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The ‘Mongolian Death Worm‘, called olgoi-khorkhoi by the local population is a legendary animal with an unconfirmed existence that has preoccupied the imagination of the inhabitants and travelers in the region. It is said to inhabit the southern Gobi Desert where it terrorizes travelers with its deadly abilities to project acid that, upon contact, turns anything it touches yellow and corroded.

Two new sub-species of earthworms, Eisenia nordenskioldi mongol and E. n. onon, are reported from the same region. Although neither of them possesses the fatal characteristics of olgoi-khorkhoi, the sibling species exhibit the ability to partly regrow body parts when cut in two. Relatives of the sub-species are found in habitats as diverse as high mountains, deserts and geothermal hot-springs. They demonstrate extreme temperature tolerances and survival ranges thriving in environments from as little as -30°C up to +40°C.

E. nordenskioldi mongol has its name derived from the region of discovery. The name E. n. onon bears more romantic connotations, being inspired by the Onon River in Outer Mongolia, where Genghis Khan was born and grew up. The region is also supposed to be the resting place of this historical figure that inspires stories of great conquests, victories and brutality.

Earthworms as a group organisms have other more tangible, importance from an ecological point of view. Charles Darwin, for example, spent 50 years of his working life studying these humble worms. They are key organisms for monitoring and maintaining soil fertility. Earthworms are also the basis of food-chains as the Early-bird and any fishermen knows.

Whether olgoi-khorkhoi really exists, and whether the two new sub-species of the Siberian E. nordenskioldi species-complex are in any way related to it, is yet to be confirmed and in the meantime, can continue to inspire the romantic mind and stories.

 

 

Original Source:

Blakemore RJ (2013) Earthworms newly from Mongolia (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae, Eisenia). ZooKeys 285: 1–21, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.285.4502

The genus Megachile is a cosmopolitan group of solitary bees, often called leafcutter bees. This is one of the largest genera of bees, with well over 1,500 species in over 50 subgenera. A new species, Megachile chomskyi, has been found only in Texas, US. What is specific and interesting about this bee is the fact that it is among those insects which exhibit a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources. Presumably, the irreplaceable host of M. chomskyi are the beautiful flowers of the widespread Onagraceae, or the so-called Evening-Primrose Family. The study has been recently published in the peer review, open access journal ZooKeys, with distribution data available via Canadensys.

The new species is named after Professor Noam Chomsky, Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for his long career and many academic achievements and contributions as a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, political critic, activist and global champion of human rights. Previously, Prof. Chomsky had inspired the name of another animal, the chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky, who was a part of an extended study of animal language acquisition at Columbia University. The pun referred to Chomsky’s influential role in the development of modern linguistics, including in the ongoing debate about what aspects of language are unique to humans.

The most prominent features of M. chomskyi and the other members of this species group in the subgenus Megachiloides are their elongate tongues and the unique mandible structure of the females. Unlike the other representatives of the family that chew leaves or flower petals, many species of Megachile neatly cut circular pieces of leaves or petals for nest construction. Nests of Megachile are often constructed within hollow twigs or other similarly constricted natural cavities, but some species, including members of the subgenus Megachiloides, excavate burrows in the ground.

The subgenus Megachiloides still remains one of the most problematic Megachile groups in North America, partially due to males and females of many species not being associated with each other; as such, a large proportion of the species are described from one sex. Outdated identification keys and descriptions which are poorly illustrated are also contributing factors.

"In addition to naming the species after Dr. Chomsky to honour his many accomplishments, I also have been a huge fan and follower of his writings, lectures, and political views for a long time," said Dr Cory Sheffield, the author of the study.

 

Original Source

Sheffield CS (2013) A new species of Megachile Latreille subgenus Megachiloides (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae). ZooKeys 283: 43, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.283.4674

Situated at the foothills of the Western Tian-Shan, Kyrgyzstan is home to a diverse range of vascular plants, many of which are endemic and can only be found in very narrowly circumscribed areas. Such is the case for the onion species Allium spathulatum that had long remained undetected in spite of living within the famous Sary-Chelek Nature Reserve. Even in close proximity to the headquarters it remained unnoticed until it was finally described in 1998.

