I N the prologue of his Virginia: A History of the People, Cooke (1883: 479) wrote of the people of the Old Dominion, as the Commonwealth of Virginia is affectionately known, and their ‘‘cordial instincts, and spirit of courtesy and hospitality. . .’’ The following year, in an essay written for Macmillan’s Magazine, Bradley (1884: 432), an English expatriate who lived for a time in Virginia, wrote from his experience that the so-called Virginian ‘‘is very fond and proud of his own State. . . Wherever he goes he is always a Virginian. . .’’ (this article, it should be noted, was soundly criticized by noted ichthyologist G. Brown Goode in his own discussion of the character of Virginians in the context of his genealogy; Goode, 1887). Indeed, the modern concept of the Virginia Gentleman traces its roots to the Colonial period of the United States of America, and conjures individuals that seek ‘‘to attain qualities of fortitude, temperance, prudence, justice, liberality, and courtesy’’ (Watson, 2019). Although there is much to this concept (and not all flattering, having been associated with the history of slavery during the antebellum era; Watson, 2019), the term does evoke a certain notion of nobility and gentility. All of the aforementioned traits describing the romanticized concept of a Virginian were embodied in Joe Mitchell, who demonstrated the traits of generosity and courtesy, and pride in his home state of Virginia. Joe’s life was tragically cut short on July 2, 2019 in a traffic accident while he was attempting to recover an item that had blown from the back of his truck. However, Joe’s legacy will live on and, based on the eulogies offered by colleagues and friends through emails, social media, the Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NEPARC, New Jersey), Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA, Arizona), and at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) that took place in Snowbird, Utah not three weeks following his death (and that he was looking forward to attending), it is clear that Joe was a Virginia gentleman and touched the lives of many herpetologists, natural historians, and friends through his quiet, courteous demeanor. Joseph Calvin Mitchell was born August 16, 1948 to Calvin and Kathleen Mitchell (Fig. 1) in Bedford, Virginia, near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains (many details of Joe’s life that are recounted in this obituary, and all quotes from Joe, come from Joe’s autobiography; Mitchell, 2019). He had a sister, Susan Johnson, and two brothers, Ronnie and Allen Mitchell. Joe was a loving father to his four children, Tanya Shewmake (with his first wife Virginia Talley), Joshua, Justin, and Lisa Mitchell (with his second wife Wendy Hoilman), and his grandchildren, Allison and James Shewmake (Fig. 2). Joe married Susan Walls (Fig. 3), a herpetologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Gainesville, Florida, in 2006. It was after Joe and Susan were married that he moved from his home in Richmond, Vi
{"title":"Joseph C. Mitchell (1948–2019): Herpetologist and Natural Historian of the Old Dominion","authors":"E. Hilton, A. Bauer, K. Buhlmann, C. K. Dodd","doi":"10.1643/OT-19-331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1643/OT-19-331","url":null,"abstract":"I N the prologue of his Virginia: A History of the People, Cooke (1883: 479) wrote of the people of the Old Dominion, as the Commonwealth of Virginia is affectionately known, and their ‘‘cordial instincts, and spirit of courtesy and hospitality. . .’’ The following year, in an essay written for Macmillan’s Magazine, Bradley (1884: 432), an English expatriate who lived for a time in Virginia, wrote from his experience that the so-called Virginian ‘‘is very fond and proud of his own State. . . Wherever he goes he is always a Virginian. . .’’ (this article, it should be noted, was soundly criticized by noted ichthyologist G. Brown Goode in his own discussion of the character of Virginians in the context of his genealogy; Goode, 1887). Indeed, the modern concept of the Virginia Gentleman traces its roots to the Colonial period of the United States of America, and conjures individuals that seek ‘‘to attain qualities of fortitude, temperance, prudence, justice, liberality, and courtesy’’ (Watson, 2019). Although there is much to this concept (and not all flattering, having been associated with the history of slavery during the antebellum era; Watson, 2019), the term does evoke a certain notion of nobility and gentility. All of the aforementioned traits describing the romanticized concept of a Virginian were embodied in Joe Mitchell, who demonstrated the traits of generosity and courtesy, and pride in his home state of Virginia. Joe’s life was tragically cut short on July 2, 2019 in a traffic accident while he was attempting to recover an item that had blown from the back of his truck. However, Joe’s legacy will live on and, based on the eulogies offered by colleagues and friends through emails, social media, the Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NEPARC, New Jersey), Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA, Arizona), and at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) that took place in Snowbird, Utah not three weeks following his death (and that he was looking forward to attending), it is clear that Joe was a Virginia gentleman and touched the lives of many herpetologists, natural historians, and