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Sunday, August 14th, 2022
| Time | Event | ||||||||
| 1:38p | [Botany • 2018] Psoralea forbesiae (Fabaceae: Psoraleeae) • A New Species from the Swartberg Mountains of South Africa
Abstract Psoralea forbesiae C.H.Stirt., A.Bello & Muasya is a new species of Psoraleeae, Fabaceae. Psoralea forbesiae is endemic to the Swartberg Mountains and is a tall densely branched re-sprouting shrub up to 2.5 m, with bluish-green stems and with most parts covered in small crater-like glands, leaves pinnately 3-foliolate, linear-oblong, pale bluish-green, semi-conduplicate, somewhat succulent, glabrous, crowded at the end of bare branches on older stems or distributed along short branches on young shoots, petiolate. A description of P. forbesiae, together with photographs and a distribution map are presented. Keywords: Leguminosae , New species, Endemic, Psoralea , Psoraleeae , South Africa, Taxonomy 
Psoralea forbesiae C.H.Stirt., A.Bello & Muasya, sp. nov. Psoralea sp. 15, Stirton & Schutte in Manning & Goldblatt, Strelitzia 29: 574 (2012). Diagnosis: Similar to P. axillaris L., but differs in being a resprouter with numerous shoots emerging from a woody rootstock; older plants producing a cluster of shoots (burst-branching) at the ends of the previous seasons’ terminal shoots giving an untidy habit (versus a much-branched reseeder with single stem, never with burst branching); stems coarsely fissured and greyish with age (versus furrowed, heavily lenticelled and brownish); leaves 3-foliolate; leaflets partially conduplicate, linear-oblong, with raised crater-like glands and scarcely visible veins (versus leaves 3–5-foliolate; flat, lanceolate, distinctly veined with small sunken glands); lateral leaflets symmetrical, 2–3 mm broad (versus lateral leaflets asymmetrical, 3–8 mm. broad); flowers well exerted from leaves, mauve to pale lavender, wings white (versus mostly hidden within leaves, mauve to purple with purple veins, wings mauve); standard white to pale mauve and with a single purple vertical flash plus a few shorter darker veins towards base of standard, apex greenish on front and back (versus mauve with strongly purple veins and violet basal patch, apex not greenish on front and back); wing petals flared outwards (versus wing petals held vertically). Distribution, habitat and ecology: Psoralea forbesiae is a locally common species known only from the mid- to upper altitudes on the southern slopes and plateau of the Swartberg Mountains of the Western Cape Province (Fig. 2). It occurs in seepages, gulleys and along streams in mountain fynbos between 1200–1700 m (a.s.l.). It is restricted to the South Swartberg Sandstone Fynbos and North Swartberg Sandstone Fynbos vegetation types (FFs 23 & FFs 24) (Mucina and Rutherford 2006). It forms part of an introgressive hybrid swarm with P. sordida on the flanks of the road leading up the southern slopes of the Swartberg Pass (Bello et al. 2018). The flowers are visited by black Megachilid and Xylocopid bees. Etymology: The specific epithet forbesiae honours Scottish born Helena Madelain Lamond Forbes (1900–1959) who immigrated to South Africa with her parents when young. She worked at the National Herbarium in Pretoria, visited Kew Gardens for one year and ended up as the Curator of the Natal Herbarium (NH). She wrote local floras of Isipingo and Malvern districts in Natal but is best known for her revisions of Tephrosia and Psoralea in South Africa (see Gunn and Codd 1981, Glen and Germishuizen 2010). Charles H. Stirton, Abubakar Bello and A. Muthama Muasya. 2018. Psoralea forbesiae (Psoraleeae, Fabaceae), A New Species from the Swartberg Mountains of South Africa. PhytoKeys. 99: 93-98. DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.99.24765 | ||||||||