The species occurs in the low-altitude forest zone, between 1600 and 1700 m a.s.l., dwelling in river valleys, on open sunny slopes with sparse savanna-type vegetation or sheltered by stones. The plants grow clustered in small patches, suggesting the most successful establishment nearby mature plants. When originally found, the species was considered unique in the subgenus Allium because of its unusual spatule-like bracts subtending pedicels. It probably belongs to an old phylogenetic lineage that has archaic characters and is survived in very few representative species.

A new rare species, Allium formosum, closely related to A. spathulatum, has been now discovered by the scientists Alexander Sennikov from the Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki and Georgy Lazkov from the Institute of Biology and Soil Science, National Academy of Sciences in the Kyrgyz Republic, Bishkek. The study was published in the open access journal Phytokeys. The new plant is possibly a very narrow endemic species of the Babash-Ata Mountains, Kyrgyzstan, so far known only from the type locality. The name of the new species is derived from the Latin word for ‘beautiful’ (formosum) because of its elegant habit and beautiful colouration of the flower, transitional between deeply pink and purple.

The distance between the localities of A. spathulatum and A. formosum, both narrow endemics of mountains surrounding the eastern end of Fergana valley, is about 60 km. The area of the eastern part of the Chatkal Range and the northern outliers of the Fergana Range (Babash-Ata and neighbouring mountains) harbour many other narrow endemics of Allium, and this discovery stresses the need of further explorations and plant protection in this area.

"Because of the vulnerability of the species, we anticipate its inclusion in the forthcoming Red Data Book of Central Asia and the next edition of the Red Data Book of Kyrgyzstan", says the lead author Dr Alexander Sennikov.

 

All raw data underpinning this article have been published open access through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and in the Dryad Data Repository at doi: 10.5061/dryad.pq87t, so that other scientists can verify and build on these records or re-use the data in their studies.

Original Source

Sennikov AN, Lazkov GA (2013) Allium formosum Sennikov & Lazkov (Amaryllidaceae), a new species from Kyrgyzstan. Phytokeys 21: 29, doi: 10.3897/Phytokeys.21.4130

Dejean’s beetle catalogs reviewed for the first time

Two Canadian scientists have undertaken the challenging task to bring up to date the catalogues written by one of the most passionate collectors of beetles, Coleoptera, in the 19th century, Pierre Dejean. Dr. Yves Bousquet and Dr. Patrice Bouchard, who work with the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, have now produced a pioneering detailed review of the important nomenclatural and taxonomic data in these rich publications. Two articles analyzing the Coleoptera genera in the second (1833) and third (1836) catalogues of Dejean’s collection were published in the latest special issue of the open access journal ZooKeys.

Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean was born in 1780 at Amiens, north of Paris. By the age of 13, he was already interested in entomology, collecting mainly butterflies and moths, Lepidoptera. His passion for beetle collection came shortly after these first steps, and Dejean decided to devote himself to the study of Coleoptera. By the age of 15, Dejean enrolled in the army and despite his following successful career as an officer and a politician, the most important legacy of his life was marked by his inextinguishable passion for collecting beetles.

On the battlefields around Europe during Napoleon’s time and while in exile in the Austrian Empire after his fall, Dejean was a restless and fearless collector of new specimens. His youngest daughter describes the intensity of her father’s passion in the preface of one of her poetry books: "He recounted himself that during the battle he stopped his horse to attach a small insect to his helmet and then carried on forward to combat". After his return to Paris in 1818, Dejean was rich and respected as were all the generals that served under Napoleon. He financed several collecting expeditions, and also bought a number of collections. Before his death in 1845, his collection contained a remarkable 24,643 species and more than 118,000 specimens, at the time the largest personal beetle collection in the world!

In total Dejean published four catalogues of the beetles in his collection, the first one was never officially published and presents no great interest for biologists as it does not provide any new scientific names. In contrast, the other three catalogues are important for nomenclature, since many new genus-group names were made available for the first time by the inclusion of at least one species name made available previously. Despite the fact that Dejean’s catalogues have been heavily cited since their publication, the genus-group names in those catalogues were often given the status of nomina nuda, since they lacked formal descriptions. The objective of this new review is to provide a detailed nomenclatural summary of all generic names included in the catalogues and thus to clear any confusion around the use of Dejean’s names in the biological literature.

