scholarly journals A new giant velvet worm from Costa Rica suggests absence of the genus Peripatus (Onychophora: Peripatidae) in Central America

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Pablo Barquero González ◽  
Steven Sánchez-Vargas ◽  
Bernal Morera-Brenes

Introduction: Neotropical onychophoran taxonomy and diversity has been poorly investigated. Recent studies have discovered problems in species classification: they have questioned the accepted genera and the actual number of species. This is true in Costa Rica, where several unidentified species have been reported. Objective: The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the occurrence of the accepted genera in this country, and to describe a new genus and species from Central America. Methods: In 2017, we collected one onychophoran in the Keköldi Indigenous Reserve in Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica. The specimen gave birth to several offspring. Therefore, seven organisms were analyzed. Light microscopy was used to observe the gross morphology in all samples. The detailed morphology was studied in the biggest specimen with scanning electron microscopy; after that, we performed a phylogenetic analysis with the corresponding sequence of COI. Results: According to our results, a new genus and species of giant onychophoran was found. The genus was identified by its giant size, apical piece of seven scale ranks, large conical primary papillae, dorso-median furrow flanked by two-three accessory papillae, the absence of hyaline organs and a marked sexual dimorphism with respect to the number of legs. The new species presents a particular head pattern, as well as novel structures like cephalic papillae, accessory papillae with rudimentary apical pieces, and a lack of antennal chemoreceptors. Phylogenetic analysis rendered our genus as monophyletic and includes Peripatus solorzanoi, which is grouped within the Central American clade. As our species is clustered inside the Costa Rica-Panamanian group, it is not related to the Caribbean Island nor Guyanan Shield samples, home of Epiperipatus and Peripatus respectively. Therefore, we suggest that those genera do not occur in Central America, and a new genus exists: Mongeperipatus, gen. nov. Conclusion: We concluded that Costa Rica is home to a diversity of undescribed onychophorans that requires specific studies to help clarify the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships of the group to justify their protection.

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3478 (1) ◽  
pp. 553-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
SERGIO IBÁÑEZ-BERNAL ◽  
VICENTE HERNÁNDEZ-ORTIZ

New taxa of the family Ropalomeridae from Costa Rica are described, and additional records of ropalomerid flies fromMexico and Central America are provided. The new genus and species Acrocephalomyia zumbadoi can be easily distin-guished from all other ropalomerid genera by the following combination of characters: angular forward projection of head,absence of ocelli, flat face, bare arista, long scutum, and scutellum triangular-shaped and dorsally flattened with only onepair of apical bristles with bases approximated. The new species Ropalomera aterrima can be recognized from congenersby remarkable differences of the head, the shape of the scutellum, the absence of scutal vittae, fumose wings, and by theblack coloration of the body, ocellar bristles large, one postpronotal bristle, scutum without pollinose vittae and flat scutellum. Lenkokroeberia chryserea Prado and Kroeberia fuliginosa Lindner are newly confirmed for Costa Rica.


Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1187 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID E. BAUMGARDNER ◽  
SOCORRO ÁVILA A.

Cabecar serratus, gen. n., sp. n., is described based upon larvae and reared adults from the costal regions of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panamá. The imago stage of Tricorythodes sordidus Allen is also described for the first time from reared larvae from Nicaragua and Costa Rica.


Zootaxa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 1562 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIVIANA CAUDURO MATESCO ◽  
JOCÉLIA GRAZIA ◽  
LUIZ ALEXANDRE CAMPOS

Parastalius gen. nov. is described for Stalius trisinuatus Rolston; the external genitalia of the latter are redescribed; and a new species is described from Costa Rica, Parastalius rolstoni sp. nov.


Zootaxa ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 932 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
HARRY M. SAVAGE ◽  
R. WILLS FLOWERS ◽  
WENDY PORRAS V.

