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Lycosa Latreille, 1804 (Araneae, Lycosidae) of Israel, with a note on Geolycosa Montgomery, 1904
(2022)
Lycosa (Araneae, Lycosidae) is a wolf spider genus typical of subtropical latitudes in the western Palearctic. Despite being erected over 200 years ago, the taxonomy of Lycosa is still unclear. Many species formerly ascribed to it are currently being moved to other genera, while new species are still being described. The species of Lycosa of the western Mediterranean basin are relatively well known, yet the Levantine region, the easternmost part of the Mediterranean basin, has not received much attention since the early 20th century. Here, we study Lycosa from the southern Levant using morphological, molecular and behavioral characteristics, to delimit the species found in this region. We describe two new species: L. hyraculus sp. nov. and L. gesserit sp. nov. We re-describe the widespread and polymorphic species, Lycosa piochardi Simon, 1876. Lycosa piochardi infraclara Strand, 1913 is synonymized with Lycosa piochardi. By adding novel data to the molecular phylogeny of Lycosa created by Planas et al. (2013) and re-analyzing it, we explore the relationship of the Levantine species to other Mediterranean species of Lycosa. We discuss habitat preferences of the two species of Lycosa. Additionally, we report the burrowing species Geolycosa vultuosa (C.L. Koch, 1838) as a new record to Israel, thus extending the distribution of this species and genus into the Levant.
This paper reviews little-known species of the dysderid spider genera Dysdera Latreille, 1804, and Dysderella Dunin, 1992 based on specimens collected in the Caucasus, Middle East, and Central Asia. After combining molecular phylogeny of five mitochondrial and three nuclear genes with morphological evidence, Dysderella is proposed as a junior synonym of Dysdera. In addition, three species are described as new to science: D. jaegeri Bellvert & Dimitrov sp. nov., D. naouelae Bellvert & Dimitrov sp. nov., and D. kourosh Bellvert, Zamani & Dimitrov sp. nov. Four combinations are proposed: Dysdera caspica Dunin, 1990 comb. rev., Dysdera transcaspica Dunin & Fet, 1985 comb. rev., Dysdera elburzica (Zamani, Marusik & Szűts, 2023) comb. nov. and Dysdera sancticedri (Brignoli, 1978) comb. nov. (ex. Dasumia Thorell, 1875). Furthermore, we report a first record of D. festai Caporiacco, 1929 in Turkey and its male cheliceral polymorphism. Our results illustrate the deficiencies that undermine the current taxonomy of this genus. For example, many species are described based on only one or few specimens or limited locality data. The advancements in DNA sequencing technologies applied to museum specimens reduce the need for fieldwork collection and export of fresh specimens. This highlights the significance of museum collections for improving research in this field.
A new species of snail-eating snakes of the genus Pareas Wagler, 1830 is described from the eastern Himalayas. The species Pareas kaduri sp. nov. differs from all known species of the genus in bearing the following suite of characters: SVL 455–550 mm, TaL/TL 0.184–0.207, brown dorsum with black transverse bands throughout the body, 15 dorsal scale rows throughout the body and mid-dorsal vertebral scale rows enlarged, 8 rows keeled in males, loreal not touching orbit, ventrals 160–183, subcaudals 65–70 in males, 52 in one female specimen, hemipenis short, unilobed and 6–7 maxillary teeth. Molecular data for mitochondrial 16S rRNA and cytochrome b genes further attest the distinctness of the new species, which was recovered as a member of the Pareas hamptoni clade. Our work brings the total number of species recognized within the genus Pareas to 20.
The molecular phylogeny of Miliusa (Annonaceae) is reconstructed, with 27 (of ca. 50) species included, using a combination of seven plastid markers (rbcL exon, trnL intron, trnL-F spacer, matK exon, ndhF exon, psbA-trnH spacer, and ycf1 exon) constituting ca. 7 kb. In addition, two new species of Miliusa are described from the Malesian area: M. butonensis sp. nov. from Buton Island, Indonesia and M. viridifl ora sp. nov. from Papua New Guinea. The former is included in the molecular phylogenetic analysis. The reconstructed phylogeny corresponds well to the informal morphological grouping proposed earlier. A revised key to 13 Austro-Malesian species of Miliusa is provided.
A new species of abyssal Neanthes Kinberg, 1865, N. goodayi sp. nov., is described from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the central Pacific Ocean, a region targeted for seabed mineral exploration for polymetallic nodules. It is a relatively large animal found living inside polymetallic nodules and in xenophyophores (giant Foraminifera) growing on nodules, highlighting the importance of the mineral resource itself as a distinct microhabitat. Neanthes goodayi sp. nov. can be distinguished from its congeners primarily by its distinctive, enlarged anterior pair of eyes in addition to characters of the head, pharynx and parapodia. Widespread, abundant, and easily recognisable, N. goodayi sp. nov. is also considered to be a suitable candidate as a potential indicator taxon for future monitoring of the impacts of seabed mining.