friends through his quiet, courteous demeanor. Joseph Calvin Mitchell was born August 16, 1948 to Calvin and Kathleen Mitchell (Fig. 1) in Bedford, Virginia, near Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains (many details of Joe’s life that are recounted in this obituary, and all quotes from Joe, come from Joe’s autobiography; Mitchell, 2019). He had a sister, Susan Johnson, and two brothers, Ronnie and Allen Mitchell. Joe was a loving father to his four children, Tanya Shewmake (with his first wife Virginia Talley), Joshua, Justin, and Lisa Mitchell (with his second wife Wendy Hoilman), and his grandchildren, Allison and James Shewmake (Fig. 2). Joe married Susan Walls (Fig. 3), a herpetologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Gainesville, Florida, in 2006. It was after Joe and Susan were married that he moved from his home in Richmond, Vi","PeriodicalId":10701,"journal":{"name":"Copeia","volume":"108 1","pages":"188 - 194"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49143023","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Robert Gordon Jaeger","authors":"C. Gabor, C. D. Anthony","doi":"10.1643/ct2020021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1643/ct2020021","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10701,"journal":{"name":"Copeia","volume":"108 1","pages":"184 - 187"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46797136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Information about the life history of larval fishes can be sparse, especially at the edges of typical geographic ranges and among fishes for which there is no commercial fishery. We report a new observation of larval Arctic Shanny (Stichaeus punctatus) far south of their typical geographic range in the western North Atlantic. Only two previous records of adult of S. punctatus have been documented in this region, and there has only been one previous report of larvae in US Atlantic waters. From May through July 2018, we observed large numbers of larval S. punctatus by night-lighting off a dock at Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, Maine, in the Gulf of Maine. We include approximations of catch per unit effort (number of larvae per ten-minute sampling interval) throughout the sampling period and information regarding identifying features. The high number of larvae seen could indicate that the Isles of Shoals is a spawning locality for this species and could indicate a future increase in their abundance in the southern Gulf of Maine.
{"title":"Observation of Abundant Larval Arctic Shanny (Stichaeus punctatus) in the Western North Atlantic, Found in the Waters of the Isles of Shoals, Maine, USA","authors":"Jessica A. Ohrenberger, J. Bolker, S. Farina","doi":"10.1643/CI-19-227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1643/CI-19-227","url":null,"abstract":"Information about the life history of larval fishes can be sparse, especially at the edges of typical geographic ranges and among fishes for which there is no commercial fishery. We report a new observation of larval Arctic Shanny (Stichaeus punctatus) far south of their typical geographic range in the western North Atlantic. Only two previous records of adult of S. punctatus have been documented in this region, and there has only been one previous report of larvae in US Atlantic waters. From May through July 2018, we observed large numbers of larval S. punctatus by night-lighting off a dock at Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, Maine, in the Gulf of Maine. We include approximations of catch per unit effort (number of larvae per ten-minute sampling interval) throughout the sampling period and information regarding identifying features. The high number of larvae seen could indicate that the Isles of Shoals is a spawning locality for this species and could indicate a future increase in their abundance in the southern Gulf of Maine.","PeriodicalId":10701,"journal":{"name":"Copeia","volume":"108 1","pages":"163 - 165"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1643/CI-19-227","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47852872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We describe two new cryptic species of Bufo within the subgenus Anaxyrus discovered in Central Nevada of the western United States. Our analyses revealed that these two localized endemic toads are genetically divergent and morphologically distinct, yet were concealed under the range of the broadly distributed western toad (Bufo boreas), which occurs throughout Nevada. The newly discovered species are close in geographic proximity to each other (albeit, in different hydrological basins) but have evolved unique morphological characters that are distinct from each other and distinctive from all allied taxa within the B. boreas species complex. The delimiting of these two rare toads emphasizes the link between taxonomic crypsis and inadequate conservation as these newly described species are vulnerable to extinction due to severely restricted geographic ranges, unknown population sizes, and dependency on rare, fragile wetland habitat, which is a limited resource within Nevada, the primary state that makes up the arid Great Basin. These two endemics join the Great Basin B. boreas species complex as imperiled new members, and our study demonstrates that our knowledge of anuran diversity is incomplete and that new discoveries can still be made, even in unlikely settings.