| 1:38p | [Botany • 2022] Selaginella wuyishanensis (Selaginellaceae) • A New Species from East China and its Phylogenetic Position based on Molecular Data
Abstract A new spikemoss species, Selaginella wuyishanensis, is described and illustrated based on materials collected from Fujian Province, East China. The new species can be distinguished from S. lutchuensis Koidzumi and S. albociliata P. S. Wang by its leaves with extremely long cilia (up to 8 mm) and distinctly white margins, ovate ventral sporophylls, and sporophyll-pteryx completely inverted on dorsal sporophylls. In the present work, a molecular phylogeny, taxonomic description, distribution information, line drawing, and photographs of this new species are presented. A morphological comparison is also given to distinguish it from morphologically similar species in Selaginella sect. Tetragonostachyae (Hook. & Grev.) Hieron. & Sadeb. Keywords: Danxia landform, Selaginella albociliata, Selaginella subg. Heterostachys, species diversity
Selaginella wuyishanensis K.W.Xu, X.M.Zhou & Y.F.Duan, sp. nov. Diagnosis: The new species is most similar to Selaginella albociliata and S. lutchuensis in the habit, sterile leaves, and spores. However, S. wuyishanensis can be distinguished from the latter two species by its long leaf cilia (up to 0.6 mm), ovate ventral sporophylls, and the smooth perispore surface of the megaspores (Figs 2, 3). Distribution and habitat: Selaginella wuyishanensis is known only from Fujian Province, East China. Three populations were observed to grow on rocks of the Danxia landform in evergreen broad-leaved forests at elevations of ca. 200–800 m. Etymology: The species epithet is based on the name of the famous mount Wuyishan, referring to the type locality of the new species. Ke-Wang Xu, Shui-Fei Chen, Qiang Song, Xiao Zheng, Meng Li, Yan-Ming Fang, Hong-Jin Wei, Hui Ding, Xin-Mao Zhou and Yi-Fan Duan. 2022. Selaginella wuyishanensis (sect. Tetragonostachyae, Selaginellaceae), A New Species from East China and its Phylogenetic Position based on Molecular Data. PhytoKeys. 202: 107-119. DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.202.85410 | ||||||||
| 1:44p | [Botany • 2022] Tridimeris huatuscoana • Fog and Coffee: A New Species of Tridimeris (Annonaceae) endemic to the Mountain Cloud Forest of Mexico
Abstract Tridimeris is the only genus of Annonaceae endemic to Mexico. Despite this, the genus has been largely ignored and very little is known about it; specifically its diversity and distribution in Mexico are not well studied. Here a new species of Tridimeris, T. huatuscoana, is described and illustrated. The most general characteristics of the new species confirm that dimerous flowers (two sepals and four petals) and the large, and fleshy fruits are the most obvious synapomorphies for the Mexican genus Tridimeris. With respect to the other two species described so far (Tridimeris hahniana and T. chiapensis), the new species can be easily distinguished by the unique combination of 2-flowered inflorescences, large petals pubescent outside, food bodies present at the base of its inner petals, setose leaf domatia, and fruits shortly pedunculate and stipitate. The new species expands the richness of the genus to three species, all endemic to Mexico and restricted to montane cloud forests. Keywords: dimerous flowers, Huatusco, Miliuseae, morphology, Neotropical 
Tridimeris huatuscoana Marinero-Sobal & Ortiz-Rodr. sp. nov. Similar to Tridimeris chiapensis in its glabrous fruit surface and flowers with food bodies at the base of the inner petals, but differing from this species by its setose leaf domatia, longer and pubescent cream-white petals, greater number of flowers per inflorescence, fewer carpels per flower, and by its shorter pedicels.
