A checklist of Acari type specimens deposited in the Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum, Karaj, Iran

A checklist of the Acari type specimens deposited in the Jalal Afshar Zoological Museum (JAZM), Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran is given. From a total of 451 type specimens (which comprises 166 valid species names) cited in the list, 164 are available and two are lost. Based on the comparison of these type specimens, the following taxonomic change is proposed in this paper: Erythraeus (Zaracarus) ueckermanni is considered as a valid species and is not a junior synonym of Erythraeus (Zaracarus) budapestensis.

In “defense” of Podarcis latastei, an Italian insular endemic species (Squamata: Lacertidae)

Based on genetic and morphological evidence, Senczuk et al. (2019) formally raised the Podarcis populations from the Western Pontine Islands, previously classified as several subspecies of P. siculus, to species rank, i.e. Podarcis latastei (Bedriaga, 1879). This taxonomic change was not accepted in the checklist of the European herpetofauna by Speybroeck et al. (2020), recently published on Amphibia-Reptilia. In this note we respond to the reasons given by Speybroeck and colleagues and support the validity of Podarcis latastei as an endemic Italian species.

Description of the male of Distoleon sambalpurensis Ghosh, 1984 (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) from India

This is a contribution to the knowledge of the neuropteran fauna of India. The male genitalia of Distoleon sambalpurensis Ghosh, 1984 is described and illustrated for the first time from India. Further, the female is redescribed and re-illustrated based on the recently collected material. Taxonomic change is also proposed by considering Distoleon subtentus Yang 1986 as synonym of Distoleon sambalpurensis Ghosh, 1984 based on the morphological similarity.

Some comments on the taxonomy of Delphinium (Ranunculaceae) in western Oregon

In preparing the treatment of Delphinium for a future volume of Flora of Oregon, some taxonomic decisions were made that conflict with the 1997 treatment of the genus by Warnock in Flora of North America. The choice of groups to be recognized is based on the present author’s opinion that rapid evolution of Delphinium taxa occurred in the Willamette Valley following habitat disturbance caused by catastrophic flooding from the late-glacial-age Spokane Floods. Delphinium pavonaceum Ewan, D. leucophaeum Greene, and D. oreganum Howell, which are endemic to the Willamette Valley, may have evolved in the ca. 12,000 years since the floods occurred. These 3 groups are here given species rank, unlike their treatment in Flora of North America. This is in line with how the taxa are viewed by Oregon botanists concerned with the rare and endangered species of the state. Lectotypification is necessary for D. pavonaceum. A further taxonomic change is the reduction of D. basalticum M.J. Warnock to synonymy under D. glareosum Greene.

Taxonomic Checklists as Biodiversity Data: How Series of Checklists can Provide Information on Synonymy, Circumscription Change and Taxonomic Discovery

Taxonomic checklists are a fundamental and widely-used product of taxonomy, providing a list of recognized taxa within a taxonomic group in a particular geographical area. Series of taxonomic checklists provide snapshots of recognized taxa over a period of time. Identifying and classifying the changes between these checklists can provide information on rates of name, synonym and circumscription change and can improve aggregation of datasets reconciled to different checklists.To demonstrate this, I used a series of North American bird checklists to test hypotheses about drivers of splitting rates in North America birds. In particular, I asked if splitting was predominantly undoing previous lumping that happened during the heyday of the modern synthesis. I found that bird species have been split at an accelerating rate since the 1980s. While this was partially the result of previously lumped species being resplit, most splits were unrelated to previous lumps and thus represent new discoveries rather than simply the undoing of previous circumscription changes. I also used a series of North American freshwater algal checklists to measure stability over fifteen years, and found that 26% of species names were not shared or synonymized over this period. Rates of synonymization, lumping or splitting of species remained flat, a marked difference from North American birds. Species that were split or lumped (7% of species considered) had significantly higher abundance than other species in the USGS NAWQA dataset, a biodiversity database that uses these checklists as an index. They were associated with 19% of associated observations, showing that a small number of recircumscribed species could significantly affect interpretation of biodiversity data.To facilitate this research, I developed a software tool that could identify and annotate taxonomic changes among a series of checklists, and could use this information to aggregate biodiversity data, which will hopefully facilitate similar research in the future. My dissertation demonstrates the value of taxonomic checklists series to answer specific questions about the drivers of taxonomic change ranging from philosophical and technical changes to characteristics of species themselves such as their abundance.

Review of the northern Holarctic Arctia caja complex (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Arctiinae)

Arctia olschwangi Dubatolov, formerly known only from Arctic Siberia, Russia, is recorded from northern Alaska, United States of America. Distinguishing characters between northern populations of Arctia brachyptera Troubridge and Lafontaine, Arctia caja (Linnaeus), A. olschwangi Dubatolov, and Arctia opulenta (Edwards) are discussed. Arctia brachyptera Troubridge and Lafontaine is hypothesised to be a subspecies of A. olschwangi Dubatolov but more specimens need to be examined before this taxonomic change is made.

Changes in Dimethylsulfoniopropionate Demethylase Gene Assemblages in Response to an Induced Phytoplankton Bloom

ABSTRACTOver half of the bacterioplankton cells in ocean surface waters are capable of carrying out a demethylation of the phytoplankton metabolite dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) that routes the sulfur moiety away from the climatically active gas dimethylsulfide (DMS). In this study, we tracked changes indmdA, the gene responsible for DMSP demethylation, over the course of an induced phytoplankton bloom in Gulf of Mexico seawater microcosms. Analysis of >91,000 amplicon sequences indicated 578 differentdmdAsequence clusters at a conservative clustering criterion of ≥90% nucleotide sequence identity over the 6-day study. The representation of the major clades ofdmdA, several of which are linked to specific taxa through genomes of cultured marine bacterioplankton, remained fairly constant. However, the representation of clusters within these major clades shifted significantly in response to the bloom, including twoRoseobacter-like clusters and a SAR11-like cluster, and the best correlate with shifts of the dominantdmdAclades was chlorophyllaconcentration. Concurrent 16S rRNA amplification and sequencing indicated the presence ofRoseobacter, SAR11, OM60, and marineRhodospirillalespopulations, all of which are known to harbordmdAgenes, although the largest taxonomic change was an increase inFlavobacteriaceae, a group not yet demonstrated to have DMSP-demethylating capabilities. Sequence heterogeneity indmdAand other functional gene populations is becoming increasingly evident with the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies, and understanding the ecological implications of this heterogeneity is a major challenge for marine microbial ecology.