Liparis inaudita (Orchidaceae, Malaxidinae), a new species from the Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo, San Martín, Peru

Background: During an ongoing inventory of the orchids of the Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo, northern Peru, a population morphologically assignable to Liparis section Decumbentes was found. This is a little-known group restricted to wet montane Andean forests and consists of four species, from which the BPAM populations differs in leaf and labellum morphology. Hypotheses: The features of the plants led us to hypothesize that it represents an unknown species, which can be distinguished morphologically from its congeners. Taxon: Liparis section Decumbentes, Liparis sp. nov. Study site and dates: Peru, department of San Martín, Rioja province, Pardo Miguel Naranjos district, Bosque de Protección Alto Mayo, sector Venceremos. Methods: The unknown entity was studied in detail using fresh, pressed, and alcohol-preserved specimens. We also compared it to type specimens, other specimens of Liparis section Decumbentes housed in herbaria in Peru and abroad, and with descriptions from specialized literature. Results: A leaf feature and the unique labellum morphology of the unknown entity permit it to be distinguished clearly from all other species of Liparis section Decumbentes. Conclusions: The new species shares with L. sessilis the sessile leaf blades and the convex labellum, but differs from it and all other species of the section in its saddle-shaped labellum, which when spread out is narrowly obtrapezoid, with minute basal auricles, laciniate distal margins, and the apex projected into a narrowly triangular lobe.

Two New Species of Pristimantis (Anura: Strabomantidae) from Amazonas Department in Northeastern Peru

We describe two new species of terrestrial-breeding frogs in the genus Pristimantis from the Andes of northeastern Peru, Amazonas Department. Both species share several characters with other congeners from northern Peru, such as the presence of prominent conical tubercles on their eyelids and heel, prominent conical tubercles along the outer edge of the tarsus, and discs on fingers and toes widely expanded. However, both species can be diagnosed from morphologically similar Pristimantis in the region. Pristimantis kiruhampatu has axillae, groins, and hidden surfaces of hindlimbs that are cherry with white minute flecks, tympanic membrane and tympanic annulus evident, conical tubercles along the edge of snout and outer edge of tibia, and \/ shaped folds in the scapular region. Pristimantis paulpittmani has yellow or dirty cream groins and hidden surfaces of hindlimbs, whitish cream irises with scattered dark brown reticulations, and a thin vertical dark brown streak at the middle of the eye, snout subacuminate with a conical tubercle at the tip, and lacks a tympanic annulus and membrane. Additionally, we provide a short description of the advertisement call of P. kiruhampatu.

Caring for water in Northern Peru: On fragile infrastructures and the diverse work involved in irrigation

The term control used to be central to the scholarship on modern water management. More recently, however, scholars have remarked that the world is too unstable and capricious for control to ever fully succeed. They propose that technologically facilitating water to flow depends instead on care. Building on this, we here propose that holding on to a single catch-all theoretical concept, even if it is ‘care’, does not suffice. Instead, analytical terms are better adapted – and re-adapted to local specificities. To exemplify this, we here present the case of the Huallabamba, a canal that makes horticulture possible in the arid valley of Motupe on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. In this case, while ‘control’ was hard to find, ‘care’ took different forms: the tinkering that compensates for the not-quite-modern character of the infrastructures; the adaptive managerial style necessary given the absence of information; the watchful, hands-on cuidar of the men who walk along the canal high up in the Andes, repairing what is broken, cautious lest they anger the spirits; the listening to and singing for water in the catchment area; and the activism that resists the invasion of mining companies. This open-ended list is not meant to travel as a theoretical grid, but rather to inspire others to propose locally salient analytical terms to explore the sites and situations in which they are involved.

Health status evaluation of type 2 diabetes patients from two hospitals of northern Peru

Objetive: To describe illness related knowledge features, mental health, adherence to therapy and quality of life on type 2 diabetes patients from two hospitals from northern Peru. Material and Methods: Cross sectional descriptive study. A cense was made. Descriptive statistics and exploratory analysis were employed. Results: there were 382 diabetes patients: 289 in Lambayeque and 93 in Piura:112 people were interviewed. The mean age was 59.5 +/- 11.6 years, 58% were women, 59% were from Piura, 43.8% only had primary school and 41.5% referred 2 to 4 outpatient evaluations in the last two years; 28.6% reported to have been infected by COVID-19: 35,5% in Lambayeque and 23.8% in Piura; 17.8% had poor knowledge about the disease. About mental health, 91.9% had Depression, 75% Anxiety and 72.8%, both; 50.6% had adequate adherence to therapy. The median of quality of life was 161.5 (IQR=127.1-215) and 24.1% had poor quality of life. In descending order, the more affected dimensions of quality of life were: “control of diabetes”, “energy and mobility”, “social burden”, “anxiety” and “sexual performance”. In the exploratory multivariate analysis, depression was associated with high quality of life. Conclusion: disease related-knowledge features, mental health, adherence to therapy and quality of life were poor on type 2 diabetics from these two northern cities of Peru. There were no association between sociodemographic characteristics, mental health, knowledge, adherence, with quality of life.