Etymology:— The specific epithet is in honor of the municipality of Huatusco, in Veracruz, Mexico, one of the most important regions for coffee production, full of history and culture, and an obligatory path for many botanical explorers. Andrés Ernesto Ortiz Rodríguez and Esteban José Marinero-Sobal. 2022. Fog and Coffee: A New Species of Tridimeris (Annonaceae) endemic to the Mountain Cloud Forest of Mexico. Phytotaxa. 548(2); 146-152. DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.548.2.2  | ||||||||
| 2:34p | [Entomology • 2022] Molecular Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Genus Symbrenthia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) correlates with the past Geography of the Oriental Region
Highlights: • Symbrenthia is monophyletic and sister to Araschnia. • A new genus is described for Mynbrenthia hippalus. • The ancestral area reconstruction pointed out the origin in the Oriental region approximately 35 Mya. • The genus Symbrenthia colonised the area of Sahul from Sundaland by multiple west-east dispersal events. Abstract Jesters, butterflies of the genus Symbrenthia Hübner, 1819, comprise 14 species mainly distributed in the Oriental region. Although this genus has attracted the attention of many researchers in the past, its taxonomy and biogeographic history remain unclear. In this study, we investigate phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships based on one mitochondrial (COI) and two nuclear genes (ArgKin, wingless), using both likelihood and Bayesian approaches. With the exception of S. hippalus, which we find to be either sister to Mynes Boisduval, 1832 or sister to Symbrenthia+Mynes+Araschnia, all species of Symbrenthia form together a single monophyletic group. We describe a new genus Mynbrenthia Fric & Rindos gen. nov. to accommodate the taxon hippalus. The genus Symbrenthia splits into four sub-groups, “Brensymthia” (with S. niphanda and S. sinoides), “hypselis” (with S. hypselis, S. brabira, S. leoparda and S. doni), “intricata” (with S. intricata and S. hypatia) and “hippoclus” group (including S. platena and a complex of S. hippoclus and S. lilaea). The genus probably originated in the Eocene with Sundaland and continental Asia as the areas of ancestral distribution. The history of the genus Symbrenthia was more influenced by dispersal events and then by subsequent vicariances. Whereas the “hypselis” group colonised the Indo-Australian Archipelago from the Asian continent, the “hippoclus” group dispersed to continental Asia from the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Keywords: Arginine Kinase, Butterflies, COI, Insect, Jesters, Nymphalini, Systematics, Wingless, Zoogeography    Zdenek F. Fric, Barbora Martinkova, Michal Rindos, Alena Suchackova Bartonova, Niklas Wahlberg and Jana Papp Maresova. 2022. Molecular Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Genus Symbrenthia (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) correlates with the past Geography of the Oriental Region. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. In Press, 107605. DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107605 | ||||||||
| 3:09p | [Paleontology • 2022] Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi • First nearly complete Feather Star (Crinoidea) from the Upper Jurassic of Africa
Abstract Fossil comatulids, referred to as feather stars, are mostly known from highly disarticulated specimens. A single isolated element (centrodorsal) has been the basis for taxonomic description of a vast majority of fossil comatulids. Here, we report a nearly complete, and thus extremely rare, comatulid from the Upper Jurassic (Tithonian) of the Blue Nile Basin in central western Ethiopia that provides a unique insight into the morphology of comatulid arms and cirri. It is assigned to Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi gen. et sp. nov. and is the first Jurassic comatulid from the African continent. The new taxon shows some similarities with representatives of the Mesozoic Solanocrinitidae but also has close resemblance with the modern family Zygometridae, exclusively known from the Holocene of western Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans. This morphologic similarity is considered to be due to convergence. The first example of pinnule regeneration in a fossil feather star is reported, which reinforces the hypothesis about the importance of predation in the evolution of these crinoids. Keywords: Africa, comatulids, tithonian, predation, crinoids, Ethiopia
Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi gen. et sp. nov. Mariusz A. Salamon, Sreepat Jain, Tomasz Brachaniec, Piotr Duda, Bartosz J. Płachno and Przemysław Gorzelak. 2022. Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi gen. et sp. nov., A First nearly complete Feather Star (Crinoidea) from the Upper Jurassic of Africa. Royal Society Open Science. 9(7); DOI: 10.1098/rsos.220345 |
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