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Improving data quality in large online data access facilities depends on a combination of automated checks and capturing expert knowledge, according to a paper published in the open-access journal Zookeys. The authors, from the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) welcome a recent paper by Mesibov (2013) highlighting errors in millipede data, but argue that addressing such issues requires the joint efforts of ‘aggregators’ and the wider expert community.

The paper notes that aggregations of data openly exposed in facilities such as the ALA and GBIF will contain errors, and both organisations are fully committed to improving the quality of these data. Errors will arise in a multitude of ways. For example, an observation of a species may be misnamed, the name could have changed or the pre-GPS location could be in error. The card entry of this observation could then have been incorrectly transcribed into a digital record by a museum or herbarium. When the record was translated into a standard form for communication with the ALA or GBIF, other errors could have been introduced. At each step of the process, errors can be detected, introduced or corrected.

The authors argue that one of the most powerful outcomes of publishing digital data is that such problems are revealed, providing an opportunity for the whole community to detect and correct them. The paper points out that Mesibov’s detection of data issues was only possible with convenient public exposure of a large volume of biological data through the ALA and GBIF.

The ALA and GBIF also run a comprehensive range of automated data checks, for example flagging records whose coordinates lie outside the stated country of the observation or specimen. Such automatic checks will not detect all errors. Specialist expertise therefore remains necessary to detect and correct a wide range of data issues.

Agencies such as the GBIF and the ALA have infrastructure that simplifies error detection and correction. Aggregating many records of a species improves the chances of errors being detected. For example, one observation may be geographically isolated from other records. In the ALA, anyone can annotate an issue exposed in a record. Such annotations are sent to the data provider for evaluation and correction. It then depends on the resources of the provider to ensure that record is updated.

The ability to identify and correct data issues is the responsibility of the whole community and not any one agent such as the ALA. There is the need to seamlessly and effectively integrate expert knowledge and automated processes, so all amendments form part of a persistent digital knowledge base about species. Talented and committed individuals can make enormous progress in error detection and correction (as seen in Mesibov’s paper) but how do we ensure that when an individual project like that on millipedes ceases, the data and all associated work are not lost? This implies standards in capturing and linking this information and maintaining the data with all amendments uniquely documented. To achieve this, the biodiversity research community needs to be motivated and empowered to work in a collaborative fashion.

Data should be published in secure locations where they can be preserved and improved in perpetuity. The ALA and GBIF are moving beyond storage of data by individuals or institutions using stand-alone computers that do not have a strategy for enduring digital data integration, storage and access.

The ALA is funded by the Australian Government to discover and aggregate on one web site, the wealth of Australia’s biological observation and specimen data. GBIF is funded by national governments and operates through a system of national nodes, including the ALA, currently bringing together 400 million biodiversity records from more than 10,000 datasets freely shared by 486 institutions worldwide.

Original Source:

Belbin L, Daly J, Hirsch T, Hobern D, Salle JL (2013) A specialist’s audit of aggregated occurrence records: An ‘aggregator’s’ perspective. Title. ZooKeys 305: 67–76, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.305.5438

The flora and fauna of the American west coast is generally believed to be well explored and studied. However, a new study and a taxonomic assessment of the octocorals from the north eastern Pacific Ocean proves such assumptions wrong, with two new beautiful and colourful species of soft corals alongside a new genus. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

"It is remarkable that in a region previously thought to be as familiar and well known as the west coast of North America – with its numerous large urban centers and major marine laboratories – revisionary systematics are not only still possible, but essential for our understanding of global biodiversity," comments the author of the study Dr Williams, California Academy of Sciences.

The paper describes four aspects of the North American west coast fauna, such as a new species of pale orange stoloniferous soft coral from San Diego, California. Also included is a revisionary assessment of a well-known soft coral previously misidentified as Gersemia rubiformis from the Pacific Northwest. Another new species of the soft coral Gersemia from the coast of British Columbia, Canada has been also described. This new species is found in colonies with beautiful pink to reddish coloration in life.

The study also defines a new genus named for a species previously placed in a tropical Indo-Pacific genus for the past century. The species for which the genus was erected inhabits the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary near San Francisco, California, as well as several other localities on the Pacific Coast. The remarkable diversity of octocorals accounts for around 3400 species described worldwide. Although the majority of octocoral taxa was described in the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of this colourful marine fauna is in fact only minimally studied and continues to surprise with new discoveries nowadays.

