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Following recent (2014–2017) collections made in the Solomon Islands by the MNHN and the NGO ESSI, we provide a checklist of the species of amphidromous freshwater shrimps of the genus Caridina H. Milne Edwards, 1837 from this region. Using morphological as well as molecular data in an integrative taxonomic perspective, we found a total of 24 species, including 11 new for science, that are described or re-described, illustrated and discussed in relation to their habitat and distribution. Newly described species are Caridina barakoma sp. nov., C. choiseul sp. nov., C. intermedia sp. nov., C. maeana sp. nov., C. nana sp. nov., C. piokerai sp. nov., C. pisuku sp. nov., C. paratypus sp. nov., C. poarae sp. nov., C. sikipozo sp. nov. and C. turipi sp. nov. Caridina gueryi Marquet, Keith & Kalfatak, 2009 is re-validated as a species distinct from C. buehleri Roux, 1934. Lectotypes are designated for C. mertoni Roux, 1911 and C. papuana Nobili, 1905. Diagnoses for 6 informative species groups are provided: C. brevicarpalis group, C. gracilirostris group, C. nilotica group, C. typus group, C. serratirostris group and C. weberi group. A map of the species distribution in the Solomon Islands, as well as the phylogenetic relationships between the species and their relatives, are provided.
Recently, the status of a new species of atyid shrimp from Pohnpei (Micronesia) was discussed in relation to C. brachydactyla De Man, 1908 and C. mertoni J. Roux, 1911. By combining morphological data with a phylogenetic analysis with closely related species, this species is here described as Caridina variabilirostris sp. nov. Notes on its ecological distribution are also provided. The new species is characterized by a highly variable rostrum and is present in rivers all over Pohnpei Island. The status of this new species is clarified and it is shown that neither C. brachydactyla De Man 1908 nor C. mertoni J. Roux, 1911 occur on Pohnpei Island.
Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.
Macrobrachium australe is an amphidromous prawn living in the insular freshwater systems of the Indo-Pacific. Because it possesses few informative morphological characters, that often vary from one habitat to another, M. australe has produced much taxonomic confusion and has historically been described under eight synonyms. Here, 53 specimens collected throughout the Indo-Pacific under the name M. australe were phylogenetically and morphologically examined. Results revealed that what has been called M. australe belongs to at least two distinct species: M. australe, distributed from the Southwest Indian Ocean to the Central Pacific Ocean, and a cryptic species potentially restricted to the Northwest Pacific Ocean, here identified as M. ustulatum, which until now was considered as a junior synonym. Although they are not quite found in the same habitat (lentic-lotic), the presence of these distinct, and reciprocally monophyletic entities in the same rivers on the islands of Palau and Santo strongly favors the hypothesis of two reproductively isolated entities. Six morphological characters, including the proportions of the joints of the male second pereiopod, the shape of the epistome lobe and the armature of the fourth thoracic sternite, are evidenced as diagnostic. A neotype of M. australe is designated and deposited in the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris.