Invertebrate Systematics最新文献

Since the Eocene the Australian continent has experienced a long history of climatic and biotic change, resulting in evolutionary diversification among numerous old endemic lineages. Spiny trapdoor spiders of the family Idiopidae are one such group, with previous evidence for three independent incursions into the Australian arid zone from temperate mesic ancestors, leading to subsequence range expansion and diversification in those lineages. One of these arid zone incursions occurred in the genus Blakistonia Hogg, 1902, which ranges widely across much of southern, central and temperate mainland Australia. In this study, we undertake a detailed analysis of Blakistonia phylogeny and biogeography, to elucidate the interrelationships among species, and explore patterns of biogeography across the mesic and arid zones of temperate Australia. We employ a more comprehensive sampling of taxa and a seven-gene molecular dataset to generate a robust phylogeny, thus building upon previous revisionary works and continent-wide biogeographic studies of other mygalomorph spider genera. We recovered three major species-complexes within Blakistonia, one species-poor complex restricted to the temperate mesic zone, and two much more diverse complexes widely distributed through transitional and arid regions of southern Australia. Diversification of arid-adapted clades commenced in the late Miocene, commensurate with the climatic expansion of the arid zone during the Plio-Pleistocene. Our results further highlight the biogeographic utility of spiny trapdoor spiders for testing patterns of arid zone diversification, and reveal a complex history of speciation in a previously poorly known group.

Ooperipatellus Ruhberg, 1985 is a genus of egg-laying Onychophoran (velvet worm) known from Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand). To date, velvet worm systematics and taxonomy has largely utilized either morphological, single locus molecular data, or a combination of the two. Here, focusing on the Australian Ooperipatellus, we generate a large dataset via hybrid target enrichment of ultraconserved elements (UCEs) and for the first time in Onychophora, demonstrate the utility of such data for delimiting species. Through applying machine learning-based approaches to our UCE data, we uncover several cryptic species on Lutruwita (Tasmania). This work provides an overview of Australian Ooperipatellus diversity, species distributions, and their taxonomic history. As a result of our analyses, we provide descriptions for three new species, Ooperipatellus mathinnae Lord & Giribet, sp. nov., Ooperipatellus notus Lord & Giribet, sp. nov., and Ooperipatellus cynocephalus Lord & Giribet, sp. nov., and evidence for synonymizing two currently described species: Ooperipatellus nickmayeri Oliveira & Mayer, 2017 is here considered a junior synonym of Ooperipatellus spenceri (Cockerell, 1913b), new synonymy. The apparent overlapping geographic distributions of Tasmanian species uncovered in this study do not support the assumption that all velvet worms are typically point endemics with discrete distributions as suggested for species in several other regions of the world. These results suggest that the Tasmanian biota merits greater examination to discern if similar biogeographic patterns are also seen in other taxa on this island, or if this pattern is unique to this group.

Palm bugs are an elusive group of true bugs, replete with conundrums, such as living fossils, transoceanic disjunctions, rarity, palm associations, and autapomorphic morphology. Knowledge of the group is historically slim, up until the recent documentation of a flux of new species in both the southwest Pacific and the Neotropical region. In this work we present the first palm bug from continental Australia, restricted to the wet tropics of Queensland. This taxon, Austrodiscocoris monteithi gen. nov. et sp. nov., is described, as is its specialist association with the widespread Alexandra Palm species, Archontophoenix alexandrae. This new species shares characters with both southwest Pacific xylastodorines as well as species of the Western Hemisphere genus Discocoris. To determine its systematic position we report on fine scale morphological observations, using optical and scanning microscopy, as well as X-ray tomography (= micro-CT), with the latter employed for the first time to disclose the internal anatomy of the reproductive systems of both sexes. This information is in part incorporated in an extended phylogenetic analysis of the subfamily Xylastodorinae, for two data partitions: 1) Complete taxon partition: all Recent plus fossil taxa (n=39) and 2) Trimmed taxon partition: recent taxa with sufficient data coverage (n=29). The results verify a highly supported Thaumastocoridae and the two included subfamilies. Austrodiscocoris monteithi is imbedded in a clade that includes the Neotropical genera Discocoris and Xylastotylus. Separately, the Norfolk Island species Latebracoris norfolcensis is in a well-supported clade that includes the Neotropical genus Neolatebracoris and the Oriental genus Thaicoris. The work provides a rediagnosis of the subfamily and diagnostic key to all xylastodorine genera past and present. It concludes with a discussion on further puzzles on palm bug-palm associations, biogeographic implications, and the value of micro-CT in the search for new character systems in the suborder Heteroptera.

