. After free registration on the the Just Giving site, all participating schools and colleges will be provided with a fundraising pack including simple ideas for raising money and a number of forest-related teaching resources.

More information on the competition rules and how to take part are available here.

*Dr. Marshall is happy to answer your questions about the initiative! Dr. Andy Marshall Mobile: +44 (0)7725 010100 Email: andy.marshall@york.ac.uk

30th anniversary of Symposia on Chysomelidae celebrated in a new leaf beetle-themed issue

For the last 30 years entomologists all over the world have been gathering together on a regular basis, led by their fascination with one of the three most captivating with their colours and numbers beetle families. The most cardinal of these gatherings is the Symposium on Leaf Beetles, nowadays organised every two years, which traditionally culminates into special issues to hold the quintessence from the findings, talks and debates and keep them safe for the future generations. For a fifth time in a row, the latest volume is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The present volume, assembled with the works of a large multinational research team and put together by editors Drs. Michael Schmitt, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität, Jorge Santiago-Blay and long-year head of the community of leaf beetle researchers, Prof. Pierre Hippolyte Auguste Jolivet, continues the seemingly ever-going task assumed by the community to further build on the knowledge about the taxonomy, distribution, physiology and biology of the amazing creatures.

In light of the news of Prof. Pierre Jolivet’s resignation from his post as head and senior editor of Research on Chrysomelidae, his colleagues and friends from the chrysomelid community have dedicated the present volume to their “spiritus rector”. “We, editors, many authors, and publishers of Research on Chrysomelidae are grateful for Pierre’s permanent intellectual stimulation, his helpful input, and his friendship,” read the final words of the editorial.

Apart from the activities linked to Research on Chrysomelidae, Prof. Pierre Jolivet has been the inspiring leader of the community of leaf beetle researchers for more than half a century. Furthermore, the Normandy-born entomologist has also published works on ants, ant-plant interactions, parasites of insects and even broader topics, such as evolution.

However, with its 30-year legacy the collaborative global initiative does not seem anywhere close to its slowing down. While a sixth consecutive volume of RoC is currently in production with ZooKeys journal, more and more young chrysomelidologists join the community. Meanwhile, the Symposia themselves having been held every four years, now take place every twenty-four months.

“Eight symposia on Chrysomelidae have been held. Many new things have been found but some problems remain unsolved,” conclude the editors.

“It is certain that some areas need more investigation, as Madagascar for instance, and that there remain many biological problems to be solved or to be discovered,” they point their next steps. “Deforestation reduces the number of species and genera, and many will disappear before being described. Few will persist as fossils in the tropics. Millions of insects have existed in the past and will remain unknown forever.”

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Original source:

Jolivet P (2015) Together with 30 years of Symposia on Chrysomelidae! Memories and personal reflections on what we know more about leaf beetles. In: Jolivet P, Santiago-Blay J, Schmitt M (Eds) Research on Chrysomelidae 5. ZooKeys 547: 35-61. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.547.7181

Research on Chrysomelidae 5 Special Issue is available to read and order from here.

Three new fishing snake species fished out of the Andean slopes in South America

Commonly known as fishing snakes, the Synophis genus has been expanded with as many as three new species following a research in the Andean cloud forests of Amazonian Ecuador and Peru. Not only is the discovery remarkable due to the rarity of new snake species being discovered, but also because this is the first time this mysterious and already eight-member genus is recorded from Peru. The study is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The three new species have been identified as a result of both field and laboratory work, undertaken by Dr. Omar Torres-Carvajal, Museo de Zoología QCAZ, Ecuador, in collaboration with herpetologists from Peru (CORBIDI) and the United States (Francis Marion University). The new species differ from their closest relatives in scale features, male sexual organs and DNA. The unusual discoveries took place in areas within the 1,542,644 km2 of the Tropical Andes hotspot, western South America.

Although they are commonly known as fishing snakes, these reptiles most likely do not eat fish. Their diet and behavior are poorly known. So far, it has only been reported that one species feeds on lizards.

The fishing snakes have long been known to live in cloud forests on both sides of the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. Yet, it seems they have waited all along to make an appearance. The new species described herein, along with a recent description of one species from southwestern Ecuador also published in Zookeys, has duplicated the number of species of fishing snakes from four to eight over the span of several months.

During their recent expeditions to several localities along the Andes of Ecuador and Peru the authors collected several individuals of fishing snakes, which they suspected to be previously unknown. After comparing their specimens with those deposited in a number of natural history museums, the authors’ suspicions only became stronger.