The taxonomy of Nearctic tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae) is reviewed in light of modern systematics research. Despite decades of published molecular phylogenies, the taxonomic nomenclature has not been formally updated since the 1950s. We generated a maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on three mitochondrial gene fragments (16S, COX3 and CytB) to address the placement of Nearctic taxa that were not included in recent studies; these species were historically contained within Cylindera Westwood, 1831, a polyphyletic genus. Here we describe Parvindela Duran and Gough, new genus, and propose 20 new combinations based on a plurality of data, including our topology, prior molecular phylogenetic studies, morphology and ecology: Apterodela unipunctata (Fabricius, 1775) new combination; Brasiella praecisa (Bates, 1890) new combination; Brasiella viridisticta (Bates, 1881) new combination; Cicindela amargosae (Dahl, 1939) new combination; Cicindela senilis (G. Horn, 1866) new combination; Cicindela willistoni (LeConte, 1879) new combination; Eunota californica (Menetries, 1883) new combination; Eunota circumpicta (LaFerte, 1841) new combination; Eunota fulgoris (Casey, 1913) new combination; Eunota gabbii (G. Horn, 1866) new combination; Eunota pamphila (LeConte, 1873) new combination; Eunota praetextata (LeConte, 1854) new combination; Eunota severa (LaFerte, 1841) new combination; Eunota striga (LeConte, 1875) new combination; Parvindela debilis (Bates, 1890) new combination; Parvindela celeripes (LeConte, 1848) new combination; Parvindela cursitans (LeConte, 1860) new combination; Parvindela terricola (Say, 1824) new combination; Parvindela nephelota (Bates, 1882) new combination; Parvindela lunalonga (Schaupp, 1884) new combination.
Phylogenetic inference, based on five molecular markers (COI, 28S, AATS, 12S, PGD), corroborates the synonymy of the flightless genera Pieltainia Arias, 1919 and Ariasella Gil, 1923 with Tachydromia Meigen, 1803. The secondary structure of the 28S rRNA gene is used for the first time in this family to align the multiple sequences. Molecular and morphological data are largely congruent for all known species of flightless Tachydromia. This paper treats ten western Mediterranean species (nine Iberian and one Italian) in detail, including the description of four new species: T. ebejeri Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov., T. stenoptera Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov., T. cantabrica Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. and T. nigrohirta Gonçalves, Grootaert & Andrade sp. nov. The male of Tachydromia pieltaini (Gil Collado, 1936) and the female of Tachydromia apterygon Plant & Deeming, 2006 are described for the first time, while a lectotype is assigned to Tachydromia pandellei (Séguy, 1941). A key to all non-macropterous Tachydromia is supplied. Knowledge on the geographic distribution of most species is considerably enhanced. The mating behaviour of Tachydromia semiaptera (Gil Collado, 1923) and Tachydromia iberica (Arias, 1919) is documented for the first time, and we propose a change in the definition of terms apterous and micropterous to properly accommodate the diversity of wing states in this cluster of species.
We report chromosome counts for ten taxa of Vincetoxicum sensu stricto (s. str.) (Apocynaceae) from Turkey (of which two are endemic), including the first chromosome counts for V. canescens subsp. pedunculata, V. funebre, V. fuscatum subsp. boissieri, V. parviflorum and V. tmoleum. Two taxa of V. fuscatum proved to be tetraploid (2n=44) and the remaining eight taxa diploid (2n=22). Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on nrDNA (ITS) and cpDNA (trnT-trnL) (including 31 newly generated sequences) confirm the position of the Turkish Vincetoxicum in the Vincetoxicum s. str. clade. Vincetoxicum fuscatum, V. parviflorum, V. speciosum, as well as the Turkish endemic V. fuscatum subsp. boissieri, were clearly resolved as species-level clades, whereas the delimitation of the rest of the Turkish taxa was less clear based on molecular data.
We provide the first distribution pattern of the Microhyla heymonsi group based on available molecular and morphological data collected from East and Southeast Asia. Our analyses show a high level of genetic diversity in the M. heymonsi group with nine distinct lineages from China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, as well as Singapore, and Indonesia. The study also reveals the discovery of two new species in Vietnam, Microhyla hmongorum sp. nov. from Lai Chau Province and Microhyla xodangorum sp. nov. from Kon Tum Province. When comparing the 12S–16S rRNA gene, the genetic divergence between Microhyla xodangorum and other congeners of the Microhyla heymonsi group ranges from 7.5-- to 8.9% (M. cf. heymonsi) and approximately 8.4% between the new species and M. heymonsi s. str. from Taiwan, China. The genetic divergence between Microhyla hmongorum and its congeners ranges from 4.5–5.6% (M. cf. heymonsi) to 8.7% (Microhyla xodangorum). These new findings bring the total number of known species in the genus Microhyla to 48 and the recorded species of Microhyla from Vietnam to 14.
The genus Pseudolatirus Bellardi, 1884, with the Miocene type species Fusus bilineatus Hörnes, 1853, has been used for 13 Miocene to Early Pleistocene fossil species and eight Recent species and has traditionally been placed in the fasciolariid subfamily Peristerniinae Tryon, 1880. Although the fossil species are apparently peristerniines, the Recent species were in their majority suspected to be most closely related to Granulifusus Kuroda & Habe, 1954 in the subfamily Fusininae Wrigley, 1927. Their close affinity was confirmed by the molecular phylogenetic analysis of Couto et al. (2016). In the molecular phylogenetic section we present a more detailed analysis of the relationships of 10 Recent Pseudolatirus-like species, erect two new fusinine genera, Okutanius gen. nov. (type species Fusolatirus kuroseanus Okutani, 1975) and Vermeijius gen. nov. (type species Pseudolatirus pallidus Kuroda & Habe, 1961). Five species are described as new for science, three of them are based on sequenced specimens (Granulifusus annae sp. nov., G. norfolkensis sp. nov., Okutanius ellenae gen. et sp. nov.) and two (G. tatianae sp. nov., G. guidoi sp. nov.) are attributed to Granulifusus on the basis of conchological similarities to sequenced species. New data on radular morphology is presented for examined species.