Tag: biodiversity

Cute but deadly: a new velvet worm species from Ecuador

The so-called “living fossil” shoots a sticky substance from a pair of glands to trap its prey.

Researchers have described a remarkable new species of velvet worm from the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Take a look below:

Oroperipatus tiputini.
Credit: Roberto J. León, Archive Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ.

While the Tiputini velvet worm (Oroperipatus tiputini) may look friendly, it is an accomplished hunter that shoots a sticky substance from a pair of glands to trap its prey.

However, lead author Jorge Montalvo from the USFQ Museum of Zoology, notes that the species also has a softer side, with the mother taking care of her considerably lighter-coloured young after they are born.

Adult female velvet worm with her offspring on a leaf.
Adult female with her offspring.

Velvet worms, also known as onychophorans or peripatus, are rare and unique invertebrates often referred to as “living fossils” because they evolved over 500 million years ago, long before the appearance of dinosaurs.

Currently, only about 240 velvet worm species are known, inhabiting tropical regions in the Americas, southern Chile, Africa, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and New Zealand.

Adult velvet worm on a leaf.
Oroperipatus tiputini.
Pedro Peñaherrera-R., Archive Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ

Published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, the discovery was more than 20 years in the making. It also represented the first study of Ecuadorian velvet worms for over 100 years.

“The research on this new species took several decades. I discovered the first individual of this new species in 2001, and we finally managed to describe it as part of Jorge Montalvo’s graduation thesis, who is now my colleague at the Museum of Zoology at USFQ. To complete the description, we used not only macromorphological descriptions but also high-magnification images obtained with a scanning electron microscope.”

Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, one of the authors and director of the USFQ Museum of Zoology, Ecuador.

The researchers named the species after the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS), part of the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. The name recognises the hard work of the station’s management, research, and field team in protecting biodiversity.

Map of Ecuador showing the location of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station.
Map of Ecuador showing the location of the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (white square), type locality of Oroperipatus tiputini sp. nov., in the Amazonian lowlands.

The description of the Tiputini velvet worm raises the total number of described velvet worm species in Ecuador to seven. This species is the first from the Ecuadorian Amazon lowlands and the third in the western Amazon.

Original source

Montalvo-Salazar JL, Bejarano ML, Valarezo A, Cisneros-Heredia DF (2024) A new species of velvet worm of the genus Oroperipatus (Onychophora, Peripatidae) from western Amazonia. Zoosystematics and Evolution 100(3): 779-789. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.117952

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Brand new computer language describes organismal traits to create computable species descriptions

Describing traits with Phenoscript is like programming a computer code for how an organism looks.

The beetle species Grebennikovius basilewskyi. Numbers next to arrows indicate patterns of phenotype statements explained in the section “Phenoscript: main patterns of phenotype statements”. Arrow numbers from T1 to T5 illustrate individual body parts. See more in the research study.

One of the most beautiful aspects of Nature is the endless variety of shapes, colours and behaviours exhibited by organisms. These traits help organisms survive and find mates, like how a male peacock’s colourful tail attracts females or his wings allow him to fly away from danger. Understanding traits is crucial for biologists, who study them to learn how organisms evolve and adapt to different environments.

To do this, scientists first need to describe these traits in words, like saying a peacock’s tail is “vibrant, iridescent, and ornate”. This approach works for small studies, but when looking at hundreds or even millions of different animals or plants, it’s impossible for the human brain to keep track of everything.

Computers could help, but not even the latest AI technology is able to grasp human language to the extent needed by biologists. This hampers research significantly because, although scientists can handle large volumes of DNA data, linking this information to physical traits is still very difficult.

To solve this problem, researchers from the Finnish Museum of Natural History, Giulio Montanaro and Sergei Tarasov, along with collaborators, have created a special language called Phenoscript. This language is designed to describe traits in a way that both humans and computers can understand. Describing traits with Phenoscript is like programming a computer code for how an organism looks.

Phenoscript uses something called semantic technology, which helps computers understand the meaning behind words, much like how modern search engines know the difference between the fruit “apple” and the tech company “Apple” based on the context of your search.

“This language is still being tested, but it shows a lot of promise. As more scientists start using Phenoscript, it will revolutionise biology by making vast amounts of trait data available for large-scale studies, boosting the emerging field of phenomics,”

explains Montanaro.