Consequently, the scientists examined the male snakes’ sexual organs (hemipenes) and DNA evidence. The results left no doubts that the specimens belonged to three undescribed fishing snake species.

“We started working with fishing snakes a year ago as new specimens were collected in poorly explored areas of the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru,” explains lead author Dr. Omar Torres-Carvajal. “At that time only four species of fishing snakes had been described, and they were recognized in the literature as one of the most rare and secretive groups of snakes in South America.”

“In less than a year, we and other herpetologists doubled the number of known species of fishing snakes, showing that their diversity had been greatly underestimated,” he points out.

“This story is similar to the story of the woodlizards (Enyalioides), a group of dragon-like lizards with more than half of its species discovered in recent years in the tropical Andes,” the scientist reminisces.

“This tells us that this hotspot is more diverse than we thought, so it is very important that basic biodiversity research is properly funded,” Dr. Torres-Carvajal concludes. “Otherwise, we might never know what other scaly creatures are crawling around us.”

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Original source:

Torres-Carvajal O, Echevarría LY, Venegas PJ, Chávez G, Camper JD (2015) Description and phylogeny of three new species of Synophis (Colubridae, Dipsadinae) from the tropical Andes in Ecuador and Peru. ZooKeys 546: 153-179. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.546.6533.

Tramp ant caught globetrotting under false name

A century-old mystery surrounding the origin of an invasive ant species was recently solved by an international team of scientists. Since 1893, when it was first discovered as an invasive species in the Canary Islands, entomologists have been debating where this mystery species came from. While some insisted on the Mediterranean, some proposed Arabia and others argued for Africa. The correct answer? Asia.

The authors of the study, published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, solved the taxonomic puzzle by fitting together disparate pieces of evidence. “I was having a terrible time trying to distinguish this one Asian species from the mysterious ant that was coming in on shipments from the Caribbean, Europe and Africa,” says Dr. Eli Sarnat, University of Illinois, about his research at the Smithsonian on tramp ants that were intercepted at US ports.

Tramp ants, many of which are pest species, are spread across the globe by stowing away in the cargo of ships and planes, thus posing rising environmental, food security and public health concerns.

The same day Sarnat was working on the mysterious ant in the Smithsonian, he received an email from Dr. Evan Economo, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). Economo and Dr. Georg Fischer, also affiliated with OIST, had included Madagascar samples of the species in a genetic analysis, and the results unexpectedly placed it within a group of Asian species. The closest genetic match to the enigmatic ant turned out to be the very same Asian species that Sarnat had found in the Smithsonian collection.

The last piece of the riddle was discovered thanks to the painstaking work of Dr. Benoit Guénard. Guénard, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, had spent years mapping the global distributions of every ant species known to science. When he compared the ranges of the mysterious ant with the common Asian species, the two fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Evidence gathered from classic taxonomy, modern genetic analysis, and exhaustively researched distribution maps all pointed to the same conclusion.

“What had long been considered two different species — one found across a wide swath of Asia and the other a tramp species spread by humans across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Australia — are actually one single supertramp species,” Economo explained. “It is striking that we had these two continental super-common invaders with almost entirely complementary ranges right under our noses, yet until now no one noticed they were actually the same species,”

Original source:

Sarnat EM, Fischer G, Guénard B, Economo EP (2015) Introduced Pheidole of the world: taxonomy, biology and distribution. ZooKeys 543: 1-109.doi: 10.3897/zookeys.543.6050

Additional information:

This work was supported by USDA APHIS Identification Technology Program (13-8130-1439-CA), subsidy funding to OIST, and NSF (DEB-1145989). This work was supported by USDA APHIS Identification Technology Program (13-8130-1439-CA), subsidy funding to OIST, and NSF (DEB-1145989).

Lava attraction: 74 new beetle species found hiding in plain sight on a Hawaiian volcano

Confined to the limits of Haleakala volcano, Maui Island, Hawaii, the beetle fauna there turns out to be not only extremely diverse, but very abundant as well. When Prof. James Liebherr of the Cornell University Insect Collection thoroughly sampled beetle populations on the volcano, he identified 116 species of round-waisted predatory beetles, including 74 new to science. The taxonomic revision, complete with descriptions of the new species, is now published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

The present discoveries and observations are certainly surprising due to their scale, even though it has been long known that the Hawaiian Islands support disproportionately high levels of biodiversity. For this group of native round-waisted beetles, called Mecyclothorax in the zoological naming system, there are 239 species across the Hawaiian Islands, all of them descended from a single colonizing species.

