First report of Macrophomina phaseolina causing charcoal root rot of Hebe (Veronica cupressoides, V. ochracea, and V. pinguifolia) in Oregon, U.S.A.

Hebes (Veronica spp. in the section Hebe) are ornamental perennials and shrubs grown for their flowers and symmetric, evergreen leaves. They are uncommon in U.S. horticulture and are only produced by a few nurseries regionally (Oregon and Washington). In June, July, and August (2016 to 2021), stems on 1 to 5-year-old Veronica cupressoides, V. ochracea, and V. pinguifolia in five landscape plantings around Benton County, OR (17 plants total, locations 2 to 37 km apart) began to wilt, turn brown, and die. At least nine of the plants originated from a single nursery. Initially, just one or two stems/plant were affected, but eventually the entire plant died. Stem tissues were discolored brown to black internally and the roots were dry and necrotic. Leaves turned brown and brittle, but remained attached. Stems from each plant were disinfested in 0.5% NaOCl (1 min), rinsed in 70% ethanol, and dried (2 min). Pieces (5 mm2) were then plated onto 1/2 strength potato dextrose agar amended with streptomycin (50 mg/liter) and incubated in the dark at 20°C. Three to five days later, greyish-white cultures producing black microsclerotia (75 × 110 µm, n = 50) grew out of all samples. No spores were produced. All isolates were identified as Macrophomina phaseolina by morphology and by ≥99% homology (566-570/571 nt) to the internal transcribed spacer sequence (primers ITS1 and ITS4) from the type specimen (GenBank KF766195) (Hyde et al. 2014). Three representative sequences were deposited in GenBank (MZ726450 to MZ726452). Inoculum was prepared from these isolates by growing cultures in 250 ml of potato dextrose broth on a shaker (125 rpm at 25°C). After 2 weeks, the broth was decanted and the fungal biomass was air dried for 3 days at 25°C before grinding into a powder with a mortar and pestle. Three plants each of 6-month-old V. ochracea 'James Stirling', V. cupressoides 'McKean', and V. pinguifolia 'Sutherlandii' were inoculated with each isolate by rinsing the soil off of the roots with tap water, trimming off 0.5 cm of the roots, and then soaking the rootball in a slurry of 1 g dried inoculum in 500 ml of 0.2% water agar (WA) for 10 minutes (Reyes Gaige et al. 2010). Three plants of each species that were soaked in plain 0.2% WA served as negative controls. Afterwards, plants were potted into soilless media (Metro-Mix 840, Sun Gro Horticulture, Agawam, MA) in 3.5 inch square pots and arranged in a completely randomized design in a greenhouse set at 28/24°C day/night. The experiment was conducted three times. One to three months later, inoculated plants began to turn yellow, wilt, and die whereas all control plants remained healthy. The same pathogen was reisolated from 90% of the inoculated plants, but never from negative controls. M. phaseolina was reported on strawberry in southern Oregon in 2014 (Pscheidt and Ocamb 2021), but has not been reported from locations further north in the state where soil temperatures are cooler. It is unusual that M. phaseolina was isolated from an uncommon host at five different locations in an area of the state where the pathogen was not known to occur. Based on this, and on the number of infected plants originating from a single source, it seems likely that M. phaseolina was accidentally spread on contaminated plants produced by the nursery industry, where the warmer temperatures in production greenhouses would provide a more conducive environment for the pathogen's growth and spread. Growers should keep watch for symptoms of this pathogen in their nurseries.

A New Species of Vietnamophryne with an Extended Description of Vietnamophryne orlovi

We describe Vietnamophryne cuongi sp. nov., a new species of microhylid frog from northern Vietnam, based on morphological and molecular differences. Although superficially similar to remaining Vietnamophryne members, the new species differs by a number of diagnostic morphological characters, such as body size, habitus, head dimensions, finger and toe morphology, skin texture, as well as colour pattern. Phylogenetic analyses based on a fragment of the mitochondrial 16S gene place the new species to be sister to V. orlovi, from which it differed by 2.4% genetic divergence. We also describe the first female known of V. orlovi, collected in the forest of Phia Oac-Phia Den National Park, Cao Bang Province. The latter species, for which we provide an extended description herein, was recently described based on the single male type specimen only from the same site in northern Vietnam. Vietnamophryne cuongi sp. nov. is only known from three specimens, two adult females and a juvenile, from the evergreen tropical forest of Ba Vi National Park, Hanoi. As such, it is likely to be at high risk of habitat loss. Considering its high ecological specialization and the small known distribution range of the new species, we propose Endangered as IUCN Red List status.

Notes on Potentilla (Rosaceae) of Altai. 9. A new species from Kuraisky Ridge

Based on morphological characters, a new species Potentilla friesenii collected from alpine belt of Kuraisky Ridge (Altai Mts.) is described. The novelty belongs to Potentilla sect. Chrysanthae; it is most closely related to P. asiatica but differs from the latter by styles not or somewhat widened and smooth to slightly verrucose (vs. always somewhat widened and strongly verrucose) at base as well as the presence of numerous violet glands on sepals. Stability of these differences are confirmed by several years of observation in the wild and in introduction. Illustration of the new species, image of its type specimen, and distribution map are adduced; the area of P. asiatica within Altai Mts. is also presented. A novel morphological feature separating P. asiatica and P. chrysantha is found: staminal ring in P. asiatica (as well as in the new species) is dark violet while it is pale in P. chrysantha. The name P. asiatica is lectotypified.