The wishbone spiders of the genus Aname L. Koch, 1873 are highly diverse mygalomorph trapdoor spiders with an extremely widespread distribution across continental mainland Australia. In this study we use an integrative approach, providing morphological and molecular data combined with natural history information, to address a taxonomic knowledge shortfall in the Northern Jarrah Forest subregion of south-western Western Australia. We here report the presence of at least two different clades in the area: the pulchella group and the mainae group. We describe six new species for the region, belonging to the newly defined 'A. spicata-complex' of the pulchella group: A. crassitibia sp. nov., A. inexpecta sp. nov., A. minuta sp. nov., A. reliquia sp. nov., A. spicata sp. nov. and A. trapezoidalis sp. nov. We also designate A. fuscocincta Rainbow & Pulleine, 1918 as a nomen dubium, the holotype being an unidentifiable juvenile. These findings expand our understanding of the diversity and distribution of Aname in the south-western Australian biodiversity hotspot and serve as a foundation for future, more comprehensive studies in the region. Given the ongoing resource extraction activities in the area, this work will also be important for environmental monitoring and conservation purposes.

The Australian wishbone spider genus Aname is perhaps the most diverse mygalomorph spider genus in the world, with an estimated 300 species distributed across the Australian mainland. In this study, we use extensive morphological and molecular datasets to revise the 'mellosa-complex', a clade of Western Australian species that are recognisable due to their distinctive morphology and characteristic 'hooded' burrow entrances. We delimit 25 species, including the nominal species A. mellosa Harvey, Framenau, Wojcieszek, Rix & Harvey, 2012, and 24 newly described species: A. amabilis sp. nov., A. arenicosta sp. nov., A. auromellosa sp. nov., A. boreoarca sp. nov., A. charlesdarwini sp. nov., A. cowani sp. nov., A. dimissa sp. nov., A. eowilsoni sp. nov., A. eurarca sp. nov., A. geminata sp. nov., A. isabelae sp. nov., A. jillae sp. nov., A. kaii sp. nov., A. nacta sp. nov., A. primarena sp. nov., A. prospecta sp. nov., A. sangeri sp. nov., A. senticosa sp. nov., A. simplex sp. nov., A. tacenda sp. nov., A. taracta sp. nov., A. terminata sp. nov., A. wanjarri sp. nov. and A. zephyrarca sp. nov. The mellosa-complex is endemic to xeric habitats north of the mulga-eucalypt line in Western Australia and comprises three distinct clades with largely non-overlapping distributions: the amabilis species-group, the charlesdarwini species-group and the mellosa species-group. Species in this complex, particularly those in the mellosa species-group, are morphologically cryptic. To ensure accurate identification, we provide molecular diagnoses and sequence data for all 23 species for which nucleotide data are available, totalling 429 sequenced specimens across the entire complex. These findings expand our understanding of the diversity and distributions of Aname species in Western Australia and, given the occurrence of many taxa in the resource-rich Pilbara bioregion, will be important for accurate Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B06C4B97-BC71-46B4-840D-A7D78C393F99.

