Leucosiidae of the Albatross expedition to the Philippines, 1907–1910 (Crustacea: Brachyura: Decapoda)

A report of the Leucosiidae collected during the Albatross Philippines expedition 1907–1910 is given. A total of 36 species in 17 genera are treated, with one genus (Heterolithadia) and nine species (Alox rugosum, Arcania elongata, Arcania globata, Heterolithadia fallax, Myra acutidens, Leucosia craniolaris, L. galantua, L. perlatta and Nucia tuberculosa) being new records for the Philippines and one species being new. This brings the total number of species known from the Philippines to 64, in 22 genera. A complete list of Philippine Leucosiidae is provided.     

Synopsis of ‘onychocellid’ cheilostome bryozoan genera

Genera assigned to the cheilostome bryozoan family Onychocellidae are revised based on the skeletal morphology of the type species and, when possible, the type material of these species. All genera are illustrated using scanning electron micrographs, some for the first time. Onychocellidae, which ranges from the Cenomanian stage of the Cretaceous to the Recent, has been a particularly troublesome family because of poorly defined generic concepts correlating at least in part with a paucity of morphological characters. Thirty-five genera are described in this review. Of these, two are recognised as subjective synonyms of other onychocellid genera (Rhebasia and Semieschara), one cannot be sufficiently characterised from the type material (Collura), and two are new: Aechmellina gen. nov. (type species Aechmella falcifera) and Kamilocella gen. nov. (type species Eschara latilabris). A neotype is chosen for Rhagasostoma hexagonum, the type species of Rhagasostoma. A key is provided to assist in the identification of onychocellid genera. Phylogenetic relationships between genera remain obscure and are unlikely to be fully resolved based on skeletal morphology alone. The family as an entity is loosely circumscribed and almost certainly paraphyletic, containing stem genera of other anascan familes such as Lunulitidae, Coscinopleuridae and Aspidostomatidae.

www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:org:pub:63A31AD2-F049-42CB-A45B-557014DC286E     

A checklist of the corals of the island state of Rodrigues,Mauritius

The aim of this study was to create an inventory of the coral species which occur in the shallow waters around Rodrigues island. The stony corals of Rodrigues island have received limited study. Corals were recorded, photographed and collected from reef slopes and lagoons by scuba diving and snorkelling during October 2001. A collection of previously collected corals in Rodrigues was also studied. A total of 130 named species in 40 genera of hard corals (125 species in 37 genera of zooxanthellate Scleractinia) were found during the present survey, together with eight unidentified species; 47 species of coral were new records for Rodrigues, 37 of which were new reports for the southern Mascarene archipelago; 23 species represented extensions of their known ranges, including two species that were previously considered endemic to other areas. The number of species found is similar to that previously reported from Mauritius (134), and significantly more than reported in earlier studies of Rodriguan corals (up to 89 species). This also complements recent reports for Rodrigues (132 species) and Mauritius (163 species).     

Pleioxenous host-restriction in fleas

A review of the pleioxenous genera of fleas, those genera whose species are confined to hosts of a single family, indicates that such a restriction results from one of several situations. Genera of 10 or more taxa (species and subspecies) were considered, so as to exclude very small genera that might be relicts. Polyxenous genera, whose species occur regularly on two or more families (and frequently on two or more orders) of hosts are far more numerous than pleioxenous genera.

Bat fleas (Ischnopsyllidae) are unique in that all genera are pleioxenous. This seems to reflect the fact that most bat fleas occur on cave-dwelling bats, and that the cave provides for larval development of bat fleas. Five pleioxenous genera occur on rodents in deserts or semiarid regions. The extreme climatic changes that have been concomitant with desertification from the Mid-Cenozoic, and especially in the Pleistocene, are paralleled by the proliferation of the mammalian hosts themselves in deserts. Three pleioxenous genera are found on fossorial rodents (Geomyidae). These rodents appear to have been isolated and rejoined during climatic changes in western North America; and rapid speciation of their fleas followed speciation of the hosts. One pleioxenous genus, and others that are nearly pleioxenous, parasitize cricetine mice in Central America. It is suggested that the Cenozoic archipelago which occupied this region provided an environment for rapid speciation of both hosts and their fleas. Two pleioxenous genera are found on tree squirrels in the tropics. Although fleas of mice occasionally make permanent transfers to squirrels, as the former occupy squirrel nests, reverse transfers (from tree squirrels to mice) are rare. Two genera of fleas are restricted to murid mice in Africa south of the Sahara; this is a region in which murid mice usually outnumber species of other rodent families. One pleioxenous genus occurs on Arvicolidae, possibly a result of rapid speciation of hosts during the extreme climatic changes in boreal habitats during late Cenozoic and Pleistocene.

