On the identity and limits of Falsiformicidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera, Vespoidea s.l.)

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 582-596
Author(s):  
ALEXANDR P. RASNITSYN ◽  
QI ZHANG ◽  
PATRICK MÜLLER ◽  
HAI-CHUN ZHANG

Falsiformicidae are found to belong to Vespoidea s.l. and not to Chrysidoidea because of sexually dimorphic antennae (12-segmented in female and 13-segmented in male) and permanently internalized female tergum 7. Eight described species in three genera are known in the family including five new species (Siccibythus oculatus sp. nov., S. pallidus sp. nov., S. martynovae sp. nov., S. ohmkuhnlei sp. nov., S. paulus sp. nov.) as well as a number of undescribed ones, all from mid-Cretaceous ambers (mostly of Kachin in Myanmar but also of Charente in France and Agapa in North Siberia). Phylogenetic affinities of Falsiformicidae within Vespoidea are left to be clarified, and biology of this family is enigmatic yet.

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edson H. L. Pereira ◽  
Fábio Vieira ◽  
Roberto E. Reis

Pareiorhaphis nasuta, a new neoplecostomine catfish of the family Loricariidae is described. The species was collected from headwaters of the rio Matipó, tributary of the upper rio Doce basin in State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The new species is readily diagnosed from all remaining congeners by the longer snout and by the smaller orbital diameter. The new species is the first representative of the genus Pareiorhaphis discovered in the rio Doce basin, thus expanding its geographic distribution. A phylogenetic diagnosis for Pareiorhaphis is presented.


Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3335 (1) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAMIÀ JAUME ◽  
RONALD VONK

A new species of metacrangonyctid amphipod crustacean is described from the Salalah coastal plain aquifer in south-western Oman. This is the easternmost record of the group, with representatives previously thought to span from Hispaniola in the Caribbean to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Metacrangonyx dhofarensis sp. nov. is unique among metacrangonyctids in the display of a sexually dimorphic armature on pereiopod IV. In addition, its hypertrophied coxal plate IV, reduced plates I-III, coxal plate VII lacking anteroventral lobe, and telson longer than broad are also distinctive. The same holds for the proximal segment of peduncle of antennule, provided with two hypertrophied robust setae on dorsolateral margin. The mandibles of the new species are devoid of palp, a feature shared only with Metacrangonyx antennatus Messouli, El Alami, Coineau & Boutin, 2008. The presence of metacrangonyctids on the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula is probably the result of a vicariant event rather than of an episode of trans-Arabian continental dispersal by a Middle East ancestor. This is in accord with the presumed marine origin of the family and with the existence of a shallow water marine continuum between the current south-western Omani coast and the peri-Mediterranean area -where most species of metacrangonyctids are located - until approximately 16 Ma.


Zootaxa ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2427 (1) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
PROSANTA CHAKRABARTY ◽  
J.JEANETTE CHU ◽  
LUTHFUN NAHAR ◽  
JOHN S. SPARKS

A new species of Equulites is revealed using geometric morphometric techniques and is herein described. Based on features recovered in recent comparative analyses, members of Equulites have been diagnosed on the basis of internal and external male-specific traits related to their light-organ system (LOS; Sparks et al., 2005; Sparks, 2006; Sparks and Chakrabarty, 2007; Chakrabarty and Sparks, 2008). These sexually-dimorphic traits are hypothesized to allow males to signal to conspecific females in photic sexual displays using bacterially-generated luminescence (Woodland et al., 2002; Sasaki et al., 2003; Wada et al., 2005). The holotype and sole name-bearing type of Equulites leuciscus (BMNH 1858.4.21.243, 104.9 mm SL) is an adult female, and therefore lacks the diagnostic external feature of the LOS, a large, translucent flank patch, used to identify species in this genus. Geometric morphometric shape analysis of individuals ascribed to Equulites leuciscus, a traditionally widespread, "catch-all" taxon, reveals two discrete shape groups. Based on the results presented below, members of one of these groups correspond to a morphological variant that represents the new species (Equulites absconditus Chakrabarty & Sparks) described herein, whereas the other group corresponds to traditional E. leuciscus. In addition, the taxonomic status of Equula berbis Valenciennes, to which many female and poorly preserved specimens of the new species have erroneously been attributed, is reviewed and E. berbis is concluded to be a nomen dubium of uncertain placement beyond the family level.


ZooKeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 774 ◽  
pp. 105-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Moravec ◽  
Jiří Šmíd ◽  
Jan Štundl ◽  
Edgar Lehr

Cercosaurine lizards (subfamily Cercosaurinae of the family Gymnophthalmidae) represent a substantial component of the reptile fauna in the Neotropics. Several attempts have been made to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships within this group, but most studies focused on particular genera or regions and did not cover the subfamily as a whole. In this study, material from the montane forests of Peru was newly sequenced. In combination with all cercosaurine sequences available on GenBank, an updated phylogeny of Cercosaurinae is provided. Monophyly was not supported for three of the currently recognised genera (Echinosaura, Oreosaurus, and Proctoporus). The genus Proctoporus is formed by five monophyletic groups, which should be used in future taxonomic revisions as feasible entities. Recognition of two previously identified undescribed clades (Unnamed clades 2 and 3) was supported and yet another undescribed clade (termed here Unnamed clade 4), which deserves recognition as an independent genus, was identified herein. Selvasaurabrava, a new genus and new species of arboreal gymnophthalmid lizard is described from the montane forests of the Pui Pui Protected Forest, Provincia de Chanchamayo, Región Junín, Peru. The new species is characterised by its small size (SVL 42.1–45.9 mm), slender body, smooth head shields, presence of paired prefrontal shields, fused anteriormost supraocular and anteriormost superciliary shields, transparent not divided lower palpebral disc, slightly rugose subimbricate rectangular dorsal scales in adults (slightly keeled in juveniles), distinctly smaller but non-granular lateral scales, smooth squared to rectangular ventral scales, and hemipenial lobes large, distinct from the hemipenial body. Phylogenetic affinities of the new genus to the other cercosaurine genera, as well as basal phylogenetic relationships between the other cercosaurine genera remain unresolved.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4927 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-358
Author(s):  
JOSHUA SESE BICHANG’A ◽  
ESTHER N. KIOKO ◽  
HONGGUANG LIU ◽  
SHUQIANG LI ◽  
ZHONGE HOU

Two species of the family Talitridae Rafinesque, 1815 are described from English Point Beach, Mkomani, Mombasa, Kenya. One new species Floresorchestia mkomani Bichang’a & Hou, sp. nov. is reported and Gazia gazi Lowry & Springthorpe, 2019 is redescribed. The new species is characterized by the five dentate lacinia mobilis on the left mandible in male and only four in female, pereopod IV dactylus thickened proximally and having a small protrusion towards the mid of its posterior margin, a sexually dimorphic pereopod VII, and the presence of vertical slits just above the ventral margin of epimera II and III. Detailed morphological characteristics, as well as comparisons with closely related species are provided. To ascertain the species delimitation, molecular evidence is availed in this paper. Type material is deposited in National Museums of Kenya (NMK). 


PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e1572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Georg Marx ◽  
Mark E.J. Bosselaers ◽  
Stephen Louwye

