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A revision of the genus Copa offers a peculiar insight into spider biogeography in the Afrotropical Region

The species from the genus Copa are very common spiders found in the leaf litter of various habitats. Being predominantly ground-living, they occur widely in savanna woodlands but also occasionally in forests, where they are well camouflaged. They usually share the litter microhabitats with several other species of the family Corinnidae. The spiders from this cryptic, ground-dwelling genus in the continental Afrotropical Region are revised in a study published in the open access journal Zookeys.

The number of continental species in the Afrotropical Region has been reduced from four to two, one of which is newly described. While C. flavoplumosa is widespread throughout the region (from Guineé in the west to Tanzania in the east, and from Nigeria in the north to South Africa in the south), the new species, C. kei, is endemic to southeastern South Africa.

The two species represent extremes regarding both vagility and ecological flexibility. C. flavoplumosa provides a useful example of extreme habitat flexibility, occupying habitats from forests to semi-deserts. It is particularly prevalent in savanna habitats on the continent, but also occurs in various forest types and grasslands. They have been occasionally collected in agroecosystems, specifically from the canopies of orchard crops in South Africa (avocadoes, macadamias and pistachios), which is in stark contrast to their almost exclusive ground-dwelling habits in natural habitats. The reasons for this ecological divergence, however, are unknown.

The newly described species, C. kei, is very closely associated and believed to be endemic to the Afromontane and coastal forests in South Africa. The species has a distribution falling entirely within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Centre of Endemism in South Africa, where an extraordinary amount of endemic species is found, with around 30 endemic reptiles and emblematic mammals such as the blue duiker antelope.

The new species, C. kei, can be easily recognised by a distinct dorsal black spot on the anterior of the abdomen. The specific name of the species refers to the type locality, the town Kei Mouth, located at the estuary of the Great Kei River in the Eastern Cape Province.

Original Source:

Haddad CR (2013) A revision of the continental species of Copa Simon, 1885 (Araneae, Corinnidae) in the Afrotropical Region.ZooKeys 276: 1–37, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.276.4233

Cockroaches (Blattodea) are an insect order remarkable in their biodiversity and distribution, with more than 4500 species known and great geographical reach. Cockroach fossils date back around 400 million years, which testifies to their great adaptability and endurance that puts them among the planet’s great survivors.

The cockroach genus Pseudophoraspism has has been reported from China for the first time thanks to the discovery of three new species: Pseudophoraspis clavellata, Pseudophoraspis recurvata and Pseudophoraspis incurvata, alongside the first regional record of three already described ones. They belong to the cockroach family Blaberidae, known also as giant cockroaches. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Although the adults of the newly described species can reach a size of around 3 cm in length, they are still some of the smallest representatives in the family. For comparison, the females of the largest species known, Blaberus giganteus, can reach up to 10 cm in length. The heaviest species, Macropanesthia rhinoceros, also known as the rhinoceros cockroach, reaches only around 8 cm but can weigh remarkable 35 grams.

All of the known species of the genus Pseudophoraspis, to which the three newly described ones belong, were reported from Southeast Asia and South Asia, with Vietnam considered the north boundary of their territory. This new record of three already known species, and three newly discovered ones in China’s provinces Hainan, Yunnan and Guangxi, however, considerably expands the reach of the genus to the North.
One of the authors, Dr. Zongqing Wang from the Institute of Entomology, Southwest University, China comments: "All of the known species were reported from Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the previously known boundary of this genus would be Vietnam. We found three new species from China, located in Hainan, Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces respectively, which extends the range of the genus Pseudophoraspis northward."

Original Source:
Wang Z, Wu K, Che Y (2013) New record of the cockroach genus Pseudophoraspis (Blaberidae, Epilamprinae) from China with descriptions of three new species. ZooKeys 273: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.273.4122

Licensing:
This press release is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. It is expected to link back to the original article.

Posted by Pensoft Publishers.

Two new species of the gorgonian inhabiting barnacles — Conopea saotomensis and Conopea fidelis — have been collected from the area surrounding the historically isolated volcanic islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. The barnacles of this genus are widely spread across the temperate and tropical oceans, but what makes them special is that they occur exclusively in a symbiotic relationship with a gorgonian or black coral hosts. Observations suggest that the barnacles might have a unique ability to recognize and choose a specific host of their preference. The study was published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys.

