Biodiversity Data Journal最新文献

Background: Historical collections of herbaria and literature play a crucial role in documenting biodiversity information. The botanical biodiversity of northern Asia is significantly understudied compared to other regions of China and Japan. In particular, the biodiversity patterns in China's three north-eastern provinces, North Korea and the Russian Far East remain poorly understood, with substantial gaps when compared to the records of species distributions in Japan, South Korea and inland China. The Komarov data, orginally written in Russian, required extensive efforts to georeference the 130-year-old Chinese and North Korean place names to their modern equivalents and translate historical names to their current forms. This study aims to restore the Komarov data, including both specimen records and occurrence data, to assist the broader scientific and environmental community in recovering key biodiversity data from the past of northeast Asia. The impetus for this work was the need to assign geographic coordinates to plant specimens collected in the region and to V.L. Komarov's observations as primary occurrence data from 1895 to 1897.

New information: In this study, we present historical occurrence data obtained from the north-eastern Asian plant expedition carried out from 1895 to 1897 by V.L. Komarov in Far-Eastern Russia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, the eastern region of Liaoning in China and the northern region of Korea. The occurrences were georeferenced to more than 350 sites in Russia, China and Korea. All occurrences were georeferenced and species names were cross-checked and taxonomically updated using our own Asian plant checklist. The dataset consists of 21,114 primary occurrence records, comprising 6,956 specimens and 14,158 observation records. The outcome clearly shows that such initiatives can reveal an unexpected amount of highly valuable biodiversity information for "data-poor" regions.

Background: Sixty-four phrurolithid species were found from Jiangxi Province in the past five years. However, there are still many unknown phrurolithid species from this Province with unusual morphological characteristics.

New information: A new species, Otaciliatongboshan Liu, sp. nov. is described from Tongboshan National Nature Reserve, Jiangxi Province, China. Morphological illustrations, SEMs and living photos and a distribution map are given.

Ants are an important arthropod group due to their involvement in ecological processes amongst others as ecosystem engineers or predators, but some invasive alien species are also implicated in detrimental environmental, economic and human health effects. Despite recent advancements, the ant biodiversity of Cyprus is still in need of further research with previous online species inventories synthesising a checklist of just 65 native and 10 alien species. The "Ants of Cyprus" website (https://sites.google.com/view/ants-of-cyprus) aims to: (1) raise public awareness and increase local knowledge on the biodiversity and ecological significance of ants, (2) provide ecological data and (3) enhance conservation efforts and management practices for native and alien ant species, respectively. This dynamic, user-friendly website has been designed for use by the scientific community, conservation officers and the wider public and it will be regularly updated as new information and data are generated. Additionally, this information will be critical for reporting on progress towards biodiversity targets and goals.

Background: Enicopus Stephens, 1830, is classified within the subfamily Dasytinae of the family Dasytidae (Coleoptera, Cleroidea). Currently, it comprises two subgenera and 27 known species. This genus primarily inhabits south-central Europe, with certain species extending into west Asia; however, it has not been reported in China until now.

New information: The genus Enicopus Stephens, 1830 is reported for the first time from China, following the discovery of E. (Enicopus) ater (Fabricius, 1787) in Xinjiang Autonomous Region. This species is thoroughly re-described and illustrated, including detailed depictions of the ultimate abdominal tergites and sternites, genitalia of both sexes, as well as tarsomeres 1 from the right front and hind legs of male.

Background: Benin government is committed to the overall strategy for the sacred forests and protected areas conservation through their integration into the national system of protected areas. This is due to the value of biodiversity and the considerable ethno-cultural and religious importance of the forests and protected areas. The project entitled "Project for the Integration of Sacred Forests into the System of Protected Areas of Benin (PIFSAP)" was initiated to preserve the biodiversity of the country by protecting and sustainably managing forest resources, biological and cultural heritage of local populations. Thus, all the sacred forests of Benin have been inventoried.

New information: The dataset published on GBIF website contains 8,488 occurrences of species collected in the forests and protected areas of Benin. After cleaning, the dataset was made accessible to the whole world via GBIF website: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/0740c09f-5cf6-48f0-8e94-abaa46f4b87b. This dataset is one of the largest databases published on "Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Forêts (CERF)" account and can be used for any purpose. The data collected are unique and provides information on species diversity found in the forest reserves of Benin.

Background: Metabarcoding is invaluable for understanding trophic interactions, enabling high-resolution and rapid dietary assessments. However, it requires a robust DNA barcode reference library for accurate taxa identification. This dataset has been generated in the framework of the InBIO Barcoding Initiative (IBI) and Agrivole project. The integration of these two projects was crucial, as Agrivole aimed to investigate the trophic niche of small mammals in Trás-os-Montes Region through DNA metabarcoding, which required a reliable plant DNA barcode library for this same region. Given the large number of species not yet represented in international databases, a survey of local plants was essential to fill this gap. Thus, this study created an accurate DNA reference database for the plants of the Trás-os-Montes Region of Portugal.

