scholarly journals A study of the Floral Biology of Victoria amazonica (Poepp.) Sowerby (Nymphaeaceae)

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghillean T. Prance ◽  
Jorge R. Arias

Abstract A field study of the floral biology of Victoria amazonica (Poepp.) Sowerby (Nymphaeaceae) was made for comparison with the many studies made in cultivated plants, of Victoria in the past. In the study areas in the vicinity of Manaus, four species of Dynastid beetles were found in flowers of V. amazonica, three of the genus Cyclocephala and one of Ligyrus. The commonest species of beetle proved to be a new species of Cyclocephala and was found in over 90 percent of the flowers studied. The flowers of V. amazonica attract beetles by their odour and their white colour on the first day that they open. The beetles are trapped in the flower for twenty-four hours and feed on the starchy carpellary appendages. Observations were made of flower temperature, which is elevated up to 11°C above ambient temperature, when the flower emits the odour to attract the beetles. Observations on beetle frequency, the number of floral parts, seed dispersal and the evolutionary development of cantharophily are also presented.

Author(s):  
John Hunsley ◽  
Eric J. Mash

Evidence-based assessment relies on research and theory to inform the selection of constructs to be assessed for a specific assessment purpose, the methods and measures to be used in the assessment, and the manner in which the assessment process unfolds. An evidence-based approach to clinical assessment necessitates the recognition that, even when evidence-based instruments are used, the assessment process is a decision-making task in which hypotheses must be iteratively formulated and tested. In this chapter, we review (a) the progress that has been made in developing an evidence-based approach to clinical assessment in the past decade and (b) the many challenges that lie ahead if clinical assessment is to be truly evidence-based.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4941 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-258
Author(s):  
YUN-HE WU ◽  
XIAO-LONG LIU ◽  
WEI GAO ◽  
YU-FAN WANG ◽  
YING-CHUN LI ◽  
...  

Approximately half of the species in speciose genus Raorchestes were described during the past 10 years, yet only 11 species are known from Southeast Asia and southern China (SEA-SC), adjacent Himalayas, and northeastern India. Field work in northwestern Yunnan province, China resulted in the discovery of one new species in the genus based on morphological and molecular analyses. The new species is diagnosed by small size with 15.0–19.0 mm SVL in adult males (n=3); tongue pyriform, notched posteriorly; rudimentary webbing between toes; fingers and toes with narrow lateral dermal fringes; tibiotarsal articulation reaching anterior of the eye when hindlimb is stretched along the side of the body; relative finger lengths: I < II < IV < III, relative toe lengths: I < II < V < III < IV; inner metatarsal tubercle oval, outer metatarsal tubercle absent; finger discs and toe discs greyish or orange; flank near the crotch with a distinct black region between two creamy white patches, and the thigh having a similar black patch near the groin, proximal to another creamy white patch; a distinct “) (”-shaped dark marking on the back; male with external single subgular vocal sac; nuptial pad absent. A phylogenetic tree was reconstructed based on the mitochondrial genes for 16S rRNA and ND1. The results indicated that these individuals form a monophyletic group, and show high genetic divergence to their closest relatives within the genus (uncorrected p-distances > 3.2%) by distance of 16S comparable to the divergence between recognized Raorchestes species. This study further enriches the diversity of rhacophorids, especially in northwestern Yunnan. 


Phytotaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 365 (3) ◽  
pp. 295
Author(s):  
CHE-WEI LIN ◽  
CHI-HUNG LEE

Reknowned for its high biodiversity and endemism, over one third of the Bornean species of Phyllagathis were discovered in Sarawak over the past two years. In this study, we report an addition of a new species of Phyllagathis, namely P. stellata from southwestern Sarawak. In addition to the taxonomic account, color plates, line drawings, a distribution map, and comparisons with morphologically similar species are provided to aid in identification.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 275 (3) ◽  
pp. 263
Author(s):  
ALFONSO DOUCETTE ◽  
JOEL TIMYAN ◽  
INGRID HENRYS ◽  
KENNETH M. CAMERON

A new species of Specklinia with a repent growth habit and minute purple flowers is described and illustrated. The new species is distinguished from Specklinia wrightii based on its morphological and molecular distinctness from that species. The phylogenetic placement of the new species is provided based on an nrITS tree. The species described here represents the first new orchid to be described from material originating from the Parc National Naturel Macaya in six years. New combinations are made in Acianthera for species of Kraenzlinella and Pleurothallis subgen. Antilla embedded within the genus. In particular Kraenzlinella rinkei is provided as a new synonym for Specklinia montezumae and Specklinia simpliciflora is transferred to Acianthera sect. Antilla based on morphology and geographic distribution.


2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Efigenia de MELO ◽  
Carlos Alberto CID FERREIRA ◽  
Rogério GRIBEL

ABSTRACT We describe and illustrate a new species of Coccoloba (Polygonaceae), named Coccoloba gigantifolia, from the Brazilian Amazon. It resembles Coccoloba mollis Casar, but differs from the latter species by its much larger leaves in the fertile branches. The species has only been recorded in the Madeira River basin, in the states of Amazonas and Rondônia, in the central and southwestern Brazilian Amazon. The description was based on herbarium material, cultivated plants, and individual trees in their natural habitat. We provide illustrations, photographs, and an identification key with morphological characteristics that distinguish the new taxon from the other two related taxa of the Coccoloba sect. Paniculatae, as well as comments on the geographic distribution and conservation status of the species.