There is a tendency for the apparently more ancient families of fleas (e.g. Stephanocircidae, Pygiopsyllidae and Hystrichopsyllidae) to have very few pleioxenous genera but many polyxenous genera. The more modern families of fleas (e.g. Leptopsyllidae and Ceratophyllidae) contain a higher percentage of pleioxenous genera.     

A taxonomic and zoogeographical census of the extant ant taxa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

The numbers of extant ant taxa in the world are analysed taxonomically and zoogeographically. A table detailing numbers of subfamilies, tribes and genera, and the numbers of species they contain, and one analysing the number of species per genus per zoogeographical region, are presented. Subfamilies are analysed by number and percentage of genera and species; the most speciose genera are isolated and listed in terms of absolute size and speciosity per subfamily. Tables detailing total numbers of genera and species per subfamily per region, and endemic genera per subfamily per region are given, and the endemicity and speciosity of genera are tabulated on a regional basis.     

Cohabitation of males and juvenile females: a prevalent mating tactic of spiders

Cohabitation, a mating tactic in which males remain with juvenile females until they moult and mature, is shown to be common among spiders. Records are given for 161 species in 74 genera and 15 families. Records were obtained for 100 species of cursorial spiders (45 genera, eight families) and 71 species of web-builders (33 genera, 11 families). Cursorial species cohabit in nests, whereas web-builders cohabit either in the open on their webs or in nests in or near their webs. Duration of cohabitation in nature and in the laboratory was recorded for 12 species. An apparent tendency for web-builders to cohabit longer than cursorial species is discussed. The longest cohabitation occurred in three web-building species (Inola amicabilis, Inola subtilis: Pisauridae; Portia fimbriata: Salticidae) in which males remained with females two moults from maturity, and juvenile, as well as adult, males cohabited with juvenile females. The prevalence of cohabitation in the Salticidae, the family that provided the largest number of examples (72 species: 33 genera), is discussed in relation to current hypotheses about salticid phylogeny.     

Plantes Cryptogames de France. Par I. B. H. I. Desmazières. Fasc. XVII. Lille, 1836

Summary

A new genus and species of pilargid polychaete, Litocorsa stremma, is described from silty grounds on the west coast of Scotland. Its relationship to other pilargid genera is discussed. Notes on two other pilargid species and a revised key to the genera of the Pilargidae are given.     

Bryozoa collected by the United States Antarctic Research Program: new taxa and new records

Thirty-two species of cheilostomate Bryozoa are described and illustrated from 26 stations sampled by the United States Antarctic Research Program, including 29 new species and two new genera. A further new genus is introduced for two species formerly attributed to Osthimosia Jullien, 1888. One station was located in the Ross Sea and three in the cold temperate South Pacific; 14 stations were sampled in the region of the Scotia Arc, south of the Antarctic Convergence, and eight from the subantarctic southwest Atlantic, mostly in the vicinity of Tierra del Fuego. Nine new species were present in the Antarctic samples, whereas those from the southwest Atlantic yielded 18 new species and the two new genera. Three of the new subantarctic species are attributed to genera formerly considered to be Antarctic endemics, while the two newly assigned species of Osthimosia are presently known only from Antarctic localities.     

Systematics and biology of the Rhinocolinae (Homoptera: Psylloidea)

Based on a cladistic analysis, the subfamily Rhinocolinae is redefined to comprise 13 genera and 39 species, of which two genera and eight species remain unnamed. Four new genera and 14 new species are described; one subfamily and one genus are synonymized, and two species are recombined; one lectotype is designated. The subfamily is divided into two groups, one with a Gondwanan distribution comprising four genera in Australia, New Zealand, South America and Africa, and another with Laurasian distribution in the Palaeotropics, the Western Palaerctic and North America comprising nine genera. Twenty-one species develop on host plants in the Rutales, three on Asteraceae, three on Cistaceae and one on Zygophyllaceae. The genus Pistacia (Anacardiaceae) in particular hosts six species whose biology is discussed.     

