Revision of Mesothymbris Evans, 1956, from the Late Triassic of Mount Crosby, Queensland (Hemiptera: Cicadomorpha: Hylicelloidea: Hylicellidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4629 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-396
Author(s):  
KEVIN J. LAMBKIN

New specimens and a re-examination of their holotypes have clarified the status of five species of the extinct cicadomorphan family Hylicellidae from the Late Triassic (Norian) Mount Crosby Formation of south-eastern Queensland. All were found to be conspecific, resulting in the following synonymies: Mesothymbris Evans, 1956 (= Triassoscytina Evans, 1956, syn. nov. = (in part) Triassoscytinopsis Evans, 1956, syn. nov.), Mesothymbris perkinsi Evans, 1956 (= Mesothymbris woodwardi Evans, 1956, syn. nov. = Triassoscytina incompleta Evans, 1956, syn. nov. = Triassoscytinopsis stenulata Evans, 1956, syn. nov. = Triassoscytinopsis aberrans Evans, 1956, syn. nov.). The Hylicellidae is still poorly defined as is its generic composition. Mesothymbris, however, is clearly distinct from the other Mount Crosby hylicellids, Hylicella Evans, 1956, and Triassocotis, Evans, 1956, in the quite distal primary fork of R, the angled RA at the point of separation of RA1 with RA2 directed towards the apex of the tegmen, the upright RA1, the shape of the intra-medial cell, and CuA just distal to the basal cell strongly curved and very closely approximating the claval suture. The new synonymies further clarify the composition of the cicadomorphan fauna of the Mount Crosby Formation, which as a result of this and other recent revisions, now comprises 16 nominal species in the Dysmorphoptilidae, Hylicellidae and Mesojabloniidae, as well as three species incertae sedis. In the presence of Dysmorphoptilidae and Hylicellidae, the Mount Crosby cicadomorphan fauna is similar to that of the younger Late Triassic Blackstone Formation at nearby Denmark Hill and Dinmore. It differs significantly, however, in the absence, after 90 years of collecting of 100s of specimens, of any representatives of the Dunstaniidae, Mesogereonidae, or Tettigarctidae, families so characteristic of the Denmark Hill/Dinmore fauna. Whether this difference is biogeographical, ecological, or simply as a result of differential preservation is unknown. 

Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4790 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-539
Author(s):  
KEVIN J. LAMBKIN

This extinct cicadomorphan family Hylicellidae was a significant element of the Late Triassic (Norian) hemipteran fauna of south-eastern Queensland, represented by the tegmina of five monotypic genera from the fossil insect localities at Mount Crosby, Denmark Hill and Dinmore. Of the five, Mesothymbris Evans, 1956, from Mount Crosby, has previously been re-examined. The present work revises the remaining four genera: Hylicella Evans, 1956, with Hylicella colorata Evans, 1956, Mount Crosby; Crosbella Evans, 1956 (= Mesocicadella Evans, 1956, syn. nov.), with Crosbella elongata Evans, 1956 (= Crosbella alata Evans, 1956, syn. nov. = Mesocicadella venosa Evans, 1956, syn. nov. = Mesocicadella punctata Evans, 1961, syn. nov.), Mount Crosby; Triassoscelis Evans, 1956, with Triassoscelis anomala Evans, 1956, Mount Crosby; and Mesocixiodes Tillyard, 1922, with Mesocixiodes termioneura Tillyard, 1922 (= Mesocixiodes brachyclada Tillyard, 1922, syn. nov.), Denmark Hill, Dinmore. The Hylicellidae remains poorly defined as is its generic composition, however, the four Queensland Triassic genera are quite distinct. Hylicella is distinguished by the partial fusion of CuA1 with M3+4, and the very large intra-medial cell, and Crosbella and Triassoscelis by the peculiar parallelogram-like CuA1 cell and the widened peripheral membrane at CuA. Triassoscelis differs from Crosbella in its broader, more squat wing shape, CuA fork in line rather than proximal to the M fork, and much less proliferated apical venation. Mesocixiodes is distinguished by the alignment of the crossvein field at the claval apex to form a fairly even series of long, sub-equal apical cells. On the basis of the proliferated and variable apical venation, the presence of weakly developed costal veinlets, and the fusion of M and CuA at a single point to close the basal cell, Crosbella and Triassoscelis, are ascribed to the subfamily Vietocyclinae. The relationships of the three other Queensland genera, Hylicella, Mesocixiodes, and Mesothymbris remain obscure, and they are retained in the undefined catch-all subfamily Hylicellinae. With the exception of the hindwing, Mesojassula marginata Evans, 1956, the revision of the cicadomorphan fauna of the Mount Crosby Formation is now complete, resulting in an inventory of five species of Dysmorphoptilidae, four of Hylicellidae and two of Archijassidae, with the dysmorphoptilid Dysmorphoptiloides elongata Evans, 1956, as the dominant species. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4706 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
FELISTA KASYOKA KILUNDA ◽  
WERNER CONRADIE ◽  
DOMNICK VICTOR WASONGA ◽  
JIE-QIONG JIN ◽  
MIN-SHENG PENG ◽  
...  