Zootaxa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4200 (2) ◽  
pp. 327 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEDRO S. R. ROMANO

Pelomedusoides is the most diverse clade of side-necked turtles and there is an extensive fossil record (de Broin, 1988; Lapparent de Broin, 2000; Gaffney et al., 2006, 2011) that dates back at least to the Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) (Romano et al., 2014). Its large fossil record evidences a greater diversity in the past, particularly at the end of the Mesozoic, and exhibits a good sampling of species that are represented by skull material (Gaffney et al., 2006, 2011). As a consequence, the most complete and recent phylogenetic hypotheses for this clade (e.g. Romano et al., 2014; Cadena, 2015) are based on matrices comprising a great amount of cranial characters derived largely from Gaffney et al. (2006, 2011). In addition, it is well established that shell characters show a lot of phenotypic plasticity, even in the fossil species (Romano, 2008; Gaffney et al., 2006, 2011). In most cases it consequently is not justified to rely on “diagnostic features” of poorly informative shell-only material for describing a new species. Because of that, most authors remark new morphotypes in the literature when such aberrant specimens are recovered, but do not make any nomenclatural act by proposing a new yet poorly supported species (e.g. Romano et al., 2013; Ferreira & Langer, 2013; Menegazzo et al., 2015). Unfortunately, such a supposedly new bothremydid turtle (Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) from the Early Paleocene of Brazil was recently described based on poorly diagnostic remains (Carvalho et al., 2016; hereafter CGB, for the authors initials) and a correction of this unfounded nomenclatural act is required. In addition I present some comments on shell only material from Brazil in order to guide splitter-taxonomists to stop describing poorly preserved fossil specimens as new species. 


1946 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-65
Author(s):  
Z. P. Metcalf

Among the many interesting Homoptera which have been sent to me by Professor E. H. Strickland is a series of an unusual Delphacodes collected at Cooking Lake, Alberta. This distinct little species is described at this time in order to stimulate further collection of these inconspicuous but interesting insects from western Canada, where there must be many more new species as yet unrecorded.


2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-303
Author(s):  
Neil Cumberlidge ◽  
Savel R. Daniels

Surveys of the freshwater crabs of two islands in the Gulf of Guinea, Central Africa, allowed a revision of the taxonomy of two little-known island endemic species, based for the first time on adult males: Potamonautes margaritarius (A. Milne-Edwards, 1869) from São Tomé, and of P. principe Cumberlidge, Clark and Baillie, 2002, from Príncipe (Brachyura; Potamonautidae). A new species of Potamonautes from southern São Tomé (Potamonautes saotome sp. nov.) is also described that is genetically distinct and has a clearly separate geographic distribution from P. margaritarius from northern São Tomé. The new species from southern São Tomé can be recognized by a suite of characters of the carapace, thoracic sternum, and gonopods. The taxonomy of P. margaritarius (A. Milne-Edwards, 1869) is stabilized by selecting a neotype from northern São Tomé. Potamonautes principe from Príncipe is the most distinct of the three taxa, with a more swollen carapace that has smooth anterolateral margins, and a shorter, straighter male first gonopod. All three taxa are morphologically distinct species that have also been clearly distinguished as evolutionarily separate lineages by mtDNA analysis and haplotyping in an earlier study. Previous phylogenetic evidence supports two separate island colonization events at different times in the past from different ancestral populations, one to São Tomé and another to Príncipe that resulted in the establishment of the endemic freshwater crab faunas of these two islands.


Zootaxa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2746 (1) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLEMENS GROSSER ◽  
HASKO F. NESEMANN ◽  
VLADIMIR PEŠIĆ

The new species described here has, for a long time, been confused with Dina stschegolewi (Lukin & Epshtein, 1960), a species described from Krym (the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine). Both species are similar in having rows of yellow spots on the dorsal surface. As the latter species had been poorly defined in the past, all yellow spotted specimens of the genus Dina Blanchard, from the area of the Near and Middle East, were attributed to Dina stschegolewi (Rückert 1985, Nesemann 1993, Nesemann & Neubert 1999). Prof. V. M. Epshtein (Wuppertal/Germany, oral communication) suspected that the specimens attributed to Dina stschegolewi by Nesemann (1993) and Nesemann & Neubert (1999) differed from the species from Krym. Furthermore, Grosser & Pešić (2006) mentioned that populations of Dina stschegolewi sensu Nesemann, 1993 most probably belong to a new species.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 357 (2) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. THOMAS PHILBRICK ◽  
BRAD R. RUHFEL ◽  
CLAUDIA P. BOVE

We conducted a phylogenetic study of neotropical subfamily Podostemoideae with a focus on Rhyncholacis and the monotypic Macarenia using molecular data (plastid: rbcL, trnL intron; nuclear: ITS). Our results placed the five included species of Rhyncholacis, one of which is newly described herein, in a moderately well supported (73 BP) clade with M. clavigera. These results support the transfer of M. clavigera to Rhyncholacis (R. clavigera); the nomenclatural changes are made. In addition, a new species of Rhyncholacis (R. paulana C.T. Philbrick & C.P. Bove) is illustrated and described. Rhyncholacis paulana is distinguished from all other species in the genus by its simple pinnately lobed leaf, which is fleshy and undulate. All other species of Rhyncholacis have leaves that are pinnately lobed, the lobes of which are repeatedly divided, or pinnately compound and characterized by finely dissected pinnate segments.


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