A new catfish of the genus Trichomycterus from the Rio Paraíba do Sul Basin, south-eastern Brazil, a supposedly migrating species (Siluriformes, Trichomycteridae)

A new species of the catfish genus Trichomycterus is described from the Rio Paraíba do Sul, south-eastern Brazil. This species exhibits some morphological character states that are unique amongst congeners, including a robust opercle and a long interopercle with numerous odontodes (50–60 opercular and 90–100 interopercular), a black bar on the basal portion of the caudal fin and a dark brown flank with a well delimited dorsal yellow stripe. It also exhibits some morphological traits that are uncommon amongst congeners, such as the presence of nine pectoral-fin rays. The presence of a shallow hyomandibular outgrowth and a ventrally expanded pre-opercular ventral flap suggests that this species is closely related to T. melanopygius, T. pradensis and T. tete. The new species also differs from T. melanopygius, T. pradensis and T. tete by having an emarginate caudal fin and a single median supra-orbital pore S6. Anecdotal evidence suggests that T. largoperculatus and T. pradensis have migratory habits, a condition not previously reported for eastern South American trichomycterines.

A new rainfrog of the genus Pristimantis (Anura, Brachycephaloidea) from central and eastern Panama

Substantial molecular and morphological character differences lead us to the description of a new species of the genus Pristimantis from the cloud forest of Cerro Chucantí, Maje Mountains, Darien Province, as well as from several other mountain ranges in eastern and central Panama. Pristimantis gretathunbergaesp. nov. is a sister species to the allopatric P. erythropleura-penelopus group from northern Colombia with a mtDNA sequence divergence of > 4.4% at 16S and > 14.6% at COI. Its closest congener in sympatry is P. cruentus that differs by a large sequence divergence of > 9.6% in 16S mtDNA and 19.0% at COI, and from which it differs also by ventral and groin coloration, unusually prominent black eyes, a contrasting light upper lip, commonly a single conical to spine-like tubercle on the upper eyelid, and a larger head. While the habitat continuity at most sites in eastern Panama is moderate, habitats in central Panama are severely fragmented. Cerro Chucantí and the surrounding Maje Mountains are highly threatened by rapid deforestation and replaced by plantations and cattle pastures. Thus, investigations on the ecology of the new species and its population status, especially at the type locality, are highly recommended. As a flagship species, this new frog can help to preserve the Chucantí cloud forest including several recently described species known only from this isolated area in eastern Panama.

Songs and morphology in three species of the Chorthippus biguttulus group (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Gomphocerinae) in Russia and adjacent countries

Songs and morphology are compared between Chorthippus miramae (Vorontsovsky, 1928) that was previously named as C. porphyropterus and two other closely related species, C. brunneus (Thunberg, 1815) and C. maritimus Mistshenko, 1951. We compare them because the calling song of C. miramae was previously shown to have song elements similar to those of other two species. One morphological character, the length of stridulatory file, appeared to be the best character to distinguish between all three species. For C. maritimus and C. miramae, we present the morphological descriptions since they are absent in the literature. We also establish the synonymy C. maritimus = C. bornhalmi Harz, 1971, syn. n. = C. biguttulus eximius Mistshenko, 1951, syn. n. In the song analysis, we analyse not only the sound but also the leg-movement pattern, which is very helpful to find a homology between various song elements. We show that the calling song of C. miramae usually contains two elements, one element being similar to the C. brunneus calling song, and another – to the C. maritimus calling song. Despite some similarities, the calling song elements in C. miramae have some peculiarities. The courtship song of C. miramae is similar to the C. brunneus song, whereas the rivalry songs of C. miramae comprise both the maritimus-like elements and the unique ones. C. miramae generally demonstrates a richer song repertoire than the other two species.

A new ankylosaurid from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia and implications for paleoecology of armoured dinosaurs

A new ankylosaurid dinosaur, Tarchia tumanovae sp. nov., has been recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. It includes a well-preserved skull, dorsal, sacral, caudal vertebrae, sixteen dorsal ribs, ilia, a partial ischium, free osteoderms, and a tail club. The squamosal horns of T. tumanovae are divided into two layers, the external dermal layer and the underlying squamosal horn proper. The irregular ventral margin of the base of the upper dermal layer may represent a resorption surface, suggesting that the squamosal horns of some ankylosaurids underwent extreme ontogenetic remodeling. Localized pathologies on the dorsosacral ribs and the tail provide evidence of agonistic behaviour. The tail club knob asymmetry of T. tumanovae resulted from restricted bone growth due to tail club strikes. Furthermore, T. tumanovae had an anteriorly protruded shovel-shaped beak, which is a morphological character of selective feeders. Ankylosaurid diets shifted from low-level bulk feeding to selective feeding during the Baruungoyot and the Nemegt “age” (middle Campanian-lower Maastrichtian). This ankylosaurid niche shifting might have been a response to habitat change and competition with other bulk-feeding herbivores.

Redescriptions of six Japanese species of the genus Pulvinaria (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Coccidae) with four new synonymies

Six Japanese species of the genus Pulvinaria Targioni Tozzetti (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha; Coccidae): P. aurantii Cockerell, 1896, P. hazeae Kuwana, 1902, P. idesiae Kuwana, 1914, P. kuwacola Kuwana, 1907, P. nipponica Lindinger, 1933 and P. photiniae Kuwana, 1914, are redescribed and illustrated based on type specimens and some newly collected adult females. In addition, Pulvinaria decorata Borchsenius, 1957 syn. nov. and P. ornata Froggatt, 1921 (nec Hempel, 1912) syn. nov. are proposed as new junior synonyms of P. aurantii, and Pulvinaria fujisana Kanda, 1960 syn. nov. and P. hydrangeae Steinweden, 1946 syn. nov. are proposed as new junior synonyms of P. kuwacola. Lectotypes are designated for P. idesiae, P. nipponica and P. photiniae from the syntypes of these species and, in the absence of any original material, neotypes are designated for P. hazeae and P. kuwacola, respectively, using specimens collected from the type localities. To facilitate comparisons, a table containing diagnostic morphological character states of the redescribed species and the type species of the genus, P. vitis (Linnaeus, 1758), is provided.

