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The two new species described from Uruguay, Chaco castanea and Chaco costai, are middle sized spiders that range between 1 and 2 cm in body size. Like all Nemesiids they have elongated body and robust legs with predominantly black-brownish coloration. A recent study in the open access journal Zookeys provides a detailed description of the two news species and a rare glimpse into their living habits.

The two new species are typically found in sandy soils of oceanic and river coastal areas associated with psammophyte, or sand-dwelling, vegetation. This is where these peculiar spiders build their silk-lined burrow where they spend great deal of their lives. The burrows are also protected by a flap-like door that makes them particularly hard to find.

“Due to a number of life history characteristics, these spiders are difficult to collect and consequently little is known about their biology.”comments Laura Montes de Oca, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Uruguay. “Observations in natural conditions let us to know that they are mostly active during night. This knowledge is key to finding the spiders in order to perform the necessary studies, both on field and in laboratory. Remaining in the burrow most of their lives, makes these animals vulnerable to habitat perturbations. In Uruguay the psammophyte vegetation is critically decreasing, so it is very important to study and conserve the species.”

Experiments in laboratory environment reveal some of the secrets that the secluded burrow life of these spiders hide. Chaco costai was observed during hunting, when the spiders lift the entrance of the burrow with their front legs. The flap-like door of the spider den provides a perfect cover to ambush and catch the unsuspecting victim. The spiders return to their burrow after catching the prey. Another occasion when the spiders go in the open is during copulation when both the male and the female leave their hiding places. However, they return to the burrows straight after that.

Original Source:

Montes de Oca L, Pérez-Miles F (2013) Two new species of Chaco Tullgren from the Atlantic coast of Uruguay (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Nemesiidae). ZooKeys 337: 73. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.337.5779

A detailed annotated checklist of the scale insects of Iran, describing a total of 275 species from 13 families, represents a first effort towards a better knowledge of the Coccoidea family in attempt to improve the view in practical fields such as pest control management. The scale insects species are listed along with their locality data and host plants. In addition to latest species names for any record, new records for Iran and new host plants for some scale insects species. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

Scale insects of the superfamily Coccoidea are sap-sucking hemipterous insects with an estimated 8000 species within 49 families, of which 16 are only known from fossils. They vary dramatically in appearance, some of them are very small (around 1 mm) and grow beneath wax covers, others look like shiny pearl-like objects or are covered with mealy wax. These peculiar looking creatures secrete a waxy coating for defense. This makes them resemble reptilian scales or fish scales, hence their common name.

Scale insects are studied relatively little in Iran, but are economically important as they cause reduced crop yield through their feeding and transferring pathogen microorganisms to a wide range of plants. “Although the scale insects of Iran have been relatively well studied, there is still a strong need for further investigations, including extensive collections of these families in Iran.”, explains the author of the study Dr. Masumeh Moghaddam, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Tehran.

The new detailed study of the Coccoidea superfamily aims at paving the road for future research on this important group of insects and the practical implementation of knowledge in pest control management.

Original Source:

Moghaddam M (2013) An annotated checklist of the scale insects of Iran (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha, Coccoidea) with new records and distribution data. ZooKeys 334: 1. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.334.5818

To understand the world’s biological diversity, the information included in scientific collections is essential. For this reason, many projects have been focused on computerizing the data from these collections and making them openly available to researchers on biodiversity and conservation.

The MGC Herbarium of the University of Malaga (Spain) includes 76000 sheets of vascular plants or cormophyta, 73156 of which have been computerized. The data sheets are accessible through the GBIF data portal in the web page http://data.gbif.org/datasets/resource/8105/.

The basic information about the MGC Herbarium has been also published in a recent data paper available through the open access journal PhytoKeys.

The sheets have been mainly collected in Andalusia (Southern Spain) and they include specimens of several Biosphere Reserves, National Parks, Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and RAMSAR wetlands. These harvested areas are among the richest biodiversity hotspots of the Mediterranean area, in particular the Baetic-Rifan complex (which is one of the areas with the highest number of endemisms in the Mediterranean region). In addition, the collection also includes sheets from other locations of the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.

All sheets in the collection have been identified taxonomically (97% at species level) and a high fraction have been georeferenced (63%). Each sheet includes the scientific name, location, ecology, date of collection, collector and determiner of each plant. This collection is very active and in continual growth, with an annual intake of about 1.500 specimens.

