Helen’s twins in the Balkans: discovery of two new Paraptychoptera Tonnoir, 1919 species closely related to P. helena Peus, 1958, with systematic revision of the “lacustris” group (Diptera, Ptychopteridae)

Ptychoptera castor Keresztes & Klappert, sp. nov. and P. pollux Keresztes & Török, sp. nov. both belong to the subgenus Ptychoptera (Paraptychoptera)Tonnoir (1919) and are described from boggy headwaters in the south Balkan area. These new species are closely related to the range-restricted P. helena Peus, 1958, which is known only from Oiti village, Mount Oeta, Phthioitis region, Greece and, together with P. lacustris, forms a morphologically well-defined unit in the subgenus Paraptychoptera. Based on cladistic analyses of 53 different morphological characters using the male antenna, wing, and genital structures, a general revision of the “lacustris” group is proposed with a dichotomous key of Paraptychoptera species.

The first dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna, China

The Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna in Northwest China preserves a large number of specimens of the sexually dimorphic pteranodontoid pterosaur Hamipterus tianshanensis, including 3D eggs and embryos. During the last decade, several more fossils have been collected in this area, including three somphospondylan sauropod specimens. The first is Silutitan sinensis gen. et sp. nov., which consists of an articulated middle to posterior cervical vertebrae series. The second, Hamititan xinjiangensis gen. et sp. nov., consists of an incomplete articulated caudal sequence that could be assigned to lithostrotian titanosaurs based on the strongly procoelous caudal vertebrae with lateral concave surface, as well as marked ventrolateral ridges. The third specimen consists of four sacral vertebral elements, apparently unfused, with exposed camellate internal bone and regarded as somphospondylan. Cladistic analyses based on different datasets recovered Silutitan sinensis as an euhelopodid closely related to Euhelopus and Hamititan xinjiangensis as a titanosaur. Besides the pterosaur Hamipterus and one theropod tooth, these dinosaurs are the first vertebrates reported in this region, increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods, further supporting a widespread diversification of somphospondylans during the Early Cretaceous of Asia.

Examining the Needle in the Haystack: Evolutionary Relationships in the Mistletoe Genus Loranthus (Loranthaceae)

Abstract— The genus Loranthus (Loranthaceae) consists of ca. nine Old World species distributed from eastern Asia to Europe. Loranthus, the type of the family, has had a complex taxonomic history that continues today, partly because most mistletoes in the family have resided in this genus. For this reason, there are over 1800 Loranthus species names, the vast majority of which are synonyms for mistletoes in other genera. The present work sampled representatives of nine species considered bona fide members of the genus. Using complete plastome sequences, nuclear ribosomal DNA, and mitochondrial 26S rDNA, phylogenetic gene trees were generated to assess interspecific relationships. The Loranthus plastomes ranged in size from 121 to 125 kb and exhibited the quadripartite structure seen in most Santalales. These plastomes have lost or pseudogenized 24 genes, including all of the NADH dehydrogenase complex, thus reducing the genomes to ca. 90 functional genes. Cladistic analyses of morphological characters were conducted and these trees compared to the molecular trees, thus informing which taxonomic characters best define clades and characterize species within the genus. Two major clades in Loranthus were identified. The Europaeus clade includes the deciduous species L. europaeus, L. grewingkii, L. lambertianus, and L. tanakae mostly distributed above 30° N latitude. The Odoratus clade, mostly distributed below 30° N latitude, included L. guizhouensis, L. kaoi, L. odoratus, and L. pseudo-odoratus. The latter four species are genetically closely related, show percurrent (vs. pseudo-dichotomous) branching, and have evergreen leaves. Unisexual flowers have apparently evolved independently in each of the two clades. Future work should focus upon the species delimitation in the Odoratus clade and whether hybridization is occurring among any members.

Herpetological higher taxa nomina. 6. Gymnophiona Rafinesque, 1814

A taxon, traditionally referred to the rank order, encompassing all recent taxa of caecilians and their close fossil relatives, is highly supported as holophyletic in all recent cladistic analyses of Amphibia. Under the Duplostensional Nomenclatural System, among 12 nomina available in the literature, only one, Gymnophiona Rafinesque, 1814, qualifies as a sozodiaphonym and should be used for this amphibian taxon. We show here that the authorship of this nomen, as well as of 32 other nomina published in 1814, is ‘Rafinesque’, not ‘Rafinesque-Schmaltz’. The nomen Apoda Oppel, 1811, that has often been used for this taxon, proves to be a distagmonym and a junior homonym of Apodes Linnaeus, 1758 and five other distagmonyms, and as such it is invalid under DONS. In total, we identified 34 distinct class-series nomina derived from the stems ἄπους (apous) or Apus in 13 distinct zoological groups, only two of which are valid under DONS Criteria: Apodiformia Wetmore, 1947, for the suborder of Aves currently known as Apodi Wetmore, 1947, and Apodomorpha Sibley, Ahlquist & Monroe, 1988 for the order of Aves currently known as Apodiformes Peters, 1940. Several other nomenclatural findings were made in the course of this study: [1] in the Teleostei, the nomina "Eupercaria" and "Syngnatharia", like all the other new nomina proposed in the paper by Betancur-R. et al. (2017) are anoplonyms and cannot be used as valid; [2] in the Mammalia, the nomina Cetus and Cetacea should be credited to Brisson (1759); [3] in the Holothuroidea, the nomen Apoda Claus, 1868, currently considered valid under the apograph Apodida, is invalid and should be replaced by the nomen Paractinopoda Ludwig, 1891; [4] in the Isopoda, the subordinal nomen Cymothoida Wägele, 1989 should be replaced by its senior synonym Darwinida Lakshminarayana & Rama Rao, 1977.