"While working on a number of catalogues in the past, it became clear to us that the generic names in Dejean’s second and third catalogues had been a source of confusion." explain Dr. Bousquet and Dr. Bouchard. "While experts of some groups in Coleoptera had consistently applied the rules of nomenclature to deal with these names, genera in other groups were often misused or had been completely ignored. In an effort to standardize and stabilize the usage of genus-group names in Coleoptera as a whole, we decided to provide a detailed analysis of all generic names included in Dejean’s catalogues. Amongst other findings, our research revealed a number of new synonymies and also showed that several names available in Dejean’s catalogues are in fact older than currently accepted ones."

 

Original Sources:

Bousquet Y, Bouchard P (2013) The genera in the second catalogue (1833) of Dejean’s Coleoptera collection. ZooKeys 282: 1, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.282.4401

Bousquet Y, Bouchard P (2013) The genera in the third catalogue (1836) of Dejean’s Coleoptera collection. ZooKeys 282: 221, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.282.4402

The Gastropoda, more commonly known as snails and slugs, are a large group of animals within the phylum Mollusca. Gastropоds species are extremely diverse in forms and sizes, ranging from microscopic to large. About 50 species of snails are currently considered to inhabit Skadar Lake, the largest on the Balkan Peninsula. The Bojana River connects the lake with the Adriatic Sea, and the Drin River provides a link with the Ohrid Lake.

Scientists Vladimir Pešić from the University of Montenegro and Peter Glöer from the Biodiversity Research Laboratory have recently discovered the new snail species Karucia sublacustrina. The new species inhabits the ancient lake of Skadar that is situated at the border between Montenegro and Albania.

"Ancient lakes are among the most vulnerable and threatened ecosystems, and their faunas are frequently under extreme anthropogenic pressure. The small range of many endemic species living in the Skadar Lake system – together with ever increasing human pressure – make its fauna highly endangered. This becomes even more important in light of ongoing eutrophication, pollution and sand and gravel exploration activities in the lake and its basin. Therefore, knowledge on their inhabitants are of primary importance for timely and efficient conservation and preservation", says the lead author Vladimir Pešić.

These circumstances and the reported decline in endemic gastropod diversity should trigger efforts to save this sensitive lake ecosystem. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species includes 21 endemic species from the Skadar Lake basin. Six of them are assessed as Critically Endangered and nine are listed as Endangered. All this comes to say that being such a valuable biodiversity location, Skadar Lake must be preserved together with its endemic biota.

 

 

Original Source

Pešić V, Glöer P (2013) A new freshwater snail genus (Hydrobiidae, Gastropoda) from Montenegro, with a discussion on gastropod diversity and endemism in Skadar Lake. ZooKeys 281: 69–90, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.281.4409

A widely distributed red alga from New Zealand receives a scientific name at last.

The most commonly occurring red alga in the algal order Bangiales in New Zealand has at last received a formal scientific name. Pyropia plicata, is an intertidal red alga, found in abundance in the North, South and Chatham Islands. It has been confused for many years with a species first collected from the New Zealand subantarctic islands in 1840. Recent research had clarified the identity and distribution of the southern species, Porphyra columbina, and also transferred it to the genus Pyropia. The description of Py. plicata was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

The newly described Py. plicata has a distinctive growth form with pleated blades. It has beautiful purple to grey coloration, bleaching to khaki-green on upper edges. It is found attached to high intertidal rocks by a central rhizoidal holdfast, which are hair-like extensions of the blade cells. Although the blades are only one cell layer thick they are remarkably resistant to the rigours of life on the intertidal shore and can withstand drying in the sun, and rehydrating when the tide returns.

This is one of the species that is known in New Zealand as karengo, and is highly prized by Maori as a taonga or treasure. Pyropia species are also eaten worldwide and known to be high in protein and trace elements. In Japan species of Pyropia are known as nori and are familiar to many people worldwide as the seaweed sheet that is wrapped around sushi.

"When we began work on the Bangiales of New Zealand over 20 years ago, we thought there were only a few species in this order in the southern Pacific." comments Dr. Wendy Nelson from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, New Zealand. "We have come to realise the diversity in this region is very high, and there are still many species that are undescribed. Documenting species and clarifying their relationships are important steps in understanding diversity and protecting our environment."

