Tag: taxonomy

New species of terrestrial crab found climbing on trees in Hong Kong

A new species of terrestrial crab has been found to climb trees on the eastern coast of Hong Kong. All specimens spotted during the survey have been collected at a height of approximately 1.5 – 1.8 m, walking on the bark of the branches at ebbing and low tides. The species is described in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Among the crab’s characteristic traits are squarish predominantly dark brown carapace, very long legs and orange chelipeds. The species is less than a centimetre long, with the studied specimens measuring between 8 and 9 millimetres, irrespective of their sex. However, the chelipeds of the males appear stout, while in females they are distinctly more slender.

The scientists who found the new species (Haberma tingkok), Dr. Stefano Cannicci, the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the University of Hong Kong, and Dr. Peter Ng, National University of Singapore, have placed the new species in a small genus, which now contains merely three species. In fact, Dr. Peter Ng has been involved in the discovery of all of them. He also led the team that established the genus 15 years ago, having collected a small previously undescribed species of mangrove crab from Singapore.

The discovery of the tiny crustacean once again proves how little is known about the diversity of these crabs in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the mangroves that make for the habitat of the new species are under severe impact by both pollution and land reclamation, which underlines the urgent need for their conservation.

Earlier this year, Dr. Peter Ng teamed up with Dr. Jose Christopher Mendoza to describe another new species of crab, collected from the rubble at the island of Guam and named after two of the main characters in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter fantasy series.

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Original source:

Cannicci S, Ng PLK (2017) A new species of micro-mangrove crab of the genus Haberma Ng & Schubart, 2002 (Crustacea, Brachyura, Sesarmidae) from Hong Kong. ZooKeys 662: 67-78. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.662.11908

New species of Brazilian copepod suggests ancient species diversification and distribution

A new species of groundwater copepod has been discovered in the rocky savannas of Brazil – an ecosystem suffering from heavy anthropogenic impact. Upon description, the tiny crustacean turned out to also represent a previously unknown genus. It is described by Dr. Paulo H. C. Corgosinho, Montes Claros State University, Brazil, and his team in the open access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.

Prior to the discovery of the new species, named Eirinicaris antonioi, only one genus of its subfamily (Parastenocaridinae) had been recorded in the Neotropical region, which comes to show that related species had already spread across a huge range when the ancient supercontinent Gondwana split apart.

The new copepod measures about 0,300 mm and can be told apart by its morphological characteristics, including unusual sensorial structures at the rear part of the body, as well as unique sexual dimorphism.

The copepods of the family Parastenocarididae are adapted to life in groundwater, where they thrive between sand grains. These tiny creatures measure less than 1 mm, ranging between 0,200 and 0,400 mm in length. They can be found in various microbiotopes along rivers, lakes and human-made structures, such as dug or artesian wells. Alternatively, these copepods might be associated with mosses and other semi-terrestrial environments.

“This is the first species described from Goiás state, Central Brazil,” explain the authors. “With the discovery of this new species our knowledge about the geographical distribution of the copepod family Parastenocarididae is increased. Our project highlights the vast amounts of undiscovered biodiversity of the Brazilian rocky savannas, which are under high anthropogenic threat.”

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Original source:

Corgosinho PHC, Schizas NV, Previattelli D, Falavigna da Rocha CE, Santos-Silva EN (2017) A new genus of Parastenocarididae (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from the Tocantins River basin (Goiás, Brazil), and a phylogenetic analysis of the Parastenocaridinae. Zoosystematics and Evolution 93(1): 167-187. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.93.11602

With flying colors: Top entomology students honoured with wasp species named after them

The highly divergent parasitic wasps have long been causing headaches to scientists. At one point, taxonomists began using some genera as “dumping grounds for unplaced members”, simply to organise the species.

Two entomologists from the University of Kentucky, USA – Drs. Michael J. Sharkey and Eric Chapman, have recently addressed one such issue by describing ten new genera and many more new species and combinations. The resulting paper is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Interestingly, among the newly described species there are two wasps named after two excellent entomology students: Leuroagathis paulbakeri and Scabagathis emilynadeauae. Both Mr. Paul Baker and Ms. Emily Nadeau scored 100% during an Entomology class in 2015. Paul passed the written exam with flying colours, while Emily did best on the weekly quizzes.

One of the new genera (Chimaeragathis) is named after the Greek mythological monster Chimera. Known as the sibling of the infamous Cerberus and Hydra, the Hellenes would describe Chimera as a horrid hybrid comprising several animals – usually a lion, a goat, and a serpent. The scientists have picked this name as a reference to the multiple diagnostic characters of the genus. In turn, each of those characters consists of a set of features used to diagnose related genera.