Scientific supervision of the MGC Herbarium is carried out by the Plant Biology Department (Botany), University of Málaga (UMA), and its maintenance and management are correspond to the Central Research Services (SCAI) of the UMA.

The scientific journal Acta Botanica Malacitana is closely associated with the MGC Herbarium; papers based on sheets included in the MGC Herbarium are published in all of the issues of the journal.

For more information, please see the full study in the open access journal Phytokeys.

 

Original Source:

García-Sánchez J, Cabezudo B (2013) Herbarium of the University of Malaga (Spain): Vascular Plants Collection. PhytoKeys 26: 7. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.26.5396, Resource ID: GBIF key: http://gbrds.gbif.org/browse/agent?uuid=962cceea-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a

Previously unknown to science leaf beetles modify and use as shelter the holes in leaves of their host plants made by other beetles

Many animals construct homes or shelters to escape from biological and physical hostilities. Birds, spiders, termites, ants, bees and wasps are the most famous animal architects. As shelter construction requires considerable investment of resources and time, builders tend to minimize the cost of building while maximizing the benefits.

Builders are rather uncommon among adult leaf beetles though young ones of certain species use own feces to construct a defensive shield. Two closely related, hitherto unknown species of tiny southern Indian leaf beetles, only slightly larger than the size of a pin-head, and their clever way of using and modifying low cost shelters, is described in the open access journal ZooKeys. These beetles make use of holes pre-formed by larger leaf feeding beetles on the leaves of their host trees thus reducing cost of the shelter just like some birds that nest in existing cavities produced by primary cavity nesters, such as woodpeckers.

The beetles also use artificially made holes to construct hideouts called “leaf hole shelters”. As the shape and size of the hole were not exactly in tune with the requirements of the beetle, they resized the hole by partitioning with a wall constructed with own fecal pellets. Use of feces by adult leaf beetles for construction of shelters is being described for the first time, with these two new southern Indian species namely Orthaltica eugenia and Orthaltica terminalia. The beetles are named after their host trees, common in jungles of the Western Ghats Mountains, which is a globally recognized hot spot of biodiversity.

Original Source:

Prathapan KD, Konstantinov AS, Shameem KM, Balan AP (2013) First record of leaf-hole shelters used and modified by leaf beetles (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae), with descriptions of two new Orthaltica Crotch species from southern India. ZooKeys 336: 47-59. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.336.5435

A new study provides a rare glimpse into the natural history of some extraordinary Chrysomelinae beetle species in Central and South America

Hidden in the thick foliage of tropical forests a subfamily of colorful beetles hides the secrets of the earliest stages of social behavior, showing explicit signs of maternal instincts and care. An international team of scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Centro Universitário de Lavras, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, and Université libre de Bruxelles looked into the complex subsocial behaviors present in the extraordinary Chrysomelinae subfamily to discover and describe in detail the different degrees of maternal instincts present within 8 species. The exciting insight into the biology of these species was published in the 4th “Research on Chrysomelidae” special issue of the open access journal Zookeys, alongside 6 other research articles on the family.

Within the leaf beetles, maternal care of offspring is found in just two of 15 subfamilies, the broad-shouldered leaf beetles (Chrysomelinae) and the tortoise beetles (Cassidinae), groups possibly more vulnerable to predators and parasitoids due to slow-moving and exposed immature stages. The study of subsocial behavior, additional to its intrinsic appeal, may offer a perspective on selective forces at work during the earliest stages of insect social evolution.

Complex subsocial behavior was observed in pairs of one of the species studied, D. paykulli, interacting aggressively on newly expanded leaves. Whether these were contests over resources or precopulatory courtship is unclear, however, analysis of video taken of one of these interactions shows the use of the mesosternal horn in dislodging a competitor. Adult females were discovered during mid-May in close proximity to eggs attached to the cupped apical leaves.

Observations of additional species associated with a different family of plants, the Solananceae, suggest that mothers modify leaf resources in advance of bearing live offspring, and later block and herd movement of larvae among leaves on the same food plant. An adult was also recorded following a tightly arranged group of larvae moving between leaves on their food plant. Mothers at times tightly straddled their aggregated first and second instar larvae on the natal leaf, preventing their advance down the leaf petiole.