Оriginal source:

Nelson, W.A. (2013) Pyropia plicata sp. nov. (Bangiales, Rhodophyta): naming a common intertidal alga from New Zealand. PhytoKeys 21: 17-28., doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.21.4614

Sutherland, J.; Lindstrom, S.; Nelson, W.; Brodie, J.; Lynch, M.; Hwang, M.S.; Choi, H.G.; Miyata, M.; Kikuchi, N.; Oliveira, M. Farr, T.; Neefus, C; Mols-Mortensen, A.; Milstein, D.; Müller, K. (2011).. A new look at an ancient order: generic revision of the Bangiales. Journal of Phycology 47:1131-1151.

DNA analysis helps to rapidly discover new species in order to beat their extinction rates

Tropical rainforests are known for their high biodiversity of countless species, many of them unknown and not named by scientists yet. A large proportion of this undiscovered life on earth is formed by insects, especially beetles.

German researchers Alexander Riedel (Natural History Museum Karlsruhe) and Michael Balke (Zoological State Collection Munich), know this well, being experts for faunas of remote tropical countries such as the wilderness of New Guinea. Now they came across a special case, the weevil genus Trigonopterus which is truly "hyperdiverse". Hundreds of distinct species roam the jungles of this tropical island and most of them have never been recorded by scientists.

To describe this huge diversity using traditional approaches would take more than a lifetime, but there is no time to waste! Forests disappear for the sake of ever expanding palm oil plantations, and good arguments are needed in the battle for the conservation of each hectare of primary forest.

"This called for a new approach", said Dr Riedel. "A portion of each weevil species’ DNA was sequenced, which helped to sort out and diagnose species efficiently. Besides, we have taken high-resolution photographs of each weevil that will be uploaded to Species ID, along with a short scientific description. More than 100 species were brought to the light of science and public attention this way right now – about five times faster than possible with traditional techniques!" added Dr Riedel.

Another problem was tackled with an equally innovative idea: To find suitable names, Papua New Guinea´s phonebook was used as a helpful resource. Many species were named for Papuan families found in the yellow pages, for example Trigonopterus moreaorum which is based on the popular name "Morea". Some of them may not even guess of their honor – a weevil species with their own name in the backyard!

The new species and the general idea of how to get biodiversity better known before it becomes extinct are described in the journals ZooKeys and Frontiers in Zoology, both of them open access under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License. As such, the research is open to anyone with internet access for free – in fact, the Papuan people who donated their names may learn about it that way.

Original Sources:

Riedel A, Sagata K, Surbakti S, Tänzler R & Balke M (2013) One hundred and one new species of Trigonopterus weevils from New Guinea. Zookeys , 280: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.280.3906

Alexander Riedel, Katayo Sagata, Yayuk R. Suhardjono, Rene Tänzler and Michael Balke: Integrative taxonomy on the fast track – towards more sustainability in biodiversity research. Frontiers in Zoology (2013), 10:15. DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-10-15

A mysterious parasitoid wasp was found in the Böhmerwald (Northeast Austria) and reared in the garden of the amateur entomologist Ewald Altenhofer of Gross Gerungs municipality, Austria. The parasitoid was identified by Kees van Achterberg, senior researcher at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, as the rare Seleucus cuneiformis. It is the first time that a tip of its biology was discovered. The study was published in the open access journal Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

The parasitoids reared by Mr Altenhofer belong to the peculiar genus Seleucus. The reared parasitoid Seleucus cuneiformis is known from only a few countries in Europe and is new to Austria. The host is the fern sawfly Blasticotoma filiceti, the only member of the family Blasticotomidae in Europe. The family is considered to be one of the oldest extant families of the true sawflies. This particular sawfly was previously known only from the region near Linz since 1973 and this is the second find reported for the fauna of Austria.

The larvae of B. filiceti live in the stems of ferns in a small chamber, or gall, that they induce themselves for their protection. They feed on the nutrients in the phloem fluids and may produce foam on the outer side of the gall. The larvae have a true ant trophobiosis, or ants can live in symbiosis based on food for protection, the only known occurrence of this phenomenon within the Hymenoptera. The Myrmica ants receive fluids through some holes connected to the stem gall of the larva.