In their research article, newly published in the open-access, peer-reviewed Biodiversity Data Journal, the researchers make use of the new language for the first time, as they create semantic phenotypes for four species of dung beetles from the genus Grebennikovius. Then, to demonstrate the power of the semantic approach, they apply simple semantic queries to the generated phenotypic descriptions. 

Finally, the team takes a look yet further ahead into modernising the way scientists work with species information. Their next aim is to integrate semantic species descriptions with the concept of nanopublications, “which encapsulates discrete pieces of information into a comprehensive knowledge graph”. As a result, data that has become part of this graph can be queried directly, thereby ensuring that it remains Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) through a variety of semantic resources.

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Research paper:

Montanaro G, Balhoff JP, Girón JC, Söderholm M, Tarasov S (2024) Computable species descriptions and nanopublications: applying ontology-based technologies to dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeinae). Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e121562. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e121562

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The hereby study is the latest addition to the special topical collection: “Linking FAIR biodiversity data through publications: The BiCIKL approach”, launched and supported by the recently concluded Horizon 2020 project: Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL). The collection aims to bring together scientific publications that demonstrate the advantages and novel approaches in accessing and (re-)using linked biodiversity data.

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What expert recommendations did the BiCIKL consortium give to policy makers and research funders to ensure that biodiversity data is FAIR, linked, open and, indeed, future-proof? Find out in the blog post summarising key lessons learnt from the Horizon 2020 project.

How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proof?

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¡Que Vive Centinela! A tiny new plant species reaffirms the “miraculous” survival of Western Ecuador’s ravished biodiversity

The discovery represents an inspiration for biodiversity conservation in an area the scientific community assumed to be a barren agricultural landscape of plant extinctions.

A new 5 cm-high plant species has been discovered on the western Andean slopes of Ecuador in an area where scientists once believed a rich diversity of native plants and animals had been totally destroyed.

John L. Clark with Amalophyllon miraculum. Credit @phinaea on Instagram.

The tiny plant, with iridescent foliage and white ephemeral flowers, was found in a farmer’s backyard during ongoing collaborative research expeditions in western Ecuador, led by teams of Ecuadorian and international researchers.

The expeditions resulted in the rediscovery of small forest fragments in a legendary hotspot known as Centinela. Selby Gardens research botanist, John L. Clark is the lead author of the article describing the new species in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal PhytoKeys.

The forest fragments are less than 20 miles from Santo Domingo, a major city of more than 300,000 people. Each fragment of Centinela is an isolated biodiversity island surrounded by large swaths of agricultural landscape largely devoid of forest.

Small purple plant leaf held between thumb and index finger.
Amalophyllon miraculum leaf.

A seminal publication titled “Biological extinction in western Ecuador” brought attention to the rapid loss of rainforest in western Ecuador. It was authored by the late botanists Alwyn Gentry and Calaway Dodson, Selby Gardens’ first Executive Director, whose research inspired names such as Gasteranthus extinctus in recognition of the loss of more than 70-97% of rainforests from the western Ecuadorian lowlands due to agriculture.

This discovery, amongst others, has shattered the preconception that the multitudes of life in the region had vanished entirely. The name Amalophyllon miraculum reflects the “miracle” of its discovery in the unexpected fragments of protected forests.

“The heroic efforts of local landowners who maintained small patches of forests – usually surrounding waterfalls – were instrumental in conserving these remnant forest fragments,” Clark says.

Ongoing conservation initiatives by foundations and academic institutions such as the Ecuadorian conservation NGO Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco and the Jardín Botánico Padre Julio Marrero (JBJM) of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador are also crucial to protecting the areas.

Original source:

Clark JL, Fernández A, Zapata JN, Restrepo-Villarroel C, White DM, Pitman NCA (2024) Amalophyllon miraculum (Gesneriaceae), an exceptionally small lithophilous new species from the western Andean slopes of Ecuador. PhytoKeys 242: 307–316. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.242.118069

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Captivating blue-colored ant discovered in India’s remote Siang Valley

It was named Paraparatrechina neela, after the word “neela”, which means blue in various Indian languages.

Nothing like the common red, black, or brown ants, a stunning blue ant has been discovered from Yingku village in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. This new species belongs to the rare genus Paraparatrechina and has been named Paraparatrechina neela. The word “neela” signifies the color blue in most Indian languages – a fitting tribute to the ant’s unique coloration.