While guarding, mothers reacted aggressively by charging to the edge of the leaf when a thin stick was introduced to the area by an observer. Charges, stamping and shaking continued for a short period of time after the stimulus was removed. The strongest reaction was given to a camera held approximately 10 cm under and to the side of the natal leaf.

Observations and field studies find evidence that mothers actively defend offspring in at least eight species and three genera of Neotropical Chrysomelinae tightly associated with two host plant families. Reports on the three Doryphora species that feed on vines in the dogbane family, Apocyanaceae, reveal that mothers defend eggs and larvae by straddling, blocking access at the petiole and greeting potential predators with leaf-shaking and jerky advances. A less aggressive form of maternal care is found in two Platyphora and four Proseicela species associated with shrubs and small trees in the nightshade family Solanaceae.

“Large voids remain in our understanding of the natural history of both groups, including the identity and importance of predators and parasitoids and the diverse ways in which mothers may be influencing the survival of offspring.”, comments Dr. Windsor, one of the authors of the study. “We urge continued study of these magnificent insects, their enemies and their defenses, both behavioral and chemical, especially in forests along the eastern versant of the Central and South American cordillera.”

Original Source:

Windsor DM, Dury GJ, Frieiro-Costa FA, Lanckowsky S, Pasteels JM (2013) Subsocial Neotropical Doryphorini (Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae): new observations on behavior, host plants and systematics. In: Jolivet P, Santiago-Blay J, Schmitt M (Eds) Research on Chrysomelidae 4. ZooKeys 332: 71-93. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.332.5199

A recent paper published in the open access journal Zookeys provides a first-time glimpse in the natural history of the enigmatic spider species Progradungula otwayensis. Lurking in the hollows of old myrtle beech trees and thus hard to collect, this extraordinary spider is an endemic species confined strictly to the beautiful Great Otway National Park (Victoria, Australia).

P. otwayensis belongs to the small spider family Gradungulidae which consists of seven genera with a total of 16 described species found exclusively in eastern Australia and New Zealand. The genus Progradungula to which the species studied here belongs is among the few cribellate ones in the family. This term refers to the cribellum, a web producing organ which, unlike normal spinnerets, produces extremely fine fibers which are combed out by the calamistrum, producing silk with a wooly texture. The fibers are so small in diameter that prey insects easily become entangled in them, without any glue needed.

To add to its mystery P. otwayensis weaves highly stereotyped ladder-shaped webs, where they stand facing down after sunset, waiting for preys which will be caught by using the ladder as a trap – a behavior which was already described in detail by now retired arachnologist Mike Gray (Australian Museum) for the only known other species of this genus, P. carraensis. A single thick and shiny silk thread is then used by the spiders to provide a zip-line like connection between the external webs and the security of the enigmatic retreat in the hollows of ancient myrtle beech and mountain ash tree.

“On one occasion, we had access to a large hollow mountain ash tree and found catching ladders and supporting webs of juveniles inside of it.”, comments the lead author of the study Peter Michalik, Zoological Institute and Museum of the University of Greifswald (Germany), about the unusual bit of luck to have a glimpse into the secluded retreats of the spiders.

Martín Ramírez, from the Argentinian Museum of Natural History and co-author of the study, commented on the habitat specificity of this species, “confined to the oldest and extensively hollow myrtle beech trees in the humid forests in the western part of the Great Otway National Park, or in mountain ash trees, upon which the myrtle trees depend,” thus making an important case for the conservation of such habitats.

The unusual living habits and high degree of endemicity makes this spider a rare and remarkable species. The new study suggests that this spider is dependant on the microclimate in the hollows of old myrtle beech trees since other hollow trees were very much less inhabited and to some extent explains the confinement of the species distribution range.

Original Source:

Michalik P, Piacentini L, Lipke E, Ramírez MJ (2013) The enigmatic Otway odd-clawed spider (Progradungula otwayensis Milledge, 1997, Gradungulidae, Araneae): Natural history, first description of the female and micro-computed tomography of the male palpal organ. ZooKeys 335: 101-112. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.335.6030

Three new species of tiny frogs from Papua New Guinea are described in the latest issue of Zookeys. Dr. Fred Kraus, University of Michigan, who in 2011 in Zookeys described the world’s smallest frogs Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa, now adds another 3 species from the genus Oreophryne to the remarkable diversity of this region.