Revision of the genus Dichaetophora Duda (Diptera: Drosophilidae), part I: DNA bar-coding and molecular phylogenetic reconstruction

The genus Dichaetophora Duda is of 69 formally described, Old World species assigned into five species groups, i.e., agbo, tenuicauda, acutissima, sinensis and trilobita. Most of these species were delimitated morphologically, with the within-genus relationship established largely via cladistic analyses of morphological characters. In the present study, we first conducted species-delimitation with aids of morphological data as well DNA barcodes (nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial COI, i.e., cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, gene), for a huge sample of Dichaetophora and allied taxa (genus Mulgravea and subgenus Dudaica of Drosophila) collected from a wide geographical range. Then, multiple-locus phylogenetic reconstruction was conducted based on elaborate taxon sampling from the known and newly recognized species in the above taxa, with the maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) methods. As a result, 189 species (186 of Dichaetophora, 2 of Mulgravea, and 1 for Dudaica) were newly recognized. In our ML and BI trees, several well-supported species clusters equivalent to the species groups agbo (excluding of neocirricauda), tenuicauda, sinensis (inclusive of neocirricauda) and trilobita of Dichaetophora, were recovered, with the sister-relationship between the third and fourth proved. Other well-supported clusters include 1) a clade comprising of Di. acutissima group and Dudaica, with the former proved to be paraphyletic to the latter; 2) genus Mulgravea; 3) a clade comprising exclusively of newly recognized Dichaetophora species, and was placed as sister to Mulgravea. Three of the remaining five representatives of Dichaetophora species form a solid cluster, leaving the positions of the last two unresolved. The present study greatly renewed out knowledge about the species diversity in a pan-Dichaetophora clade, providing us with an unprecedented historical framework for further taxonomy revision of this clade, and valuable baseline knowledge for future reconstruction of the history of its adaptive diversification in the particular microhabitats.

Discovery of Lebambromyia in Myanmar Cretaceous Amber: Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Implications (Insecta, Diptera, Phoroidea)

Lebambromyia sacculifera sp. nov. is described from Late Cretaceous amber from Myanmar, integrating traditional observation techniques and X-ray phase contrast microtomography. Lebambromyia sacculifera is the second species of Lebambromyia after L. acrai Grimaldi and Cumming, described from Lebanese amber (Early Cretaceous), and the first record of this taxon from Myanmar amber, considerably extending the temporal and geographic range of this genus. The new specimen bears a previously undetected set of phylogenetically relevant characters such as a postpedicel sacculus and a prominent clypeus, which are shared with Ironomyiidae and Eumuscomorpha. Our cladistic analyses confirmed that Lebambromyia represented a distinct monophyletic lineage related to Platypezidae and Ironomyiidae, though its affinities are strongly influenced by the interpretation and coding of the enigmatic set of features characterizing these fossil flies.

Corrections to the spellings of two tribe names in the leafhopper subfamily Ledrinae (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

In 2009, Jones and Deitz published a tribe-level taxonomic revision and reclassification of the cryptic, arboreal leafhopper subfamily Ledrinae Kirschbaum, 1868 (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), based on cladistic analyses of 235 morphological features for 75 cicadellid species. Their evolutionary reconstructions found strong node support for a monophyletic ingroup comprising five lineages—each morphologically and geographically cohesive—and also identified numerous traditionally placed taxa (sensu Oman et al 1990) that did not belong. In light of the robustness of their results, the authors recognized the five independent ingroup clades as tribes of Ledrinae, and described three of these as new.

Evaluating Hypothetical Scenarios of Evolution, Ecology and Adaptation

This chapter discusses how the methods for testing theories of cospeciation are not well suited to test coevolutionary theories of ecological association, adaptation, and more loosely constrained patterns of host association. It is, nonetheless, desirable to evaluate such theories in a rigorous historical context. Indeed, the ability to use the results of cladistic analyses to evaluate ecological and adaptational theories represents a truly powerful application of the method. This area of inquiry has become a standard approach in contemporary phylogenetic research, to the extent that one's chances of publishing a study in a high-profile journal may be diminished if the tree is not couched as a test of such a hypothesis. Within the cladistic framework, two interrelated approaches to evaluating adaptational hypotheses have been proposed: mapping and optimization. The chapter then describes methodological approaches that are best suited to extrinsic data, but which also apply to the optimization of heritable traits that were not part of an analysis. The rationale is based on the desire to provide an independent test of theories about the evolution or association of attributes within individual lineages when there is no straightforward way to produce a hierarchic scheme for those attributes.

Taxonomy and morphology of the skate genus Atlantoraja (Rajiformes: Arhynchobatidae)

The skate genus Atlantoraja is composed of three species (A. castelnaui, A. cyclophora, and A. platana) which differ from the other Riorajini species, Rioraja agassizii, in regards to their clasper features, squamation and presence of a caudal fin. Despite of being distributed along Southwestern Atlantic and commonly captured by fisheries in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, detailed accounts on external and internal morphology are scarce and the taxonomic status of Atlantoraja species was not revised so far. The aim of this study, therefore, is to review the taxonomy of the genus Atlantoraja, updating information on type specimens and clarifying misidentifications among species, and to describe in detail anatomical structures such as neurocranium, visceral arches, pelvic girdle, dermal denticles and teeth. Lectotypes and paralectotypes are designated for Atlantoraja castelnaui and A. cyclophora. Notes on intraspecific variation within species are also provided. Atlantoraja cyclophora and A. platana are more similar to each other than to A. castelnaui in regards to the squamation (body dorsal surface smooth vs. densely covered by prickles) and color pattern of body dorsal surface, position of orbital foramina, overall shape of neucrocranium and body measurements. Lastly, we discuss the morphological differences among species of Atlantoraja and recommend the inclusion of characters presented here in future cladistic analyses.