Entomologists Dr. Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan and Sahanashree R, from Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bengaluru, along with Aswaj Punnath from the University of Florida, collaborated to describe the remarkable new species. Their scientific description of the ant is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Paraparatrechina neela. Photo by Sahanashree R

“While exploring a tree hole about 10 feet up in a steep cattle track in the remote Yinku village one evening, something sparkled in the twilight. With the dim light available, two insects were sucked into an aspirator. To our surprise, we later found they were ants” said the researchers.

The ant was found during an expedition to Siang valley in Arunachal Pradesh to resurvey its biodiversity after the century-old ‘Abhor expedition’. The original Abor expedition from the period of colonial rule in India was a punitive military expedition against the indigenous people there in 1911-1912. A scientific team also accompanied the military expedition, to document the natural history and geography of the Siang Valley. Тhis expedition encountered several challenges, including hostile terrain, difficult weather conditions, and resistance from local tribes. Despite the challenges, it managed to explore and map large parts of the Siang Valley region, cataloguing every plant, frog, lizard, fish, bird & mammal and insects they found, with the discoveries published in several volumes from 1912 to 1922 in the Records of the Indian Museum.

A view of Suabg Valley. Photo by Ranjith AP

Now, a century later, a team of researchers  from ATREE and a documentation team from Felis Creations Bangalore have embarked on a series of expeditions under the banner “Siang Expedition”, to resurvey and document the biodiver­sity of the region. This expedition was funded by the National Geographic Society through the wild­life-conservation expedition grant.

“Nestled within a Himalayan biodiversity hotspot, Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang Valley presents a world of unparalleled diversity, much of it yet to be explored. However, this very richness, both cultural and ecological, faces unprecedented threats. Large-scale infrastructure projects like dams, highways, and military installations, along with climate change, are rapidly altering the valley. The impact extends beyond the valley itself, as these mountains play a critical role not only in sustaining their own diverse ecosystems but also in ensuring the well-being of millions of people living downstream”, said Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, corresponding author of the paper.

Paraparatrechina neela is a small ant with a total length of less than 2mm. Its body is predominantly metallic blue, except for the antennae, mandibles, and legs. The head is subtriangular with large eyes, and has a triangular mouthpart (mandible) featuring five teeth. This species has a distinct metallic blue colour that is different from any other species in its genus.

Paraparatrechina neela. Photo by Sahanashree R

Blue is relatively rare in the animal kingdom. Various groups of vertebrates, including fish, frogs, and birds, as well as invertebrates such as spiders and flies and wasps, showcase blue coloration. In insects, it is often produced by the arrangement of biological photonic nanostructures, which create structural colours rather than being caused by pigments. While blue coloration is commonly observed in some insects like butterflies, beetles, bees, and wasps, it is relatively rare in ants. Out of the 16,724 known species and subspecies of ants worldwide, only a few exhibit blue coloration or iridescence.

Jewel of the forest: New electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand

The discovery of Paraparatrechina neela contributes to the richness of ant diversity and represents the unique biodiversity of the Eastern Himalayas, and its blue coloration raises intriguing questions. Does it help in communication, camouflage, or other ecological interactions? Delving into the evolution of this conspicuous coloration and its connections to elevation and the biology of Paraparatrechina neela presents an exciting avenue for research.

Research article:
Sahanashree R, Punnath A, Rajan Priyadarsanan D (2024) A remarkable new species of Paraparatrechina Donisthorpe (1947) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Formicinae) from the Eastern Himalayas, India. ZooKeys 1203: 159-172. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1203.114168

Snake in a ski mask: a striking new species from the Arabian Peninsula

The stylish serpent is dubbed “the missing piece of the puzzle” as it fills a large distribution gap for its genus.

Researchers have discovered a new distinctive and secretive snake species in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia.

Rhynchocalamus hejazicus is a small snake bearing a black collar and reddish colouration. A completely black variation of of the species known as a ‘melanistic morphotype’ was also discovered.

A black snake on stony ground.
Melanistic morphotype of Rhynchocalamus hejazicus.

The snake’s genus Rhynchocalamus previously had a large distribution gap, stretching between the Levant and coastal regions of Yemen and Oman. However, the new species is widely distributed between these areas, prompting the research team to dub it “the missing piece of the puzzle.”

