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1. Two new species of coastal Atyphella Olliff (Lampyridae: Luciolinae)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4722.3.4  

   SAXTON, NATALIE A.; POWELL, GARETH S.; MARTIN, GAVIN J.; BYBEE, SETH M. (January 2020, Zootaxa)

   null (Ed.)

   Additional work on the islands of Vanuatu has improved our understanding of the actual diversity of South Pacific coastal fireflies. Prior to recent fieldwork in Vanuatu, the only known lampyrid from Vanuatu was Atyphella aphrogeneia (Ballantyne), a coastal species also found in Papua New Guinea. After further examination, we determined that specimens from Vanuatu formerly classified as Atyphella aphrogeneia actually belong to an undescribed species. New species, Atyphella maritimus Saxton and Powell and Atyphella marigenous Saxton and Bybee, are described from specimens collected in Vanuatu. An updated key for coastal Atyphella in the South Pacific is provided. 

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2. 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. 

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3. “Mobilizing Millions of Mollusks of the Eastern Seaboard”: Digitization activities at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium

   Leal, José H; Whitt, Chris (April 2024, Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium)

   Leal, José H (Ed.)

   "Mobilizing Millions of Mollusks of the Eastern Seaboard" (ESB) is a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that improves our knowledge of mollusks from the East and Gulf coasts of the US. The four-year project is making taxonomically vetted, and completely georeferenced occurrence data for 535,000 specimen lots representing 4.5 million specimens available online on the iDigBio, GBIF, and OBIS data aggregators. The ESB region includes 18 states, nearly 6,000 km from Maine to Texas. In the ESB project, 17 major US collections, containing 85% of molluscan holdings from the ESB in all US molluscan collections, are collaborating. The ESB project improves reliability of and access to molluscan collection data for examining changes in distribution, morphology, population size, and genetic variation within and across species. The Museum collection had been digitized (cataloged electronically) at the start of the project (including 21,283 ESB lots); accordingly, the main goals of the project were cleaning data (improving the taxonomy, locality, dates, collecting data) and adding geolocation (geographic coordinates) to these lots. In addition, since the beginning of the project, we digitized an additional 3,897 ESB newly acquired lots consisting of 14,500 specimens. Other achievements are cleaning and standardizing collection metadata for 12,730 lots, adding geolocation data for 23,952 lots and photographing 320 lots. Currently, the total number of ESB lots is 25,180, of which 24,201 have geolocation data. 

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4. Ant type specimens (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the collection of Volodymyr Opanasovych Karawajew. Communication 1. Dorylinae, Poneromorpha and Pseudomyrmecinae

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5244.1.1  

   RADCHENKO, ALEXANDER G.; FISHER, BRIAN L.; ESTEVES, FLAVIA A.; MARTYNOVA, EKATERYNA V.; BAZHENOVA, TATYANA N.; LASARENKO, SVETLANA N. (February 2023, Zootaxa)

   The collection of Volodymyr Opanasovych Karawajew, stored at the Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (SIZK, Kiev), is one of the richest ant collections of the world. It contains more than 20,000 dry mounted specimens, collected mostly in Southeast Asia and the Palaearctic, as well as in the Afrotropics, Australia, and North and South America. Among them, we found type specimens of 509 taxa, described by Karawajew and other myrmecologists. The compiled Catalogue includes data on types of 80 taxa belonging to the subfamilies Dorylinae, Amblyoponinae, Ectatomminae, Ponerinae, Proceratiinae and Pseudomyrmecinae. 

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5. On the diversity of abyssal Dondersiidae (Mollusca: Aplacophora) with the description of a new genus, six new species, and a review of the family

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4933.1.3  

   COBO, M. CARMEN; KOCOT, KEVIN M. (February 2021, Zootaxa)

   null (Ed.)

   So far, of the 292 known species of solenogasters (Mollusca, Aplacophora), 62 belong to the clade Pholidoskepia Salvini-Plawen, 1978. Of these, only two have an abyssal distribution (3500–6000 m depth). Among Pholidoskepia, Dondersiidae Simroth, 1893 is the most diverse family. This study contributes to the knowledge of this family with the description of one new genus and six new species from the abyssal South Atlantic Ocean: Dondersia ? foraminosa sp. n., Nematomenia divae sp. n., Nematomenia brasiliensis sp. n., Nematomenia ? guineana sp. n., Helluoherpia vieiralaneroi sp. n. and Inopinatamenia (gen. n.) calamitosa sp. n. Specimens were collected during DIVA (Latitudinal Gradients of Deep-Sea BioDIVersity in the Atlantic Ocean) expeditions in the Guinea (DIVA 2 Me 63/2, 2005) and Brazil (DIVA 3 Me 79/1, 2008) Basins. Specimens were characterized based primarily on the sclerites and internal anatomy, which was studied using histology. The importance of the radula and mantle sclerites for taxonomy is emphasized. Amended diagnoses for the family and some genera within this family are provided. This contribution increases the described diversity of Dondersiidae to ten genera and 38 species and highlights the need for more study of solenogasters in the deep sea. 

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