During the rearing experiments, important notes on the previously unknown biology of the parasitoid wasp were recorded. Four weeks after the sawflies emerged from the gall, the adults of Seleucus cuneiformis also started appearing, which continued over a period of two weeks. Interestingly, the parasitoid females at first had a droplet-shaped rear body characteristic for males. During the course of the first day the metasoma got expanded into the very elongate shape typical of females, which is of use to inject their eggs into the galls of the sawflies.

 Original source:

Achterberg C van, Altenhofer E (2013) Notes on the biology of Seleucus cuneiformis Holmgren (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ctenopelmatinae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 31: 97–104. doi: 10.3897/JHR.31.4204

 

The two endangered fish species, Squalius aradensis and S. torgalensis, most generally belong to the Cyprinidae, or the carp family. This is the largest fish, and vertebrate family, formed of freshwater fish with a diversity of more than 2,400 species. The family also has an important economic value as a food source. More specifically, the two species studied are members of the subfamily Leuciscinae, formed of small freshwater fish commonly known as minnows. A new genetic study of the two endangered fish was recently published in the open access journal Comparative Cytogenetics.

S. aradensis and S. torgalensis are sister-species endemic to Portugal. These fish were listed as critically endangered in 2005 due to the rapid loss and destruction of their natural habitat, formed of local rivers and intermittent streams. Although the two species have adjacent distributions, they live in relative habitat isolation, which is believed to have enforced the differentiation process.

In their study of these endangered species, the team of scientists lead by Prof. Collares-Pereira, Universidade de Lisboa, have provided a comparative genetic analysis of DNA features in both species that confirm their common ancestry, but also the evolutionary divergence, believed to have been potentiated by the semi-arid conditions they are adapted to with drastic changes in hydrological regimes, namely drought events. Such events, by creating isolates and bottlenecks, might have strengthened the fixation of genome mutations.

The authors address the current worrying status of the two fish species as highly endangered and draw attention towards the need of conservation of such two narrow-ranged and confined species. Specific measures regarding habitat protection and rehabilitation, which also include exotic species control, have to be actively implemented to preserve the genome integrity of the two highly vulnerable species.

 

Original Source:

Nabais C, Rampin M, Collares-Pereira MJ (2013) Comparative cytogenetics of two endangered leuciscine fish, Squalius aradensis and S. torgalensis (Teleostei, Cyprinidae), from the Iberian Peninsula. Comparative Cytogenetics 7(1): 33–42. doi: 10.3897/CompCytogen.v7i1.4672

Two new woodlizard species have been uncovered from poorly explored areas of the Peruvian jungles. The males have beautiful body colouration with a distinctive green pattern before a dark brown and black background. It is assumed that the two species share the same territory, with only a slight difference in altitude ranges, which makes their biological divergence intriguing from an evolutionary point of view. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

Being traditionally regarded as a group with a low species diversity, recent fieldwork on Enyalioides has increased the species richness considerably with three of the ten known species described in last 5 years. The new members of this still poorly known group of animals have been discovered during expeditions on both sides of the Andes‘ slopes, parts of Ecuador and Peru. This success rate suggests that more of these lizards might be awaiting discovery in other unexplored areas of the region.

The two newly described lizards were found in Cordillera Azul National Park, the 3rd biggest national park in Peru protecting the largest mountain rainforest in the country. The area includes some of the least explored forests in Peru. The basins of the rivers Pisqui and Pauya in the National park are remarkable with their great diversity of reptiles and amphibians.

One of the new species, Enyalioides azulae, is known only from a single locality in the mountain rainforest of the Río Huallaga basin in northeastern Peru. It was named after the Spanish word "azul" (blue) referring to the Cordillera Azul National Park where this species was discovered. The second newly described lizard, Enyalioides binzayedi, can be seen in the same river basin and is named after the sponsor of the field survey Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE, who created the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (MBZSCF).

"Thanks to these discoveries, Peru becomes the country holding the greatest diversity of woodlizards. Cordillera Azul National Park is a genuine treasure for Peru and it must be treated as a precious future source of biodiversity exploration and preservation!", says the lead author Dr Pablo Venegas from Centro de ornitología y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI) in Lima, Perú.

 

Original Source:

Venegas PJ, Torres-Carvajal O, Duran V, de Queiroz K (2013) Two sympatric new species of woodlizards (Hoplocercinae, Enyalioides) from Cordillera Azul National Park in northeastern Peru. ZooKeys 277: 69, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.277.3594