Distribution map of the new species showing the location of the material examined in this study. Various areas in western Saudi Arabia are marked.
Distribution of Rhynchocalamus hejazicus, showing the location of the material examined in the study.

The international team led by scientists from the Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO), Portugal, and Charles University, Czech Republic, published their discovery in Zoosystematics and Evolution, an open-access journal published by Pensoft on behalf of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

Rhynchocalamus hejazicus inhabits sandy and stony soils with varying vegetation cover and is found in habitats disturbed by humans, suggesting the species should not be categorised as threatened according to IUCN criteria.

Three images of habitats. The first is a barren desert landscape with sparse trees and rocks scattered throughout. The second is a dry desert scene featuring a small number of trees and rocks. The third is an arid landscape with a handful of trees and rocks in view.
Habitats of the holotype and two paratype specimens of R. hejazicus.

The species’ natural history and behaviour remain unclear, and further monitoring and conservation efforts are necessary to better understand its ecological dynamics. However, it appears that Rhynchocalamus hejazicus is predominantly nocturnal as all encountered individuals were active at night.

“The discovery of a new species of snake widespread in the central-western regions of Saudi Arabia is surprising and gives rise to the hope that more undiscovered species might be present in the Kingdom,” the authors say.

Orange snake with black collar and nose colouration on sandy ground.
Rhynchocalamus hejazicus.

Most observations of the new species are the result of intense sampling efforts in a vast area around the ancient Arabic oasis city of AlUla, fostered by the Royal Commission for AlUla, Saudi Arabia, which is pushing forward scientific activities and explorations to promote conservation in the region. Recent research in Saudi Arabia has led to fruitful collaborations and findings like this study, to which many experts from multiple teams contributed significantly.

The discovery of such a distinctive snake highlights the existing gap in knowledge of rare and secretive species, and the need to enhance sampling efforts and monitoring strategies to fully capture species diversity in unexplored areas.

Original source

Licata F, Pola L, Šmíd J, Ibrahim AA, Liz AV, Santos B, Patkó L, Abdulkareem A, Gonçalves DV, AlShammari AM, Busais S, Egan DM, Ramalho RMO, Smithson J, Brito JC (2024) The missing piece of the puzzle: A new and widespread species of the genus Rhynchocalamus Günther, 1864 (Squamata, Colubridae) from the Arabian Peninsula. Zoosystematics and Evolution 100(2): 691-704. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.123441

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How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proof?

Now concluded Horizon 2020-funded project BiCIKL shares lessons learned with policy-makers and research funders

Within the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project, 14 European institutions from ten countries, spent the last three years elaborating on services and high-tech digital tools, in order to improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR-ness) of various types of data about the world’s biodiversity. These types of data include peer-reviewed scientific literature, occurrence records, natural history collections, DNA data and more.

By ensuring all those data are readily available and efficiently interlinked to each other, the project consortium’s intention is to provide better tools to the scientific community, so that it can more rapidly and effectively study, assess, monitor and preserve Earth’s biological diversity in line with the objectives of the likes of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the European Green Deal. Their targets require openly available, precise and harmonised data to underpin the design of effective measures for restoration and conservation, reminds the BiCIKL consortium.

Since 2021, the project partners at BiCIKL have been working together to elaborate existing workflows and links, as well as create brand new ones, so that their data resources, platforms and tools can seamlessly communicate with each other, thereby taking the burden off the shoulders of scientists and letting them focus on their actual mission: paving the way to healthy and sustainable ecosystems across Europe and beyond.

New BiCIKL project to build a freeway between pieces of biodiversity knowledge

Now that the three-year project is officially over, the wider scientific community is yet to reap the fruits of the consortium’s efforts. In fact, the end of the BiCIKL project marks the actual beginning of a European- and global-wide revolution in the way biodiversity scientists access, use and produce data. It is time for the research community, as well as all actors involved in the study of biodiversity and the implementation of regulations necessary to protect and preserve it, to embrace the lessons learned, adopt the good practices identified and build on the knowledge in existence.

This is why amongst the BiCIKL’s major final research outputs, there are two Policy Briefs meant to summarise and highlight important recommendations addressed to key policy makers, research institutions and funders of research. After all, it is the regulatory bodies that are best equipped to share and implement best practices and guidelines.

