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Type specimens of Oedionychina Chapuis, 1875 described by Fabricius from the Kiel collection are examined and illustrated. Lectotypes are designated for the following species: Chrysomela albicollis Fabricius, 1787; Chrysomela nobilitata Fabricius, 1787; Chrysomela quadrifasciata Fabricius, 1787; Chrysomela quadriguttata Fabricius, 1781; Galleruca atomaria Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca decemguttata Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca fasciata Fabricius, 1798; Galleruca humeralis Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca lunata Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca nitida Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca obsoleta Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca petaurista Fabricius, 1801; Galleruca quadrinotata Fabricius, 1798; Galleruca sellata Fabricius, 1801. The species status is restored for Chrysomela quadriguttata Fabricius, 1781 and Alagoasa areata (Germar, 1824) comb. nov. The following new combinations are proposed: Phenrica quadriguttata (Fabricius, 1781), Asphaera nitida (Fabricius, 1801), Phenrica obsoleta (Fabricius, 1801), Alagoasa areata areata (Germar, 1824), Alagoasa areata decempunctata (Latreille, 1833), Alagoasa areata escuintla Bechyné, 1955, Alagoasa areata macromela Bechyné, 1958, Alagoasa areata praecessa Bechyné, 1959, Alagoasa areata recuperata Bechyné, 1959; all comb. nov. New placement: Galleruca avicenniae Fabricius, 1792 is removed from Alticini and placed in Galerucini incertae sedis; Galleruca trifasciata Fabricius, 1801 is removed from Chrysomelidae and placed in genus Ora Clark, 1865 (Scirtidae Fleming, 1821).
Ecological networks are more sensitive to plant than to animal extinction under climate change
(2016)
Impacts of climate change on individual species are increasingly well documented, but we lack understanding of how these effects propagate through ecological communities. Here we combine species distribution models with ecological network analyses to test potential impacts of climate change on >700 plant and animal species in pollination and seed-dispersal networks from central Europe. We discover that animal species that interact with a low diversity of plant species have narrow climatic niches and are most vulnerable to climate change. In contrast, biotic specialization of plants is not related to climatic niche breadth and vulnerability. A simulation model incorporating different scenarios of species coextinction and capacities for partner switches shows that projected plant extinctions under climate change are more likely to trigger animal coextinctions than vice versa. This result demonstrates that impacts of climate change on biodiversity can be amplified via extinction cascades from plants to animals in ecological networks.
Background: Taxonomy or biological systematics is the basic scientific discipline of biology, postulating hypotheses of identity and relationships, on which all other natural sciences dealing with organisms relies. However, the scientific contributions of taxonomists have been largely neglected when using species names in scientific publications by not citing the authority on which they are based.
Discussion: Consequences of this neglect is reduced recognition of the importance of taxonomy, which in turn results in diminished funding, lower interest from journals in publishing taxonomic research, and a reduced number of young scientists entering the field. This has lead to the so-called taxonomic impediment at a time when biodiversity studies are of critical importance.
Here we emphasize a practical and obvious solution to this dilemma. We propose that whenever a species name is used, the author(s) of the species hypothesis be included and the original literature source cited, including taxonomic revisions and identification literature - nothing more than what is done for every other hypothesis or assumption included in a scientific publication. In addition, we postulate that journals primarily publishing taxonomic studies should be indexed in ISISM.
Summary: The proposal outlined above would make visible the true contribution of taxonomists within the scientific community, and would provide a more accurate assessment for funding agencies impact and importance of taxonomy, and help in the recruitment of young scientists into the field, thus helping to alleviate the taxonomic impediment. In addition, it would also make much of the biological literature more robust by reducing or alleviating taxonomic uncertainty.
Keywords: Taxonomy crisis; taxonomic impediment; impact factor; original species description; citation index; systematics
Fourteen new species of the Colletes fasciatus species group are described, all of them endemic to the winter rainfall area in South Africa: C. ascopalis sp. nov. ♀, C. carolinae sp. nov. ♀♂, C. cedarbergensis sp. nov. ♀, C. fabiani sp. nov. ♀♂, C. fuscitergus sp. nov. ♂, C. khoisanorum sp. nov. ♀, C. kogelbergensis sp. nov. ♀♂, C. littoralis sp. nov. ♀, C. longitarsus sp. nov. ♂, C. peerboomi sp. nov. ♀, C. richtersveldensis sp. nov. ♀, C. ruschia sp. nov. ♀♂, C. spinipes sp. nov. ♂, C. troetroeensis sp. nov. ♀. Two species are synonymized based on newly recognized sex associations: C. katharinae Kuhlmann, 2007 syn. nov. is synonymized with C. infracognitus Cockerell, 1937 and C. bokkeveldi Kuhlmann, 2007 syn. nov. with C. zygophyllum Kuhlmann, 2007. The previously unknown female of C. inornatus Cockerell, 1946 is described for the first time and new records of already described species are added. All of the currently known 37 species of the C. fasciatus-group are imaged and included in a key to facilitate their identification.