The three new species Oreophryne cameroni, Oreophryne parkopanorum and Oreophryne gagneorum are all rather minute, with total body lengths of around 20 mm. These tiny frogs, however are still substantially larger than the species that claimed the smallest frog prize in 2011. Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa are only half of the length of the three new additions to the frog diversity of Papua New Guinea, with an astonishingly small body size ranging between 8-9 mm.

The subfamily to which the new species belong is largely restricted to New Guinea and its satellite islands. Of the constituent genera, Oreophryne is presently one of the largest within the Papuan Region.

“Although the description of the new species treated herein now brings to seven the number of Oreophryne species reported from the north-coast region of New Guinea, the presence from these areas of additional specimens of uncertain identity suggests that additional species likely await description.”, explains Dr. Kraus about the diversity of the genus within the region. “I have at least a dozen more new Oreophryne species remaining to be described from this region, and large portions of this terrane system remain unsurveyed.”

Original Source:

Kraus F (2013) Three new species of Oreophryne (Anura, Microhylidae) from Papua New Guinea. ZooKeys 333: 75. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.333.5795

The Biodiversity Data Journal (BDJ) and the associated Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT), launched on 16th of September 2013, offer several innovations – some of them unique – at every stage of the publishing process. The workflow allows for authoring, peer-review and dissemination to take place within the same online, collaborative platform.

Open access to content and data is quickly becoming the prevailing model in academic publishing, resulting in part from changes to policies of governments and funding agencies and in part from scientist’s desire to get their work more widely read and used. Open access benefits scientists with greater dissemination and citation of their work, and provides society as a whole access to the latest research.

To publish effectively in open access, it is not sufficient simply to provide PDF files online. It is crucial to put them under a reuse-friendly license and to implement technologies that allow machine-readable content and data to be harvested by computers that can collate small scattered data into a big pool. Analyses and modelling of community-owned big data are the only way to confront environmental challenges to society, such as climate change, ecosystems destruction, biodiversity loss and others.

Manuscripts are not submitted to BDJ in the usual way, as word processor files, but are written in the online, collaborative Pensoft Writing Tool (PWT), that provides a set of pre-defined, but flexible article templates. Authors may work on a manuscript and invite external contributors, such as mentors, potential reviewers, linguistic and copy editors, and colleagues, who may read and comment on the text before submission. When a manuscript is completed, it is submitted to the journal with a simple click of a button. The tool also allows automated import of manuscripts from data management platforms, such as Scratchpads.

“This is the first workflow ever to support the full life cycle of a manuscript, from initial drafting through submission, community peer-review, publication and dissemination within a single, online, collaborative platform. By publishing papers in all branches of biodiversity science, including novel article types, such as data papers and software descriptions, BDJ becomes a gateway for either large or small data into the emerging world of “big data”.”, said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, managing director and founder of Pensoft Publishers.

BDJ shortens the distance between “narrative (text)” and “data” publishing. Many data types, such as species occurrences, checklists, measurements and others, are converted into text from spreadsheets into a human-readable format. Conversely text from an article can be downloaded as structured data or harvested by computers for further use.

A novel community-based peer-review provides the opportunity for a large number of specialists in the field to review a manuscript. Authors may also opt for an entirely public peer-review process. Reviewers may opt to be anonymous or to disclose their names. Editors no longer need to check different reviewers’ and author’s versions of a manuscript because all versions can be consolidated into a single online document, again at the click of a button.

“The Biodiversity Data Journal is not just a journal, not even a data journal in the conventional sense. It is a completely novel workflow and infrastructure to mobilise, review, publish, store, disseminate, make interoperable, collate and re-use data through the act of scholarly publishing!” concluded Dr Vincent Smith from the Natural History Museum in London, the journal’s Editor-in-Chief.

The platform has been designed by Pensoft Publishers and was funded in part by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project ViBRANT.

