Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Discoveries of the week


This paper represents the first of two contributions that cover the floristic diversity in north central New Mexico. The area encompasses the Tusas Mountains and the Jemez Mountains (including Sierra Nacimiento) of the Carson National Forest and Santa Fe National Forest. Also included is Bandelier National Monument, Valles Caldera National Preserve, Bureau of Land Management (Taos District), and other federal, state, and private lands west of the Rio Grande. The second paper will discuss the floristics of the portions of the two forests and periphery to the east of the Rio Grande, thus primarily the Sangre de Cristo Range. The goal of this two-part series is to enumerate results of the most intensive floristic inventory ever conducted in New Mexico. Here, we report on 19,929 numbered collections of vascular plants (the sum for the entire area covering more than 3.7 million acres is 35,857 new collections). A total of 1,384 unique taxa, including 93 infraspecics and 10 hybrids, are documented from 107 families. Of these, 154 are exotics (14 are designated as noxious in New Mexico), 22 are species of conservation concern, 28 represent first reports or their confirmation for New Mexico, and finally 17 are endemics to New Mexico. Based on verified material at four herbaria, 64 additional unique taxa are included in the Annotated Checklist; thus the grand total is 1,445.

No need to travel to a remote rainforest to discover a new species of plant. Researchers have uncovered a rare hedge-nettle just 50 miles from Charleston, and they named it Stachys caroliniana, after the only state where it has been found.
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Lithobius (Monotarsobius) zhangi sp. n. (Lithobiomorpha: Lithobiidae), recently discovered from Nanshan Park, Yantai City, Shandong Province, and Wuyishan County, Nanping City, Fujian Province, from China, is described. Morphologically it resembles L. (M.) songi Pei, Ma, Shi, Wu, Zhou, 2011 from Province Hebei, China, but can be readily distinguished from the latter by antennae composed of 15+15–19+19 articles versus 19+19–21+21 articles, terminal claw of female gonopods inner tooth broader than the outer vs dorsal and ventral tooth about same in size, ventral plectrotaxy 01320, dorsal plectrotaxy 10210 in the 14th legs, 01210 and 10200 respectively in L. (M.) songi. A key to the Lithobius (Monotarsobius) species of China and Korea is presented.

A new centiped species found in China and named in honor of the myriapodologist Professor Chongzhou Zhang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Plankton samples obtained from the lagoon system Laguna Navío Quebrado, in northern Colombia, yielded male and female specimens of an undescribed cyclopoid copepod of the genus Halicyclops. The new species belongs to the highly diverse and widely distributed thermophilus-complex. It closely resembles H. clarkei Herbst, 1982 from Louisiana and H. bowmani Rocha & Iliffe, 1993 from Bermuda. These species share the same armature of P1-P4EXP3, with a 3443 spine formula and the terminal antennary segment with 5 setae. However, H. gaviriai sp. n. can be separated from both H. clarkei and H. bowmani by the morphology of the anal pseudoperculum, the proportions of the fourth antennulary segment, the length of the inner basipodal spine of P1, the P1EXP/inner basipodal spine inner length ratio and the length/width ratio of the caudal rami. This is the third species of Halicyclops recorded from Colombia and the first one described from this country. With the addition of H. gaviriai sp. n., the number of species of Halicyclops known from the Neotropics increases to 19. The regional diversity of the genus is probably underestimated.

Found in plankton samples that were taken from the Laguna Navío Quebrado in Colombia. This new copepod was named after named after Dr. Santiago Gaviria to honor his work on Colombian copepods and for his leadership in the formation of new generations of plankton experts.
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Coleophora nepetellae Baldizzone & Nel, sp. n. is described from the southern Alps (Italy and France). It belongs to the Coleophora lixella species group. Its host plants are Nepeta nepetella L. (Lamiaceae) and an unidentified Poaceae. The fifth instar larva, its case, the adult habitus, and genitalia are illustrated. The species is compared to C. nevadella Baldizzone, 1985, here newly confirmed from France and whose larvae feed on Nepeta latifolia DC. in the Eastern Pyrénées. DNA barcodes are shown to be distinct and congruent with morphological differences among species of the lixella group. Barcodes revealed that C. tricolor Walsingham, 1889, formerly known only from Great Britain, is also present in France and Greece.

This new species not only has DNA Barcode sequences but the description also contains a BIN assignment. However, the species name of the BIN on BOLD is different (C. samarensis). The authors might want to update that. The species epithet is derived from the species name of its larval host, the lesser cat-mint (Nepeta nepetella).



We describe a new species of Allobates from the south of eastern Amazonia, Brazil. This species inhabits fluvial springs and the banks of small streams in terra-firme forests along the Tapajós River basin. Average snout-to-vent length is 17.78 mm (range 16.09–19.59 mm) among males and 19.50 mm (range 17.97–20.84 mm) among females. Surface of dorsum is marked by a distinct dark color pattern, with three convex areas, triangle and diamond-shaped. The species has a diffuse pale dorsolateral line (absent in some specimens), while the oblique lateral bar is defined. Dark-brown transversal stripes are present on femoral and tibial dorsal surfaces, which align with each other in live specimens when at rest. Tadpoles have short papillae on anterior (8–10 papillae on each side) and posterior labium (>30 papillae). Posterior labium is projected to the front, hiding posterior tooth rows. Eggs are deposited in nests on rolled or cranked dead leaves on the forest floor. Egg membranes and jelly-nests are transparent. Advertisement calls are mainly characterized by the continuous emission of single notes that might shift sporadically to note-pairs, emitted during short periods. Notes are split by regular silent intervals, with peak frequency ranging between 4273–4867 Hz. 

There was some sequencing done for this description of a new frog species but unfortunately 16S rRNA instead of a DNA Barcode. Not new in the world of amphibians but I thought that we clarified the issue. The species was named for Dr. William (Bill) E. Magnusson, a professor from Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia who has trained many students to understand and love the Amazon forest and its frogs. 
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We describe a new species of the Scinax catharinae Group from Municipality of Porto Seguro, State of Bahia northeastern Brazil. The new species is mainly characterized by its small size, nuptial pad dark colored, and compound pectoral fold. Additionally, we describe the structure of its nuptial pad and compare it with that of S. agilis. We also briefly discuss its phylogenetic relationships within Scinax.

And another new frog species described this week.  The species name melanodactylus is derived from the Latin words melano for black and dactylus for finger. The name is an allusion to the black nuptial pad, a so far exclusive feature among all known species of the genus Scinax.
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