To breed, the females of these wasps lay eggs inside the early stages of caterpillars of various moths. At first, the larva develops quietly as if unnoticed by the host. By the time the caterpillar is ready to spin a cocoon, the parasitoid ‘awakes’ and consumes the host from the inside.

The aim of the present study is to revise the representatives of a tribe of braconid parasitoid wasps inhabiting Southeast Asia with a focus on Thailand. While having described a lot of new taxa, the scientists have saved another batch of new species for a separate future paper.

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Original source:

Sharkey MJ, Chapman E (2017) Ten new genera of Agathidini (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Agathidinae) from Southeast Asia. ZooKeys 660: 107-150. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.660.12390

New frog from the Peruvian Andes is the first amphibian named after Sir David Attenborough

While there are already a number of species named after famous British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough, including mammals, reptiles, invertebrates and plants, both extinct and extant, not until now has the host of the BBC Natural History’s Life series been honoured with an amphibian.

A new fleshbelly frog, recently discovered in the Peruvian Andes, is formally described as Pristimantis attenboroughi, while commonly it is to be referred to as the Attenborough’s Rubber Frog. The new species is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Scientists Dr. Edgar Lehr, Illinois Wesleyan University, and Dr. Rudolf von May, University of Michigan, spent two years (2012-2014) surveying montane forests in central Peru, in order to document the local amphibians and reptiles, and evaluate their conservation statuses. Their efforts have been rewarded with several new species of frogs and a new spectacled lizard.

Each of these discoveries, including the Attenborough’s Rubber Frog, prove how beneficial it is to take into account both morphological and the genetic data, while looking for species new to science. For example, the authors report that when they spotted the P. attenboroughi frog for the first time, both of them were sure that they had found a species of another genus.

The Attenborough’s rubber frog is known to inhabit several localities across the Pui Pui Protected Forest, a nature reserve located at elevations between 3400 and 3936 m a.s.l. in central Peru. The adult males reach size of 14.6-19.2 mm in length, while the females are larger measuring between 19.2 and 23.0 mm. Their ground colour ranges from pale to dark gray, or reddish brown to brownish olive with dark gray scattered flecks. Meanwhile, the juveniles are paler (yellowish to reddish brown) with contrasting dark brown flecks and distinct stripes.

Due to the amphibian being known from fewer than ten localities, spread across less than 20,000 km2, the species should be deemed either Vulnerable or Endangered, according to the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. However, the authors suggest that the Attenborough’s Rubber frog should be listed as Near Threatened instead, since the Piu Piu forest is formally protected and still largely unknown, so it is likely that there are more additional populations of the new species. On the other hand, factors such as fungal infections, climate change, pollution, and man-made fires continue to be threats for many Andean amphibians even inside protected areas.

“We dedicate this species to Sir David Frederick Attenborough in honor for his educational documentaries on wildlife, especially on amphibians (e.g., Life in Cold Blood, Fabulous Frogs), and for raising awareness about the importance of wildlife conservation,” explain the authors.

In the present study, the scientists note that there are more terrestrial-breeding frogs from the surveyed montane forests that will be described in the near future.

Among the numerous namesakes of Sir David Attenborough to date, there are a rare genus of beautiful flowering plants, a rare butterfly species, commonly known as the Attenborough’s black-eyed satyr, a flightless weevil species, as well as a number of extinct species.

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Original source:

Lehr E, von May R (2017) A new species of terrestrial-breeding frog (Amphibia, Craugastoridae, Pristimantis) from high elevations of the Pui Pui Protected Forest in central Peru. ZooKeys 660: 17-42. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.660.11394

Portuguese moth’s mystery solved after 22 years

An unknown moth, collected from Portugal 22 years ago, has finally been named and placed in the tree of life thanks to the efforts of an international team of scientists. The moth was unambiguously placed in the family of geometer moths (Geometridae), commonly known as loopers or inchworms due to the characteristic looping gait of their larvae.

The new species description is published in the open access journal Nota Lepidopterologica, along with a taxonomic review of the genus Ekboarmia, thought to comprise four species in the western Mediterranean area.

The first specimen, a male, was found in 1995 in Lagoa de Santo André, south of Lisbon, near the Atlantic coast. Despite its unique appearance, the specialists did not find enough similarities with any other European species, making its classification impossible. When three females were finally found following an intensive search in 2009, the team of scientists hoped they would find enough evidence to solve the mystery.