The 116 species known from Haleakala make that volcano the center of biodiversity for this group within Hawaii. These beetles’ evolution during the 1.2-million-year lifespan of Haleakala volcano means they have speciated faster than most organisms on Earth, including the Hawaiian Drosophila and the cichlid fishes of eastern Africa.

No less striking is the fact that the 74 newly described beetle species previously evaded discovery within the limits of Haleakala’s 1,440 km2 of surface area. Reasons for this include the restricted distributions of many of the beetle species, and the previous lack of comprehensive field sampling. During his research, Prof. Liebherr examined all quarters of the mountain to eventually find many places of 1′ latitude × 1′ longitude where more than 20Mecyclothorax species lived closely together within a limited area of forest.

Most of these diverse microhabitats were discovered in windward rainforests. Moreover, different forest areas, geographically isolated from each other by volcanic lava flows, steep valleys, or extensive mudflows, supported different sets of species. “Haleakala volcano is a large pie with different sets of beetle species living in the different slices,” comments Prof. Liebherr. “Actually the different pie slices are just like the original Hawaiian land divisions called ahu pua’a, showing that the Hawaiian people had a keen sense for how their island home was organized.”

Additionally, the round-waisted beetle species seem to thrive across a wide range of altitudes, with their populations covering the major part of the mountain’s height. Historical as well as modern records have identified representatives of these insects from 450-metre elevation up to the volcano’s summit at 3000 m. However, given land conversion and the influx of alien invasive plants, habitats below about 1000 m have been seriously disrupted, and these elevations support few native beetles.

Looking to the future, Liebherr points out that “the substantial level of sympatry, associated with occupation of diverse microhabitats by these beetles, provides ample information useful for monitoring biodiversity of the natural areas of Haleakala.”

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Original source:

Liebherr JK (2015) The Mecyclothorax beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Moriomorphini) of Haleakala-, Maui: Keystone of a hyperdiverse Hawaiian radiation. ZooKeys 544: 1-407. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.544.6074

Huge organs defy austerity for tiny cave snails in the subterranean realm

While most of the knowledge about tiny snails comes from studying empty shells sifted out from piles of dust and sand, the present research is the first contemporary microscopic exploration of organs in cave snails tinier than 2 mm. The paper, published in the open-access journal Subterranean Biology, reveals that underneath the seemingly fragile shells of the Zospeum genus, there are strikingly huge organs.

A number of remarkable observations such as an enormous kidney, grooved three-pointed teeth and a huge seasonally present penis are reported in the recent study, conducted by Adrienne Jochum, Naturhistorisches Museum der Burgergemeinde Bern, Switzerland, and her international team of researchers from University of Bern, Switzerland; Shinshu University, Japan; Universitaetsklinikum Giessen und Marburg GmbH, Germany; Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany; University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; University of Bern Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany; Ruhr University Bochum, Germany; Croatian Biospeleological Society, Croatia and University Duisburg-Essen, Germany.

The scientists describe these characteristics as adaptations the miniature creatures have acquired in order to survive austerity in the subterranean realm.

Usually, adaptations to cave life can include blindness or lack of eyes, loss of pigmentation, sensitivity to changes in temperature and humidity, a high starvation tolerance, or anatomical compromises such as small size and transparent shells. The present study shows that miniscule carychiid subterranean snails have developed huge organs to tolerate the unique conditions of cave life.

“Studying adaptations in extreme environments such as those found in snails of subterranean habitats can help us to understand mechanisms driving evolution in these unique habitats,” explains the first author.

Glassy cave-dwelling snails known only from Northern Spain, the southern Eastern Alpine Arc and the Dinarides might have tiny hearts, but their enormous kidney extends from one to two thirds of the total length of their minute shells. This phenomenon could be explained as an effective mechanism used to flush out large amounts of excess water during flooding seasons in caves.

The same impressive creatures have also developed elaborate muscular plates, forming the girdle that surrounds the gastric mill (gizzard) in their digestive tract. The muscular gizzard grinds the grainy stew of microorganisms and fungi the snails find in moist cave mud. These mysterious creatures graze stealthily using an elastic ribbon (radula), aligned with seemingly endless rows of three-pointed, centrally-grooved teeth, as they glide through the depths of karst caves while searching for food and partners.