Participatory Risk Assessment of Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) Bycatch in Northern Peru

Uncertainties about the magnitude of bycatch in poorly assessed fisheries impede effective conservation management. In northern Peru, small-scale fisheries (SSF) bycatch negatively impacts marine megafauna populations and the livelihoods of fishers which is further elevated by the under-reporting of incidents. Within the last decade, accounts of entangled humpback whales (HBW) (Megaptera novaeangliae) off the northern coast of Peru have increased, while Eastern Pacific leatherback turtles (LBT) (Dermochelys coriacea) have seen over a 90% decline in nesting populations related in large part to bycatch mortality. By leveraging the experience and knowledge of local fishers, our research objectives were to use a low-cost public participation mapping approach to provide a spatio-temporal assessment of bycatch risk for HBW and LBT off two Peruvian fishing ports. We used an open-source, geographic information systems (GIS) model, the Bycatch Risk Assessment (ByRA), as our platform. Broadly, ByRA identifies high bycatch risk areas by estimating the intersection of fishing areas (i.e., stressors) with species habitat and evaluating the exposure and consequence of possible interaction between the two. ByRA outputs provided risk maps and gear risk percentages categorized as high, medium, and low for the study area and seven subzones for HBW in the austral winter and LBT in the austral summer. Overall, the highest bycatch risk for both species was identified within gillnet fisheries near the coast. Bycatch risk for most gear types decreased with distance from the coast. When we separated the ByRA model by port, our map outputs indicate that bycatch management should be port specific, following seasonal and spatial variations for HBW, and specific fishing gear impacts for HBW and LBT. Combined with direct bycatch mitigation techniques, ByRA can be a supportive and informative tool for addressing specific bycatch threats and marine megafauna conservation goals. ByRA supports a participatory framework offering rapid visual information via risk maps and replicable methods for areas with limited resources and data on fisheries and species habitat.

The process of discovery in and new species from northern Peru, Cerro Colán, Department Amazonas, Province Bagua

A review of discoveries of plants and animals by a 1978 expedition from Louisiana State University to Peru is presented. Genesis of this study was owing to the senior author’s observation of unusually high species richness in Araceae among a collection of plants made in northern Peru. A subsequent review showed that the region was rich in many ways. Determinations to date include 983 species belonging to 513 genera and 145 families of which 81 species are endemic. Included are 59 plant taxa new to science described elsewhere. Eleven aroids (Araceae) from northern Peru are described and illustrated as new. Some records represent new taxa described from voucher specimens independently collected by botanists at prior or later dates and different localities. A collection was assigned the nov. sp. category of noteworthiness if Tropicos database (http://www.tropicos.org) showed either the Alwyn H. Gentry, et al. and or the Philip J. Barbour accession to be the first such collection known. Specimen searches in Tropicos by senior collector as Philip Barbour and separately by Gentry and constrained by appropriate dates revealed 1687 independent determined voucher specimens of which 1545 are noteworthy (92%) by the designated categories. Noteworthy categories are described and presented in appendices 2 and 3. Extralimital plant distribution records are not described here. Four new bird species/subspecies and seven new frog species were discovered on this expedition. It is important to note that after only 42 years much of the region where many of these discoveries were made is now largely devoid of natural vegetation. Appendix 4 provides detailed descriptions of habitat on Cerro Colán as recent as 2017. This study is a reminder that areas newly opened for exploration should be thoroughly and quickly studied to capture the greatest scientific benefit. It shows how much could be attained in a small span of time by a small but dedicated group of biologists.

Paranephelius (Asteraceae: Liabeae): A case study in high-elevation hybridization and taxonomic insights

Paranephelius Poepp. (Liabeae: Asteraceae) is a genus, here comprised of three species confined to high-elevation Andean habitats from 3°–25°S latitude from northern Peru to northern Argentina. In a prior investigation, sequence data was analyzed from samples throughout the range of the genus to evaluate the morphological variation used in delineating species. This detailed sampling allowed for molecular studies at a fine geographic scale. Within Paranephelius, genetic divergence is low, and not adequate to fully resolve phylogenetic relationships at the species level. Two genetically and morphologically recognizable genomes were reveled in northern Peru; these correspond to P. ovatus Wedd. and P. uniflorus Poepp., respectively. Several accessions possess sequences representing putative hybrids between these two species. These putative hybrids have caused taxonomic confusion in establishing species boundaries in Paranephelius. The molecular analysis suggested that P. asperifolius (Muschl.) H. Rob. & Brettell, distributed in Bolivia and northwestern Argentina, is related to P. ovatus, while it most closely resembles P. uniflorus. Species that have changed status include, P. ferreyrae H. Rob., here within the parameters of P. uniflorus; and P. jelskii (Hieron.) H. Rob. & Brettell, P. bullatus A. Gray ex Wedd., and P. wurdackii H. Rob. are here within parameters of P. ovatus. This study is not intended to be a monograph, but does includes a key to species, descriptions, illustrations, and citation of specimens examined.

DNA barcoding reveals overlooked shark and bony fish species in landing reports of small-scale fisheries from northern Peru

Species-level identification of commercially landed fish provides pivotal information for stock assessment and fishery management. However, there is a common lack of species determination in landing records from small-scale fisheries (SSFs) worldwide. Using DNA barcoding analyses, we detected four overlooked bony fish (yellow snapper, union snook, blackspot wrasse, and steeplined drum) and one shark species (the sicklefin smooth-hound) in official landing records of SSFs from northern Peru. Of particular concern is the sicklefin smooth-hound shark Mustelus lunulatus that was found to be overlooked and could mistakenly be landed as the humpback smooth-hound M. whitneyi. Increased efforts should be made to improve species identification capacities in Peruvian fishing landings. There is an urgent need to quantify the catch levels of members of the genus Mustelus to species level. This would contribute to a better understanding of the levels of exploitation in each particular species and to improved management decisions.