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Tuesday, May 28th, 2024
| Time | Event | ||||
| 2:01a | [Mollusca • 2024] Assamnaia gen. nov. & Pseudoscabies gen. nov. • Discovery of an Endemism Hotspot of Freshwater Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) in Assam, with A Description of Two New Genera
Abstract The Indian subcontinent houses a unique fauna of freshwater mussels. Tectonic and biogeographic reconstructions indicate that this fauna represents a derivative of Mesozoic Gondwanan biota and that it arrived in Asia on the Indian Plate, using this tectonic block as a ‘biotic ferry’. Though a preliminary integrative revision of the Indian Unionidae was published recently, the level of endemism and taxonomic richness of regional assemblages are unsatisfactorily known. Here, we revise the taxonomy of freshwater mussels from the Brahmaputra River basin based on a large DNA-sequence and morphological dataset that was sampled in Assam, north-eastern India. We managed to collect and sequence topotypes for nearly all nominal species described from the region, except for Lamellidens friersoni and Parreysia smaragdites. Our phylogenetic and morphology-based research reveals that the regional Unionidae assemblage contains nine species, belonging to a single subfamily, the Parreysiinae. Seven species and three genera (Balwantia, Pseudoscabies Bolotov, Sonowal, Kardong, Pasupuleti and Subba Rao gen. nov., and Assamnaia Bolotov, Sonowal, Kardong, Pasupuleti and Subba Rao gen. nov.) appear to be endemic to the region, indicating that the Brahmaputra River may represent an endemism hotspot of global significance. Our findings highlight that this region should be considered a high-priority area for freshwater conservation management. biogeography, Bivalvia, Brahmaputra River, conchological variability, conservation, India, phylogenetics, rare species, taxonomy, Unionidae  Ivan N. Bolotov, Jyotish Sonowal, Devid Kardong, Rajeev Pasupuleti, Nalluri V. Subba Rao, Suresh Kumar Unnikrishnan, Mikhail Y. Gofarov, Alexander V. Kondakov, Ekaterina S. Konopleva, Artem A. Lyubas and Ilya V. Vikhrev. 2024. Discovery of an Endemism Hotspot of Freshwater Mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae) in Assam, with A Description of Two New Genera. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. zlae052. DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae052 Researchgate.net/publication/380667703_freshwater_Unionidae_in_Assam | ||||
| 2:05a | [Mollusca • 2024] Symmetromphalus mithril, Symmetriapelta becki, & Symmetriapelta radiata • Integrative Taxonomy of New neomphaloidean Gastropods (Gastropoda: Neomphaloidea) from Deep-sea Hot Vents of the southwestern Pacific
Abstract Neomphaloidean gastropods are endemic to chemosynthesis-based ecosystems ranging from hot vents to organic falls, and their diversity and evolutionary history remain poorly understood. In the southwestern Pacific, deep-sea hydrothermal vents on back-arc basins and volcanic arcs are found in three geographically secluded regions: a western region around Manus Basin, an eastern region around North Fiji and Lau Basins, and the intermediate Woodlark Basin where active venting was confirmed only recently, on the 2019 R/V L’Atalante CHUBACARC expedition. Although various lineages of neomphaloidean snails have been detected, typically restricted to one of the three regions, some of these have remained without names. Here, we use integrative taxonomy to describe three of these species: the neomphalid Symmetromphalus mithril sp. nov. from Woodlark Basin and the peltospirids Symmetriapelta becki sp. nov. from the eastern region and Symmetriapelta radiata sp. nov. from Woodlark Basin. A combination of shell sculpture and radular characters allow the morphological separation of these new species from their described congeners. A molecular phylogeny reconstructed from 570 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene confirmed the placement of the three new species in their respective genera and the superfamily Neomphaloidea. The finding of these new gastropods, particularly the ones from the Woodlark Basin, provides insights and implications on the historical role of Woodlark as a dispersing centre, in addition to highlighting the uniqueness of the Woodlark faunal community. COI, deep-sea vents, Gastropoda, Indo-West Pacific, mitochondrial DNA, Mollusca, morphology, new species, phylogeny, taxonomy Symmetromphalus mithril sp. nov., Symmetriapelta becki sp. nov., Symmetriapelta radiata sp. nov. Chong Chen, Camille Poitrimol and Marjolaine Matabos. 2024. Integrative Taxonomy of New neomphaloidean Gastropods from Deep-sea Hot Vents of the southwestern Pacific. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. zlae064. DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae064 | ||||
