A glimpse of the flora of Southeast Asia puts a spotlight on its conservation

A new special issue in PhytoKeys features a total of 18 new species from across 7 plant families

Covering only 3 % of Earth’s total land area, four overlapping biodiversity hotspots in South East China – Indo-Burma, Philippines, Sundaland and Wallacea – are estimated to be the home of the astonishing 20 to 25 % of higher plant species in the area. While offering an insight into this extraordinary flora, a new special issue published in the open access journal PhytoKeys, contributes to the total count with eighteen new species from the region.

Entitled “Plant diversity in Southeast Asia” the special issue hosts twelve articles devoted to the cause of promoting awareness of the biodiversity richness of the region, while raising concerns on its conservation.

“With this collective effort we showcase taxonomic discoveries as a route to bridging the gap between what we currently know and what is actually out there in terms of biological diversity,”explains special issue editor and contributing author Prof Xiao-Hua Jin, Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute (SEABRI), Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Understanding biodiversity is increasingly crucial for its conservation and towards achieving sustainable development in the shadow of climate change and the growth of economy and population.”

In their big venture, Dr Jin and his co-editors and authors were financially supported the Chinese Academy of Sciences through the SEABRI Institute, a venture established in 2014 with the specific task to help understanding and conserving the biodiversity in Southeast Asia.

Due to its notable botanical diversity Southeast Asia has long been an area of interest for biological surveys and scientific research. Despite the extensive effort to date, however, the species richness of the region remains by far underestimated. In fact, many species might become extinct before we even know that they existed in Southeast Asia.

“Although it will be an unquestionably daunting task, it is extremely urgent to investigate, understand and conserve our biota,” explains Prof Xiao-Hua Jin.

Within the twelve articles hosted in the new special issue, readers may learn more about: two new species of Oreocharis (Gesneriaceae) and a new species of Didymocarpus (Gesneriaceae) from Vietnam, a new species of Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae), a new species of Dendrobium (Orchidaceae), a new species of Gastrodia (Orchidaceae), a new species of Hedychium (Zingiberaceae) and two new species of Trivalvaria (Annonaceae) from Northern Myanmar, a new species of Primulina (Gesneriaceae) from southwest China and seven species of Begonia (Begoniaceae) from Northern Vietnam and Southern China.

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Original Source:

Jin X-H, Tan Y-H, Quan R-C (2018) Taxonomic discoveries bridging the gap between our knowledge and biodiversity. In: Jin X-H, Shui Y-M, Tan Y-H, Kang M (Eds) Plant diversity in Southeast Asia. PhytoKeys 94: 1-2. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.94.23887

Find the full special issue here: https://phytokeys.pensoft.net/issue/1229/

New parasitoid wasp likely uses unique saw-like spines to break out of its host body

About the size of a sesame seed, a new species of wasp from Costa Rica, named Dendrocerus scutellaris, has elaborate branched antennae that could be used for finding mates. Or hosts.

The new insect is described by PhD candidate Carolyn Trietsch, Dr. István Mikó and Dr. Andrew Deans of the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State, USA, together with Dr. David Notton of the Natural History Museum in London, UK. Their study is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

The wasp is a parasitoid, meaning that its larvae feed on a live host insect. There are two types of parasitoids: ectoparasitoids, which lay their eggs on or near the host, so that the hatchling larvae can attach to and feed on the insect from the outside; and endoparasitoids, which lay their eggs directly inside the host, so that the larvae can eat them from the inside out.

Unfortunately, to puzzle out the new wasp’s lifestyle, the researchers could only rely on specimens collected back in 1985, which had spent the past few decades stored in the collections of the Natural History Museum of London before being loaned to the Frost Museum at Penn State for research.

What can you learn about a wasp’s lifestyle from specimens that are over 30 years old? Even though the new species has never been observed in the wild, researchers managed to learn a lot by looking at the wasps’ morphology, concluding that the species is likely an endoparasitoid.