 

 

Original Source:

Williams GC (2013) New taxa and revisionary systematics of alcyonacean octocorals from the Pacific coast of North America (Cnidaria, Anthozoa). ZooKeys 283: 15. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.283.4803

With the era of butterfly discovery coming to an end this new species comes as a pleasant surprise for science

A new butterfly species from Texas, given the common name Vicroy’s Ministreak, was discovered because of its striking olive green eye color, and was given a formal scientific name (Ministrymon janevicroy). This beautiful new butterfly may be the last truly distinctive butterfly species to be discovered in the United States.

Although individuals of Vicroy’s Ministreak were deposited in the Smithsonian entomology collections a century ago, this species was unrecognized because it was confused with the common, similar-looking Gray Ministreak. Interestingly what distinguishes the two species is the distinctive olive-green eyes of the new species in contrast to the dark brown/black eyes of the Gray Ministreak.

As their common names suggest both species are diminutive, about the size of a thumbnail, and may occur at the same time and place. Besides eye color, each has different wing patterns and different internal structures. They have different, but overlapping, geographic distributions and habitat requirements.

Jeffrey Glassberg, President of the North American Butterfly Association, discovered Vicroy’s Ministreak, and he named the species after his wife (Jane Vicroy Scott). Bob Robbins, the butterfly curator at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, together with Glassberg, are the authors of the paper officially describing Vicroy’s Ministreak, published in the open access scientific journal ZooKeys.

Regardless of whether Vicroy’s Ministreak turns out to be the last truly distinctive butterfly to be discovered in the United States, the era of new butterfly species, which began with Linnaeus more than 250 years ago, is ending in the United States. In tropical America, however, there are still hundreds upon hundreds of butterfly species awaiting discovery.

 

Original Source:

Robbins RK, Glassberg J (2013) A butterfly with olive green eyes discovered in the United States and the Neotropics (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae, Eumaeini). ZooKeys 305: 1, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.305.5081
 

Since year 2000 the May 22nd has been proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Day for Biological Diversity. Although the initiative aims at raising awareness on biodiversity issues in general, every year there is a different theme focusing on a separate aspect. This year the theme is Water and Biodiversity, chosen to coincide with the United Nations designation of 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation.

Water is essential for life. No living being on planet Earth can survive without it. It is a prerequisite for human health and well-being as well as for the preservation of the environment. Designation of IDB 2013 on the theme of water provides Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the public at large the opportunity to raise awareness about this vital issue, and to increase positive action.

Coincidently, the period 2005-2015 is the International Decade for Action ‘WATER FOR LIFE’.

Two new minute spider species have been discovered from the Sichuan and Chongqing, China. The tiny new spiders are both less than 2 mm in length, with Trogloneta yuensis being as little as 1.01 mm and Mysmena wawuensis measured to be the even tinier 0.75 mm, which classes it among the smallest spiders known. The two species described in the open access journal Zookeys both have a bizarre body shape with disproportionately big spherical posterior body.

The family Mysmenidae to which the new species belong is composed of minute eight-eyed spiders. There are a relatively small number of these spiders recognized worldwide despite scientists expect that many new species are still awaiting discovery. Mysmenidae are one of the least studied groups among orb-weaving spiders which is believed to be due to their small size.

Being extremely minute, up to 2 mm in total and having cryptic lifestyle these creatures become rather hard to find. The spiders live in moist leaf litter, and their obscure places such as moss and even caves and they prefer very humid habitats. Spiders from this family are believed to widely throughout the tropical and subtropical regions.

The two new species found in China are considered endemic to their type localities in the Sichuan and Chongqing. The region of Wawu Mt. National Forest Park, where Mysmena wawuensis was discovered is also remarkable for holding a small population of wild giant panda of about 10 individuals. A recent survey shows that 1206 individuals of giant panda are currently living in Sichuan, which makes the region remarkable with about 76% of the whole wild panda population in China being concentrated there attesting for the great biodiversity of the province.

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Original Source:

Lin Y, Li S (2013) Two new species of the genera Mysmena and Trogloneta (Mysmenidae, Araneae) from Southwestern China. ZooKeys 303: 33–51. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.303.4808

Scientists discovered a new enigmatic species of ant coming from the Philippines. Cardiocondyla pirata or the pirate ant engages the imagination with a bizarre pigmentation pattern that has no equivalent worldwide. The female castes in the colonies of these species can be recognized by a distinctive dark stripe across the eyes that resembles a pirate eye patch, which inspired the authors to choose the name of the species. The study was published in the open access journalZookeys.