The islands near which the two new species of Conopea were found are the products of large shield volcanoes originating 3,000 m below the ocean’s surface along the Cameroon line. São Tomé and Príncipe are particularly old islands, 13 and 30 millions of years old, respectively, and form part of the Gulf of Guinea island chain known for its remarkable natural beauty. The islands are home to a large number of endemic birds and plants such as the world’s smallest ibis, the São Tomé Ibis, and the world’s largest sunbird, the Giant Sunbird. Being of volcanic origin and 274 km west of northern Gabon, the islands have never been connected to the African mainland. Such a historical isolation of the area where the new species are found suggests the possibility of endemism.

The newly discovered barnacles are both gorgonian inhabiting. Observations by the authors suggest that they also demonstrate preference to a particular gorgonian hosts. This peculiar behavior is reflected in the name of one of the newly described species, Conopea fideli, referring to the ‘fidelity’ of the barnacle towards its host of preference. The host gorgonians are a particular type of beautiful octocoral, also known as sea fans. Once locating the host, the barnacle then lives in complete symbiosis with the gorgonian, almost fully covered by host tissue.

To date, not all the details of barnacle larvae settlement and interaction with the gorgonian host are known, but it seems that barnacle larvae are able to choose between the different gorgonians in their search for a host. This rather high degree of symbiotic relationship, almost like a love story, is believed to be mediated by pheromones. It has been demonstrated that barnacle larvae can determine where to settle by recognizing pheromone cues from their host. It has also been shown that gorgonians produce barnacle settlement inducers as well as inhibitors.

The lead author of the article, Dana Carrison-Stone from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology, California Academy of Sciences, comments: "Although the details of the settling barnacle larvae and gorgonian interaction are not completely known, it appears, from our observations (specifically that Conopea fidelis was found only on Muriceopsis tuberculata) that barnacle larvae may be capable of distinguishing between gorgonian species. Of course, more collections, identifications, and laboratory work testing settlement preference would be needed to answer this question."

 Original Source:

Carrison-Stone D, Syoc RV, Williams G, Simison WB (2013) Two new species of the gorgonian inhabitingbarnacle, Conopea (Crustacea, Cirripedia, Thoracica), from the Gulf of Guinea. ZooKeys 270: 1–20, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.270.3736.

Four new species from the Steninae subfamily of the large family of rove beetles (Staphylinidae) have been discovered in the Ningxia Autonomous Region, China, as part of an exploration of the insect fauna of the Liupan Shan Natural Reserve, where a large number of specimens has been collected. The expedition also yielded 11 new records for the Ningxia province of previously described Steninae species. The study was published in the open access, peer reviewed journal Zookeys.

The Ningxia Autonomous Region is mainly known as a dry, desert-like land. The region of the Liupan Shan Natural Reserve, however, is part of the Liupan Shan mountains, also known as the green pearl on the Loess Plateau. The area is also regarded as a "Kingdom of Animals" for its great biological diversity.

The rove beetle family, Staphylinidae, is one of the most widely distributed beetle families in the world. However, the representatives of the Steninae subfamily are of particular interest. These fascinating beetles are known for their unique ability to glide on the surface of water.This special skill is made possible through evolutionary adjustment allowing the production of special gland secretions that reduce surface tension.

Out of the four newly described species two are from the genus Dianous, and as all representatives are experts in water gliding. The other two belong to the genus Stenus where this ability is only partly present. One of the species, Stenus liupanshanus lives in leaf litter and is therefore believed to not demonstrate the ability. However the other one, Stenus biwenxuani, was found on shore and is therefore considered to be a water glider.

Steninae are also specialist predators of small invertebrates such as collembola, which are frequently found in leaf litter. What is fascinating is the special hunting technique used by those beetles to catch their prey. Species in the genus Stenus can eject some of its mouth parts using blood pressure. The thin rod of the labium ends in a pair of pads with bristly hairs and hooks, called paraglossa, and between these hairs are small pores that exude an adhesive glue-like substance, which sticks to prey to secure a perfect catch and no escape.

Dr. Liang Tang from the Department of Biology, Shanghai Normal University, comments: "As far as the Steninae are concerned, Ningxia Autonomous Region is one of the most poorly explored regions, with merely two species being recorded until 2008. In the summer of 2008, a team surveyed the insect fauna of the Liupan Shan in southern Ningxia and collected a large number of Steninae. In this paper, we report the results of the study, which includes two new Stenus and two new Dianous species, and new province records for eleven Stenus species."
 