The larva of an endoparasitoid wasp needs a safe place to develop and mature, so when it is done feeding on its host, it may stay inside the host’s body where it can develop undisturbed. Once it is fully grown, the adult wasp either chews or pushes its way out, killing the host if it isn’t already dead.

Unlike its close relatives, the new species does not have pointed mandibles for chewing. Instead, it has a series of spines along its back. While the wasp is emerging, it may rub these spines against the host and use them like a saw to cut open the body. Once emerged, it flies off to mate and continue the cycle.

“While their lives may sound gruesome, parasitoid wasps are harmless to humans and can even be helpful,” explain the scientists. “Depending on the host they parasitize, parasitoids can benefit agriculture by controlling pest insects like aphids that damage crops.”

It is currently unknown what the new species feeds upon, but naming the species and bringing it to attention is the first step in learning more about it.

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Original source:

Trietsch C, Mikó I, Notton D, Deans A (2018) Unique extrication structure in a new megaspilid, Dendrocerus scutellaris Trietsch & Mikó (Hymenoptera: Megaspilidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e22676. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e22676

Unusual properties within the grass genus Diplachne

The grass genus Diplachne only includes two species, but it the does not fall short when it comes to remarkable features. It was precisely this affinity to the unusual displayed by the nearly worldwide genus that inspired Dr Neil Snow and his co-authors to delve deeper in a dedicated monograph published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

Occuring widely on all continents except Antarctica, Diplachne fusca, one of the two known species, is by far not just another grass species, with two of its four subspecies displaying high salt tolerance.

Even more intriguing is the discovery of a German research team from the 1980s, which discovered that some populations from southern Asia harbor a nitrogen-fixing bacterial species, which when described was new to science.

“The combination of nitrogen-fixing bacteria and high levels of salinity tolerance is unknown in others grasses, at least that I am aware of”, explains Snow.

“The high tolerance for growing in saline soils suggests the plants may have untapped potential for the reclamation of salinized agricultural soils, which is more and more problematic for some producers.”

In significant contrast, the second species Diplachne gigantea is restricted to small pockets in Africa. Having been collected only a few times and not since the early 1980s, the enigmatic plant is an emergent species, meaning its roots are in the water but upper portions typically extend well above the surface.

“I spent two long and hot days in a boat in the Okavango Delta in Botswana in 1996 looking for this elusive plant, but regrettably without success”, comments Snow on his attempt to encounter Diplachne gigantea in its natural surroundings. “Given the widespread potential habitat in the Okavango, it seems odd the species is collected so infrequently, but it may well be that it is quite rare”.

Snow’s colleagues at the Smithsonian Insitution, Drs. Paul Peterson and Konstantin Romaschenko , included a molecular phylogenetic analysis of 21 individuals of Diplachne, which indicated that while the genus is monophyletic, some accessions of the four subspecies of D. fusca are in fact polyphyletic.

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Original Source:

Snow N, Peterson PM, Romaschenko K, Simon BK (2018) Monograph of Diplachne (Poaceae, Chloridoideae, Cynodonteae). PhytoKeys 93: 1-102. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.93.21079

Untangling the complex taxonomic history of a Neotropical liana genus

While untangling the complex taxonomy of Neotropical liana genus Pachyptera, scientists Ms. Jéssica Nayara Carvalho Francisco and Dr. Lúcia Garcez Lohmann from the University of São Paulo used integrative taxonomy to help them recognize five well-defined species, one of which newly described from Colombia and Venezuela. The monograph study was published in the open access journal PhytoKeys.

How do you separate one species from another? Having remained a major challenge in biology as a whole, species delimitation becomes a rather daunting task when it comes to tropical plant groups, where insights on biology, morphology and distribution are often scarce.

For Francisco and Lohmann it took three field expeditions to different states of the Brazilian Amazon, combined with deep morphological and molecular studies, to set straight uncertainties in the complex taxonomic history of Pachyptera lianas.

“We used an integrative approach, which means we combined data from different sources to further understand the taxonomy, evolutionary history and biogeography of Amazonian lianas,” explains Ms. Jéssica Francisco. “We also used different analytical approaches to clearly delimit species and further understand their origin, evolution and diversification history,” she says.