Most recently, the BiCIKL consortium published two particularly important policy briefs, both addressed to the likes of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment; the European Environment Agency; the Joint Research Centre; as well as science and policy interface platforms, such as the EU Biodiversity Platform; and also organisations and programmes, e.g. Biodiversa+ and EuropaBON, which are engaged in biodiversity monitoring, protection and restoration. The policy briefs are also to be of particular use to national research funds in the European Union.

One of the newly published policy briefs, titled “Uniting FAIR data through interlinked, machine-actionable infrastructures”, highlights the potential benefits derived from enhanced connectivity and interoperability among various types of biodiversity data. The publication includes a list of recommendations addressed to policy-makers, as well as nine key action points. Understandably, amongst the main themes are those of wider international cooperation; inclusivity and collaboration at scale; standardisation and bringing science and policy closer to industry. Another major outcome of the BiCIKL project: the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub portal is noted as central to many of these objectives and tasks in its role of a knowledge broker that will continue to be maintained and updated with additional FAIR data-compliant services as a living legacy of the collaborative efforts at BiCIKL.

The second policy brief, titled “Liberate the power of biodiversity literature as FAIR digital objects”, shares key actions that can liberate data published in non-machine actionable formats and non-interoperable platforms, so that those data can also be efficiently accessed and used; as well as ways to publish future data according to the best FAIR and linked data practices. The recommendations highlighted in the policy brief intend to support decision-making in Europe; expedite research by making biodiversity data immediately and globally accessible; provide curated data ready to use by AI applications; and bridge gaps in the life cycle of research data through digital-born data. Several new and innovative workflows, linkages and integrative mechanisms and services developed within BiCIKL are mentioned as key advancements created to access and disseminate data available from scientific literature. 

While all policy briefs and factsheets – both primarily targeted at non-expert decision-makers who play a central role in biodiversity research and conservation efforts – are openly and freely available on the project’s website, the most important contributions were published as permanent scientific records in a BiCIKL-branded dedicated collection in the peer-reviewed open-science journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO). There, the policy briefs are provided as both a ready-to-print document (available as supplementary material) and an extensive academic publication.

Currently, the collection: “Towards interlinked FAIR biodiversity knowledge: The BiCIKL perspective” in the RIO journal contains 60 publications, including policy briefs, project reports, methods papers, conference abstracts, demonstrating and highlighting key milestones and project outcomes from along the BiCIKL’s journey in the last three years. The collection also features over 15 scientific publications authored by people not necessarily involved in BiCIKL, but whose research uses linked open data and tools created in BiCIKL. Their publications were published in a dedicated article collection in the Biodiversity Data Journal.

BiCIKL keeps on adding project outcomes in own collection in RIO Journal

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Visit the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project’s website at: https://bicikl-project.eu/.

Don’t forget to also explore the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH) for yourself at: https://biodiversityknowledgehub.eu/ and watch the BKH’s introduction video. 

Highlights from the BiCIKL project are also accessible on Twitter/X from the project’s hashtag: #BiCIKL_H2020 and handle: @BiCIKL_H2020.

BiCIKL project sums up outcomes and future prospects at a Final GA in Cambridge

The silent invasion: how termites threaten homes worldwide

As climate patterns shift, global cities may soon find themselves under siege by these tiny yet destructive pests.

As climate change continues its relentless march, the world faces not only rising temperatures and extreme weather, but also an insidious threat to our homes: invasive termites. And the bill could be steep – invasive termites currently cost over 40 billion USD annually.

In a new study published in the open-access journal Neobiota, PhD student Edouard Duquesne and Professor Denis Fournier from the Evolutionary Biology & Ecology lab (Université libre de Bruxelles) unveil the unsettling reality of invasive termites’ potential expansion into new territories.

Their research reveals that as temperatures rise and climate patterns shift, cities worldwide, from tropical hotspots like Miami, Sao Paulo, Lagos, Jakarta or Darwin to temperate metropolises like Paris, Brussels, London, New York or Tokyo, could soon find themselves under siege by these tiny yet destructive pests.

A man with a headtorch inspects the damages caused by Coptotermes gestroi termites on a house wall.
Adolfo Cuadrado, a termite infestation specialist at Anticimex, meticulously inspects the damages caused by Coptotermes gestroi on a house wall. © David Mora: https://www.pasiontermitas.com.

But how do termites, typically associated with tropical climates, find their way into cities far beyond their natural habitat? The answer lies in the interconnectedness of our modern world. Urbanisation, with its dense populations and bustling trade networks, provides the perfect breeding ground for termite invasions.