“The discovered females had different wing patterns compared to the males, suggesting sexual dimorphism, adding another complexity in the identification. This new species could not have been classified on the basis of external characters alone,” explains Dieter Stüning from Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany.

In 2015, two specimens, a male and a female, have been DNA barcoded and recently became targets of detailed morphological examinations. DNA data played an essential role in demonstrating that the male and the female belong to the same species, whereas morphological structures finally provided unambiguous evidence to place the mystery moth in the geometrid genus Ekboarmia. The species name miniaria seemed appropriate to denote its small size. The tiny moth is the smallest in its genus whose other species are externally dissimilar.

Peder Skou from Denmark played a central role in the discovery of the species, tirelessly searching for more material to solve the questions. “Discovery of an undescribed and distinct macromoth from Europe is a rare occasion, because the continent’s fauna is probably the most exhaustively studied in the world,” explains Skou.

Pasi Sihvonen from the Finnish Museum of Natural History concludes: “Virtually nothing is known about the species. Altogether, only 11 specimens have been found between 1995 and 2011. Larvae of related species feed on juniper needles, which might also be the foodplant of the new species. We hope that the richly illustrated publication of the new moth will lead to new discoveries of this mysterious species. More data are needed, for instance, its conservation status cannot be evaluated due to insufficient life history and distribution data.”

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Original source:

Skou P, Stüning D, Sihvonen P (2017) Revision of the West-Mediterranean geometrid genus Ekboarmia, with description of a new species from Portugal (Lepidoptera, Geometridae, Ennominae). Nota Lepidopterologica 40(1): 39-63. https://doi.org/10.3897/nl.40.10440

Shadow-loving insect named after Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish

Tuomas Holopainen, the multi-talented musician and founder of the symphonic metal band Nightwish, is also a full-blooded nature person. This gave conservation biologist Jukka Salmela of Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland an idea for the name of a new species he found in Finland. Discovered in eastern Lapland during an insect survey, the fungus gnat was given the scientific name Sciophila holopaineni after Tuomas. The new species is described in the open access Biodiversity Data Journal.

“I am very, very touched. This is the highest honour a nature nerd like me can receive,” Tuomas Holopainen replied after Jukka, who collected and described the fungus gnat, asked him for permission to name the species after him.

The idea for the name came up to Salmela while he was thinking about the habitat and appearance of the species. Then, he recalled Tuomas Holopainen’s interest in the natural sciences.

So far, the new species of fungus gnat has been only known from two locations: the Törmäoja Natura Area in Savukoski, eastern Lapland, and a meadow close to the White Sea, Russian Karelia.

The dark and beautiful gnat thrives in shadowy environments. In Törmäoja, it was caught in a river gulch next to the river source, while hiding under the shelter of the forest. Salmela proposes ‘tuomaanvarjokainen’ as the common Finnish name, inspired by the latest Nightwish album. After all, the themes of the album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, are evolution and the diversity of nature.

Fungus gnats are flies, which feed on dead wood or fungi. Some of the larvae are predaceous. At current count, there are almost 800 species in Finland and about 1,000 in the Nordic countries. In fact, the Fennoscandia region is one of Europe’s biodiversity hotspots for this group of insects.

The Tuomas Holopainen’s species is only one of the eight new flies described in the study. Among them are the Boletina norokorpii fungus gnat, named after Docent Yrjö Norokorpi and known only from Ylitornio; Phronia reducta, which inhabits Salla and Siberia; and Orfelia boreoalpina found in Törmäoja and the German Alps.

The Parks & Wildlife Finland of Metsähallitus is responsible for the management and species surveys of the State’s nature reserves. The collected data is needed in activities such as assessing the status of biodiversity, the protection of species, and planning the management and use of the reserves. Insects are as good an indicator of the state of the natural environment as better-known vertebrates or plants. The diversity of insect species forms part of natural biodiversity and is necessary to human well-being.

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Original source:

Salmela J, Kolcsár L (2017) New and poorly known Palaearctic fungus gnats (Diptera, Sciaroidea). Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e11760. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e11760

Bird spiders detectives: The solution to a 200-year-old hairy mystery

Three species and three genera of birdeater spiders are described as new to science in a paper recently published in the open access journal ZooKeys. In their study, the Brazilian spider experts, Drs. Caroline Fukushima and Rogério Bertani, Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution, Instituto Butantan, report the diversity of the oldest tarantula genus (Avicularia), whose name derives from a famous 18th-century illustration depicting a bird caught by a spider.

