Pensoft blog - Part 81

A new critically endangered tree species depends on unique habitat found only on Kaua’i

A new tree species, Melicope stonei(Rutaceae or citrus family), endemic to the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, is already assessed as Critically Endangered according to IUCN criteria. The newly described Melicope is apparently restricted to unique old growth forest featuring a combination of tree species that are only found on Kaua’i.

The volcanic island of Kaua`i is the oldest of the high Hawaiian Islands featuring deeply eroded drainages, well-defined canyons, and stunning tall coastal seacliffs. It is also the most floristically rich of the Hawaiian islands with Melicope stonei becoming the 249th endemic plant species known from only Kaua`i and nowhere else on earth.

Numerous threats currently endanger the new species and its unique home, including habitat degradation by introduced pigs and deer, predation of seeds by rats, environmental events such as hurricanes, fire caused mostly by humans, and competition with invasive non-native plant species.

Representatives of the new tree species are around 5 to 12 m tall with trunks measuring up to 25 cm in diameter. Perhaps the most striking characters of Melicope stonei are the beautiful soft pubescence on the underside of its large leaves and its ramiflorous inflorescences, meaning that the flowers spring directly from the branches below the leaves.

Interestingly, the new species was first collected and documented as early as 1988. Since then 94 individuals have been mapped by local botanists in regions featuring unique high canopy mesic forest.

The new species has been officially described and named in the open access journal PhytoKeysonly now. In their paper, the team of scientists from the National Tropical Botanical Gardenand Smithsonian Institution (both USA), and the University of Göttingen, Germany, also raise concerns on the conservation status of this unique tree which is severely limited to a 1.5 km2 area of occupancy on Kaua`i.

When interviewed, the authors make a strong case for increasing funding opportunities and enhancing a greater conservation ethic throughout world communities. “Unfortunately, in Hawai`i alone there are 424 federally threatened and endangered plant taxa with very few research biologists and limited funding available to adequately monitor and protect them,” explains the team of scientists. “We are hoping for a renaissance in the natural sciences whereby society values the perpetuation of species diversity with as much enthusiasm as perhaps sports and entertainment.”

“With respect to previous research scientists, we are pleased to name Melicope stonei in honor of Benjamin Clemens Masterman Stone, British-American botanist who had contributed over 300 publications to science during his career along with many keen insights into Hawaiian Melicope.”

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Original Source:

Wood KR, Appelhans MS, Wagner WL (2017) Melicope stonei, section Pelea (Rutaceae), a new species from Kaua’i, Hawaiian Islands: with notes on its distribution, ecology, conservation status,and phylogenetic placement. PhytoKeys 83: 119-132. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.83.13442

A decade of monitoring shows the dynamics of a conserved Atlantic tropical forest

Characterised with its immense biodiversity and high levels of endemism, the Atlantic Tropical Forest has been facing serious anthropogenic threats over the last several decades, demanding for such activities and their effects to be closely studied and monitored as part of the forest dynamics.

Cattle farming, expanding agricultural land areas and mining have reduced the Atlantic Forest to many small patches of vegetation. As a result, important ecosystem services, such as carbon stock, are steadily diminishing as the biomass decreases.

Brazilian researchers, led by Dr. Écio Souza Diniz, Federal University of Viçosa, spent a decade monitoring a semi-deciduous forest located in an ecological park in Southeast Brazil. Their observations are published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

The team surveyed two stands within the forest to present variations in the structure and diversity of the plants over time, along with their dynamics, including mortality and establishment rates. They based their findings on the most abundant tree species occurring within each stand.

At the forest stands, the most abundant and important species for biomass accumulation are concluded to be trees larger than 20 cm in diameter, which characterise advanced successional stage within the forest.

“It is fundamental that opportunities to monitor conserved sites of the Atlantic Forest are taken, so that studies about their dynamics are conducted in order to better understand how they work,” note the scientists.

“The information from such surveys could improve the knowledge about the dynamics at anthropised and fragmented sites compared with protected areas.”

In order to encourage further research into the composition, diversity and structure of the Atlantic Forest over time and the subsequent contributions to the preservation of this threatened ecosystem, the authors made their data publicly available. The datasets, including species occurrences, are now openly accessible via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility(GBIF) and the biodiversity informatics data standard Darwin Core.

