Redescription of Micaria beaufortia (Araneae, Gnaphosidae), with notes on Afrotropical Micaria

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4294 (4) ◽  
pp. 462 ◽  
Author(s):  
YURI M. MARUSIK ◽  
MIKHAIL M. OMELKO
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Taxonomic Position ◽  
Mating Plug ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Afrotropical Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Paired Mating ◽  
Northern Cape ◽  
Unknown Male

Three species of Micaria Westring, 1851 are known to occur in the Afrotropical Region, two from Namibia and one from South Africa. All three species are known from a single sex only, either from the male (M. tersissima Simon, 1910) or from the females in the case of M. beaufortia (Tucker, 1923) and M. chrysis (Simon, 1910). In this paper, we redescribe the female of M. beaufortia and describe the previously unknown male of this species. This species has pseudosegmented tarsi and complex scopula formed by two paired rows of setae; these characters are unknown in other Micaria. The setae covering the legs in M. beaufortia are briefly described and the scopula is compared with that of M. fulgens (Walckenaer, 1802). A paired mating plug, previously unknown in Micaria, is documented in M. beaufortia. It was found that M. chrysis and M. tersissima, considered in the World Spider Catalog (2017) as endemics of Namibia, were actually described from Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The taxonomic position of these two species is briefly commented on and distribution records of all three species are mapped. 

Revision and molecular phylogeny of the spider genus Micaria Westring, 1851 (Araneae: Gnaphosidae) in the Afrotropical Region

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4940 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-82
Author(s):  
RUAN BOOYSEN ◽  
CHARLES R. HADDAD
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Bayesian Inference ◽  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Cote D'ivoire ◽  
Côte D’Ivoire ◽  
Fresh Material ◽  
Afrotropical Region ◽  
Coi Barcoding ◽  
The World ◽  
Northern Cape

The genus Micaria Westring, 1851 (Araneae, Gnaphosidae) is a group of small (1.85–5 mm) ant-like spiders that can be distinguished from other gnaphosids by their piriform gland spigots that are similar in size to the major ampullate gland spigots. According to the World Spider Catalog, there are 105 species of Micaria in the world, of which only three species are known from the African part of the Afrotropical Region, namely M. chrysis (Simon, 1910), M. tersissima Simon, 1910 and M. beaufortia (Tucker, 1923). The objectives of this study were to revise Micaria in the Afrotropical Region, providing new and updated records for each of the species, evaluating the relationships between them using COI barcoding data, and providing information on their biology, mimetic relationships and feeding ecology. These objectives were met by collecting fresh material from the KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Free State provinces in South Africa. Fresh material of M. tersissima and M. chrysis were collected from their type localities, Komaggas and Port Nolloth (Northern Cape Province), respectively, for identification and DNA analyses. COI sequences generated, together with those sourced from Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) and GenBank, were aligned using the CulstalW alignment algorithm in the Mega X software, and molecular phylogenetic analyses were performed using MrBayes for Bayesian Inference (BI) and RaxML for maximum likelihood (ML) analyses. Morphological examination of the collected and voucher material yielded 17 new species for the Afrotropical Region, namely M. basaliducta sp. nov. (♀, ♂, South Africa), M. bimaculata sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Mauritania), M. bispicula sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Namibia, South Africa), M. durbana sp. nov. (♀, ♂, South Africa, Zambia), M. felix sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe), M. gagnoa sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Mozambique, Tanzania), M. koingnaas sp. nov. (♂, South Africa), M. lata sp. nov. (♂, Namibia, South Africa), M. laxa sp. nov. (♀, South Africa), M. mediospina sp. nov. (♂, South Africa), M. parvotibialis sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Senegal), M. plana sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Ethiopia), M. quadrata sp. nov. (♀, Ethiopia), M. quinquemaculosa sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Namibia, South Africa), M. rivonosy sp. nov. (♀, ♂, Madagascar), M. sanipass sp. nov. (♂, South Africa) and M. scutellata sp. nov. (♂, South Africa). Furthermore, both sexes of M. beaufortia, as well as the male of M. tersissima, are redescribed. Both sexes of M. chrysis are described for the first time, as this species was only known from a juvenile. Of the previously known species, M. beaufortia (Botswana, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe) and M. chrysis (Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania) are widespread in the Afroptropics, while M. tersissima is only known from South Africa. Both the Bayesian inference and the maximum likelihood analysess recovered Micaria (sensu lato) as monophyletic with the inclusion of the subopaca group. The pulicaria species group was recovered as polyphyletic in both the BI and ML analyses. Four Afrotropical species, as well as the M. rossica Thorell, 1875/M. foxi Gertsch, 1933 group, formed a clade sister to M. formicaria (Sundevall, 1831). Eight of the Afrotropical species now have COI barcoding data uploaded to BOLD. 