Original Source:

Tang L, Li L-Z (2013) Discovery of Steninae from Ningxia, Northwest China (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae). ZooKeys 272: 1, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.272.4389

The tropics are home to an extraordinary diversity of insect species. How great is it, exactly? We do not know, but today, researchers at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History published a study on tropical beetles that can help us progress towards an answer to this question. The paper was published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal Zookeys.

Entomologists Michael Caterino and Alexey Tishechkin have named 138 new species within the genus Operclipygus (the name refers to their clamshell-like rear end), thereby increasing the size of the genus over six times. The work is based on a study of over 4000 specimens amassed from natural history museums all over the World, as well as specimens from fieldwork collected throughout Central and South America by the authors.

The lead co-author of the paper, Dr. Caterino, comments of on the significance of such biodiversity: ‘We all know that forests in the tropics are disappearing. But we only have the faintest idea of how much biodiversity is disappearing with them. Studies like this are critical to seeing where the greatest diversity is, and finding out the best ways to protect it’,

These beetles all belong to a family known as histerids, or ‘clown beetles’. All of the newly described species are similar in appearance to a poppy seed – small, round and black. Because of their extreme abundance, however, they have an ecological importance disproportionate to their size. As voracious predators of other insects’ larvae, these beetles help controlling pestiferous flies. As in some cases their menu includes fly larvae found in decomposing bodies, some researchers have been promoting their use in forensic investigations.

Since the days of Darwin, Wallace, and Bates, entomologists have both celebrated and bemoaned the overwhelming diversity of tropical insects. Modern-day scientists continue to grapple with the question of just what extent of insect biodiversity lives in the tropical parts of the World, with estimates ranging from 5 to 30 million species or more. This study is only one part of a larger revision of several related histerid genera, and it seems not to be an isolated case, with most groups revealing 5 to 6 times the species currently documented.

So while biologists have a long way to go in fully documenting the species diversity in rapidly-disappearing tropical forests, comprehensive taxonomic revisions of neglected insect groups can help to clarify the magnitude of what’s at stake. This project was funded by the Advancing Revisionary Taxonomy and Systematics program of the U.S. National Science Foundation, and it clearly demonstrates what dedicated support for taxonomy can do for our understanding of global biodiversity.
Dr. Caterino closes: ‘We’re committed to doing our best to let people know what’s out there before it’s too late’.

 Original Source:

Caterino MS, Tishechkin AK (2013) A systematic revision of Operclipygus Marseul (Coleoptera, Histeridae, Exosternini). ZooKeys 271: 1–401. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.271.4062

Pensoft Publishers is pleased to announce the full integration of its open access journals with the CLOCKSS Archive. The partnership reflects Pensoft’s vision for the long-term availability of open access scholarly content for the global research community. The CLOCKSS Archive guarantees Pensoft’s journals will remain intact, securely stored, and freely available in perpetuity. As an added benefit, Pensoft is participating in the international Global LOCKSS Network supporting libraries and their local collections.

LOCKSS is based on the principle of "lots of copies keep stuff safe". It’s award-winning technology serves multiple copies of original, authoritative content across a secure, network of participating libraries and publishers around the globe. As a LOCKSS participant, libraries and publishers ensure their readers are served authentic, authoritative content when the publisher’s website is unavailable ensuring authorized reader access to publisher branded content.

Similarly, CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS) is a dark archive that preserves copies of original, authoritative content and stores them in a select number of secure locations. CLOCKSS uniquely assigns this abandoned and orphaned content with a creative commons license to ensure it remains available in perpetuity. As a non-profit joint effort between the world’s leading scholarly publishers and research libraries, CLOCKSS is governed by and for its stakeholders. Its participants decide its procedures, priorities, and protocols.

CLOCKSS is a sustainable, geographically-distributed dark archive of scholarly publications to protect the integrity of the work of the global research community. The low operating cost makes CLOCKSS a viable option for a variety of institutions.

CLOCKSS and LOCKSS not only safeguards Pensoft’s content for for the future, it delivers reliable content to its readers today.

"We are glad to become a member of the large CLOCKSS family of partnering publishers. What is critically important is that we managed to establish a fully automated harvesting workflow for all our content, including back issues" says Professor Lyubomir Penev, the managing director and founder of Pensoft Publishers.