| 3:58a | [Entomology • 2023] Roeseliana epirotica • Data on the Distribution of the Genus Roeseliana Zeuner, 1941 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Tettigoniinae) in the southwestern Balkans, with Description of A New Species
This article provides new biogeographical data on the genus Roeseliana Zeuner, 1941 in the southwestern Balkans, with the description of a new species, Roeseliana epirotica n. sp., discovered in four localities of the meso-Mediterranean zone of the Epirus region in Greece and Albania. From the supra-Mediterranean zone and upper, in Albania, Greece and also in the Republic of North Macedonia, we have only observed Roeseliana ambitiosa (Uvarov, 1924), with which R. epirotica n. sp. was probably confused in its most Mediterranean localities. These two taxa are nevertheless well differentiated, especially by the shape of the subgenital plate in the female and the shape in the titillators of the male. KEYWORDS: Epirus, Greece, Albania, description, new species  Michèle Lemonnier-Darcemont & Christian Darcemont. 2023. Data on the Distribution of the Genus Roeseliana Zeuner, 1941 (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Tettigoniinae) in the southwestern Balkans, with Description of R. epirotica n. sp. ZOOSYSTEMA. 45(14); 445-450.  | ||||
| 7:27a | [Herpetology • 2022] Microhyla dabieshanensis • A New Species of the Genus Microhyla (Anura: Microhylidae) from the Dabie Mountains, China
Abstract Species belonging to the genus Microhyla are small-sized frogs that are widely distributed in southern, eastern, and south-eastern Asia. In China, the genus harbors many cryptic species, on two of which—M. beilunensis and M. fanjinshanensis—studies were recently published. In this study, we collected specimens from the Dabie Mountain range, which is at the junction of Anhui, Henan and Hubei Provinces, East China; these specimens belonged to a species previously identified as M. mixtura. Based on phylogenetic analyses, species delimitation analyses, morphological comparisons and advertisement calls comparisons, we found they were significantly different from other known congeners, and thus we describe them as a new species. This study enriches the diversity of Microhylidae, and clarifies the species of the genus Microhyla in the Dabie Mountains. Keywords: Microhyla; taxonomy; phylogenetic analyses
Microhyla dabieshanensis sp. nov. Etymology: The specific Microhyla dabieshanensis sp. nov. refers to the distribution of the new species in the Dabie Mountains in China. We recommend the English name would be the "Dabie Mountains Pygmy frog" and Chinese name as "大别山姬蛙 (Dà Bié Shān Ji Wā)." Caiwen Zhang, Cheng Chen, Meihua Zhang, Zhiyue Wang, Haohao Ma, Ruolei Sun, Jianping Jiang and Baowei Zhang. 2022. A New Species of the Genus Microhyla (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from the Dabie Mountains, China. Animals. 12(21), 2894. DOI: 10.3390/ani12212894 Simple Summary: In China, new species of Microhylidae continue to be discovered at a rapid rate, often as a result of re-examining geographically widespread species populations using new molecular and bioacoustic tools. Here, we show that members of the genus Microhyla from the Dabie mountains in East China can be distinguished from morphologically similar species (M. beilunensis, M. fanjinshanensis and M. mixtura) with the analysis of phylogeny, species delimitation, bioacoustics and morphology. Based on the above multiple lines of evidence, we describe the population of the Dabie Mountains as a new species, Microhyla dabieshanensis sp. nov. This study enriches the diversity of Microhylidae, and clarifies the species of the genus Microhyla in the Dabie Mountains. Microhyla dabieshanensis sp. nov. is distributed in the Dabie Mountains above 500 m above sea level, and in some areas has sympatric distribution with M. fissipes and M. heymonsi. | ||||