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Original source:

Diniz ES, Carvalho W, Santos R, Gastauer M, Garcia P, Fontes M, Coelho P, Moreira A, Menino G, Oliveira-Filho A (2017) Long-term monitoring of diversity and structure of two stands of an Atlantic Tropical Forest. Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e13564. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e13564

Two new beetle genera and 4 new species from the Australopacific in a new monograph

An outstanding monograph of the Australopacific Region’s saprinine hister beetles supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Amid his ongoing revisionary work on a number of hister beetle genera, the Slovakian-born naturalised Dutch entomologist and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation researcher, Dr. Tomáš Lackner, Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, together with fellow entomologist Dr. Richard Leschen, Landcare Research, discovered two new genera and a total of four new species from the Australopacific Region. The newly described endemic insects are featured in an extensive monograph published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Hister beetles, also known as Clown beetles because of their flattened legs, represent a quite diverse family (Histeridae) of beetles living almost everywhere around the world. Amongst their characteristic traits are their shiny metallic wings. Most of these beetles are predaceous and feed on larvae of other insects, including some pests. Occasionally, some species filter-feed on dung. Curiously, the Clown beetles tend to play dead when threatened.

While the hister beetle subfamily Saprininae is common and diverse throughout the globe, with only 40 species in nine native and three introduced genera, they are poorly represented in the Australopacific Region. This is one of the reasons the present discoveries documenting the new diversity in the group are remarkable.

The authors note that their scarcity in the area might be as a result of the long-standing isolation of the Australian continent in combination with the originally densely forested large islands like New Zealand and New Guinea.

However, “the Australopacific Region harbors several species with very interesting morphologies and ecologies,” point out the scientists.

Amongst the most impressive newly described saprinines, there is the first truly myrmecophilous species and genus (Iridoprinus myrmecophilus) known from the region, which is likely to be dependent on its co-habitation with ants. The beetle is only known from Australia where it has been collected from the nests of another species, endemic to the country – the Meat anSimilarly, the new histerid species Saprinus rarus is the first known termitophilous saprinine from the Australopacific Region and only the third in the subfamily as a whole. Found in the nest of the arboreal Tree termite, the species had been previously collected, but it has been so rare that it has not been determined as a new to science species until now. Hence, it earned the scientific name rarus as in ‘rare’.

In conclusion, the team noted the next challenge about the Australopacific saprinines – the genus Saprinodes which is not only restricted to Australia, but also has a life history shrouded in mystery. So far, it has only been collected from pitfalls and flight intercept traps.

For lead author Dr. Tomáš Lackner, this is the tenth in a line of studies focused on the world’s remarkable histerids published in ZooKeys.

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Original source:

Lackner T, Leschen RAB (2017) A monograph of the Australopacific Saprininae (Coleoptera, Histeridae). ZooKeys 689: 1-263. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.689.12021

About Alexander von Humboldt Foundation:

The Alexander von Humboldt foundation is an intermediary organisation for German foreign cultural and educational policy promoting international cultural dialogue and academic exchange. It offers flexible sponsorship programmes for researchers at all stages of their careers to enable outstanding scientists and scholars from abroad to complete long-term research stays in Germany.

Four new fruit fly species from the Himalaya and information about their flower visitation

The first record of flower visitation in a group of fruit flies from Himalayan India and a total of four new species are described in the open access journal ZooKeys. In their paper, scientists also revise the descriptions of all representatives of this genus (Lordiphosa) in India.

Following a number of observations in Nainital and Darjeeling, India, the team of Dr Rajendra S. Fartyal and Pradeep C. Sati, both affiliated with HNB Garhwal University, Sushmika Pradhan, and Rabindra N. Chatterjee of University of Calcutta, Prof. M.J. Toda of Hokkaido University, and Mukul C. Kandpal and Birendra K. Singh of Kumaon University conclude that two of the new species visit the flowers of spiked ginger lily and angel’s trumpet.

The distributional range of the genus stretches from the tropics of the Oriental to the subarctic of the Palearctic region, with the highest species richness in the subtropics of the Orient. However, these fruit flies have been thought to be poorly represented in India with only seven species recorded so far.

Until now, the fruit flies in the genus Lordiphosa have been known to breed on herbaceous plants. Their larvae are either leaf miners, or feed on decayed leaves and stems.

The specimens used in the present study have been collected from four different hill stations in the Himalayan region in India. These localities are covered with dense mixed-deciduous subtropical forests. They are characterised with extremely moist conditions due to the heavy rainfall during the summer monsoon season.

The authors note that one of the revised species, named L. neokurokawai, has an extraordinary type of sex comb — a male-specific morphological feature composed of thick comb-like structures and located on the foreleg. This adaptation is only seen in two fruit fly genera. It is used in a variety of ways in tactile interactions between males and females during both courtship and mating.