"The CLOCKSS Archive welcomes Pensoft Publishers’ open-access e-journals with their coverage of biodiversity science, plant systematics, phylogeny, and biogeography into the community’s archive. By archiving with CLOCKSS, Pensoft Publishers has ensured that the scholarship in their publications will remain available to a wide audience in the long term. We are grateful, as Pensoft Publishers joins the CLOCKSS Archive, for its generous willingness to preserve its ejournals in a way that secures them for the long-term good of scholars worldwide."

 

 

Contacts:

CLOCKSS contact person:
Kim Smilay
pub-director@clockss.org

LOCKSS contact person:
Victoria Reich
vreich@stanford.edu

Huge data encompassed into a unique georeferenced macrobenthic assemblages database

A new peer-reviewed data paper offers a comprehensive, open-access collection of georeferenced biological information about the Antarctic macrobenthic communities. The term macrobenthic refers to the visible-for-the-eye organisms that live near or on the sea bottom such as echinoderms, sponges, ascidians, crustaceans. The paper will help in coordinating biodiversity research and conservation activities on species living near the ocean bottom of the Antarctic.

The data paper "Antarctic macrobenthic communities: A compilation of circumpolar information", published in the open access journal Nature Conservation, describes data from approximately 90 different expeditions in the region since 1956 that have now been made openly available under a CC-By license. The paper provides unique georeferenced biological basic information for the planning of future coordinated research activities, for example those under the umbrella of the biology program Antarctic Thresholds – Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation (AnT-ERA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The information collected could be also beneficial for current conservation priorities such as the planning of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

The expeditions were organised by several famous explorers of the Antarctic. The area covered by the paper consists of almost the entire Southern Ocean, including sites covered by a single ice-shelf. The vast majority of information is from shelf areas around the continent at water depth shallower than 800m. The information from the different sources is then attributed to the classified macrobenthic assemblages. The results are made publicly available via the "Antarctic Biodiversity Facility" (data.biodiversity.aq).

A specific feature of this paper is that the manuscript was automatically generated from the Integrated Publishing Toolkit of the Antarctic Node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (AntaBIF IPT) and then submitted to the journal Nature Conservation through a novel workflow developed by GBIF and Pensoft Publishers. (see previous press release). Data are made freely available through the AntaBIF IPT, and sea-bed images of 214 localities through the data repository for geoscience and environmental data, PANGAEA- Data Publisher for Earth and Environmental Science (sample: http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.198682).

Speaking from on board the research vessel ‘Polarstern’, the paper’s lead author Prof. Julian Gutt of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Germany commented:

"The most important achievement of this paper is that data collected over many years and by various institutions are now not only freely available for anyone to download and use, but also properly described to facilitate future work in re-using the data. The Data Paper concept is certainly a great approach that multiplies the effect of funds and efforts spent by generations of scientists."

The data will also be used for a comprehensive Biogeography Atlas of the Southern Ocean project to be released during the XI SCAR Biology Symposium in Barcelona July 2013.

 

 

Published by Pensoft Publishers.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:

Gutt J, David B, Lockhart SJ, van de Putte A (2013) Antarctic macrobenthic communities: A compilation of circumpolar information. Nature Conservation 4: 1–12. doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.4.4499

Contacts:

Dr. Julian Gutt
Alfred Wegener Institute
Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Email: julian.gutt@awi.de

Dr Vishwas Chavan
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
Copenhagen, DENMARK
Tel. 45-35-32-14-75, Fax. 45-35-32-14-80
Email: vchavan@gbif.org

Additional Information:

What is a Data Paper?

A Data Paper is a scholarly journal publication whose primary purpose is to describe a dataset or a group of datasets, rather than to report a research investigation. As such, it contains facts about data, not hypotheses and arguments in support of those hypotheses based upon data, as found in a conventional research article. Its purposes are three-fold:

to provide a citable journal publication that brings scholarly credit to data publishers;
to describe the data in a structured human-readable form;
to bring the existence of the data to the attention of the scholarly community.