{"title":"Two New Cryptic Endemic Toads of Bufo Discovered in Central Nevada, Western United States (Amphibia: Bufonidae: Bufo [Anaxyrus])","authors":"M. Gordon, E. T. Simandle, F. Sandmeier, C. Tracy","doi":"10.1643/CH-18-086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1643/CH-18-086","url":null,"abstract":"We describe two new cryptic species of Bufo within the subgenus Anaxyrus discovered in Central Nevada of the western United States. Our analyses revealed that these two localized endemic toads are genetically divergent and morphologically distinct, yet were concealed under the range of the broadly distributed western toad (Bufo boreas), which occurs throughout Nevada. The newly discovered species are close in geographic proximity to each other (albeit, in different hydrological basins) but have evolved unique morphological characters that are distinct from each other and distinctive from all allied taxa within the B. boreas species complex. The delimiting of these two rare toads emphasizes the link between taxonomic crypsis and inadequate conservation as these newly described species are vulnerable to extinction due to severely restricted geographic ranges, unknown population sizes, and dependency on rare, fragile wetland habitat, which is a limited resource within Nevada, the primary state that makes up the arid Great Basin. These two endemics join the Great Basin B. boreas species complex as imperiled new members, and our study demonstrates that our knowledge of anuran diversity is incomplete and that new discoveries can still be made, even in unlikely settings.","PeriodicalId":10701,"journal":{"name":"Copeia","volume":"108 1","pages":"166 - 183"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43029110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Brian J. Tornabene, Troy W. Smith, A. Tews, Robert P. Beattie, W. Gardner, L. Eby
Riverine fishes are sensitive to human-induced changes to their ecosystems and have experienced substantial declines in the past century. The presence and operation of dams modifies natural flow regimes thereby disrupting cues that signal migration and negatively influencing habitats critical to riverine fishes. Blue Suckers (Cycleptus elongatus) make large annual movements, require large and unfragmented reaches of river, and may be sensitive to modifications of cues that initiate migration. We assessed the influence of individual and abiotic factors on home ranges and movements of 62 transmittered Blue Suckers from 2006–2014 in the Missouri River upstream of Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana. Populations in this area are disjunct from those downstream and are influenced by upstream dam regulation. Blue Suckers used large expanses of river with overall home ranges ∼88 river kilometers, but these home ranges were about two times smaller than reported elsewhere. Increasing discharge and water temperature were associated with movement rate and movement probability and cued spawning movements of Blue Suckers. Movement rates increased with discharge to peak and decreased thereafter. Surprisingly, movement rate and probability were highest at the lowest water temperatures we observed (∼1–5°C) unlike previous studies in other systems when peak movement occurred at ≥10°C. Blue Suckers aggregated and showed interannual fidelity to several locations during spawning. Aggregation and fidelity suggest that optimal spawning areas, which exist in tributaries, may be limited within our study area. Our results support evidence that riverine fishes require natural trends in discharge and water temperature, including occasional flood pulses and connectivity among seasonal habitats. The Upper Missouri River retains pseudo-natural discharge and temperature regimes that elicit responses of Blue Sucker to environmental cues, but other rivers may not. Preserving or restoring these features, and entire riverscapes, would maintain natural environmental cues and habitats required by riverine fishes to complete their life histories.