A new genus, Tikuna, is described based on recent collections of adults and nymphs of Choroterpes atramentum Traver from western Costa Rica. All recent collections are from streams on or near the Nicoya Complex, the oldest geological formation in Lower Central America. Tikuna belongs to a lineage of South American Atalophlebiinae (Leptophlebiidae: Ephemeroptera) whose origin is hypothesized to have been in the late Cretaceous–early Tertiary. Some implications of the distribution of Tikuna for theories on the origin of Costa Rica’s biota are discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Jiménez-Sánchez ◽  
Robert L. Anstey ◽  
Beatriz Azanza

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Boessenecker ◽  
R. Ewan Fordyce

The early evolution of toothless baleen whales (Chaeomysticeti) remains elusive despite a robust record of Eocene-Oligocene archaeocetes and toothed mysticetes. Eomysticetids, a group of archaic longirostrine and putatively toothless baleen whales fill in a crucial morphological gap between well-known toothed mysticetes and more crownward Neogene Mysticeti. A historically important but perplexing cetacean is “Mauicetus” lophocephalus (upper Oligocene South Island, New Zealand). The discovery of new skulls and skeletons of eomysticetids from the Oligocene Kokoamu Greensand and Otekaike Limestone permit a redescription and modern reinterpretation of “Mauicetus” lophocephalus, and indicating that this species may have retained adult teeth. A new genus and species, Tokarahia kauaeroa, is erected on the basis of a well-preserved subadult to adult skull with mandibles, tympanoperiotics, and cervical and thoracic vertebrae, ribs, sternum, and forelimbs from the Otekaike Limestone (>25.2 Ma). “Mauicetus” lophocephalus is relatively similar and recombined as Tokarahia lophocephalus. Phylogenetic analysis supports inclusion of Tokarahia within the Eomysticetidae alongside Eomysticetus, Micromysticetus, Yamatocetus, and Tohoraata, and strongly supports monophyly of Eomysticetidae. Tokarahia lacked extreme rostral kinesis of extant Mysticeti and primitively retained a delicate archaeocete-like posterior mandible and synovial temporomandibular joint, suggesting that Tokarahia was capable of at most, limited lunge feeding in contrast to extant Balaenopteridae, and utilized an alternative as-yet unspecified feeding strategy.


ZooKeys ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 303 ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Brown ◽  
Daniel Janzen ◽  
Winnie Hallwachs

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4657 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-368
Author(s):  
CHARLES R. BARTLETT

Melaniphax suffusculus gen. et sp. nov. is described from Costa Rica, representing the 57th delphacid species recorded from the country to date. The new genus is superficially similar to Caenodelphax Fennah in general appearance in that the body is uniformly colored with the wings infuscated. Distinctive features of the new taxon include simple, forceps-like gonostyli, a broadly compressed aedeagus with large serrate lateral flanges, and the anal tube bearing a pair of short, stout, truncate, caudally-directed processes on the ventro-caudal margin and slender, elongate processes from the antero-ventral margin. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4319 (2) ◽  
pp. 371
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER SCHARPF

Hubbs (1938) described Typhlias pearsei, representing both a new genus and species of blind cusk-eel (Ophidiiformes: Dinematichthyidae) from freshwater caves and sinkholes of the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Whitley (1951:67) proposed Typhliasina as a replacement name for Typhlias, citing a list of zoological names published by Neave (1950:284), but did not mention the taxon and author to which the putative senior homonym belonged. Cohen and Nielsen (1978:60) treated Typhliasina as a junior synonym of Ogilbia Jordan & Evermann 1898 in their provisional classification of the Ophidiiformes, wherein they mentioned that Typhlias Hubbs 1938 is preoccupied by Typhlias Bryce 1910 in rotifers. Typhlias Bryce 1910 has subsequently been given as the senior homonym in three important works: the FAO species catalog of ophidiiform fishes (Nielsen & Cohen 1999:134), Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America (Nielsen 2003:507), and a revisionary study (Møller et al. 2004:186) in which Typhliasina is resurrected from the synonymy of Ogilbia. However, a careful reading of Neave (1950) and Bryce (1910) reveals a fact that had apparently been overlooked: Typhlias Bryce 1910 is not an available name, but a lapsus for Typhlina Ehrenberg 1831. 


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