Even though these harmless tarantulas have long been a favourite exotic pet around the world, their identity has remained problematic ever since the first species was described back in 1758 by the “father of modern taxonomy”, Carl Linnaeus.

“He described the species based on a hodgepodge of spiders,” explain the authors. “Over the next centuries, other species with completely different characteristics were called Avicularia creating a huge mess.” As a result, basic questions, such as the characteristic traits of the genus, the number of its species and their localities, have been left unanswered.

To address the confusion, the team studied both newly collected specimens and also specimens from around the world which had previously been deposited in museum collections. Thus, they concluded that, instead of the 49 species previously assigned to the problematic genus, there are in fact only 12, including three new to science.

One of the new species, Avicularia merianae, is named after Maria Sybilla Merian (1647-1717), a pioneering scientist and a remarkable artist who made the famous illustration of a spider eating a bird. In fact, it was her work that gave birth to the popular name used for a whole group of spiders, also known as birdeaters or bird spiders.

Meanwhile, the name of the new genus Ybyrapora, which occurs in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, translates to “those that live in trees” from the indigenous local language Tupi. It refers to the arboreal habitat of these species. The other two tarantula genera live exclusively on the Caribbean Islands.

“People think all biologists are like Indiana Jones, with their daily lives full of adventures in the wild. But most of the time, they are much more like Sherlock Holmes – sitting on a chair, collecting and analysing clues (specimens and scientific papers) and then using logical reasoning to solve Nature’s mysteries,” comments Dr. Caroline Fukushima.

“We, taxonomists, are ‘wildlife detectives’ who play an essential role not only in biology and conservation. Our work can also become the grounds for new technologies, medicines and ideas that could solve a variety of problems,” she adds.

“We are delighted to have finally closed one of the oldest unsolved cases,” the authors conclude.

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Original source:

Fukushima CS, Bertani R (2017) Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Avicularia Lamarck, 1818 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Aviculariinae) with description of three new aviculariine genera. ZooKeys 659: 1-185. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.659.10717

New species of parasitic wasp discovered in the eggs of leaf-rolling weevils in Africa

A new species of parasitic wasp has been obtained from the eggs of weevils, associated with bushwillows, collected and identified by Dr. Silvano Biondi. Given the tiny insect from northeastern Gabon is the first record of its genus for West-Central Africa, the researchers Dr. Stefania Laudonia and Dr. Gennaro Viggiani, both affiliated with Italy’s University of Naples Federico II, decided to celebrate it by assigning the species a name that refers to the continent. Their team has published the findings in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Named Poropoea africana, the new species belongs to a large worldwide group of wasps well-known as egg parasitoids of leaf-rolling weevils. Using characteristically long ovipositors, they lay their own eggs in the eggs of the hosts, found in cigar-like rolls.

The new wasp measures less than 2 mm. It can be distinguished from related species by a number of characters, including the structure of the antennae, and the front and hind legs, which are more robust than the middle ones. The latter, which is a unique trait for the genus, seems to be an adaptation to host parasitisation, where the modified legs likely support the body and improve the propulsive efficiency of the ovipositor.

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Original source:

Laudonia S, Viggiani G, Biondi S (2017) A new species of Poropoea Foerster from Africa (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Trichogrammatidae). ZooKeys 658: 81-87. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.658.11501

Champions of biodiversity: A weevil genus beats records of explosive evolutive radiation

With as many as 120 recently discovered weevils placed in the genus Laparocerus, it now hosts a total of 237 known species and subspecies. They are all flightless beetles and most of them endemic (living exclusively in one geographic location) to a single island of the archipelagos of Madeira, Selvagens and the Canary Islands (17 islands in total). Only two species inhabit Morocco, the nearest continental land.

Independent Canarian entomologist Dr. Antonio Machado, who has been collecting and studying this genus of weevils for the last sixteen years and researched 46,500 specimens so far, was helped by geneticist Dr. Mariano Hernández, from the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, to undertake a phylogenetic study using three mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene. The resulting phylogenetic tree also allowed for estimating the whole evolutionary process along a timeframe of about 11.2 million years. Their study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The molecular analysis confirms that all Laparocerus weevils have a common evolutionary ancestor (monophyly), but could not clarify whether that ancient founding species arrived from southern Europe or northwestern Africa. The two extant Moroccan species were found to be the result of a back-colonisation from the Canary Islands to Africa, and not the ancestral source lineage, which unfortunately is still unknown.