For the authors, the results from this multi-approach effort amounted to recognizing five well-delimited species in the genus, while also describing a previously undiscovered species.

“Pachyptera linearis was discovered thanks to existing materials from herbarium collections, emphasizing the value of collections for the identification of new species. The molecular dataset was also essential to confirm this discovery”, says Ms. Jéssica Francisco.

“Lianas are important members of tropical forests, constituting ca. 25% of their species diversity and contributing up to 40% of leaf productivity. Accurate species recognition and enhanced scientific understanding of species diversity is critical for accurately establishing conservation priorities,” says Dr. Lúcia Lohmann.

Schematic evolutionary tree of Pachyptera showing main morphological features.
Schematic evolutionary tree of Pachyptera showing main morphological features.

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Original source:

Francisco, JNC., Lohmann LG (2018) Taxonomic revision of Pachyptera (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae). PhytoKeys 92: 89-131. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.92.20987

Two new snout moth genera and three new species discovered in southern China

New members have joined the ranks of the snout moths – one of the largest groups within the insect order known formally as Lepidoptera, comprising all moths and butterflies.

Recently, taxonomists Dr. Mingqiang Wang, Dr. Fuqiang Chen, Prof. Chaodong Zhu and Prof. Chunsheng Wu of the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences described two genera and three species previously unknown to science discovered in southern China.

Their study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Having named one of the two new genera Androconia, the scientists acknowledge a peculiar characteristic feature in these moths. The name derives from androconium, which is a set of modified scales located on the forewing in males and used to produce odors attractive to females. Not only is this feature evident in the newly described genus, but it also amazes with its shape reminiscent of a tower. The genus currently hosts two species – both described in the present study.

The second new genus, named Arcanusa, is established based on a species already discovered back in 2003, however, misplaced in another genus. The third new species announced in the present paper is also assigned to this genus.

Image 2In conclusion, the authors note that given the latitude they discovered all of the studied moths, it is highly likely that more species belonging to the newly described genera are pending discovery in the adjacent countries – especially India.

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Original source:

Wang M, Chen F, Zhu C, Wu C (2017) Two new genera and three new species of Epipaschiinae Meyrick from China (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae). ZooKeys 722: 87-99. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.722.12362

New ‘big-armed fly’ species named after former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

New species can be named for all types of attributes, but Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County entomologist Brian Brown knew exactly what name to give a bizarre new fly species he discovered in the Brazilian Amazon.

“As soon as I saw those bulging legs, I knew I had to name this one after Arnold,” says Brown. “Not only is he a major cultural icon and an important person in the political realm, his autobiography gave me some hope that I could improve my body as a skinny teenager.” For these reasons, Brown says, the former governor deserves to have the new fly named in his honor.

His research article is published in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

The fly is impressive in other ways, Brown explains. “It is known only from one female specimen that we almost overlooked because it is so incredibly small.”

In fact, it is the world’s smallest known fly, according to Brown, who should know, since he had previously described what was formerly the world’s smallest fly, at 0.400 mm in body length. The new fly, named Megapropodiphora arnoldi, is just a fraction smaller, coming in at 0.395 mm.

MegapropodiphoraHowever, unlike the enlarged forelegs that prompted the naming, the mid- and hind legs appear to be highly reduced, and the wings reduced to tiny stubs.

Even though the fly has not been observed in the wild, Brown concludes that it is clearly a parasitoid, probably of ants or termites, based on its pointed, sharp ovipositor. He further speculates that these flies probably grab onto the hosts and “hold on for dear life” until they reach a nest or colony where they can parasitize their victims more effectively.

Brown has had considerable success finding new species of tiny flies, which he says are “the continuing frontier for insect discovery.”

Some of the more obvious, larger insects might have already been described, but by looking at smaller specimens, especially from remote, tropical sites, the entomologist finds that almost everything is new.

Even in his home city of Los Angeles, Brown and collaborators found that almost half of the phorid flies were previously unknown.