New information: The current DNA reference database contains 632 vascular plant samples, all morphologically identified and belonging to 435 species. This represents 14% and 38.7% of the total known plant species for Portugal and the study area, respectively.Of the 1781 barcode sequences provided in this dataset, 1099 contain new information (61.7%) at different levels: 254 (13.6%, ITS2: 41, trnL-ef: 126, trnL-gh: 87) are completely new to GenBank and/or BOLD databases at the time of publication, 438 (24.6%, ITS2: 59, trnL-ef: 173, trnL-gh: 206) are new records for a given species and 407 (22.9%, ITS2: 187, trnL-ef: 206, trnL-gh: 14) provide additional information (e.g. different bp length, intraspecific genetic variability); the remaining 682 sequences (38.3%) are equal (100% identity) to sequences already publicly available for the identified species. Overall, this dataset represents a significant contribution to the genetic knowledge of vascular plants represented in public libraries. This is one of the public releases of the IBI database, which provides genetic and distributional data for several taxa.All vouchers are deposited in the Herbarium of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto (MHNC-UP) and their DNA barcodes are publicly available in the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD), NCBI GenBank online databases and International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC).

Little is known about the winter bat activity in Bulgaria, which poses challenges in monitoring potential deviations in their behaviour as a consequence of the warming climate. Using passive acoustic monitoring, we investigated the winter activity in some of Europe's largest hibernacula. Our findings reveal cave and species-specific activity patterns. Activity was observed throughout each month of the survey, with distinct peaks on specific days. At one high-elevation site, bat activity was restricted to a single night, while the highest overall activity occurred at the highest elevation site (1325 m). The most active species was Myotiscapaccinii (Bonaparte, 1837). While bats were mostly active right after sunset following their usual circadian rhythm, some daytime activity was also observed, including emergence at temperatures as low as -8°C. At sites with sufficient activity data, external temperature emerged as a significant positive predictor of bat activity, with higher temperatures associated with increased activity. Our data also suggest that bats rarely forage near the roost entrances. The observed variability in activity levels between study sites highlights the need for high-resolution, site-specific data rather than broad generalisations.

Background: Azorean biodiversity is relatively well-known following important scientific contributions during the last three decades. These have set a comprehensive species checklist for the Archipelago, improved significantly the knowledge on species abundance, ecology and distribution and have contributed to define priorities for conservation management and scientific research. Nevertheless, despite these efforts, a key functional group - the pollinators - remains poorly known in Azores, including their occurrence in different habitat-types and islands. Insect pollinators play a key ecological role and a valuable ecosystem service being crucial to having basic information on their abundance, distribution and ecology and a good knowledge on the status of their populations, if we aim to ensure the long-term sustainability of terrestrial ecosystems. Furthermore, island ecosystems are facing significant pressures from land-use and climatic changes and, from the increasing arrival of alien species to these remote areas, presenting a pressing need to assess the effects of these factors on island pollinators and pollination.

New information: Here, we present an inventory of the pollinator species found in different habitat-types of Terceira along a gradient of disturbance and encompassing 30 sites distributed throughout the island. We identified 2547 pollinators from 40 taxa, mostly dipterans and hymenopterans and recorded novel information on species distribution and ecological associations. A high number of taxa are native species, including three Azorean endemics, but 14 species are alien to the Archipelago. The use of a combination of standardised sampling techniques allowed us to collect information on diverse pollinator groups, but, most importantly, the data collected will contribute to assess the impacts of human activities on pollinator abundance and richness and support decision-making on habitat management for pollinators in the Azores.

Background: The New World micromoth genus Keiferia Busck, 1939 (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae, Gelechiinae, Gnorimoschemini) includes 21 described species, ten of which occur in South America. Like the tomato pinworm, K.lycopersicella (Walsingham, 1897), all the species of Keiferia, whose host plants have been documented, are associated exclusively with members of the family Solanaceae.

New information: Keiferiaazapaensis sp. nov. is described and illustrated, based on adults reared from leaf miner larvae collected on the shrub Trixiscacalioides (Kunth) D. Don (Asteraceae) in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Despite this unusual host plant, a Maximum Likelihood analysis, based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, placed the new species within a well-supported Keiferia clade. The discovery of the trophic association between K.azapaensis sp. nov. and T.cacalioides represents the first record of a member of Asteraceae as a host plant for the micromoth genus Keiferia.