Colonisation of Macaronesia started in Porto Santo, Madeiran archipelago, which is the oldest island, and from there it ‘jumped’ to Madeira and the Desertas. The colonisation of the Canary Islands started shortly after, and it basically moved stepwise from the east to the west in line with the decreasing age of the volcanic islands. Yet, there have been several back-colonisations, as well (see map). Large islands, such as Tenerife (2034 km2), ended up with 65 species and subspecies. Globally, there is an outstanding ratio of one endemic Laparocerus for each 35.7 km2; a record not beaten by any other genus of plant or animal in Macaronesia.

The evolutionary process responsible for such richness comprises sequential radiation events in these archipelagoes, each generating several monophyletic groups. These groups, 20 in total, have been recognised as subgenera of Laparocerus, and five of them — Aridotrox, Belicarius, Bencomius, Canariotrox, and Purpuranius — are described as new to science in this study. Colonisation routes, habitat shifts, disruption of populations by volcanism, dispersal by massive landslides, and other relevant aspects for adaptive and non-adaptive radiation, are largely discussed and confronted with previously published data referring to other groups of beetles or to other biological organisms (spiders, bush crickets, plants, etc.).

“If oceanic islands have been traditionally considered as laboratories of evolution and species-producing machines, Laparocerus will become the ideal guinea-pig for broadening studies in dispersal and speciation processes of all kinds,” say the authors. “Working with such a group is like getting a picture of Nature with more pixels. Several intriguing cases highlighted in this contribution may turn into the inspiration for further phylogeographic research.”

The scientists hope that, in near future Laparocerus will merit sharing the podium with Darwin´s finches or Drosophila in the studies of island evolution”.

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Original source:

Machado A, Rodríguez-Expósito E, López M, Hernández M (2017) Phylogenetic analysis of the genus Laparocerus, with comments on colonisation and diversification in Macaronesia (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Entiminae). Zookeys 651: 1-77 (02 Feb 2017) https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.651.10097

New crab species shares name with 2 ‘Harry Potter’ characters and a hero researcher

While not much is known about the animals living around coral reefs, ex-Marine turned researcher Harry Conley would often take to the island of Guam, western Pacific Ocean, and dig deep into the rubble to find fascinating critters as if by magic learnt at Hogwarts. Almost 20 years after his discoveries and his death, a secret is revealed on the pages of the open access journal ZooKeys – a new species and genus of crab, Harryplax severus.

Having dug as deep as 30 m into Guam’s coral reef rubble, Harry Conley collected many specimens which stayed in his personal collection until the early 2000’s when Dr. Gustav Paulay, currently affiliated with the University of Florida, handed the specimens to the second author of the present study, Dr. Peter Ng, National University of Singapore, which resulted in many discoveries and publications. Among the lot, however, were two unusual specimens which were not studied until much later. Only recently did Dr. Peter Ng and his colleague at the National University of Singapore and lead author of the paper, Dr. Jose Christopher E. Mendoza, discover that they represent not only a new species, but also a new genus.

Having chosen the name Harryplax for the new genus, the two authors pay tribute to the crab’s original collector Harry Conley, who they describe as a “soft-spoken ex-Marine with a steely determination and a heart of gold,” and whose endeavours “have substantially advanced the cause of marine science”. The name is also meant to allude to the main protagonist in J. K. Rowling’s famous fantasy novel series, whose magical abilities the scientists liken to Conley’s knack for finding rare or new species. Of the two authors, Dr. Mendoza is the self-confessed ‘Potterhead’, who was not about to pass up the chance of naming a new crab after his favourite fictional characters. In his turn, Dr. Ng, who knew Harry Conley personally, was quite amused and happy to agree.

The crab’s species name, severus, is inspired by another ‘Harry Potter’ character – Professor Severus Snape, who despite being a central character in the series, keeps his background and agenda mysterious until the very end, when he reveals a key secret. Showing his real identity, the character, to the authors, is “just like the present new species which has eluded discovery until now, nearly 20 years after it was first collected”.

The new species is a tiny crab measuring less than a centimeter in both length and width and can be found deep in coral rubble or under subtidal rocks, perhaps also in cavities. To survive in the dark depths, the species has evolved with reduced eyes, well developed antennae, and long, slender legs. For the time being it is known only from the island of Guam.

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Original source:

Mendoza JCE, Ng PKL (2017) Harryplax severus, a new genus and species of an unusual coral rubble-inhabiting crab from Guam (Crustacea, Brachyura, Christmaplacidae). ZooKeys 647: 23-35. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.647.11455