The scientists point out that this finding is important when considering the evolution of the sex comb in the genus Lordiphosa. It is suggested that the sex comb has once evolved in an ancestor of the genus, and proceeded to rapidly diversify through sexual selection. However, “this hypothesis requires further investigation,” the authors say.

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Original source:

Fartyal RS, Sati PC, Pradhan S, Kandpal MC, Toda MJ, Chatterjee RN, Singh BK, Bhardwai A (2017) A review of the genus Lordiphosa Basden in India, with descriptions of four new species from the Himalayan region (Diptera, Drosophilidae). ZooKeys 688: 49-79. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.688.12590

The Oriental eye fly that transmits conjunctivitis newly recorded in China

The conjunctivitis-transmitting Oriental eye fly (Siphunculina funicola) has been recorded for the first time in China. In the same paper, published in the open access journal ZooKeys, a team of three scientists further describe three species of the same genus, which are new to science.

The studied flies in the genus Siphunculina present a number of curious insects, including the grass flies and the Oriental eye fly – a species that transmits conjunctivitis and other eye diseases to both humans and domestic animals. As the larvae feed on faeces or thrive in decaying flesh, they can usually be found in bird nests, excrement or carcasses.

The scientists Dr. Xiaoyan Liu, Huazhong Agricultural University, China, Dr. Ding Yang, China Agricultural University and Dr. Emilia P. Nartshuk, Russian Academy of Sciences, collected the Oriental eye fly in Hainan, the southernmost province of China.

Previously, the species had been known to inhabit other countries in eastern and southern Asia, where the flies amass around people and cattle, causing considerable annoyance and spreading eye diseases.

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Original source:

Liu X-Y, Nartshuk EP, Yang D (2017) Three new species and one new record of the genus Siphunculina from China (Diptera, Chloropidae). ZooKeys 687: 73-88. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.687.13156

The new yellow sea snake assumes an unusual ambush posture

Carrying its petite frame and all-yellow skin, the recently scrutinized sea snake populations from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica, already seem different enough to be characterized as a new subspecies. However, their most extraordinary trait is only exposed at night when the serpents opportunistically feed on small fish by hanging upside down from the water surface, assuming a peculiar sinusoidal ambush posture.

The new yellow sea snake subspecies (Hydrophis platurus xanthos) is described by Brooke Bessesen, Phoenix Zoo, USA, and Dr. Gary Galbreath, Northwestern University and The Field Museum of Natural History, USA, in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Unlike its related species, the yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus), the yellow sea snake subspecies lives in a significantly more hostile environment – the waters in the gulf are warmer, often turbulent, and the dissolved oxygen in them occasionally drops to extremely low levels. The two snakes’ territories are separated by some 22 kilometers.

Likely as a result, the new reptile has evolved to hunt at night, while its lighter coloration plays role in thermoregulation.

Given the list of well-defined distinct traits, the new subspecies could eventually turn out to be a new species instead. As for the moment, however, the authors remain cautious until additional data are available.

More importantly, the scientists call for conservation measures to be applied to the new serpent’s habitat. With its very restricted geographic range of about 320 km2 located in a currently unprotected area, the yellow sea snake is at a serious risk of extinction. Collectors have already been reported to remove specimens from the sea. Additionally, the reptiles are already living at the upper edge of the species’ temperature tolerance, which makes them particularly susceptible to climate change.

“Hopefully this globally unique population can continue to offer both scientists and conservation-conscious tourists a worthy subject of observation and study,” say the authors.

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Original source:

Bessesen BL, Galbreath GJ (2017) A new subspecies of sea snake, Hydrophis platurus xanthos, from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica. ZooKeys 686: 109-123. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.686.12682

Effects of soil and drainage on the savanna vegetation in the northern Brazilian Amazonia

It is a well-known fact that environmental factors such as soil texture and drainage determine to a very large degree the vegetation appearance, richness and composition at any site. However, there has been little research on how these variables influence the flora in the marvellous savannas – large open areas characterised by a complex and unique network of natural resources and life forms.

Consequently, a Brazilian research team, led by Dr. Maria Aparecida de Moura Araújo, Universidade Federal de Roraima, investigated the hydro-edaphic conditions in the savanna areas in the northern Brazilian Amazonia. Their study, complete with an openly available and ready for re-use dataset, is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

In the course of the Program for Biodiversity Research, managed by the Brazilian government, the scientists sampled 20 permanent plots in two savanna areas in the state of Roraima, located in the northern of the Brazilian Amazon. As a result, the team reports a total of 128 plant species classified into 34 families from three savanna habitats with different levels of hydro-edaphic restrictions.