"On a collection trip to the Philippines we looked for different species of the genus Cardiocondyla that is known for its astonishing morphological and behavioral diversity of male ants. Beside already know species we also detected a until then undiscovered species in the cleavage of big stones in a shady streambed. Due to the darkness of the rainforest and the translucent body parts of the tiny ants they were nearly invisible. Under bright light and a magnifier we detected the nice stripe across the eyes and therefore always referred to these species as "the pirates.", comments Sabine Frohschammer, PhD student Universität Regensburg.

What remains a mystery for scientists is the adaptive significance of the extraordinary pigmentation pattern. The poor vision and the fact that these ants mate in the dark exclude one of the most obvious hypotheses that the dark patch serve as a sign for sexual differentiation and thus a cue for recognition during mating.

A possible guess about the function of this bizarre pirate-like coloration pattern is that it serves as a tool to distract and confuse the enemy. The combination of the dark stripes together with a rather translucent body when living could leave the impression in predators that the anterior and posterior body parts are in fact two separate objects.

However even if this hypothesis is true the enigmatic pigmentation pattern of Cardiocondyla pirata will continue to engage the minds of scientists. "Remains the question: Which predator with a high-performance visual system could consume these tiny ants?",comment the authors of the study.

 

 

Original Source:

Seifert B, Frohschammer S (2013) Cardiocondyla pirata sp. n. – a new Philippine ant with enigmatic pigmentation pattern (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). ZooKeys 301: 13–24. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.301.4913

On 15th of May 2013, Zookeys published its 300th jubilee issue. The journal had its last jubilee less than a year ago, on 5th of June 2012, thus marking a remarkable volume of 100 issues in the last 11 months.

Since the start of 2013 ZooKeys marks more than 60 % growth in the first quarter of 2013. For this period, the total number of published pages almost doubled to the impressive 5,060 in 2013, in comparison with 3,266 in 2012. The number of published issues also significantly increased from 27 to 41 for the same time frame.

The 300th jubilee issue is an extensive study of the parasitoid wasp genus Macroteleia in China. This genus is part of the Scelioninae subfamily, and comprises of 131 described species worldwide. Wasps from the Macroteleia genus are believed to be parasitoids of eggs of longhorned grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae). The new study reports 17 species recognized for China, of which 7 are newly discovered and described.

Chen H-y, Johnson NF, Masner L, Xu Z-f (2013) The genus Macroteleia Westwood (Hymenoptera, Platygastridae s. l., Scelioninae) from China. ZooKeys 300: 1–98. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.300.4934

Water mites of the family Torrenticolidae are tiny, heavily sclerotized and crawling water creatures presently known from all continents except Antarctica. More than 400 species are described so far but this is expected to be only a minor pars of their diversity, especially in the tropical areas where the family is most species abundant. Until recently only one species was known from South Korea, and five from the Russian Far East. A recent study, published in the open access journal Zookeys, adds up to the diversity in this regions with 2 new to science species and 5 described from South Korea for the first time.

The two new species Torrenticola kimichungi and Monatractides abei, have been described from South Korea and the Russian Far East as a part of the project aimed at uncovering Korean invertebrate diversity, and led by the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR). The species have been named to commemorate the contributions of two scientist Drs Il-Hoi Kim and Kyung-Sook Chung and Dr Hiroshi Abe for their extensive studies in the area of water mites.

“Water mites are a diverse and widespread but still neglected group of freshwater fauna. In natural streams, species diversity of water mites is generally rather high and may reach, or occasionally even exceed, 50 species at single collecting site, often most of these are torrenticolid mites. Torrenticolid mites avoid habitats with silty substrata and intermittent flow, and their study can give valuable information on the ecological characteristics of the areas with an unstable surface water regime”, says the lead author Vladimir Pešić, Department of Biology, University of Montenegro.

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Original Source:

Pešić V, Semenchenko KA, Lee W (2013) Torrenticolid water mites from Korea and the Russian Far East. ZooKeys 299: 21, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.299.5272

A new extensive study offers a complete revision and a new species from the vining Solanum species (the Dulcamaroid clade)

The Solanaceae, also called the potato or nightshade family, includes a wide range of flowering plants, some of which are important agricultural crops. Tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, peppers and wolfberries are all representatives of the family present on many tables across the world. Solanum is the largest genus of the family, and with 1500 species, is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Solanum has 13 major evolutionary groups,or clades. This new study published in the open access journal Phytokeys offers a complete revision of all of the species of the Dulcamaroid clade, including the description of a new species endemic to the forests of Ecuador.