Systematics and zoogeography of the deep‐sea hyperbenthic family Arietellidae (Copepoda: Calanoida) collected from the Sulu Sea

A faunistic survey of the deep‐sea hyperbenthic copepods in the Sulu Sea, which has a deep basin and is connected via shallow straits with the Pacific and the South China Sea, was carried out in November and December 2002, using beam trawls and a mid‐water trawl. Two new genera and four new species of the primitive calanoid family Arietellidae are described. A new genus Metacalanalis shows intermediate characteristics between those of Metacalanus Cleve, 1901 and Pilarella Alvarez, . Another new genus, Protoparamisophria, is closely related to Paramisophria Scott, 1897, but exhibits more plesiomorphic states in the female genital system and appendages. Two new species of the genera Paraugaptiloides Ohtsuka, Boxshall and Roe, and Sarsarietellus Campaner, 1984 are the second and the third species, respectively, for these genera. This discovery enhances the validity of these rare genera, and sheds light on the geological history of the Sulu Sea and the evolution of the Arietellidae within it.     

Taxonomy and biology of final-instar larvae of some Eurytomidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) associated with grasses in the UK

A comparative morphological study was made of the final-instar larval stage of 33 species of grass-inhabiting Eurytomidae belonging to four genera: Eurytoma Illiger, Tetramesa Walker, Sycophila Walker and Ahtola Claridge. Emphasis was placed upon chaetotaxy and mandibular structure. The final-instar larvae of the species are described, those of 26 species for the first time, and diagnostic characters and keys to genera and species are provided. Information, including new rearing records, is given on the larval biology of each eurytomid species, together with comments on the adult taxonomy of certain species.     

Tasmanian Phoridae (Diptera) and some additional Australasian species

The list of Phoridae recorded from Tasmania is increased from five species in three genera to at least 52 species in eight genera. One species on the original list is transferred to the status of being incertae sedis. One new genus and 37 new species are described, two being reported from mainland Australia also. One species was previously only known from New Zealand, five from mainland Australia, four from Europe but one of which is now an almost cosmopolitan tramp species and one being from the Holarctic Region. However, one of the 'European' species may have orginally been introduced to Europe from Tasmania. Keys to genera, to all known species of Aphiura, to the Tasmanian species of Megaselia and to the Australasian species of Metopina are provided. A newly named and a new mainland Australian species of Aphiura, three mainland Australasian species of Metopina and three from Papua New Guinea are described and seven undescribed males (given code letters only) of this genus are included in the key (four from Papua New Guinea, two from Western Australia and one from Tonga). Aphiura and Paraphiura are transferred to the tribe Metopinini and the tribe Beckerinini is set aside, as it cannot be satisfactorily characterized as it is currently conceived. Megaselia dissita is synonymized with M. comparabilis.     

New Neotropical Haplothripini (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) with a key to Central and South American genera

The tribe Haplothripini includes a large diversity of Thysanoptera–Phlaeothripinae, comprising more than 550 species in about 35 genera. They are characterised by having a maxillary bridge in the head, prosternal basantra well developed and fore wings with a median constriction. Members of this group are present in all geographical regions, but are particularly poorly studied in Central and South America. In this study, we describe a new genus and species, Myrciathrips variabilis gen. et. sp. nov., and a new Haplothrips species; and propose two new combinations: Karnyothrips grassoi (De Santis), and Mirothrips vespicola (De Santis). A key to the nine Haplothripini genera now recognised from Central and South America is provided, together with an updated key to Haplothrips and Mirothrips species. A total of 45 species of Haplothripini are now recognised from Central and South America, and a list of these and their distributions is given. The genera Karnyothrips, Haplothrips and Leptothrips are the most commonly encountered, and some exotic species such as Androthrips ramachandrai and Dolichothrips indicus are now widespread in the Americas.     

Apelaunothripini from the Philippines (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae)

Summary

The relationships of the phlaeothripine tribe Apelaunothripini is discussed. Four genera and thirteen species are recorded from the Philippines, including the following two new genera and nine new species: Apelaunothrips cephalicus sp. nov., A. fasciatus sp. nov., A. flavicornis sp. nov., A. marginalis sp. nov., A. philippinensis sp. nov., A. rostratus sp. nov., A. simpliceps sp. nov., Lizalothrips luzonensis gen. and sp. nov., Paradexiothrips bispinosus gen. and sp. nov. Keys are provided to the four genera included in the Apelaunothripini, and to the ten Apelaunothrips species from the Philippines.     

Trichoptera (Insecta) from Pernambuco State,northeastern Brazil

We present here the first list of species of Trichoptera (Insecta) from Pernambuco State, northeastern Brazil, as well as new records of caddisfly species for the country. This study is based on collections of adults, from rivers and streams in 10 counties. A total of six families, 14 genera, and 22 species were recorded, increasing the number of species in the northeastern region from 15 to 37. Moreover, Mortoniella asymmetris Blahnik and Holzenthal, 2011 is recorded for the first time from Brazil.