scholarly journals First ground-based observations of sprites over southern Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 114 (9/10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislaus Nnadih ◽  
Mike Kosch ◽  
Peter Martinez ◽  
Jozsef Bor
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Dielectric Breakdown ◽  
Electrical Discharges ◽  
Lightning Strikes ◽  
The World ◽  
Lightning Discharges ◽  
Northern Cape ◽  
Cloud To Ground Lightning ◽  
Peak Value

Sprites are the optical signatures of electrical discharges in the mesosphere triggered by large lightning strikes associated with thunderstorms. Since their discovery in the late 1980s, sprites have been observed extensively around the world, although very few observations of sprites from Africa have been documented in the literature. In this paper, we report the first ground-based recorded observations of sprites from South Africa. In 2 out of the 22 nights of observations (11 January and 2 February 2016), about 100 sprite elements were recorded from Sutherland in the Northern Cape, comprising different morphologies (carrot (55%), carrot/column (11%), unclassified (21%), column (13%)). The sprites were triggered by positive cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, which had an average peak value of ~74 kA and were observed at distances from ~400 km to 800 km. The estimated charge moment change of the lightning discharges associated with these events was in agreement with the threshold for dielectric breakdown of the mesosphere and correlates well with the observed sprite brightness.

scholarly journals REVISION OF THE WORLD SPECIES OF ARADOPHAGINI (HYMENOPTERA: SCELIONIDAE)

1979 ◽  
Vol 111 (10) ◽  
pp. 1089-1100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lubomir Masner ◽  
Lars Huggert
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Type Species ◽  
South India ◽  
Taxonomic Position ◽  
World Species ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World

AbstractSeven species of Aradophagini are classified in three genera. Aradophagus Ashmead includes A. fasciatus (USA, Canada, Europe) A. pulchricornis n. sp. (Mexico, USA), and A. microps n. sp. (South India). Ladora n. gen. includes L. brunnea n. sp. (type-species: Morocco, Mallorca, Gambia), L. maura n. sp. (South Africa), and L. trjapitzini n. sp. (Central Asia). Abuko n. gen. with A. sarotes n. sp. (type-species: Gambia). The tribe Aradophagini is redefined and its taxonomic position in the family Scelionidae is discussed. Keys to genera and species of Aradophagini are given.

The first record of Astichus Förster (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Entiinae), parasitoids of Ciidae (Coleoptera) in bracket fungi, from the Afrotropical Region and the description of four new species from South Africa

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3183 (1) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
OTTILIE C. NESER
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Species ◽  
South African ◽  
First Record ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Afrotropical Region ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
First Time

The genus Astichus Förster (Eulophidae: Entiinae) is recorded for the first time from sub-Saharan Africa and four newspecies are described from South Africa: A. micans n. sp., A. silvani n. sp., A. gracilis n. sp. and A. naiadis n. sp. .Astichusspecies are known as parasitoids of Ciidae (Coleoptera) tunnelling and living in bracket fungi. The South African speciesemerged together with Ciidae from a variety of bracket fungi from many localities in the region. They are easily separatedfrom known Astichus species from other regions in the world by their distinctive colour and patterning. A key to the SouthAfrican Astichus species, distribution maps, and notes on biology are included, as well as identifications of Ciidae and bracket fungus specimens encountered in the study.

scholarly journals A check list of the pseudoscorpions of South Africa (Arachnida: Pseudoscorpiones)

Koedoe ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Dippenaar-Schoeman ◽  
M.S. Harvey
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Distribution Pattern ◽  
South African ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Check List ◽  
The South ◽  
Afrotropical Region ◽  
The World ◽  
World Fauna

A check list of the Pseudoscorpiones of the class Arachnida of South Africa is presented. A total of 135 species and 10 subspecies of pseudoscorpions are known from South Africa, represented by seven superfamilies, 15 families and 65 genera. This represents about 4.4 of the world fauna. Of the 135 species, 97 species (73 ) are known only from South Africa, 33 species have a wider distribution pattern throughout the Afrotropical Region and three are cosmopolitan. This study forms part of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA).

