scholarly journals Contribution to the knowledge of the beetle fauna (Insecta, Coleoptera) of Malta: new records of seven species with supporting DNA barcodes

Check List ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1443-1449
Author(s):  
Clare Marie Mifsud ◽  
Noel Vella ◽  
Adriana Vella

We report the presence of seven species of Coleoptera newly found on the Maltese Islands in the central Mediterranean. The first species records from the Maltese Islands include: Ancylopus melanocephalus (Olivier, 1808) (Endomychidae), Aplidia transversa (Fabricius, 1801) (Scarabaeidae), Cercyon quisquilius (Linnaeus, 1761) (Hydrophilidae), Hyperaspis duvergeri Fürsch, 1985 (Coccinellidae), Lebia cruxminor (Linnaeus, 1758) (Carabidae), Smicronyx pauperculus Wollaston, 1864 (Curculionidae), and Oxytelus sculptus Gravenhorst, 1806 (Staphylinidae). The morphological identification of each newly reported species was also confirmed through DNA barcoding.

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-183
Author(s):  
Angela G. Bartolo ◽  
Gabrielle Zammit ◽  
Hannah Russell ◽  
Akira F. Peters ◽  
Frithjof C. Küpper

The heterokont benthic multicellular algae Schizocladia ischiensis E.C. Henry, K. Okuda et H. Kawai (Schizocladiophyceae), Hecatonema terminale (Kützing) Kylin and Striaria attenuata (Greville) Greville (Phaeophyceae) are reported for the first time from the waters around the Maltese islands in the central Mediterranean. They were identified through algal isolation from incubated natural substrata, coupled with DNA barcoding targeting the biomarkers COI and rbcL plus the RuBisCO spacer. For three additional brown algae, Colpomenia sinuosa (Mertens ex Roth) Derbès et Solier, Asperococcus bullosus J.V.Lamouroux and Sphacelaria sp., DNA sequences confirmed previous morphology-based records from Malta. This paper also provides an updated literature-based species list of the marine macroalgae present in Malta.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario V Balzan ◽  
David Genoud ◽  
Pierre Rasmont ◽  
Maximilian Schwarz ◽  
Denis Michez

A total of 95 bee species have been recorded from the Maltese Islands (central Mediterranean Sea).  The aim of the present note is to report newly recorded species within the study area.  A total of nine new species belonging to four families are recorded here: Andrenidae (1 species), Apidae (1 species), Halictidae (5 species), and Megachilidae (2 species).


2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.J. Wang ◽  
Z.H. Li ◽  
S.F. Zhang ◽  
Z. Varadínová ◽  
F. Jiang ◽  
...  

AbstractSeveral species of the genus Cryptolestes Ganglbauer, 1899 (Coleoptera: Laemophloeidae) are commonly found in stored products. In this study, five species of Cryptolestes, with almost worldwide distribution, were obtained from laboratories in China, Czech Republic and the USA: Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens, 1831), Cryptolestes pusillus (Schönherr, 1817), Cryptolestes turcicus (Grouvelle, 1876), Cryptolestes pusilloides (Steel & Howe, 1952) and Cryptolestes capensis (Waltl, 1834). Molecular identification based on a 658 bp fragment from the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) was adopted to overcome some problems of morphological identification of Cryptolestes species. The utility of COI sequences as DNA barcodes in discriminating the five Cryptolestes species was evaluated on adults and larvae by analysing Kimura 2-parameter distances, phylogenetic tree and haplotype networks. The results showed that molecular approaches based on DNA barcodes were able to accurately identify these species. This is the first study using DNA barcoding to identify Cryptolestes species and the gathered DNA sequences will complement the biological barcode database.


Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4227 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
JIA-HUI LI ◽  
DAVID GOPURENKO ◽  
DU-CHENG CAI ◽  
YE-MENG YANG ◽  
RONG HU ◽  
...  

The biting midge fauna of Dongzhaigang Mangrove Forest, Hainan Province, China was sampled on 14 October 2015 using three methods: a pan light trap operated from dusk until dawn the following morning and sweep net and human landing collections performed between 16:15–17:15 hr. Eight species, including two new records for China, Culicoides palawanensis and C. niphanae, and one new record for Hainan, C. circumbasalis, were collected. A key to assist with identification of specimens of these species is provided. DNA barcodes supported the morphological identification of some of these species and identified the potential presence of cryptic species and/or deep population structure in others. The newly recorded species were morphologically similar to species previously reported from Hainan, highlighting the need for further investigation into the taxonomy of biting midges in this region. Species composition and abundance varied considerably between the three collection techniques suggesting that multiple techniques likely provide a more comprehensive sample of biting midge fauna. 