Upside down: ‘Cryobatrachus’ and the lydekkerinid record from Antarctica

Temnospondyl amphibians are common in non-marine Triassic assemblages, including in the Fremouw Formation (Lower to Middle Triassic) of Antarctica. Temnospondyls were among the first tetrapods to be collected from Antarctica, but their record from the lower Fremouw Formation has long been tenuous. One taxon, ‘Austrobrachyops jenseni,’ is represented by a type specimen comprising only a partial pterygoid, which is now thought to belong to a dicynodont. A second taxon, ‘Cryobatrachus kitchingi,’ is represented by a type specimen comprising a nearly complete skull, but the specimen is only exposed ventrally, and uncertainty over its ontogenetic maturity and some aspects of its anatomy has led it to be designated as a nomen dubium by previous workers. Here, we redescribe the holotype of ‘C. kitchingi,’ an undertaking that is augmented by tomographic analysis. Most of the original interpretations and reconstructions cannot be substantiated, and some are clearly erroneous. Although originally classified as a lydekkerinid, the purported lydekkerinid characteristics are shown to be unfounded or no longer diagnostic for the family. We instead identify numerous features shared with highly immature capitosaurs, a large-bodied clade documented in the upper Fremouw Formation of Antarctica and elsewhere in the Lower Triassic. Additionally, we describe a newly collected partial skull from the lower Fremouw Formation that represents a relatively mature, small-bodied individual, which we provisionally refer to Lydekkerinidae; this specimen represents the most confident identification of a lydekkerinid from Antarctica to date.

An Italian dinosaur Lagerstätte reveals the tempo and mode of hadrosauriform body size evolution

During the latest Cretaceous, the European Archipelago was characterized by highly fragmented landmasses hosting putative dwarfed, insular dinosaurs, claimed as fossil evidence of the “island rule”. The Villaggio del Pescatore quarry (north-eastern Italy) stands as the most informative locality within the palaeo-Mediterranean region and represents the first, multi-individual Konservat-Lagerstätte type dinosaur-bearing locality in Italy. The site is here critically re-evaluated as early Campanian in age, thus preceding the final fragmentation stages of the European Archipelago, including all other European localities preserving hypothesized dwarfed taxa. New skeletal remains allowed osteohistological analyses on the hadrosauroid Tethyshadros insularis indicating subadult features in the type specimen whereas a second, herein newly described, larger individual is likely somatically mature. A phylogenetic comparative framework places the body-size of T. insularis in range with other non-hadrosaurid Eurasian hadrosauroids, rejecting any significant evolutionary trend towards miniaturisation in this clade, confuting its ‘pygmy’ status, and providing unmatched data to infer environmentally-driven body-size trends in Mesozoic dinosaurs.

Updated Checklist of Vascular Plants Endemic to Mongolia

The aim of the present study is to update the checklist of vascular plants endemic to Mongolia using previous checklists, publications, herbarium collections, and field observations. The revised checklist includes 102 endemic taxa (95 species, five subspecies, and two nothospecies) from 43 genera and 19 families. The majority of endemic taxa were distributed in western and central Mongolia, and high endemic species richness was identified in four phytogeographical regions, namely Mongolian Altai, Khangai, Dzungarian Gobi, and Gobi Altai, which harbor 49, 27, 20, and 16 endemic taxa, respectively. For each endemic taxon, we compiled information about growth form, conservation status (if already assessed), phytogeographical distribution, and voucher specimens. Data on each taxon’s type specimen were also collected, and the majority of the type specimens were accessioned at the LE (58 taxa), MW (20 taxa), and UBA (7 taxa) herbaria.

Further notes on the genus Kuzicus Gorochov, 1993 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Meconematinae) with description of one new species from China

In this paper, a new species is proposed, Kuzicus multispinus sp. nov., from China. Images of the new species and distribution map for the genus in China are provided. Type specimen is deposited in the Museum of Hebei University.

The first fossil Coleoptera record from the Volyn Region, Ukraine, with description of a new Glesoconomorphus (Coleoptera, Mycteridae) in syninclusion with Winterschmidtiidae (Acari) and a key to species

Glesoconomorphus ekaterinaesp. nov. (Coleoptera, Mycteridae), representing the first ever fossil species of Coleoptera from the Volyn Region of Ukraine and the first mycterid from late Eocene Rovno amber, is described and illustrated. A key to species of the fossil mycterid genus Glesoconomorphus Alekseev, Pollock & Bukejs, 2019 is presented. The systematic position of Glesoconomorphus within Eurypinae J. Thomson, 1860 is briefly discussed. The oldest finding of phoretic Winterschmidtiidae Oudemans, 1923 mites, found on the type specimen of the new beetle species, is reported.

Revisiting the morphology of the Cretaceous ommatid beetle Clessidromma palmeri (Coleoptera: Archostemata: Ommatidae)

The morphology of Clessidromma palmeri Jarzembowski et al. from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber is revised based on a reexamination of the type specimen. Contrary to previous studies, our observation confirms that Clessidromma has open procoxal cavities. The characters such as platform on the ventral side of head, modified metacoxae, and ridges on head and pronotum are suggested to be diagnostic characters for Clessidromma. Clessidromma zengi Kirejtshuk from the same deposit is transferred into a new genus, as Kirejtomma zengi comb. nov.