For example, it was last year that they finally figured why a secretive fly had been observed around mushrooms with no clear explanation for nearly 30 years. The revelation occurred when L.A. Bed & Breakfast owners Patsy Carter and Lisa Carter-Davis decided to alert entomologists about a phenomenon happening in their yard.

Back in 2016, Brian and his team described at once a total of twelve scuttle fly species new to science after ‘field’ trips in the backyards of houses around the city of angels.

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Original source:

Citation: Brown B (2018) A second contender for “world’s smallest fly” (Diptera: Phoridae). Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e22396. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e22396

ARPHA reaches further out! Dr Matthias Wahls assigned as the platform’s new Business Development Manager

The Netherlands-based independent publishing consultant Dr. Matthias Wahls has recently joined ARPHA Journal Publishing Platform as the venture’s new Business Development Manager.

Bringing in extensive expertise from his previous appointments with key players in the academic publishing market, alongside experience accumulated through years of independent consultancy, Dr Wahls will be working on expanding ARPHA’s reach towards Western Europe, Greater China, and other Asian countries.

“I’m more than enthusiastic to join the team of ARPHA Publishing Platform and Pensoft Publishers, effective 2018,” says Dr. Matthias Wahls, the Hague, NL. “Bringing this cutting-edge software platform to as many academic publishers will be my key priority. Our focus is to supply an end-to-end solution answering the needs of individual society journals and small to mid-sized publishers alike on their way to entering the Open Science publishing era and switching to the technologically advanced workflows of the future. We equally welcome stand-alone and new journals eager to become ready for the future of Gold Open Access publishing, within the greater context of the EU’s Horizon-2020 program.”

“Making academic research accessible to everyone around the globe has been a key priority for Pensoft from the very start. Having always been exclusively Open Access, in the last couple of years we’ve been aiming to go beyond and supply cutting-edge technologies that tick all boxes on the way to Open Science. With ARPHA we want to provide small publishers and society and institutional journals with a technologically advanced and affordable solution that allows them to enter the era of Open Science, while sitting strong on an increasingly demanding global publishing market.” adds Prof. Lyubomir Penev, Founder and CEO at Pensoft and ARPHA.

Dr Wahls invites editors, publishers, and individual academics who are facing the multiple transition hurdles on their way to adopt Gold Open Access, to take their journals to a next technological level with ARPHA, while staying independent under their own identity.

# # #

What is ARPHA?

Authoring, Reviewing, Publishing, Hosting and Archiving, all in one place for the first time, this is what stands behind the innovative fully integrated journal publishing solution ARPHA, a product of Pensoft.

Fully equipped to cater for a successful transition to a next-generation, technologically-advanced publishing, ARPHA is specifically designed to meet the needs of small and mid-sized publishers and individual society and institutional journals on their journey to entering the era of Open Science, armed with a top-notch publishing technology. Alongside its journal-based module, ARPHA offers solutions for advanced open access book and conference proceedings publishing.

More than just software
ARPHA offers an end-to-end journal publishing platform, in combination with a range of technologically advanced and human-provided services.

Future-proof
This platform offers an option for smooth transition from the conventional, document-based, to the forthcoming, fully XML-based publishing workflow.

White label
ARPHA supports both individual and multiple journal platforms under their own logo, customised design and imprint.

High-level integration
ARPHA is integrated with leading indexing and archiving platforms via web services.

Semantic publishing
ARPHA provides generic and domain-specific markup to enhance and facilitate dissemination, machine-readability, harvesting and reuse of published content to improve readers’ experience.

Tailored publishing models
Publishers or individual journal editors can customise their own preferred workflow across ARPHA’s modules.

 

Contact Dr Wahls at:

matthias2fotoSlavenaAddress: M.Wahls Publishing Services, Plesmanlaan 88, 2497CB The Hague, The Netherlands

Tel: +31 644310818

Email: wahls@arphahub.com

WeChat: matthiaswahls1206

 

For more information and resources:

Visit: http://arphahub.com

Twitter: @ARPHAplatform

Video: https://youtu.be/pzTRc-zvfA8

A race against pine: Wood-boring wasp in North America threatened by a Eurasian invader

Invasive species have diverse impacts in different locations, including biodiversity loss, as a result of native species being outcompeted for similar resources. A U.S. research team, led by Dr. Ann Hajek, Cornell University, studied the case of an aggressive Eurasian woodwasp that has recently established in North America and poses a threat to a native species. Their study is published in the open-access journal NeoBiota.