{"title":"Trends in River Discharge and Water Temperature Cue Spawning Movements of Blue Sucker, Cycleptus elongatus, in an Impounded Great Plains River","authors":"Brian J. Tornabene, Troy W. Smith, A. Tews, Robert P. Beattie, W. Gardner, L. Eby","doi":"10.1643/CI-19-256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1643/CI-19-256","url":null,"abstract":"Riverine fishes are sensitive to human-induced changes to their ecosystems and have experienced substantial declines in the past century. The presence and operation of dams modifies natural flow regimes thereby disrupting cues that signal migration and negatively influencing habitats critical to riverine fishes. Blue Suckers (Cycleptus elongatus) make large annual movements, require large and unfragmented reaches of river, and may be sensitive to modifications of cues that initiate migration. We assessed the influence of individual and abiotic factors on home ranges and movements of 62 transmittered Blue Suckers from 2006–2014 in the Missouri River upstream of Fort Peck Reservoir in Montana. Populations in this area are disjunct from those downstream and are influenced by upstream dam regulation. Blue Suckers used large expanses of river with overall home ranges ∼88 river kilometers, but these home ranges were about two times smaller than reported elsewhere. Increasing discharge and water temperature were associated with movement rate and movement probability and cued spawning movements of Blue Suckers. Movement rates increased with discharge to peak and decreased thereafter. Surprisingly, movement rate and probability were highest at the lowest water temperatures we observed (∼1–5°C) unlike previous studies in other systems when peak movement occurred at ≥10°C. Blue Suckers aggregated and showed interannual fidelity to several locations during spawning. Aggregation and fidelity suggest that optimal spawning areas, which exist in tributaries, may be limited within our study area. Our results support evidence that riverine fishes require natural trends in discharge and water temperature, including occasional flood pulses and connectivity among seasonal habitats. The Upper Missouri River retains pseudo-natural discharge and temperature regimes that elicit responses of Blue Sucker to environmental cues, but other rivers may not. Preserving or restoring these features, and entire riverscapes, would maintain natural environmental cues and habitats required by riverine fishes to complete their life histories.","PeriodicalId":10701,"journal":{"name":"Copeia","volume":"108 1","pages":"151 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48839802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Traci D. Castellón, C. Anderson, B. B. Rothermel, Jennifer L. Beck
In southern Florida, Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) occupy mesic flatwoods and Florida scrub communities where habitat and climatic conditions differ from other portions of the species' range. Both of these habitats appear suboptimal for tortoises due to saturated soils in mesic flatwoods and low forage abundance in scrub. Nonetheless, these habitats support large numbers of tortoises in southern Florida, albeit at low intensities. We assessed influences of elevation and microtopography on the spatial distributions of tortoise burrows and examined burrow use patterns within six sites at Avon Park Air Force Range in south-central Florida. The six sites differed in dominant soil types and vegetation communities, allowing comparisons of burrow distributions among mesic flatwoods, Florida scrub, and mixed flatwoods-scrub habitats (two replicate sites each). Point-process modeling identified significant influences of microtopography on burrow intensities that superseded the effects of site-wide elevation trends in five of the six sites. The effects of microtopography were most pronounced in flatwoods, suggesting greater reliance on areas of slightly higher elevation in mesic habitat, presumably in response to saturated soils and frequent flooding. Burrow use patterns during an exceedingly wet year also suggested that tortoises respond behaviorally to unsuitable hydrology by moving frequently among burrows that were flooded with groundwater. Microtopographic variation may be an important predictor of small-scale habitat use for fossorial reptiles, especially in mesic soils, which could be readily explored using increasingly available LiDAR-derived elevation data combined with the modeling approach demonstrated here.
{"title":"Differential Effects of Elevation and Microtopography on Gopher Tortoise Burrow Distributions in Southern Florida","authors":"Traci D. Castellón, C. Anderson, B. B. Rothermel, Jennifer L. Beck","doi":"10.1643/CH-19-228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1643/CH-19-228","url":null,"abstract":"In southern Florida, Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) occupy mesic flatwoods and Florida scrub communities where habitat and climatic conditions differ from other portions of the species' range. Both of these habitats appear suboptimal for tortoises due to saturated soils in mesic flatwoods and low forage abundance in scrub. Nonetheless, these habitats support large numbers of tortoises in southern Florida, albeit at low intensities. We assessed influences of elevation and microtopography on the spatial distributions of tortoise burrows and examined burrow use patterns within six sites at Avon Park Air Force Range in south-central Florida. The six sites differed in dominant soil types and vegetation communities, allowing comparisons of burrow distributions among mesic flatwoods, Florida scrub, and mixed flatwoods-scrub habitats (two replicate sites each). Point-process modeling identified significant influences of microtopography on burrow intensities that superseded the effects of site-wide elevation trends in five of the six sites. The effects of microtopography were most pronounced in flatwoods, suggesting greater reliance on areas of slightly higher elevation in mesic habitat, presumably in response to saturated soils and frequent flooding. Burrow use patterns during an exceedingly wet year also suggested that tortoises respond behaviorally to unsuitable hydrology by moving frequently among burrows that were flooded with groundwater. Microtopographic variation may be an important predictor of small-scale habitat use for fossorial reptiles, especially in mesic soils, which could be readily explored using increasingly available LiDAR-derived elevation data combined with the modeling approach demonstrated here.","PeriodicalId":10701,"journal":{"name":"Copeia","volume":"108 1","pages":"140 - 150"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2020-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1643/CH-19-228","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42858175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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