Sources:

Chavan V, Penev L (2011) The data paper: a mechanism to incentivize data publishing in biodiversity science. BMC Bioinformatics, 12 (Suppl 15): S2. doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-12-S15-S2

Penev L, Mietchen D, Chavan V, Hagedorn G, Remsen D, Smith V, Shotton D (2011). Pensoft Data Publishing Policies and Guidelines for Biodiversity Data.
http://www.pensoft.net/J_FILES/Pensoft_Data_Publishing_Policies_and_Guidelines.pdf

A new species of scorpion, Vaejovis brysoni, was found in the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona. Another scorpion of the same group also inhabits this mountain range, making this the first documented case of two vorhiesi group species distributed on the same mountain. The study was published in the open access, peer-reviewed journal Zookeys.

These mountains overlook the city of Tucson, Arizona. Amazingly, in the 21st century, there are still new species to be discovered right here in the United States. What is even more surprising is that the new species was found within sight of a large metropolitan area.

Recently Dr. Rob Bryson Jr. discovered this new species while looking for a completely different animal. Many important discoveries are made this way by scientists who start out working on something completely different. He sent specimens to the authors, who determined that they were indeed a new scorpion species. At that point, the team was assembled and the rest is history.

For over 50 years only four species of mountain scorpions were known from the state of Arizona. That number has more than doubled over the past six years, with a total of 10 species now known, all belonging to the same group. Arizona is known for isolated mountain habitats in the desert known as Sky Islands. These Sky Islands are where the new species are being discovered.
"This latest new scorpion is a prime example of the amazing diversity of life still to be discovered, right here in 21st century America.", adds Richard F. Ayrey, one of the co-author of the original article.

 Original Source:

Ayrey RF, Webber MM (2013) A new Vaejovis C.L. Koch, 1836, the second known vorhiesi group species from the Santa Catalina Mountains of Arizona (Scorpiones, Vaejovidae). ZooKeys 270: 21–35, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.270.4500.

 

Forcepflies are usually known as earwigflies, because the males have a large genital forceps that resembles the cerci of earwigs. A new species of forcepfly Meropeidae (Mecoptera) from Brazil was described, representing only the 3rd extant species described in this family and the 1st record of the family from the Neotropical region. The distribution and biogeography of the family are discussed and it is even proposed that Meropeidae originated before continental drift and then divided into two branches, northern and southern, with the breakup of the old supercontinent Pangea. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Despite all previous collecting efforts in this area the species had never been recorded before. The specimen was collected in a private ranch near a forest fragment surrounded by farms in the Atlantic Forest biome, one of the most threatened in Brazil. It can be found in a variety of habitats, including woodland, Jarrah forest, and sand plain vegetation. What makes forcepflies special is the fact that little is known about their biology and the immature stages remain a mystery to scientists. The adults, who are nocturnal and seem to live on the ground, are also capable of stridulation, or the production of sound by rubbing certain body parts.

"The discovery of this new relict species is an important signal to reinforce the conservation of Brazilian Atlantic Forest biome. Certainly there are many more mecopterans species yet to be discovered in these forests", said the lead author Dr Renato Machado from the Texas A & M University, College Station, USA.

 

 

Original Source

Renato Jose Pires Machado, Ricardo Kawada, José Albertino Rafael (2013) New continental record and new species of Austromerope (Mecoptera, Meropeidae) from Brazil. ZooKeys 269: 1–10. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.269.4240.

 

The article “The amphibians and reptiles of Luzon Island, Philippines, VIII: the herpetofauna of Cagayan and Isabela Provinces, northern Sierra Madre Mountain Range”, recently published in the open access, peer reviewed journal Zookeys, has gained incredible popularity through uploading all images to Wikimedia Commons.

Thanks to the rich, high resolution illustrations featured in the article, all figures have been since ported to Wikimedia Commons (the media repository used by Wikipedias, Wikispecies and their sister projects), and till date, they have been used on well over 300 pages across some 30 languages.

The same Images are also automatically exported by the journal on the day of its publication to Encyclopedia of Life and the Wiki species descriptions catalogue Species-ID.

All authors are encouraged to submit high resolution quality figures and videos to be featured in their articles and achieve the same level of dissemination.

Reference:

Brown RM, Siler CD, Oliveros CH, Welton LJ, Rock A, Swab J, Van Weerd M, van Beijnen J, Jose E, Rodriguez D, Jose E, Diesmos AC (2013) The amphibians and reptiles of Luzon Island, Philippines, VIII: the herpetofauna of Cagayan and Isabela Provinces, northern Sierra Madre Mountain Range. ZooKeys 266: 1-120. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.266.3982