Most woodwasps play an essential part in the forest ecosystem, as they decompose wood, preferring dying or felled trees. They do so by laying their eggs in the wood underneath the tree bark. Curiously, the wasps also deposit a symbiotic fungus and venom that shuts down the tree’s defenses. As the tree weakens, the fungal infestation begins and the the tree starts to rot. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the rotten wood before they emerge. This relationship is called obligate since the survival of the wasp is impossible without the fungal infestation.

IMG_2322Originating from Eurasia, the presence of the invasive species is dangerous because it can kill healthier pines. It has long been established in the southern hemisphere causing economic issues due to its attacks on pines. While pines have been introduced to that part of the world, they are native to North America, where the invasive wasp could be far more devastating.

Now that the invasive woodwasp has already been identified in the States, the scientists seek to find a way to protect its frail competitor, reporting a rapid decline in the North American species.

“We would often observe both species emerging from the same infested pine trees, but the ratios changed with time,” explains Dr. Ann Hajek.

“Shortly after the invasive colonizes an area, the native wasps emerging from the trees would equal the invasive. However, a few years later, the natives started to get fewer and fewer.”

It turned out that the Eurasian woodwasp has larger venom glands and produces more eggs, thanks to its greater body size. Furthermore, it emerges earlier than the North American species, so that it can find and colonize the most suitable trees first. By the time the native species lays its eggs, the authors speculate, most of the preferred trees are already occupied by the invasive, leaving a reduced supply of habitat for the newcomer’s larvae.

“Woodwasps are difficult to study and their biologies are generally poorly understood,” note the authors. “While the native species appears to be outcompeted from pines that both species prefer, it is possible that populations of the native can be sustained in trees less desirable to the invasive or unavailable during the time and place that the invasive is present.”

The scientists call for additional research on the native woodwasp in southeastern pine forests in USA, before the invaders spread to that area with extensive pine forests.

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Original source:

Hajek AE, Henry JC, Standley CR, Foelker CJ (2017) Comparing functional traits and abundance of invasive versus native woodwasps. NeoBiota 36: 39-55. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.36.14953

Pensoft journals integrated with Catalogue of Life to help list the species of the world

While not every taxonomic study is conducted with a nature conservation idea in mind, most ecological initiatives need to be backed by exhaustive taxonomic research. There simply isn’t a way to assess a species’ distributional range, migratory patterns or ecological trends without knowing what this species actually is and where it is coming from.

In order to facilitate taxonomic and other studies, and lay the foundations for effective biodiversity conservation in a time where habitat loss and species extinction are already part of our everyday life, the global organisation Catalogue of Life (CoL) works together with major programmes, including GBIF, Encyclopedia of Life and the IUCN Red List, to collate the names of all species on the planet set in the context of a taxonomic hierarchy and their distribution.

Recently, the scholarly publisher and technological provider Pensoft has implemented a new integration with CoL, so that it joins in the effort to encourage authors publishing global taxonomic review in any of the publisher’s journals to upload their taxonomic contributions to the database.

Whenever authors submit a manuscript containing a world revision or checklist of a taxon to a Pensoft journal, they are offered the possibility to upload their datasets in CoL-compliant format, so that they can contribute to CoL, gain more visibility and credit for their work, and support future research and conservation initiatives.

Once the authors upload the dataset, Pensoft will automatically notify CoL about the new contribution, so that the organisation can further process the knowledge and contact the authors, if necessary.

In addition, CoL will also consider for indexing global taxonomic checklists, which have already been published by Pensoft.

It is noteworthy to mention that unlike an automated search engine, CoL does not simply gather the uploaded data and store them. All databases in CoL are thoroughly reviewed by experts in the relevant field and comply with a set of explicit instructions.