Deprived from the hospitable aspects of life we have grown used to, some of the snails discussed in the present paper have evolved their reproductive system in order to be able to reproduce in the harshest of environments, even when they fail to find a partner for an extended period of time.

As a result, not only are these snails protandric hermaphrodites, meaning that they possess male sexual features initially, which later disappear so that the female phase is present, but they have a large retractable, pinecone-shaped penis for instantaneous mating in the summer when mating is most probable. To guarantee offspring, a round sac, known as the receptaculum seminis, stocks sperm received from a partner during a previous mating and allows them to self-inseminate if necessary.

Teeth in these cave snails are also described using histology for the first time. They bear a median groove on the characteristic cusps known for the Carychiidae.

Sketchy, past dissections provide the current knowledge upon which the findings from this investigation are based. Otherwise, historical descriptions of these tiny snails are only known from empty shells found in samples of cave sediment. The genus Zospeum can only be found alive by inspecting cave walls using a magnifying glass.

“Knowledge of their subterranean ecology as well as a “gut feeling” of where they might be gliding about in their glassy shells is necessary to find them,” comments Adrienne Jochum. The authors also emphasize that this groundbreaking work is important for biodiversity studies, for biogeographical investigations and for conservation management strategies.

Adrienne Jochum and her team investigated the insides of the shells using nanoCT to differentiate species in synchronization with molecular approaches for genetic delimitation. Four well-defined genetic lineages were determined from a total of sixteen Zospeumspecimens found in the type locality region of the most common representative, Zospeum isselianum. This investigation is the first integrative study of live-collected Zospeum cave snails using multiple lines of data (molecular analyses, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nano-computer tomography (nanoCT), and histology.

This work is dedicated to the industrious Slovenian malacologist Joze Bole, whose work greatly inspired the present research.

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Original source:

Jochum A, Slapnik R, Klussmann-Kolb A, Páll-Gergely B, Kampschulte M, Martels G, Vrabec M, Nesselhauf C, Weigand AM (2015) Groping through the black box of variability: An integrative taxonomic and nomenclatural re-evaluation of Zospeum isselianum Pollonera, 1887 and allied species using new imaging technology (Nano-CT, SEM), conchological, histological and molecular data (Ellobioidea, Carychiidae). Subterranean Biology 16: 123-165. doi: 10.3897/subtbiol.16.5758

New snake species with pitch black eyes from the Andes highlights hidden diversity

Extremely rare and hidden in the forests of the Andes, there are still new snake species left to find. This has recently been evidenced by the colubrid serpent, described for the first time in the present article. Moreover, there is the vicious circle enwrapping its relatives: the harder it is to find more specimens, the tougher it is to describe and thus, start to identify them, which does not help in mapping their distribution and habitats. To address this issue, Dr. R. Alexander Pyron, The George Washington University, and his international research team have included a taxonomic review and discussion on the relationships and origin within a non-venomous snake tribe in a paper, published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Slender and small, the new species, called Synophis zaheri, measures less than 40 cm in length, or between 351 and 372 mm. Contrasting to its slim body with a distinct neck, separating the head from the body, its eyes are large and bulging, making up for more than a third of its head. Being black in colour, it is hard to tell the pupil and the iris apart. While the upper part of the body is grayish-brown with an iridescent sheen, the abdominal side stands out with its yellowish-white colouration.

Typically for the tribe, where the new species has been placed, it is also characterised with a highly modified spine and an enlarged scale row running over it. This is also where the name of this group of snakes comes from with “Diaphorolepidini” consisting of the Greek words for “differentiated” and “scales”. Not so clear, however, is the name of the genus, which the authors have translated also from Greek as “with snake”, but find themselves unaware of the meaning behind. The species is named after Dr. Hussam El-Dine Zaher, a Brazilian herpetologist whose work has been foundational for South American snakes.

In conclusion, the scientists note that the rarity of the observed snake species, especially the genus, where the new serpent belongs, accounts for the unclear species-boundaries as well as for the myriad of undescribed species. “Dipsadine diversity in the Andes is clearly underestimated, and new species are still being discovered in the 21st century,” they point out.

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Original source:

Pyron RA, Guayasamin JM, Peñafiel N, Bustamante L, Arteaga A (2015) Systematics of Nothopsini (Serpentes, Dipsadidae), with a new species of Synophis from the Pacific Andean slopes of southwestern Ecuador. ZooKeys 541: 109-147. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.541.6058