The species-rich genus Solanum has remained remarkably underexplored until relatively recently, despite the economic importance of some of its members such as potato (Solanum tuberosum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) . A project funded by the United States National Science Foundation’s Planetary Biodiversity Inventory program begun in 2004 sought to redress this situation by attempting to accelerate species-level taxonomy and at the same time prove a robust genetic background to the research. This research is a part of this effort, providing a revision of all the species of an entire clade of Solanum. Extensive and detailed, this study follows historical and taxonomic changes within the Dulcamaroid clade to provide detailed and very importantly community shared summary. Publication in PhytoKeys means the data from the in-depth taxonomic work will be shared with a wide audience who can re-use the data for further work with these plants.

“Work by participants of the ‘PBI Solanum’ project will result in a modern monographic treatment of the entire genus available on-line. This treatment is part of this collaborative effort.”explains Dr. Sandra Knapp, the author of this extensive contribution.

Members of the Dulcamaroid clade are all woody plants and vary in appearance from shrubs to vines. Some are large canopy lianas, while other vining species are woody only at the base. All representatives have beautiful clusters of flowers varying in color from deep purple, through fuchsia and pale pink, to pure white. Species in the group are native to both the New and Old Worlds – with the highest species diversity in Argentina and Peru. Among the species included in this revision is the common European woody nightshade, Solanum dulcamara, distributed all over the northern hemisphere and having a long history of medicinal use.

The new species described in this revision, Solanum agnoston, discovered by Dr. Sandra Knapp, Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, UK, comes from the inter Andean valleys of Southern Ecuador and is only known from two collections. Many of the other species of the group are similarly rare – of the 45 species 14 are threatened or endangered. Two of the most well-known decorative representatives of the group featured in the study are S. crispum, also known as Chilean potato vine or Chilean nightshade, and S. laxum, commonly called potato climber or jasmine nightshade. Both of these species are native to South America – S. crispum from Chile and S. laxum from southern Brazil and Argentina – but are today cultivated all over the world.

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Original Source:

Knapp S (2013) A revision of the Dulcamaroid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae). PhytoKeys 22: 1, doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.22.4041

The gorgeous new species Bothriechis guifarroi is named to honor the grassroots conservationist Mario Guifarro

A new species of green palm-pitviper of the genus Bothriechis is described from a seriously threatened cloud forest reserve in northern Honduras. Because of similarity in color pattern and scalation, the new species (Bothriechis guifarroi) was previously confused with other Honduran palm pitvipers. Genetic analysis revealed that the closest relatives of the new species are actually found over 600 km to the south, in the mountains of Costa Rica. The study was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

The gorgeous new species was discovered by scientists during two expeditions in 2010 aimed at studying the fauna of Texiguat Wildlife Refuge, one of the most endemism-rich and diverse highland forests in Mesoamerica. This beautiful, but highly toxic, snake represents the 15th endemic species occurring in the region. Texiguat Wildlife Refuge was created in 1987 to protect populations of wildlife such as the famous but elusive jaguar and Central America tapir, as well as howler and white-faced monkeys, sloths, and a variety of endemic amphibians, reptiles, and plants.

To draw attention to the dedication and sacrifice of many grassroots conservationists in Honduras and Central America, the new species was named in honor of Mario Guifarro of Olancho. Guifarro was a former hunter and gold miner who became an outspoken conservationist when he saw the vast rainforests of eastern Honduras being destroyed and converted to cattle ranches. After years of threats and multiple attempts on his life, Guifarro was ambushed and murdered on 15 September 2007 while on a mission to delimit a biosphere reserve for the indigenous Tawahka.

The lead author of the study Dr Josiah Townsend, Department of Biology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, comments on the importance of the discovery and conservation status of the new species: “The description of Bothriechis guifarroi has important implications for Central American biogeography as well as conservation. We recommend that B. guifarroi be immediately classified as Critically Endangered due to its limited known area of occurrence and the potential for anthropogenic damage to its habitat. We also consider that this species warrants immediate consideration for protection under CITES, given its striking appearance and high potential for exploitation in the pet trade.”

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Original Source:

Townsend JH, Medina-Flores M, Wilson LD, Jadin RC, Austin JD (2013) A relict lineage and new species of green palm-pitviper (Squamata, Viperidae, Bothriechis) from the Chortís Highlands of Mesoamerica. ZooKeys 298: 77, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.298.4834