“Needless to say that the Species 2000 / Catalogue of Life community is very happy with this collaboration,” says Dr. Peter Schalk, Executive Secretary.

“It is essential that all kinds of data and information sharing initiatives in the realm of taxonomy and biodiversity science get connected, in order to provide integrated quality services to the users in and outside of our community. The players in this field carry responsibility to forge partnerships and collaborations that create added value for science and society and are mutually reinforcing for the participants. Our collaboration is a fine example how this can be achieved,” he adds.

“With our extensive experience in biodiversity research, at Pensoft we have already taken various steps to encourage and support data sharing practices,” says Prof. Lyubomir Penev, Pensoft’s founder and CEO. To better serve this purpose, last year, we even published a set of guidelines and strategies for scholarly publishing of biodiversity data as recommended by our own experience. Furthermore, at our Biodiversity Data Journal, we have not only made the publication of open data mandatory, but we were also the first to implement integrated narrative and data publication within a single paper.”

“It only makes sense to collaborate with organisations, such as Catalogue of Life, to make sure that all these global indexers are up-to-date and serve the world’s good in preserving our wonderful biodiversity,” he concludes.

Researchers find post-fire logging harms Spotted owls

Wildlife ecologists studying the rare Spotted owl in the forests of California have discovered that large, intense wildfires are not responsible for the breeding territory extinction that has been reported recently.

Instead, the researchers found that post-fire logging operations, which are common on both private and national forest lands, were in fact causing the declines in the territory occupancy of this imperiled wildlife species. In areas, where no logging took place following large forest fires, the scientists failed to detect any significant effect in the spotted owls’ territory occupancy or extinction rate.

“This is good news for declining California spotted owls because this is something that we can control–we can make policy decisions to stop post-fire logging operations in spotted owl habitat,” says Dr. Chad Hanson, a research ecologist with the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute and the study’s lead author. His team’s article is published in the open access scientific journal Nature Conservation.

The study sheds light on recent large fires, such as the 99,000-acre King fire from 2014 which affected the Eldorado National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As a result, spotted owl occupancy declined in the northern portion of the King fire area. However, the present study finds post-fire logging is to blame.

Post-fire logging removes important spotted owl foraging areas in “snag forest habitats” created by patches of intense fire, explain the scientists. These habitats are rich in small mammal species preyed on by the owls, whereas post-fire logging destroys these habitats, causing higher territory extinction rates.

The study also reports that many of the spotted owl territories in the King fire, which were previously described as lost due to the fire, had in fact already been unoccupied for years before it occurred. Other factors acting before the fire turn out to have been responsible for the occupancy changes at these sites.

The scientists’ findings also help to explain why previous research has found very high spotted owl occupancy in the 257,000-acre Rim fire in the Sierra Nevada prior to post-fire logging, which was then followed by a decline in owl territory occupancy after such logging occurred.

“These results were not surprising considering that spotted owls evolved with forest fires, but logging is a new disturbance to which they are not adapted,” says co-author Monica Bond, a wildlife ecologist with the Wild Nature Institute.

Wildlife researcher and co-author Derek Lee, also affiliated with the Wild Nature Institute, adds, “It is time to stop thinking logging will help the forest; we need to take a much more hands-off approach to forest management, so natural processes can be re-established.”

The study’s results coincide with the strong consensus among hundreds of U.S. scientists opposing post-fire logging operations due to a wide range of ecological harms. Pro-logging members of the U.S. Congress have recently pointed to large forest fires as a justification for proposed logging bills that would override most environmental laws and dramatically increase logging, including post-fire logging, on U.S. National Forests and other public lands.

The results of this study indicate that such legislative proposals would contradict scientific evidence, and harm spotted owls populations. Other studies have also indicated that increased logging would substantially reduce forest carbon storage, and increase greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change.

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Original source:

Hanson CT, Bond ML, Lee DE (2018) Effects of post-fire logging on California spotted owl occupancy. Nature Conservation 24: 93-105. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.24.20538