Cytotaxonomic revision of the Simulium sanctipauli subcomplex (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Guinea and the adjacent countries including descriptions of two new species

1993 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.A Boakye ◽  
R.J Post ◽  
F.W Mosha ◽  
D.P Surtees ◽  
R.H.A Baker

AbstractThe Simulium sanctipauli Vajime & Dunbar subcomplex of the West African S. damnosum Theobald complex is cytotaxonomically revised for the western part of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme area. The subcomplex is defined and a chromosomal key provided for the identification of the sibling species and forms recognized. Two sibling species are newly described, S. leonense Boakye, Post & Mosha (Sierra Leone) and S. konkourense Boakye, Post, Mosha & Quilleévéré (Guinea and Sierra Leone). Detailed chromosomal data are provided as warranty for the conclusions about the specific or infraspecific status of the taxa recognized.

Since vector control began in 1975, waves of Simulium sirbanum and S. damnosum s.str ., the principal vectors of severe blinding onchocerciasis in the West African savannas, have reinvaded treated rivers inside the original boundaries of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa. Larviciding of potential source breeding sites has shown that these ‘savanna’ species are capable of travelling and carrying Onchocerca infection for at least 500 km northeastwards with the monsoon winds in the early rainy season. Vector control has, therefore, been extended progressively westwards. In 1984 the Programme embarked on a major western extension into Guinea, Sierra Leone, western Mali, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. The transmission resulting from the reinvasion of northern Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso has been reduced by over 95%, but eastern Mali has proved more difficult to protect because of sources in both Guinea and Sierra Leone. Rivers in Sierra Leone were treated for the first time in 1989 and biting and transmission rates in Sierra Leone and Guinea fell by over 90%. Because of treatment problems in some complex rapids and mountainous areas, flies still reinvaded Mali, though biting rates were approximately 70% lower than those recorded before anti-reinvasion treatments started. It was concluded that transmission in eastern Mali has now been reduced to the levels required to control onchocerciasis.


Author(s):  
Didier VandenSpiegel ◽  
Sergei I. Golovatch ◽  
Armand R. Nzoko Fiemapong

A new genus, Campodesmoides gen. nov., is described to only encompass C. corniger sp. nov., from Cameroon. This genus and species is distinguished from the few known species of the small western African family Campodesmidae, all currently in Campodesmus, by the much longer antennae and legs, the normal pore formula with ozopores borne on porosteles, and the suberect and distally twisted gonopod, coupled with peculiar horns on a few anterior postcollum segments. A new Campodesmus is also described, C. alobatus sp. nov., from Ivory Coast, which differs from congeners primarily in the lack of a dorsal/lateral lobe on the otherwise usual and strongly subcircular gonopod telopodite, albeit the latter is not directed mesad, but held subparallel to the main body axis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Cheek ◽  
W.R. Quentin Luke ◽  
George Gosline

A new genus, Lukea Gosline & Cheek (Annonaceae), is erected for two new species to science, Lukea quentinii Cheek & Gosline from Kaya Ribe, S.E. Kenya, and Lukea triciae Cheek & Gosline from the Udzungwa Mts, Tanzania. Lukea is characterised by a flattened circular bowl-shaped receptacle-calyx with a corolla of three petals that give the buds and flowers a unique appearance in African Annonaceae. Both species are extremely rare shrubs of small surviving areas of lowland evergreen forest under threat of habitat degradation and destruction and are provisionally assessed as Critically Endangered and Endangered respectively using the IUCN 2012 standard. Both species are illustrated and mapped. Material of the two species had formerly been considered to be possibly Uvariopsis Engl. & Diels, and the genus Lukea is placed in the Uvariopsis clade of the Monodoreae (consisting of the African genera Uvariodendron (Engl. & Diels) R.E.Fries, Uvariopsis, Mischogyne Exell, Dennettia Bak.f., and Monocyclanthus Keay). The clade is characterised by often conspicuous, finely reticulate quaternary nervation and incomplete or absent connective shields (in Annonaceae the connective shield is usually complete). Morphologically Lukea is distinct for its broad, turbinate, fleshy pedicel, a synapomorphy. It appears closest to the West African monotypic Monocyclanthus, sharing a trait unusual in the Annonaceae: the calyx in both genera forms a shallow bowl (calyx lobes are absent or vestigial), barely enclosing the base of the petals at anthesis, and persisting as a living, leathery disc at least until the fruit is mature. The placement of Lukea within the Uvariopsis clade is discussed.