Original Source:

Smith V, Georgiev T, Stoev P, Biserkov J, Miller J, Livermore L, Baker E, Mietchen D, Couvreur T, Mueller G, Dikow T, Helgen K, Frank J, Agosti D, Roberts D, Penev L (2013) Beyond dead trees: integrating the scientific process in the Biodiversity Data Journal. Biodiversity Data Journal 1: e995. DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.1.e995

A new special issue of the NeoBiota journal focuses on advancing risk assessment models to address climate change, economics and uncertainty

A new special issue of NeoBiota journal has been published, following the 2012 meeting of the International Pest Risk Mapping Workgroup (IPRMW). The workshop was sponsored by the OECD‘s Co-operative Research Program on Biological Resource Management for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, and focused on pest risks in the foodchain. The new issue addresses the interface between pest risk science and policy in an attempt to secure adequate pest control measures against potential invasions accompanying economic globalization and the intensified movement of people and goods.

With the intensification of trade, the potential for translocation of harmful pests, weeds, and pathogens capable of impacting our crops, livestock and natural resources also grows. A special IPRMW meeting was held in Tromsø, Norway from 23–26 July, 2012 to address this issue. The meeting was attended by 30 ecologists, economists, risk analysts and policy advisors from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Hungary, France, Italy, and the United States. “The conference succeeded in stimulating new ideas about how to incorporate climate change, invasion dynamics, economics, and uncertainty into pest risk models and maps for invasive alien species, and how to communicate these improved results to biosecurity policy advisors”, notes meeting convenor Dr. Rob Venette, United States Forest Service.

The new issue of NeoBiota contains 12 research articles and an editorial reflecting the major outcomes and findings following the IPRMW meeting. The articles focus on issues of interactions between pest risk and climate change, policy and economics. Also featured is research about pest control and surveillance as well as the issue of pest risk and uncertainty, which is a key to the correct implementation of scientific research by policymakers.

“Since its first meeting in 2007, the IPRMW has made significant advances in pest risk modelling and mapping methods.” explains Dr. Darren Kriticos, CSIRO, Australia. “The meeting in Tromsø continued this tradition, with significant advances in economic model integration, a new understanding of the irreducible uncertainties in climate change forecasts, and the desirability of an adaptive management framework for dealing with these uncertainties, as well as new methods for dealing with other forms of uncertainty. Clearly, more work needs to be done in the area of risk communication and the improvement of niche modelling methods to produce timely and reliable models.”, he adds.

Original Source:

Kriticos DJ, Venette RC, Baker RHA, Brunel S, Koch FH, Rafoss T, van der Werf W, Worner SP (2013) Invasive alien species in the food chain: Advancing risk assessment models to address climate change, economics and uncertainty. In: Kriticos DJ, Venette RC (Eds) Advancing risk assessment models to address climate change, economics and uncertainty. NeoBiota 18: 1–7. doi: 10.3897/neobiota.18.6108

Scientists discovered a new species of a peculiar cave-dwelling snail in one of the 20 deepest cave systems in the world, Lukina Jama–Trojama in Croatia. The newly discovered species belongs to a genus of minute air-breathing land snails that have lost visual orientation and are considered to be true eutroglobionts, or exclusive cave-dwellers. The study describing the new species was published in the open access journal Subterranean Biology.

The new species Zospeum tholussum is a miniature and fragile snail, with a beautifully shaped dome-like translucent shell. Only one living specimen was found during the expedition around the galleries of the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system. The animal was found at the remarkable depth of 980 m, in an unnamed chamber full of rocks and sand and a small stream running through it.

All known species from the cave-dwelling genus Zospeum possess a limited ability to move. Their preference of a muddy habitat and the fact that they are usually located near the drainage system of the cave, in a close proximity to running water, however suggest that these animals are not exactly immobile. Scientists hypothesize that dispersal is achieved through passive transportation via water or larger mammals.

The Lukina Jama–Trojama is the deepest cave system in Croatia, extraordinary for its vertical shape, long pits and great depth of -1392 m. From an ecological point of view this cave system is extremely interesting for having three microclimatic layers: firstly entrance icy part with the temperature of about 1 °C, secondly, middle part with the temperature up to 2 °C and bottom part with temperature till 4 °C. These unusual living conditions make the cave extremely interesting for scientist from a biodiversity point of view.

Original Source:

Citation: Weigand AM (2013) New Zospeum species (Gastropoda, Ellobioidea, Carychiidae) from 980 m depth in the Lukina Jama–Trojama cave system (Velebit Mts., Croatia). Subterranean Biology 11: 45–53. doi: 10.3897/ subtbiol.11.5966