Moreover, the global movement of goods, including wooden furniture transported by private vessels, offers unsuspecting pathways for these silent invaders to hitch a ride into our homes.

“A solitary termite colony, nestled within a small piece of wood, could clandestinely voyage from the West Indies to your Cannes apartment. It might lurk within furniture aboard a yacht moored at the Cannes Film Festival marina.”

“Mating is coming. Termite queens and kings, attracted by lights, may initiate reproduction, laying the groundwork for new colonies to conquer dry land.”

Researchers Edouard Duquesne and Denis Fournier.

Duquesne and Fournier’s research emphasises the need for a paradigm shift in how we approach invasive species modelling. By integrating connectivity variables like trade, transport, and population density, their study highlights the importance of understanding the intricate interactions that facilitate termite spread.

Workers and soldiers of the invasive termite Reticulitermes.
Workers and soldiers of the invasive termite Reticulitermes. © David Mora: https://www.pasiontermitas.com.

In light of these findings, the researchers urge swift action from policymakers and citizens alike. Major cities, regardless of their climate zone, must implement strict termite control measures to protect homes and infrastructure.

“Citizens can play a crucial role by leveraging technology, such as AI-assisted apps like iNaturalist, to detect and report potential termite sightings, turning ordinary residents into vigilant guardians of their environment,” say the researchers.

“As we confront the challenges of a rapidly changing climate, awareness and proactive measures are our best defence against the creeping menace of invasive termites,” they conclude.

Original source

Duquesne E, Fournier D (2024) Connectivity and climate change drive the global distribution of highly invasive termites. NeoBiota 92: 281-314. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.92.115411

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Flamboyant and lethal: unveiling the lionfish invasion of the Mediterranean Sea

So-called ‘devil firefish’ are taking over new waters with little resistance from native species.

Research from Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands, reveals invasive lionfish are rapidly expanding their territory in the Mediterranean sea, causing severe ecological damage.

Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, the study shows the lionfish species Pterois miles – known as the devil firefish –  has established presence in the eastern Mediterranean, with observations now extending to colder waters previously thought to be unsuitable for the species.

A map of the Mediterranean Sea, with dots showing the first sighting of invasive lionfish. It shows a gradual eastwrd progression of lionfish sightings over time.
Map of years of first sighting of Pterois miles by dive centres. Credit: Bottacini et al.

Originating from the Indo-Pacific region, the lionfish species Pterois miles and Pterois volitans  are regarded as the most successful and lethal invasive fishes in marine ecosystems, with the capacity to drastically affect local fish communities and biodiversity in invaded areas.

The invasion of Pterois miles in the Mediterranean Sea began around ten years ago. Genetic studies reveal the invasive fish originated from the Red Sea and likely entered through the Suez Canal.

The beautiful but deadly devil firefish. Credit: Kora27 via Wikimedia Commons.

Lionfish are generalist predators and impact ecosystems by preying extensively on local fishes, including endemics of high conservation value. As they are unaccustomed to lionfish, native prey species usually do not flee from this new predator.

“After years studying these predators, I find it amazing how they can easily adjust to so many different environments and be successful in areas so different from where they evolve.”

“It is always impressive to see how such a flamboyant and–to us–conspicuous predator can approach its prey without being noticed”

The study’s lead author, Davide Bottacini.

The fin spines of Pterois miles are highly venomous. A sting can cause extreme pain, sickness, convulsions, minor paralysis, and breathing difficulties in humans. Immediate emergency medical attention is recommended for anyone stung by the species.

By reviewing existing scientific data, researchers identified gaps in current understanding of the lionfish’s interactions with Mediterranean ecosystems.

They suggest that, while they consider the eradication of invasive lionfish impossible, tackling questions such as the community-level impact of them in the Mediterranean, and the evolutionary and learned responses in prey, will add to the body of knowledge on the best documented invasion in marine ecosystems.

Three maps of dive centre respondents and lionfish sightings on the Meditteranean Sea coat showing a gradual eastwrd progression of sightings.
Maps of dive centre respondents and lionfish sightings. Credit: Bottacini et al.

Such information provides insights vital for biodiversity conservation, with practical implications for policy makers aiming to devise efficient mitigation plans.