Parasitology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 147 (13) ◽  
pp. 1499-1508
Author(s):  
Susanne Reier ◽  
Helmut Sattmann ◽  
Thomas Schwaha ◽  
Hans-Peter Fuehrer ◽  
Elisabeth Haring

AbstractAcanthocephalans are obligate parasites of vertebrates, mostly of fish. There is limited knowledge about the diversity of fish-parasitizing Acanthocephala in Austria. Seven determined species and an undetermined species are recorded for Austrian waters. Morphological identification of acanthocephalans remains challenging due to their sparse morphological characters and their high intraspecific variations. DNA barcoding is an effective tool for taxonomic assignment at the species level. In this study, we provide new DNA barcoding data for three genera of Acanthocephala (Pomphorhynchus Monticelli, 1905, Echinorhynchus Zoega in Müller, 1776 and Acanthocephalus Koelreuter, 1771) obtained from different fish species in Austria and provide an important contribution to acanthocephalan taxonomy and distribution in Austrian fish. Nevertheless, the taxonomic assignment of one species must remain open. We found indications for cryptic species within Echinorhynchus cinctulus Porta, 1905. Our study underlines the difficulties in processing reliable DNA barcodes and highlights the importance of the establishment of such DNA barcodes to overcome these. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to collect and compare material across Europe allowing a comprehensive revision of the phylum in Europe.


2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1702) ◽  
pp. 20150329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Blaxter

The vast majority of life on the Earth is physically small, and is classifiable as micro- or meiobiota. These organisms are numerically dominant and it is likely that they are also abundantly speciose. By contrast, the vast majority of taxonomic effort has been expended on ‘charismatic megabionts’: larger organisms where a wealth of morphology has facilitated Linnaean species definition. The hugely successful Linnaean project is unlikely to be extensible to the totality of approximately 10 million species in a reasonable time frame and thus alternative toolkits and methodologies need to be developed. One such toolkit is DNA barcoding, particularly in its metabarcoding or metagenetics mode, where organisms are identified purely by the presence of a diagnostic DNA sequence in samples that are not processed for morphological identification. Building on secure Linnaean foundations, classification of unknown (and unseen) organisms to molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) and deployment of these MOTUs in biodiversity science promises a rewarding resolution to the Sisyphean task of naming all the world's species. This article is part of the themed issue ‘From DNA barcodes to biomes’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 20-34
Author(s):  
Vladimir Pešić ◽  
Milica Jovanović ◽  
Ana Manović ◽  
Ioannis Karaouzas ◽  
Harry Smit

New records of water mites from Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece revealed by DNA barcoding are presented. DNA barcodes were recovered from 63 water mite specimens morphologically assigned to 32 species. One species Lebertia algeriensis Lundblad, 1942, is reported for the first time for the Balkans; four species, i.e. Lebertia fimbriata Thor, 1899, L. rivulorum K. Viets, 1933, Atractides stankovici Pešić & Gerecke, 2010, and Wettina lacustris Pešić & Smit, 2018 are new for North Macedonia; Monatractides madritensis (K. Viets, 1930) and Mideopsis roztoczensis Biesiadka & Kowalik, 1979 are new for Serbia; and Hygrobates mediterraneus Pešić, 2020 is new for Greece. Comparing sequences of our study with the available COI sequences we recognized five possible cases of cryptic diversity involving species clusters with more than 5% divergence indicating that these species need further study.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. CROCETTA ◽  
S. MIFSUD ◽  
P. PAOLINI ◽  
J. PISCOPO ◽  
P.J. SCHEMBRI

The occurrence of Pachygrapsus maurus and Pachygrapsus transversus is reported from the Maltese Islands for the first time on the basis of one specimen of P. maurus collected in 1990 and numerous recent specimens, and the distribution of the two species is mapped. The controversial presence of P. maurus in Italy is confirmed and two new sites for this species are reported, including the first for the mainland of Italy. The examination of the historical specimen of P. maurus from the Genova area revealed a misidentification of P. transversus; this record could be a result of ship-mediated transport. First notes on the habitat of P. maurus in the central Mediterranean Sea are given. Updated maps of the distribution of P. maurus and P. transversus in the Mediterranean are provided and the zoogeography of these species is revisited.


2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1675-1678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Van Lun Low ◽  
Wichai Srisuka ◽  
Atiporn Saeung ◽  
Tiong Kai Tan ◽  
Zubaidah Ya’cob ◽  
...  

Abstract Previous studies suggested the presence of species complex in the so-called Simulium asakoae Takaoka & Davies (Diptera: Simuliidae) in Thailand due to its high morphological variability and genetic divergence. To investigate whether the true S. asakoae is present in Thailand, we performed a detailed morphological identification of S. asakoae and compared its DNA barcodes with the morphospecies S. asakoae from Myanmar and the typical S. asakoae from Malaysia. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the Thai materials analyzed in this study were indeed genetically similar with those from Myanmar and Malaysia, though genetic distances 0–2.27% were observed. We tentatively regard this divergence as intraspecific variation, and the automatic barcode gap discovery analysis further supports them as a single species.


Check List ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan M. Martínez-Cerón ◽  
Edilson Patiño-Castillo ◽  
Sara Carvalho-Madrigal ◽  
Juan F. Díaz-Nieto

Based on revisionary work of recently collected material in Colombian museums we confirm the presence of Phylloderma stenops Peters, 1865 in 6 new localities for the country, including the first record of the species in the dry lowlands of the northern Caribbean coast, and the increase by more than 800 m of the elevational range of the species in Colombia. DNA-barcoding confirmed our morphological identification, and supported a paraphyletic composition of the cis-Andean populations. Our records exemplify the little knowledge on the ecogeographic distribution of this species and provide further evidence to consider this as a widespread but rare species.


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