More Like this

1. Navigating the Ship of Theseus from typology to cartography

   https://doi.org/10.11646/megataxa.1.1.8  

   LONGINO, JOHN T. (January 2020, Megataxa)

   Taxonomy is the business of describing and naming organismal diversity. What that means exactly must shift as our conceptual framework shifts (as it did during the time of Darwin) and as what we are able to see shifts as a result of technological assists. We are at a moment of profound conceptual and technological change. Here I give some personal thoughts on three top questions in taxonomy. Are traditional naming conventions compatible with massive cryptic genetic discontinuity? Can we agree on what we are delimiting and naming?  Can we excite public interest without typology? 

   more » « less
2. Sabbea gen. nov., a new diatom genus (Bacillariophyta) from continental Antarctica

   https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.418.1.2  

   BISHOP, JORDAN; KOPALOVÁ, KATEŘINA; DARLING, JOSHUA P.; SCHULTE, NICHOLAS O.; KOHLER, TYLER J.; MCMINN, ANDREW; SPAULDING, SARAH A.; MCKNIGHT, DIANE M.; VAN DE VIJVER, BART (September 2019, Phytotaxa)

   The non-marine diatom flora of the Antarctic Continent includes several endemic taxa recorded over the past 100 years. One of these taxa, Navicula adminensis D.Roberts & McMinn, was described from the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica. Detailed light and scanning electron microscopy observations have shown that based on its morphological features, the species does not belong to the genus Navicula sensu stricto. To determine the most closely related genera to N. adminensis, the morphological features of Adlafia, Kobayasiella, Envekadea, Stenoneis, Berkeleya, Climaconeis, and Parlibellus were compared with those of N. adminensis. Although each of these genera shows one or more similar features, none of them accommodates the salient morphological characteristics of N. adminensis. Therefore, a new genus, Sabbea gen. nov., is herein described, and Navicula adminensis is formally transferred to the new genus as Sabbea adminensis comb. nov. The genus Sabbea is characterized by uniseriate striae composed of small, rounded areolae occluded externally by individual hymenes, a rather simple raphe structure with straight, short proximal ends and short terminal raphe fissures, open girdle bands with double perforation and a very shallow mantle. 

   more » « less
3. Four new deep-water flabelligerid species from Pacific Costa Rica (Annelida, Sedentaria, Flabelligeridae)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4885.4.6  

   SALAZAR-VALLEJO, SERGIO I. (November 2020, Zootaxa)

   The discovery of four undescribed flabelligerid species from deep-water in Pacific Costa Rica resulted in the restriction of Diplocirrus Haase, 1915. As currently understood, Diplocirrus and Pherusa Oken, 1807 are separated after their morphological pattern. The species belonging in Diplocirrus have two types of branchiae, poorly developed cephalic cages and multiarticulate neurochaetae, whereas Pherusa species have branchiae of one type, well-developed cephalic cages and completely anchylosed neurochaetae. Benthic sampling and processing usually damage cephalic cages and if chaetae are completely broken, one could regard specimens without them, when they actually have it, but lost after sieving. Sampling using Alvin deep-sea submarine at methane seeps off Costa Rica resulted in some well-preserved specimens, and some of them fall between these two genera because they have well developed cephalic cages, and multiarticulate neurochaetae. Saphobranchia Chamberlin, 1919, with Stylarioides longisetosa von Marenzeller, 1890, as type species, is herein reinstated for some species previously included in Diplocirrus, restricted. The transferred species, including three ones newly described herein, have branchiae of a single type, long cephalic cage and body chaetae, and neurochaetae basally anchylosed and medially and distally articulated; some species currently included in Diplocirrus described from Arctic or deep water sediments are transferred into it. A key to identify all species in Saphobranchia, and another key to identify species in the restricted Diplocirrus are also included. The three new Saphobranchia species are S. canela n. sp., S. ilys n. sp. and S. omorpha n. sp. The fourth species belongs in Lamispina Salazar-Vallejo, 2014, and it is herein described as L. polycerata n. sp. after the presence of some long papillae along anterior margin of chaetiger 1. 

   more » « less
4. Taxonomic study of some Afrotropical erythroneurine leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4860.3.1  

   CAO, YANGHUI; DIETRICH, CHRISTOPHER H.; DMITRIEV, DMITRY A.; ZHANG, YALIN (October 2020, Zootaxa)

   null (Ed.)

   Six Afrotropical genera of the leafhopper tribe Erythroneurini are redescribed and two new genera, Laminaris gen. nov. and Projecta gen. nov. are established. Sixteen new species are described and illustrated: Laminaris angusta sp. nov., Laminaris cuspidatima sp. nov., Laminaris serrata sp. nov., Laminaris tenuis sp. nov., Projecta auriculata sp. nov., Projecta brevis sp. nov., Projecta depressa sp. nov., Projecta draciformis sp. nov., Accacidia obunca sp. nov., Imbecilla bifurca sp. nov., Imbecilla spinalis sp. nov., Lublinia anchoroides sp. nov., Molopopterus hastata sp. nov., Molopopterus ugandica sp. nov., Lamtoana exigua sp. nov. and Nsesa cameroonica sp. nov. Nsesa Dworakowska, 1974 is newly recorded from Cameroon; Nsimbala Dworakowska, 1974 and Szymczakowskia Dworakowska, 1974 from the Central African Republic; Lublinia Dworakowska, 1970, Lamtoana Dworakowska, 1972 and Ivorycoasta Dworakowska, 1972 from the Republic of Congo. Keys to species of the genera Accacidia Dworakowska, Imbecilla Dworakowska, Lublinia Dworakowska, Molopopterus Jacobi, Lamtoana Dworakowska and Nsesa Dworakowska are also given. 

   more » « less
5. A taxonomic revision of the Strumigenys nitens and simulans groups (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), two Caribbean radiations of leaf litter ants

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4656.2.7  

   BOOHER, DOUGLAS B.; PREBUS, MATTHEW; LUBERTAZZI, DAVID (August 2019, Zootaxa)

   In this study, we revise two groups of cryptic leaf litter ants, the Strumigenys nitens and Strumigenys simulans species groups. These two groups are restricted to the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. We redefine the species groups, provide a key for the five species in the S. nitens group, and differentiate the two species in the S. simulans group. Four new species are described: Strumigenys caiman sp. nov., S. economoi sp. nov., S. hubbewatyorum sp. nov., and S. zemi sp. nov. We review and provide a key for the Strumigenys fauna of Hispaniola, which comprises the two endemic species S. economoi and S. zemi, six more broadly distributed Neotropical species, and three pan-tropical “tramp” species. 

   more » « less