THE PROPHET'S ‘WAR AGAINST WHITES’: SHEPHERD STUURMAN IN NAMIBIA AND SOUTH AFRICA, 1904–7

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
TILMAN DEDERING
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
White Men ◽  
White People ◽  
Narrow Escape ◽  
Hands On ◽  
The World ◽  
Northern Cape

‘GOD HAS TAKEN POWER FROM WHITE MEN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD’EARLY on the morning of 5 September 1906, at a small asbestos mine in the northern Cape, six African workers entered the tent of their white foreman and his family. They assaulted the sleepers with stones, knobkerries, the leg of a chair and an ox-yoke. The foreman, Dirk Mans, died of his injuries eighteen hours later, while his son, Jan, who had been sleeping in another tent, ran away. Dirk Mans's wife also had a narrow escape. She woke up when a blow narrowly missed the head of her three-year-old child, who was sleeping in her bed. Both could flee in the general mêlée. Another victim, the well digger, William Swanepoel, was bludgeoned to death so ferociously that his skull ‘was entirely knocked out of shape [and] separated in halves’. The perpetrators tried to kill more whites, but dispersed in the ensuing confusion. The six men were tracked down by the police after several days. The Griqualand West Supreme Court in Kimberley sentenced four of the culprits to death; they were hanged in March 1907.The ringleader of the Hopefield gang, Hendrik Bekeer, told the policeman who had followed his tracks for several days, that ‘he was glad to be caught, although he knew that his life would be at an end’. He could hardly wait to tell the prison warder that the group had planned to kill all whites in South Africa. In court, the eloquent Bekeer explained:I admit that I am guilty. I, Hendrik Bikier [sic], laid hands on these two souls. I have a craving in my heart which must be made known to everyone. I admit that I am a worker of God. I confess to the Court and all the white people that I am placed here by the Lord, and that I do his will. … The time when the whites had the upper hand is past. This is for Africa alone, but God has taken power from white men throughout the world.

Sphaerellothecium parietinarium. [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria].

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. F. Cannon
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Taxonomic Position ◽  
Northern Cape

Abstract A description is provided for Sphaerellothecium parietinarium, a biotrophic parasite or parasymbiont of lichens of the genera Caloplaca and Xanthoria. Information is included on morphology, associated organisms and substrata, geographical distribution (Africa (Canary Islands, Morocco, South Africa, Northern Cape), Antarctica (South Shetland), Asia (Tajikistan, Turkey), Australasia (New Zealand), Europe (Denmark, France, Greenland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, UK, England, Scotland, Wales)), dispersal/transmission, conservation status and taxonomic position.

scholarly journals Description of the female of Syrittosyrphus opacea Hull, 1944 (Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalinae) with additional notes on the genus

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 339-353
Author(s):  
Axel Ssymank ◽  
Kurt Jordaens
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Eastern Cape Province ◽  
Monotypic Genus ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Single Sex ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Afrotropical Region ◽  
Species Ecology

The taxonomy of Syrphidae is far from being complete in the Afrotropical Region and many species have been described from a single sex only. One of these is the enigmatic monotypic genus Syrittosyrphus Hull, 1944, of which, so far, only the male of Syrittosyrphus opacea Hull, 1944 was described from the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Here, we re-describe the male and describe the female. We summarise all known distribution records from South Africa (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo Provinces) and Zimbabwe (Vumba), of which several are new. We also provide notes on the species’ ecology.

Invasive Shot Hole Borers Euwallacea fornicatus, E. kuroshio, and E. perbrevis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)

EDIS ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Demian F. Gomez ◽  
Jiri Hulcr ◽  
Daniel Carrillo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Invasive Species ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Economic Impacts ◽  
Forest Resources ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Ambrosia Beetles ◽  
Invasive Insects ◽  
The World ◽  
And Control

Invasive species, those that are nonnative and cause economic damage, are one of the main threats to ecosystems around the world. Ambrosia beetles are some of the most common invasive insects. Currently, severe economic impacts have been increasingly reported for all the invasive shot hole borers in South Africa, California, Israel, and throughout Asia. This 7-page fact sheet written by Demian F. Gomez, Jiri Hulcr, and Daniel Carrillo and published by the School of Forest Resources and Conservation describes shot hole borers and their biology and hosts and lists some strategies for prevention and control of these pests. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fr422

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