The family Cetotheriidae has played a major role in recent discussions of baleen whale phylogenetics. Within this group, the enigmatic, monotypicMetopocetus durinasushas been interpreted as transitional between herpetocetines and other members of the family, but so far has been restricted to a single, fragmentary cranium of uncertain provenance and age. Here, we expand the genus and shed new light on its phylogenetic affinities and functional morphology by describingMetopocetus hunterisp. nov. from the Late Miocene of the Netherlands. Unlike the holotype ofM. durinasus, the material described here is confidently dated and preserves both the tympanic bulla and additional details of the basicranium.M. huntericlosely resemblesM. durinasus, differing primarily in its somewhat less distally expanded compound posterior process of the tympanoperiotic. Both species are characterised by the development of an unusually large fossa on the ventral surface of the paroccipital process, which extends anteriorly on to the compound posterior process and completely floors the facial sulcus. In life, this enlarged fossa may have housed the posterior sinus and/or the articulation of the stylohyal. Like other cetotheriids,Metopocetusalso bears a well-developed, posteriorly-pointing dorsal infraorbital foramen near the base of the ascending process of the maxilla, the precise function of which remains unclear.


Zootaxa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 1589 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
MOHAMMED MESSOULI ◽  
JOHN R. HOLSINGER ◽  
Y. RANGA REDDY

Kotumsaridae, a new family of amphipod crustaceans is described from Kotumsar Cave in the state of Chhattisgarh, India. The family is based on Kotumsaria bastarensis, new genus and species, which is the only known member of the new family recorded to date. Although the new family appears to share some morphological characters with several other taxa from the southern hemisphere considered members of the superfamily Crangonyctoidea, including the New Zealand endemic genus Paracrangonyx, both its taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities remain unclear. Specimens of the new taxon, measuring just over 2 mm in length, were collected from the sediments of a pool in Kotumsar Cave but are believed to have migrated from deeper interstices. Kotumsaria bastarensis is only the third subterranean amphipod recorded to date from the Indian subcontinent.


Author(s):  
Michele Kelly ◽  
Paco Cárdenas ◽  
Nicola Rush ◽  
Carina Sim-Smith ◽  
Diana Macpherson ◽  
...  

Due to the possession of huge contort strongyles, and a lack of triaenes in an otherwise ‘astrophorine’ spicule complement, the phylogenetic position of the endemic, monospecific New Zealand sponge genus, Lamellomorpha Bergquist, 1968, has remained enigmatic. The genus was established within Jaspidae de Laubenfels, 1968 (in the abandoned order Epipolasida Sollas, 1888), but it was not until 2002 that the genus was transferred formally to Astrophorina Sollas, 1887, albeit incertae sedis, by Hooper & Maldonado (2002). In this study, we recognise specimens of Lamellomorpha from the Subantarctic New Zealand region and Chatham Rise, considered by Bergquist to be conspecific with the type species, L. strongylata Bergquist, 1968, first described from the Three Kings-Spirits Bay region of Northland, as the new species, L. australis Kelly & Cárdenas sp. nov. These two species of Lamellomorpha have differences in external morphology and colour, skeletal architecture and spicules, natural products, geographical distribution, and depth ranges. Sequencing of the COI Folmer barcode/mini-barcode and of 28S (C1–C2 domains) of these two species suggests phylogenetic affinities of Lamellomorpha with the tetractinellid suborder Astrophorina and the family Vulcanellidae Cárdenas et al., 2011. Two Subantarctic New Zealand species of the vulcanellid genus Poecillastra Sollas, 1888, P. ducitriaena Kelly & Cárdenas sp. nov. and P. macquariensis Kelly & Cárdenas sp. nov., provide further support for the close relationship of Lamellomorpha and Poecillastra.


2018 ◽  
Vol 150 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Pivar ◽  
Luiz Carlos Pinho ◽  
William E. Klingeman ◽  
John K. Moulton ◽  
Bradley J. Sinclair

AbstractNeothaumalea atlanticanew genus, new species (Diptera: Thaumaleidae), is described from the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. This represents the first thaumaleid collected east of the Andes mountain range. The egg, larva, pupa, and both adults are described and illustrated, distribution map presented, and phylogenetic affinities discussed. A key to the genera of South America is also provided.


2017 ◽  
Vol 186 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-116
Author(s):  
František Šifner

Abstract A new Nearctic species of the genus Coniosternum Becker, 1894, C. masneri sp. nov., is described from Canada, and its important diagnostic characters are illustrated.


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