Author(s):  
Daniel Bailey ◽  
Jane Shallcross ◽  
Christopher H. Logue ◽  
Simon A. Weller ◽  
Liz Evans ◽  
...  

Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2410 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
DENIZ SIRIN ◽  
OTTO VON HELVERSEN ◽  
BATTAL CIPLAK

The Chorthippus biguttulus group distributed in the west Palaearctic, while intensively examined in Europe, is poorly known in the glacial refugia such as Anatolia. This produces constraints in making accurate statements about evolution and the biogeography of the group. The C. brunneus subgroup of this lineage is examined using large amounts of morphological and song data from Anatolia (Asian Turkey) and representatives from Europe. Song and morphology in combination suggested three species to be found in Anatolia. The first is C. bornhalmi Harz which is also known from south-east Europe. The other two are new species: Chorthippus antecessor sp. n. and Chorthippus relicticus sp. n.. Morphologically, C. antecessor sp. n. is the most aberrant species of the C. brunneus subgroup, but is similar to C. bornhalmi in song. The specific song and morphology (the aberrant number of stridulatory pegs) define C. relicticus as a new species and both also indicate that it is closely related to C. brunneus and C. jacobsi. A song and morphology based phyloylogenetic assumption for C. brunneus subgroup suggests C. antecessor, C. bornhalmi and C. miramae to constitute one clade and C. brunneus, C. jacobsi and C. relicticus another. The scenario suggested for their evolution assume the following steps: (i) divergence of C. bornhalmi from a C. antecessor like ancestor, (ii) derivation of an ancestral population (which later give rise to C. brunneus + C. jacobsi + C. relicticus) from a C. bornhalmi like ancestor, and (iii) later fragmentation of this ancestral population to result in the present three species (C. brunneus + C. jacobsi + C. relicticus). All of these events seem to be correlated with the climatic cycles during Pleistocene. The conclusion is that the two new species are range-restricted, vulnerable species as is the case for many other taxa present in the Mediterranean Taurus biodiversity hotspot.


The Festivus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-172
Author(s):  
Edward Petuch ◽  
David Berschauer

Six sympatric species of the cone shell genus Lautoconus Monterosato, 1923 have been discovered on an isolated rock reef near the Gambia River Mouth, Gambia, West Africa. Of these, four were found to be new to science and, together, they represent a previously unknown Gambian endemic species radiation. These include: Lautoconus fernandi new species, L. gambiensis new species, L. rikae new species, and L. wolof new species. The poorly-known Gambian endemic cone, Lautoconus orri (Ninomiya and da Motta, 1982) was also found to be a component of the rock reef fauna, as was the wide-ranging L. guinaicus (Hwass, 1792) (Senegal to Ghana). The Gambian cluster of sibling species represents the farthest-south separate radiation of Lautoconus known from the West African coast.


Regular aerial treatment of 14000 km of watercourses has achieved and maintained, over an area of 700000 km 2 of West African savannah, a very high degree of control of the larvae of Simulium damnosum sensu stricto and S. sibanum , the vectors of onchocerciasis in this area. However, particular and relatively restricted parts of this area, mainly in northern Ivory Coast and neighbouring parts of Upper Volta, experience regular and prolonged reinvasions by parous female vectors, which have already taken bloodmeals (and many of them carrying the parasites) and arrive from unknown sources probably hundreds of kilometres away, from directions probably between southwest and north. This reinvasion, now experienced in three successive years, represents the outstanding scientific, epidemiological and logistic problem still facing the WHO Onchocerciasis Control Programme. An outline is presented of the multidisciplinary investigations being undertaken to find a solution.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document