Amongst the various factors playing a role in the soil characteristics of the area, are the tectonic events and past climatic fluctuations which have occurred in the most recent period of the Cenozoic era. Paleo, as well as modern fires are likely to be other culprits for the specific conditions.

In conclusion, the authors suggest that the most restrictive savanna habitats – the wet grasslands, represent the home to less structurally complex plants, compared to the well-drained shrubby localities.

“The present study highlights the environmental heterogeneity and the biological importance of Roraima’s savanna regarding the conservation of natural resources from the Amazon,” say the scientists.

“In addition, it points out the need for greater investment in floristic inventories associated with greater diversification of sites, since this entire ecosystem has been rapidly modified by agribusiness.”

Licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC-BY 4.0) and available in a Darwin Core Archive DwC-A format; the complete dataset is openly available via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Original source:
Araújo M, Rocha A, Miranda I, Barbosa R (2017) Hydro-edaphic conditions defining richness and species composition in savanna areas of the northern Brazilian Amazonia. Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e13829. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e13829

The biodiversity data journal Check List joins Pensoft’s open access portfolio

The well-reputed and established journal Check List is the latest biodiversity-themed title to join scholarly publisher Pensoft’s peer-reviewed and open access family. Its first issue in collaboration with Pensoft is now published on the journal’s new website.

Check List is an online open access journal launched in 2005 in Brazil. It publishes distribution summaries, annotated lists of species and notes on the geographic distribution of all taxa. The journal stands for the idea that maintaining records of the range of a species is the very first step towards undertaking effective actions for its conservation. Furthermore, its team believes that publishing such data provides the baseline for biodiversity preservation as a whole.

The move sees Check List migrating to the Pensoft-developed journal publishing platform ARPHA (abbreviation for Authoring, Reviewing, Publishing, Hosting and Archiving) to provide its authors, editors and users with a brand new look and feel along with a whole set of high-tech perks.

While the all-new sleek interface is evident at first visit of the Check List‘s new website, there is much more under the surface. The partnership with Pensoft and ARPHA means that Check Listwill enjoy fast-track and convenient publishing. The manuscripts will be taken care for from the authoring stage, through reviewing and dissemination – all the way to archiving. The papers will be published in three formats (PDF, XML, HTML) and full of semantic enhancements.

Recognising the importance of easy and efficient publication of accessible data in the spirit of both biodiversity conservation and open science, ARPHA allows for data to be published as supplementary files along with the article, or through internationally recognised repositories, such as GBIF, Genbank, Barcode of Life, Dryad, and others.

“It is fantastic to have Check List join the world’s leading and most technologically advanced biodiversity publisher,” comments Check List Editor-in-Chief Marcus Guidoti.

“At Pensoft, we are happy to once again share and apply our long-year experience and know-how in scholarly publishing and biodiversity data handling,” says Prof. Lyubomir Penev, the founder and Managing Director of Pensoft. “I am certain that this collaboration will advance the technological and publishing label of Check List to the benefit of the scientific community”

Check List is the second scholarly journal of South American origin to join Pensoft’s growing portfolio, after another highly regarded Brazilian-born academic title – Zoologia – moved to ARPHA earlier this year.

Behind Green Eyes: New species of deep-water hermit crab finds itself unusual shelters

‘Green-eyed hermit crab’ is the common name for a new species recently discovered off the West Coast of South Africa. Apart from its magnetic stare, however, there is a number of characteristic morphological traits and an unusual home preference that all make the crustacean unique.

Formally named after the University of Cape Town (UCT) alumnus Dr Lara Atkinson, the new hermit crab Paragiopagurus atkinsonaeis described by PhD candidate Jannes Landschoff, UCT, and Dr Rafael Lemaitre, Smithsonian Institution, USA, in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The Green-eyed hermit crab measures merely 70 mm in length and sports a coloration of mottled orange nuanced with cream to white. Among its distinct traits is the significant sexual dimorphism, where the males grow much larger right chelipeds in comparison to females.

Much like other hermit crabs in its family (Parapaguridae), the little crustacean does not use the shells of other molluscs to shelter its vulnerable body, but rather finds a home in the soft, polypy masses built from sand and material created by sea anemones which go on to live on the backs of these crabs in an amazing symbiosis.