| 7:40a | [Ichthyology • 2022] Sicyopterus garra Hora, 1925, A Valid Species of sicydiine goby (Gobiiformes: Oxudercidae: Sicydiinae) from the Andaman Islands, India
Abstract Sicyopterus garra Hora, 1925 from the insular streams of South Andaman Islands was synonymized with Sicyopterus microcephalus described from Java, South East Asia and has retained this taxonomic status since then. Recent collections of Sicyopterus from the type locality of S. garra and the examination of syntypes of this species revealed significant morphological and genetic differences from S. microcephalus and the other Sicyopterus species with papillae on upper lip. S. garra is thus a valid species and not a synonym of S. microcephalus. S. garra differs from S. microcephalus in having fewer lateral scales 53–59 vs. 57–68, fewer zigzag series (12–14 vs. 13–16), a longer caudal peduncle length (16–21 vs. 13–17), and by having a high percentage of divergence in COI gene (5.5%–5.8%). Keywords: COI gene, freshwater goby, insular, sicydiine, Sicyopterus microcephalus, South East Asia
Sicyopterus garra Hora, 1925 Jayasimhan Praveenraj, Rajendran Kiruba-Sankar, Kandasamy Saravanan, Tejas Thackeray, Pratima Singh, John Daniel Marcus Knight and Philippe Keith. 2022. Sicyopterus garra Hora, 1925, A Valid Species of sicydiine goby from the Andaman Islands, India. Journal of Fish Biology. 101(5); 1189-1198. DOI: 10.1111/jfb.15189  | ||||
| 1:54p | [Herpetology • 2024] Psammodynastidae fam. nov. • Phylogenomics of Psammodynastes and Buhoma (Serpentes: Elapoidea), with the Description of A New Asian Snake Family
Abstract Asian mock vipers of the genus Psammodynastes and African forest snakes of the genus Buhoma are two genera belonging to the snake superfamily Elapoidea. The phylogenetic placements of Psammodynastes and Buhoma within Elapoidea has been extremely unstable which has resulted in their uncertain and debated taxonomy. We used ultraconserved elements and traditional nuclear and mitochondrial markers to infer the phylogenetic relationships of these two genera with other elapoids. Psammodynastes, for which a reference genome has been sequenced, were found, with strong branch support, to be a relatively early diverging split within Elapoidea that is sister to a clade consisting of Elapidae, Micrelapidae and Lamprophiidae. Hence, we allocate Psammodynastes to its own family, Psammodynastidae new family. However, the phylogenetic position of Buhoma could not be resolved with a high degree of confidence. Attempts to identify the possible sources of conflict in the rapid radiation of elapoid snakes suggest that both hybridisation/introgression during the rapid diversification, including possible ghost introgression, as well as incomplete lineage sorting likely have had a confounding role. The usual practice of combining mitochondrial loci with nuclear genomic data appears to mislead phylogeny reconstructions in rapid radiation scenarios, especially in the absence of genome scale data.
Psammodynastidae new family Type genus: Psammodynastes Günther, 1858 Type species: Psammodynastes pulverulentus (Boie, 1827) Etymology: The generic name is a combination of ancient Greek word psammos (ψάμμος, meaning sand) and dynastes (δυνάστης, meaning ruler). We derive the family name by adding -idae to the stem of the generic suffix. Contents: Psammodynastes pulverulentus (Boie, 1827), P. pictus Günther, 1858 Distribution: South Asia (North-eastern India, Nepal), southern China, Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesian archipelago, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines) and Taiwan. Sunandan Das, Eli Greenbaum, Jonathan Brecko, Olivier S. G. Pauwels, Sara Ruane, Stacy Pirro and Juha Merilä. 2024. Phylogenomics of Psammodynastes and Buhoma (Elapoidea: Serpentes), with the Description of A New Asian Snake Family. Scientific Reports. 9489. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60215-2 phys.org/news/2024-05-viper-mimicking-sn |
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