Citizen science initiatives for tracking and reporting lionfish sightings are encouraged to provide valuable data that supports ongoing research efforts. Such community involvement is essential for enhancing understanding of the invasion dynamics and devising effective control measures.

Original source

Bottacini D, Pollux BJA, Nijland R, Jansen PA, Naguib M, Kotrschal A (2024) Lionfish (Pterois miles) in the Mediterranean Sea: a review of the available knowledge with an update on the invasion front. NeoBiota 92: 233–257. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.92.110442

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Deciphering cyrillics: revealing the myxomycetes of Ukraine from invisible sources

A new study compiles over 150 years of research on Ukraine’s myxomycetes – amoebae that form fascinating fungi-like fruiting bodies.

Guest blog post by Iryna Yatsiuk

A graphic showing the occurrences of myxomycetes on a map of Ukraine.
Occurrences of myxomycetes in Ukraine from the present study.

Myxomycetes, or slime molds, despite their unassuming name, are fascinating organisms that play a crucial role in forest ecosystems. They live as single-cell amoebae in soil or all sorts of plant debris, where they feed on microscopic bacteria, algae, and fungi. However, when it is time to reproduce and disseminate, these tiny amoebae fuse with each other and form slimy, mobile structures – plasmodia. Plasmodia slowly but actively crawl on the substrate, and eventually transform into fungi-like fruiting bodies filled with spores. Both plasmodia and fruiting bodies are visible with the naked eye and can be easily found e.g. on decaying wood or on the forest floor.

Yellow slime mold on a tree trunk.
Fruiting bodies of slime mold on a tree trunk.
Plasmodium (left) and fruiting bodies (right) of the same species of a slime mold, with a difference of one day.

Myxomycetes are unusual in their life cycle and very eye-catching – if only one knows where to look for them. No wonder that they have attracted the attention of naturalists for centuries. On the territory of Ukraine, observations of myxomycetes first appeared in the first half of 19th century and have been occurring sporadically in the mycological literature ever since.

Slime mold.
‘Wasp nest’ slime mold – a common and widespread species of myxomycetes in Ukraine.

However, much valuable information about the myxomycetes of Ukraine before our study was in a “grey zone”. This includes undigitized historical books and articles published in languages such as Polish, French, or German. Furthermore, there is a significant body of proceedings of local conferences, articles in local journals, and reports produced by the employees of protected areas. Yet, many of these publications existed only in print and were written in the Cyrillic alphabet, so they remained difficult to discover, to access, or to work with.

A page of Maria Zelle's work “Materials for the myxomycete flora of Ukraine”.
An example of an “invisible” literature source, a page from Maria Zelle “Materials for the myxomycete flora of Ukraine”, 1925.

Within this study, published in Biodiversity Data Journal, we aimed to summarize all published research on myxomycetes of Ukraine, which spans over 150 years, and make the data, as well as the literature behind the data, open and easy to use. For this, we collected and mined 91 publications on this topic, spanning the years 1842 to 2023. As the result, we extracted over 5000 occurrences of myxomycetes that belong to 331 species. The produced datasets we published on GBIF, and the major part of the literature sources on the platform Zenodo.org in open access.

Datasets produced by this study available on GBIF.
A group of researchers posing for a picture.
Leaders of the BioData project with future Ukrainian mentors.

With this initiative, we aimed to open to the wider audience and digitally preserve some part of the biodiversity data heritage of Ukraine that is currently under threat of destruction.

This study was substantially driven by the BioDATA project, which helped a lot in developing biodiversity data management skills in our team.

Research article:

Yatsiuk I, Leshchenko Y, Viunnyk V, Leontyev DV (2024) The comprehensive checklist of myxomycetes of Ukraine, based on extended occurrence and reference datasets. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e120891. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e120891

NOAA Fisheries Zoologist Describes New Fish Species

Dr. Katherine Bemis of the National Systematics Laboratory recently helped describe a new species of fish, the papillated redbait.

New species alert! Dr. Katherine Bemis of NOAA Fisheries’ National Systematics Laboratory and her collaborators recently described a new fish species: Emmelichthys papillatus, or the papillated redbait. Its discovery was published in the journal ZooKeys.

Emmelichthys papillatus. Photograph by the Kagoshima University Museum

The papillated redbait is a member of the family Emmelichthyidae. There are only 18 known species in this family, which are commonly called redbaits, rovers, or rubyfishes. These deepwater species can be found in warm, tropical waters and are usually bright shades of red, orange, and pink.

