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1. The Case for Studying New Viruses of New Hosts

   https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-virology-100220-112915  

   Stenglein, Mark D. (September 2022, Annual Review of Virology)

   Virology has largely focused on viruses that are pathogenic to humans or to the other species that we care most about. There is no doubt that this has been a worthwhile investment. But many transformative advances have been made through the in-depth study of relatively obscure viruses that do not appear on lists of prioritized pathogens. In this review, I highlight the benefits that can accrue from the study of viruses and hosts off the beaten track. I take stock of viral sequence diversity across host taxa as an estimate of the bias that exists in our understanding of host-virus interactions. I describe the gains that have been made through the metagenomic discovery of thousands of new viruses in previously unsampled hosts as well as the limitations of metagenomic surveys. I conclude by suggesting that the study of viruses that naturally infect existing and emerging model organisms represents an opportunity to push virology forward in useful and hard to predict ways. 

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2. New genus and new combination of Deltocephalinae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5200.4.7  

   CAMISÃO, BEATRIZ M.; DIETRICH, CHRISTOPHER H. (October 2022, Zootaxa)

   Based on study of the holotype of Scaphytopius (Tumeus) rubidus DeLong, 1980, it was determined that this species does not belong in any genus of the subfamily Deltocephalinae described so far. To accommodate this species, we describe and illustrate a new genus in the tribe Bahitini, Anavilhanas gen. nov., and propose the new combination, Anavilhanas rubida (DeLong) comb. nov. 

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3. New species of Gehyra (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Papua New Guinea

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5512.2.8  

   KRAUS, FRED (September 2024, Zootaxa)

   I describe four new species of Gehyra from New Guinea and immediately adjacent islands. Two of these are giant species that have long been misassigned to either G. vorax or G. membranacruralis; the other two were previously referred to G. oceanica. Each of the new species has a very circumscribed geographic distribution, with one being known from only a single island, a second from a small portion of southeastern New Guinea and immediately adjacent islands, a third from a small archipelago, and the fourth from foothill forest along the northern versant of eastern New Guinea. Three of these species are found only in the Milne Bay Region of southeastern Papua New Guinea, a region previously identified as having a globally high density of narrow-range endemic reptile and amphibian species. These species provide further extension of that pattern by increasing the number of known endemic herpetofaunal species from that small region to 165. Variation in subcaudal shape is taxonomically useful in Gehyra, but its character-state coding must rely on original tails because aberrant development of subcaudals in some regenerated tails could lead to mischaracterization of this feature.  

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4. New genera and new species of Western Australian cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5174.5.1  

   MOULDS, MAX; MARSHALL, DAVID C. (August 2022, Zootaxa)

   The cicada fauna of Western Australia is briefly reviewed. Six genera and 14 species are recorded from the State for the first time bringing the total of known species and subspecies to 105 and a list of all 105 is provided. Among the taxa here recorded are five new genera and 13 new species belonging to the tribes Macrotristriini (Illyria viridis sp. n.), Pictilini (Chrysocicada trophis sp. n.), and Cicadettini (Calipsalta gen. n., Calipsalta brunnea sp. n., C. fumosa sp. n., C. viridans sp. n., Kalarko gen. n., Kalarko ferruginosus sp. n., Ewartia adusta sp. n., Parvopsalta gen. n., Parvopsalta victoriae sp. n., Pedana gen. n., Pedana hesperia sp. n., Pegapsaltria gen. n., Pegapsaltria lutea sp. n., Pyropsalta amnica sp. n., Py. patula sp. n., and Py. rhythmica sp. n). In addition, Erempsalta hermannsburgensis (Distant, 1907) is redescribed and its presence in Western Australia (and four other States) documented for the first time. Songs are analysed for all species except two species of Pyropsalta where recordings were unavailable. 

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5. Martensopsalis, a new genus of Neopilionidae from New Caledonia (Opiliones: Eupnoi)

   https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4984.1.9  

   GIRIBET, GONZALO; BAKER, CAITLIN M.; BROUSTE, DAMIEN (June 2021, Zootaxa)

   New Caledonia has an endemic opiliofauna with two named species of Triaenonychidae, 17 Troglosironidae and eight Zalmoxidae. The recent finding of Neopilionidae on Grande Terre was thus surprising, and required the formal description of a new genus, which we undertake here. Martensopsalis gen. nov. is characterized by a small unsclerotized body with a unique palp with a pointed basal apophysis on the ventral side of the femur and with a distal apophysis on the prolateral side of the patella. The distinct external morphology, simple penis and unique phylogenetic position justify the erection of the new genus with Martensopsalis dogny spec. nov. as its type species. In addition to the type locality we report several other localities of putative congeneric, yet undescribed species. 

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