Historically Panaspis wahlbergi (Smith, 1849) has been the only assignable species present in Kenya. Recent studies have shown that it comprises multiple cryptic species and the nominal species is now restricted to southern Africa. Newly collected mitochondrial data (16S rRNA) helped to resolve the status of the Kenyan populations, which revealed the presence of two distant related species. Pairwise distances show average 5.87% differences between the two Kenyan species, and 3.58–5.27% and 8.62–9.15% to nominal P. wahlbergi and P. maculicollis Jacobsen & Broadley, 2000 respectively. Ablepharus massaiensis Angel, 1924 was described from the Maasai plains near Nairobi, but has long been considered a junior synonym of P. wahlbergi. We herein resurrect Panaspis massaiensis comb. nov. as a valid species and describe a new species, Panaspis tsavoensis sp. nov. from the Tsavo Conservation Area in south-eastern Kenya. Morphological examinations of specimens reveal minor differences from each other as well as nominal forms of P. wahlbergi and P. maculicollis. Panaspis massaiensis comb. nov. shares with the P. wahlbergi group a white ventrolateral stripe but can be distinguished by the presence of 26 midbody scale rows versus 24. Panaspis tsavoensis sp. nov. on the other hand, lacks the white ventrolateral stripe, most similar to the P. maculicollis group but differs in that P. maculicollis breeding males have a black patch on the neck with diagonal rows of white spots. Panaspis massaiensis comb. nov. is widespread in the Kenyan and northern Tanzanian highlands, isolated dryland montane forests and rocky hills, while P. tsavoensis sp. nov. occur in the expansive arid lowlands of Tsavo Conservation Area and should be present in similar arid lowlands in northern Kenya as well as in adjacent Tanzania. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4718 (3) ◽  
pp. 413-422
Author(s):  
KEVIN J. LAMBKIN

New specimens and a re-examination of their holotypes have clarified the status of six nominal species of the extinct membracoid family Archijassidae from the Late Triassic (Norian) fossil insect localities at Mount Crosby, Denmark Hill and Dinmore in south-eastern Queensland. The 57 available tegmina ostensibly attributable to one or other of the six species are remarkably similar in venation and only vary in size and to a lesser extent in shape. The latter character varies subtlety across a continuum and is of no use in species definition. The tegmina, however, fall into two distinct size groups, and in the absence of any other discernible or consistent diagnostic characters, these groups are adopted as separate species, acknowledging, of course, the artificial nature of fossil insect species based on the size only of isolated wings. The following taxonomic changes result: Mesojassus Tillyard, 1916 (= Triassojassus Tillyard, 1919, syn. nov., = Triassocotis Evans, 1956, syn. nov., = Hylicellites Becker-Migdisova, 1962, syn. nov.), Mesojassus ipsviciensis Tillyard, 1916 (= Triassojassus proavitus Tillyard, 1919, syn. nov., = Triassocotis stricta Evans, 1961, syn. nov.), Mesojassus australis (Evans, 1956) comb. nov. (= Triassocotis amplicata Evans, 1961, syn. nov., = Hylicellites reducta (Evans, 1956), syn. nov.). Mesojassus is one of the four genera of the subfamily Archija` ssinae, and differs from the Jurassic Archijassus Handlirsch, 1906, Mesoledra Evans, 1956, and Ardela Ansorge, 1996, in the separation of R and M well before the arculus (at the same level or slightly beyond in the others), the proximal position of dSc, well before the apex of the clavus (at or beyond the apex in the others), and the two-branched RA (simple in the others). The separation of R and M distinctly basal to the arculus, a character of frequent occurrence in extant membracoids, is proposed as a possible apomorphy for this otherwise most plesiomorphic genus of the Membracoidea. Mesojassus, the oldest member of the extant Membracoidea, is one of a growing inventory of genera from the Late Triassic of Queensland which are the oldest representatives of extant groups, adding further evidence of the Triassic as the dawn of much of the modern insect fauna. 


2009 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate M. Naughton ◽  
Timothy D. O'Hara

The biscuit star Tosia australis Gray, 1840 is a well known component of the shallow rocky reef fauna of south-eastern Australia. The putative T. australis species complex was subjected to reproductive, morphometric and molecular analyses. Molecular analyses of the data from three markers (mitochondrial COI and 16S rRNA and the nuclear non-coding region ITS2) confirmed the presence of a cryptic species, the morphology of which does not agree with any of the existing nominal species. Two separate reproductive modes were observed within the complex and documented via scanning electron microscopy. T. neossia, sp. nov., described herein from south-eastern Australia, is shown to release gametes from gonopores on the actinal surface. Embryos develop first into non-feeding, non-swimming brachiolaria, and then into tripod brachiolaria before metamorphosis. No surface cilia are present at any point throughout development of T. neossia. T. australis sensu stricto is shown to release gametes from the abactinal surface. Embryos develop into non-feeding, swimming brachiolaria before metamorphosis. Whereas T. australis var. astrologorum is confirmed as synonymous with T. australis, the status of the putative Western Australian taxon T. nobilis remains unresolved.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.G. Shah ◽  
D.N. Mehta ◽  
R.V. Gujar