How did Bemis and her team make this remarkable discovery? To find out, we’ll have to first travel to a fish market in the Philippines.

A molecular mystery

As part of an interagency campaign to create a reference library of fish DNA “barcodes,” Bemis and her colleagues regularly travel abroad to collect fish specimens. Some come from seafood markets overseas where they are being sold for food. In the field, these new specimens are assigned a preliminary species identification. Then, they’re transported to the Smithsonian Institution and National Systematics Laboratory for genetic sequencing, data collection, and a secondary species confirmation.

Dr. Katherine Bemis holds the holotype–the specimen upon which a new species’ description is based–of the papillated redbait. Credit: Haley Randall/NOAA Fisheries

Since getting involved with this project in 2021, Bemis and teammate Dr. Matthew Girard of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History have analyzed thousands of samples. None have made a bigger splash, though, than two small pink fish collected from a Philippine fish market on the island of Cebu.

While collecting data from these specimens, Girard made an exciting observation. Their genetic sequences did not match their initial species identification as golden redbaits—or any other species in the genetic library, for that matter. So which species did Girard and Bemis have on their hands?

Dr. Matthew Girard examines the holotype of the papillated redbait under a microscope. Credit: Dr. Katherine Bemis. Source NOAA Fisheries

In search of answers, Bemis and Girard examined other aspects of the specimens’ biology, including their anatomy. They discovered that these fish differed from the golden redbait in several ways, including:

  • A different number of gill rakers, structures inside the mouth that help fish to feed
  • A different number of pectoral fin rays
  • Two fleshy structures called papillae on the pectoral girdle

These differences, combined with the genetic data, provided evidence that the two specimens were not golden redbaits, but a previously undiscovered species. With only two confirmed specimens, Bemis and Girard wondered if other individuals could be identified in global natural history collections.

Underneath the gill cover, you can observe the two characteristic papillae (singular: papilla) of the papillated redbait labeled with arrows (left). The closely-related golden redbait lacks papillae in the same area (right). Photos courtesy of Dr. Matthew Girard. Source NOAA Fisheries

After some detective work, Bemis and Girard spotted a third specimen they hypothesized might also be the undescribed species. A fish with similar color also identified as a golden redbait had been collected from a fish market in the Philippines by the Kagoshima University Museum in Japan. Bemis and Girard studied the specimen and confirmed their hypothesis with genetic and anatomical data. This specimen became the third record of papillated redbait and, ultimately, the holotype for the species—the specimen upon which a new species description is based.

More to discover

Even after describing new species, there’s always more to learn. Bemis and Girard are energized that there is still much to discover about the papillated redbait and the redbait family, which is relatively poorly known. Any opportunity to add to this small body of knowledge and study redbait species in greater detail is valuable. “I’ve had researchers that work on fish taxonomy say to me, ‘I didn’t even know this family existed.’ That’s how little we know about this group,” Girard emphasizes.

Bemis also notes that because data on the papillated redbait comes from only three specimens purchased in fish markets, she still has lots of questions. For example, Bemis says that they don’t yet know if the new species occurs outside Philippine waters, or the exact habitat in which they occur. “We also don’t know anything about their reproduction or what they eat—really basic aspects of their biology remain to be studied. Now that we recognize that it is different, we only have more to study as new specimens of papillated redbait are collected,” Bemis says.

“It is always a happy and productive moment working with U.S. scientists,” says Dr. Mudjekeewis “Mudjie” Santos of the Philippine National Fisheries Research and Development Institute. Santos was instrumental in the collection of specimens, providing fisheries data on the papillated redbait, and coining a name for the new species in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines. Here, he examines fish in a Philippine market. Photo courtesy of Dr. Mudjekeewis Santos. Source NOAA Fisheries

One thing is for certain, though. There are more species just waiting to be discovered, and they might be right under our noses. “I think the craziest thing is that the papillated redbait is a new species that came from a market,” Girard says. “The fact that there are undescribed species being sold without us even realizing it underscores how much we still have to learn about marine biodiversity.”

Research article:

Girard MG, Santos MD, Bemis KE (2024) New species of redbait from the Philippines (Teleostei, Emmelichthyidae, Emmelichthys). ZooKeys 1196: 95-109. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1196.111161

This story was originally published by NOAA Fisheries. It is republished here with their permission.