Contribution to the taxonomy of human-infesting chiggers (Acariformes: Trombiculidae) in Europe

Three species of chigger mites, which are supposed to be agents of human trombiculiasis in Europe, have been studied based on museum collections and specimens collected by the authors. Trombicula toldti Winkler, 1953 has been transferred to the monotypic genus Blanciella Vercammen-Grandjean, 1960. The type species of this genus, Blanciella deschiensi (Vercammen-Grandjean, 1956), was synonymized with Blanciella toldti comb. nov., and B. toldti was re-described. Lectotype of B. toldti was designated based on the type material donated to Zoological Institute RAS (St. Petersburg, Russia). The lectotype of Kepkatrombicula desaleri (Methlagl, 1928) was found in Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France), and the previously designated neotype of K. desaleri has been set aside. Both B. toldti and K. desaleri have been recorded for the first time in Switzerland infesting goats (Capra hircus L., 1758). Human parasitism by Neotrombicula inopinata (Oudemans, 1909) in the UK has been confirmed for the first time with an examined museum specimen.

Assessing genotyping errors in mammalian museum study skins using high-throughput genotyping-by-sequencing

The use of museum specimens held in natural history repositories for population and conservation genetic research is increasing in tandem with the use of massively parallel sequencing technologies. Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), or microsatellite loci, are commonly used genetic markers in wildlife and population genetic studies. However, they traditionally suffered from a host of issues including length homoplasy, high costs, low throughput, and difficulties in reproducibility across laboratories. Massively parallel sequencing technologies can address these problems, but the incorporation of museum specimen derived DNA suffers from significant fragmentation and exogenous DNA contamination. Combatting these issues requires extra measures of stringency in the lab and during data analysis, yet there have not been any high-throughput sequencing studies evaluating microsatellite allelic dropout from museum specimen extracted DNA. In this study, we evaluate genotyping errors derived from mammalian museum skin DNA extracts for previously characterized microsatellites across PCR replicates utilizing high-throughput sequencing. We found it useful to classify samples based on DNA concentration, which determined the rate by which genotypes were accurately recovered. Longer microsatellites performed worse in all museum specimens. Allelic dropout rates across loci were dependent on sample quantity, with high concentration museum specimens performing as well and recovering quality metrics nearly as high as the frozen tissue sample. Based on our results, we provide a set of best practices for quality assurance and incorporation of reliable genotypes from museum specimens.

New species and records of the genus Lipotactes (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Lipotactinae) from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand

Six new species of the genus Lipotactes Brunner, 1898 are described: three species from Vietnam – L. serratussp. nov., L. angulatussp. nov., L. productussp. nov.; two species from Cambodia – L. discussp. nov. and L. samkossp. nov.; and one species from Thailand – L. saengerisp. nov. The diagnostic characters are illustrated. Additional records are reported for L. vietnamicus Gorochov, 1993 and L. azureus Gorochov, 1996. The striking azure blue color of the alive male of L. azureus that contrasts with the green and white museum specimen is documented. An updated key to the species of Lipotactes from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand is provided.

The phylogeny of Empis and Rhamphomyia (Diptera, Empididae) investigated using UCEs including an over 150 years old museum specimen

The genera Empis Linneus, 1758 and Rhamphomyia Meigen, 1822 (Empidoidea, Empididae Latreille, 1809) are two large genera of flies commonly named dagger flies. They are widely distributed in the world with most species described from the Palearctic Region. Empis comprises about 810 described species and Rhamphomyia comprises about 610 described species, together they represent one third of the known species diversity in Empididae. Two recent studies on the phylogeny of the two genera using Sanger sequencing on a few genetic markers, did not support monophyly of them. In this study high throughput sequencing of target enriched molecular data of ultraconserved elements or UCEs was used to investigate the phylogenetic relationships of included representatives of the genera. This method has proven useful on old and dry museum specimens with high amounts of degraded DNA, which was also tested herein. For this purpose, a commercially synthesized bait kit has previously been developed for Diptera which this study was the first one to test. Three out of nine old and dry museum specimens were successfully sequenced, one with an age of at least 154 years. Higher DNA concentration yielded a greater number of reads. Analyses conducted in the study confirmed that both Empis and Rhamphomyia are non-monophyletic.

New record of Hipposideros speoris (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) from Myanmar hidden in the National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India

Hipposideros speoris is a small-sized leaf-nosed bat and was thought to be restricted to India and Sri Lanka. Based on a single museum specimen preserved in alcohol housed in the National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India, we report and confirm the presence of H. speoris for the first time in Pyay, Myanmar.