Study on different parts of moringa oleifera for treating wastewater

In this study Moringa Oleífera (MO) leaves and pods are utilized for the treatment of Methylene Blue (MB) dye solution. The uptake of pollutants by MO leaves and pods are assessed by varying dosages from 0.01g to 0.1g with different agitation time of 5min to 30 min. From the observed results, the maximum removal (96%) occurs by adding MO leaves at 0.08g dosage at the time period of 15minutes. MO pods removes maximum of 45% at the dosage of 0.1g at 30 minutes. It is found that MO leaves are better in removing organic dye than MO pods. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X Ray (EDX) analysis are carried out to identify the morphological character and elemental composition of the MO leaves and pods. The result shows that the leaves contain more carbon content (33%) than pods (20.3%). Similarly the amount of oxygen is least in leaves thus enhancing the removal of dye particles. The SEM result indicates that the pore development is more in leaves than pods. Finally, Isotherm model was developed for pods and leaves; it is found that MO pods follow Freundlich equation whereas MO leaves follow Langmuir equation.

Morphological characterization of natural orchids Dendrobium spp.

Dendrobium is characterized by long pseudobulbs or canes with soft leaves over the entire length, or in some species short or swollen pseudobulbs with two leathery leaves. The inflorescence is composed from dozens of flowers of different sizes and colors. This study aimed to identify the quantitative morphological character of five species of Dendrobium spp. namely D. mirbelianum, D. lamellatum from Java, D. anosmum from South Kalimantan, D. bracteosum from Papua, and D. purpureum from North Sumatera. The resulted dendrogram based on the similarity matrix were divided into two clusters, among the five species the value of similarity coefficient is 1.50. The first cluster is only composed from D. mirbelianum, the second cluster is D. lamellatum, D. purpureum, D. bracteosum, and D. anosmum which have more distant relationship with the other three orchids. Moreover, D. lamellatum and D. purpureum have the closest similarity coefficient with 0.81 value, which have bigger chance to use as the parents for hybridization. There are many Dendrobiums spp. distribution which based on the relationship area. In addition to quantitative properties, it also needs to be expanded to qualitative, anatomy, cytology, and also molecular characteristic to have more comprehensive data.

Effect of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) Germplasms on the Morphological Characters under Terai Conditions of Uttarakhand

The present study was carried out to find out the effects of the different Germplasms of Jackfruit on its Morphological characters under the Terai Conditions of Uttarakhand. The experiment was conducted in Plot No.6, HRC, Patharchatta at GBPUA and T, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand. In this experiment a screening of 10 Germplasms of Jackfruit widely found around the Terai areas of Uttarakhand was done through a Randomized Block design consisting of 10 treatments and 3 replications. The treatments being the 10 Germplasms labelled from 1 to 10 planted in rows. It was observed in the study that regarding the morphological characters Jackfruit Germplasm-6 and Jackfruit Germplasm-8 were found to be of short stature, with a spreading habit. Further, it can be concluded that there was significant variation in morphological character of various germplasm of Jackfruit. Among the various germplasm; Jackfruit Germplasm-6 and Jackfruit Germplasm-8 were found to be superior as compared to others in dwarfness, spreading and yield.

Phylogenetic Position of the Genus Alulacris (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae: Podismini) Revealed by Complete Mitogenome Evidence

Whole mitogenomes are a useful data source for a wide variety of research goals due to the vastly cheaper sequencing cost and the far less demanding high-quality templates. The mitogenome has demonstrated great potential in resolving phylogenetic questions in Orthoptera at different taxonomic scales as well as exploring patterns of molecular and morphological character evolutions. In this study, the complete mitogenome of Alulacris shilinensis (Zheng, 1977) was sequenced using next-generation sequencing, the characteristics of the mitogenome are presented briefly, and the phylogeny of the Melanoplinae and Catantopinae was reconstructed using a selected dataset of mitogenome sequences under maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference frameworks. The results show that the genus was consistently assigned to the subfamily Melanoplinae rather than Catantopinae in all phylogenetic trees deduced from different datasets under different frameworks, and this finding is entirely consistent with its morphological characters. Therefore, it is more appropriate to place the genus Alulacris in Melanoplinae rather than in Catantopinae.

Studies in the Basidiodendron caesiocinereum complex (Auriculariales, Basidiomycota)

Taxonomy of Basidiodendron caesiocinereum complex is revised based on morphological and molecular methods (with the use of nc LSU rDNA, ITS and TEF1 regions). The basidiospore ornamentation is justified as a key morphological character for the species recognition in the group. As redefined here, B. caesiocinereum is an angiosperm-dwelling species with smooth basidiospores. Bourdotia cinerella and B. cinerella var. trachyspora are proved to represent separate species with warted basidiospores; they are reintroduced as Basidiodendron cinerellum and B. trachysporum. Additionally, eight new species related to B. caesiocinereum are described based on material from Eurasia, North America and Africa, and identity of B. spinosum from Oceania is discussed.