“So, when you hold it [the hermit crab], it’s just organic material glued together with some sand,” explains Jannes in the UCT’s announcement about their discovery.

“Even more curiously, parapagurids start off in the usual way, occupying a tiny gastropod shell. But these eventually become deposited within this non-calcified ‘amalgam’ created by the anemones. As the hermit crab grows, its live ‘shell’, or carcinoecia, grows with it.”

The new species was discovered during a three-week survey back in 2013, conducted by the Department of Forestry and Fisheries and the South African Environmental Observation Network in the shallower deep waters (199 m to 277 m) off the West Coast of South Africa. Lara was on board one of the vessels when an unusual green-eyed crab turned up among the numerous specimens collected in one of the trawls. It was at that moment that she noticed that there was something peculiar about it and sent it for identification.

Restricted to a surprisingly small area for no obvious reason, the new species might be just bringing up some very important conservation messages.

“The area isn’t noticeably biologically or oceanographically distinct, but more detailed sampling from the area will tell us more about the habitat conditions. Future studies need to take this into account and give the area more research attention. If there’s something unusual about the site, you’d want to be careful, especially with mining operations along the West Coast,” says Jannes.

“Incidents like these are flags for future protection. The bottom line is we know so little about these offshore habitats from an ecological point of view. And if you’re planning for a marine protected area, you have to know what it is you’re protecting in that area.”

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Original source:

Landschoff J, Lemaitre R (2017) Differentiation of three common deep-water hermit crabs (Crustacea, Decapoda, Anomura, Parapaguridae) from the South African demersal abundance surveys, including the description of a new species of Paragiopagurus Lemaitre, 1996. ZooKeys676: 21-45. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.676.12987

Journal of Orthoptera Research joins scholarly publisher Pensoft’s open access portfolio

The Orthopterists’ Society’s Journal of Orthoptera Research (JOR) joins the growing portfolio of open access titles published on the Pensoft-developed journal publishing platform ARPHA (abbreviation for Authoring, Reviewing, Publishing, Hosting and Archiving).

The first issue in collaboration with Pensoft is live on the new journal’s website as of June 2017.

While preserving its attractive and well-known style and global expertise on the order Orthoptera and other closely allied insect orders, the journal now offers increased accessibility through a modernised design, intuitive interface, and many high-tech perks for authors, readers, reviewers and editors alike.

In continuous publication since 1992, Journal of Orthoptera Research is no newcomer to the arena of entomological peer-reviewed journals. It has enjoyed an esteemed place in the canon as the only global scientific publication dedicated to publishing work on the grasshoppers, crickets and bushcrickets. Now, the move to Pensoft ushers the journal to a new digital age by providing a modernised platform for showcasing fascinating research on these most charismatic and valuable of insects.

Among the innovative advantages is fast-track and convenient publishing thanks to ARPHA. Each manuscript is carried through all stages from submission and reviewing to dissemination and archiving on a single platform to facilitate and expedite the process using the best technological capabilities. Furthermore, this results in publications available in three formats (PDF, XML, HTML) with state-of-the-art semantic enhancements, so that articles can be easily found, accessed and harvested by both humans and machines.

Among the nine articles comprising the first Journal of Orthoptera Research issue since joining Pensoft [JOR Vol. 26(1)], there is a new species of bushcricket from China that sings an unusually complex tune when courting its potential partners; a curious experiment in the colour-shifting abilities of adult grasshoppers; and a description of a unique YouTube video showing two male bushcrickets engaging in previously unreported sexual activities.

“It’s pretty exciting to welcome Journal of Orthoptera Research to Pensoft’s family,” says Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev. “We first started discussions on the possible publication of the journal by Pensoft back in 2010 and have resumed them a couple of times since. I am happy to see the journal now published in the modern design and format it really deserves!”

“I’m certain that ARPHA will secure the right place for Journal of Orthoptera Research among a whole portfolio of excellent zoological journals. Our journal will definitely feel at home next to the names of Journal of Hymenoptera Research, Nota Lepidopterologica, Zoologia, ZooKeys and many others,” says Editor-in-Chief Dr. Corinna Bazelet.

The journal will continue being released biannually. Traditionally, it publishes research on the insect order Orthoptera, as well as its close allies – Blattodea, Mantodea, Phasmatodea, Grylloblattodea, Mantophasmatodea and Dermaptera. The range of biological studies of these insects includes diversity, conservation, and control and management of pest species. As for the article types accepted in the journal, in addition to original research, editors will be considering review articles, short communications, and articles focusing on policy and management of Orthoptera.

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