Bryophytes are the second largest group of land plants and are also known as the amphibians of the plant kingdom. 67 species of bryophytes have been reported from select locations across the state of Gujrat. The status of family fissidentaceae which is a large moss family is being presented in this paper. Globally the family consists of 10 genera but only one genus, Fissidens Hedw. has been collected from Gujarat. Fissidens is characterized by a unique leaf structure and shows the presence of three distinct lamina, the dorsal, the ventral and the vaginant lamina. A total of 8 species of Fissidens have been reported from the state based on vegetative characters as no sporophyte stages were collected earlier. Species reported from the neighboring states also showed the absence of sporophytes. The identification of different species was difficult due to substantial overlap in vegetative characters. Hence a detailed study on the diversity of members of Fissidentaceae in Gujarat was carried out between November 2013 and February 2015. In present study 8 distinct species of Fissidens have been collected from different parts of the state. Three species Fissidens splachnobryoides Broth., Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens curvato-involutus Dixon. have been identified while the other five are still to be identified. Fissidens zollingerii Mont. and Fissidens xiphoides M. Fleisch., which have been reported as distinct species are actually synonyms according to TROPICOS database. The presence of sexual reproductive structures and sporophytes for several Fissidens species are also being reported for the first time from the state.


Author(s):  
Kyle Fruh

Discussions of closely associated notions of practical necessity, volitional necessity, and moral incapacity have profited from a focus on cases of agential crisis to further our understanding of how features of an agent’s character might bind her. This paper turns to agents in crises in order to connect this way of being bound to the phenomenon of moral heroism. The connection is fruitful in both directions. Importing practical necessity into examinations of moral heroism can explain the special sense of bindingness moral heroes frequently express while preserving the status of heroic acts as supererogatory. It also helps explain how heroes persevere and act as so few others do. On the other hand, the context of moral heroism allows a fuller development of some features of the concept of practical necessity, shedding more illuminating light on the roots of practical necessity in character through recent findings in the psychology of moral exemplars.


Author(s):  
Edna Ullmann-Margalit

Some of the most difficult decisions in law and ordinary life are simplified by the use of some kind of presumption. Accused criminals are presumed to be innocent, and most of the time, legislative acts are presumed to be constitutional. And when people do not know what to do, they often adopt a presumption of some kind—for example, sticking with the status quo, or perhaps in favor of making a specific change. In countless domains, presumptions help people to extricate themselves from difficult situations. They can serve as a way of breaking an initial symmetrical situation by using a supposition not fully justified, yet not quite rash either—favoring one action over the other.


Author(s):  
Jenny Andersson

Alvin Toffler’s writings encapsulated many of the tensions of futurism: the way that futurology and futures studies oscillated between forms of utopianism and technocracy with global ambitions, and between new forms of activism, on the one hand, and emerging forms of consultancy and paid advice on the other. Paradoxically, in their desire to create new images of the future capable of providing exits from the status quo of the Cold War world, futurists reinvented the technologies of prediction that they had initially rejected, and put them at the basis of a new activity of futures advice. Consultancy was central to the field of futures studies from its inception. For futurists, consultancy was a form of militancy—a potentially world altering expertise that could bypass politics and also escaped the boring halls of academia.


1999 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Maher ◽  
Barry J. Rodger

It is a well-known facet of litigation that the first step is often more important than any to follow. Virtually all legal systems bestow on litigants a variety of interim and provisional remedies. These remedies have a number of different functions and rationales but two in particular are thought to be fundamental.1 First, protective remedies provide a litigant with a degree of protection by ensuring that the status quo is preserved while the litigation is proceeding; second, these remedies secure the position of a litigant not only during the course of an action but also once it is over and he has judgment in his favour. This second function is usually achieved, in one way or another, by tying up and freezing the property of the other party to the action.2 However, protective remedies also serve other functions. Some remedies exist to promote the interest of a party in the advancement of his case (e.g. orders for disclosure of evidence), whereas others provide a litigant with part of the overall final remedy or judgment that he is seeking to gain from the action (e.g. interim payment or interim damages).


1943 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-34
Author(s):  
Kenneth Scott Latourette

A strange contrast exists in the status of the Christian Church in the past seventy years. On the one hand the Church has clearly lost some of the ground which once appeared to be safely within its possession. On the other hand it has become more widely spread geographically and, when all mankind is taken into consideration, more influential in shaping human affairs than ever before in its history. In a paper as brief as this must of necessity be, space can be had only for the sketching of the broad outlines of this paradox and for suggesting a reason for it. If details were to be given, a large volume would be required. Perhaps, however, we can hope to do enough to point out one of the most provocative and important set of movements in recent history.


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