Even though it is one of the most studied marine regions in the world, the biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea is still incompletely characterised. In this study, we explore the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the porcelain crab genus Pisidia in the Atlanto-Mediterranean Province, where it has undergone a complex taxonomic history resulting in identification confusion and synonymisation. Through an integrated study using a multilocus phylogeny based on two mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes, haplotype networks, alongside a morphological analysis and 3-D renderings of micro-CT X-ray images, we investigate the diversification patterns of species complexes in the region. As a result, we have identified five distinct lineages that correspond to presumed species of Pisidia in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, each well-differentiated by both molecular and morphological characteristics. Our time-divergence analyses suggest that interspecific diversification occurred during the Miocene, whereas intraspecific diversification took place during the Pleistocene. Paleoclimatic and paleogeographic events, such as the Messinian Salinity Crisis and the Pleistocene glacial cycles, played a significant role in the evolution of Pisidia in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic. Additionally, we found species sympatry in several locations in the western Mediterranean, which may explain the long-standing taxonomic debate arising from the coexistence of morphologically distinct species that were previously assumed to be conspecific.

Conservation management in ancient landscapes has shifted in recent years from the protection of single species to the broader management of areas of high biodiversity. One of the landscapes that has most benefited from this shift is the south-west of Western Australia, an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot and one of the oldest and most stable landscapes on Earth. Significant progress has been made in recent years to identify refugia in the south-west and prioritise them for invertebrate protection but more studies are still needed to assist practical conservation management. Here, we describe a new genus of pseudoscorpions from south-western Australia (Pseudoscorpiones: Pseudotyrannochthoniidae: Karrichthonius gen. nov. ) that has speciated extensively within mesic refugia. Karrichthonius is endemic to the High Rainfall Province of the biodiversity hotspot and features often-localised populations in spatially isolated mesic habitats. Through a combination of DNA barcoding, morphological features and spatial mapping, we infer 12 species: Karrichthonius giganteus (Beier, 1971) comb. nov. , K. booraraensis , sp. nov. , K. buzattoi , sp. nov. , K. dalei , sp. nov. , K. farquhari , sp. nov. , K. heatherae , sp. nov. , K. leniae , sp. nov. , K. porongurupensis , sp. nov. , K. pyungurupensis , sp. nov ., K. rixi , sp. nov. , K. talyuberlupensis , sp. nov. and K. toolbrunupensis , sp. nov . All species are short-range endemics and occur in landforms that are either known refugia for invertebrate conservation or inferred here as potential refugia to be recognised and analysed further. By mapping species distributions and providing species diagnoses, we contribute to an understanding of invertebrate biodiversity in the south-west, and strengthen the concepts that are underlying conservation management practices in biodiversity hotspots. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EC51BFC7-0C8E-49D6-A704-DA59648B2325.

Phylogenetic analysis of the family Chlorogomphidae was carried out using two nuclear markers, the ITS and histone H3-H4 regions, and a barcoding fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene, using sequences obtained in this study and adopted from GenBank. Their joint analysis was performed using StarBEAST software. In total, 36 (64%) of 56 species of all three genera currently recognised in this family were analysed. Our analysis showed Chlorogomphidae as a monotypic family containing the single speciose genus Chlorogomphus Selys, 1854. Chlorogomphus montanus Chao, 1999, syn. nov., is synonymised to Chlorogomphus nasutus Needham, 1930, Chlorogomphus urolobatus Chen, 1950, syn. nov., is synonymised to Chlorogomphus infuscatus Needham, 1930. The synonymy of Chlorogomphus suzukii Oguma, 1926 and Chlorogomphus tunti Needham, 1930 is confirmed. Some other potential synonyms are discussed. The phylogenetic trees reconstructed here showed that the species name C. nasutus Needham, 1930 actually refers to two (not three) different taxa. Thus, we suggest considering these two taxa as separate species, C. nasutus and C. satoi Asahina, 1995. ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5188C826-AD51-4605-8B06-3C63DE80F1F0.

Pseudoscorpions are an ancient arachnid group with a fossil record that extends to the Devonian, with all modern families having likely evolved during the Mesozoic. One of the rarest pseudoscorpion families, Menthidae, is sporadically distributed around the world, and ever since its description has been included in the superfamily Garypoidea. Based on new Sanger sequencing and phylotranscriptomic data, Menthidae are inferred to be a member of the superfamily Neobisioidea, and the sister-group to a clade that includes Gymnobisiidae, Neobisiidae and some Syarinidae.