A synopsis of Begonia (Begoniaceae) of Southeastern Sulawesi including four new species

The faunal inventory of the Great Plains state of South Dakota includes 15 families, 40 genera, and 77 species of Ephemeroptera, including the first published state records for 37 species, and 187 new county records for 64 of the species. The mayfly fauna of South Dakota includes transcontinental species, widespread species, many species that typify the central lowlands of North America, and some 18 species that find their eastern range limits in South Dakota, five species that find their northern range limits in South Dakota, and 16 species that find their western range limits in South Dakota and often additional states directly north or south of South Dakota.

Oklahoma is where several ferns reach their northern or eastern range limits. Among them are two species of lip ferns in the family Pteridaceae, Cheilanthes horridula Maxon and Cheilanthes lindheimeri Hook (Hoagland et al. 2007). C. horridula (prickly lip fern) is primarily found on dry limestone slopes in the Chihuahuan Desert region of northeastern Mexico. Its range extends northward to southwestern Oklahoma. C. lindheimeri Hook (fairy swords) is widespread in central and northern Mexico as well as the southwestern United States (Mickel and Smith 2004). In Oklahoma, the distributions of both are limited, and the numbers of individual plants of each species are likely to be relatively small, compared with other Oklahoma members of the genus Cheilanthes.

The ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus), which reaches its eastern range limit in Italy, is distributed along the coastal areas of Liguria. A field survey from 1999 to 2002, verified the status of the Italian populations. The observation of this species is very difficult in Liguria because of the scattered populations and their scarce density. Some new localities were discovered both in the Imperia and Savona provinces, and others were confirmed. An analysis of previous known records was also carried out. T. lepidus is distributed in this area from sea level to about 670 m a.s.l. in several primary or derived Mediterranean habitats such as maquis, pine open woodland and olive groves. The species has a wide phenology, and sightings have been recorded from January to November, though it is particularly active from April to September. The conservation status of the sites and their ecological suitability for the species were evaluated, and a general conservation strategy proposed.

The species composition and the general characteristics of the fauna of phytophagous beetles (superfamilies Chrysomeloidea and Curculionoidea) on the Sterlitamak shikhans are considered based on original material. The shikhans Tratau, Kushtau, and Yuraktau are cone-shaped relict limestone mountains that are unique natural objects located near Sterlitamak in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The shikhans reveal an extremely high total species diversity of leaf beetles and weevils, comprising 327 species from 8 families, or no less than 25% of the entire faunas of these groups in the forest-steppe belt of the Volga Region and the Cis-Urals. Of the three shikhans, the fauna of Tratau with 283 species is the richest and the most specific. Among the zonal complexes, the group of phytophagous beetles of steppe ecosystems is the most diverse on the shikhans, comprising 297 species, or 90% of the species recorded. The arealogical and ecological analyses have shown that the shikhan faunas have a fairly original structure characterized by pronounced participation of both Western and Central Palaearctic species, many of which are located there at the meridional limits or within the insular parts of their ranges. The studied faunas have a large proportion of petrophilic steppe and desert-steppe forms and include many relict faunal elements of different origins. Most of the relicts are concentrated in petrophytic steppes, screes, and rock outcrops of the shikhans, some of them being trophically associated with relict and/or endemic plant species. Stephanocleonus ignobilis, Pseudocleonus dauricus, and Ceutorhynchus subpilosus are known in Bashkortostan only from the shikhans; it is suggested that these relict species should be included in the regional Red Data Book. In addition, two apparently flightless and probably new species of flea beetles from the genera Phyllotrera Chevr. and Longitarsus Berth. were found on Tratau. The forest ecosystems contain a sufficiently rich group of nemoral species associated with the European oak; these species occur in Bashkortostan at or near their eastern range limits. The data presented clearly show that the fauna and communities of phytophagous beetles of the Sterlitamak shikhans are highly original, reflecting the uniqueness of their natural complexes as a whole and providing a very important argument against industrial development of any of the shikhans.

On 16 October 1997, a female porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) was collected on Kansas State Highway 18 near Ogden (sec. 6, T11S, R7E). Wear on teeth and degree of fusion in bones indicated that she was approximately 1.5 years old (Dodge, 1982). We removed and inspected the reproductive tract and noted an enlarged uterus, suggesting she was approaching estrus at time of death. No follicles or corpora lutea of pregnancy were observed, indicating she had not bred. These observations suggest that a breeding population may occur in Riley County and surrounding areas. Although porcupines are reported to occur throughout most of Kansas (Bee and others, 1981), eastern Kansas represents their eastern range limit in the central United States (Dodge, 1982; Pitts, LeValley, and Klinger, 1987). Kaufman and Kaufman (1994) reported two observations of porcupines in Riley County. Additionally a few porcupines had been observed in the wooded areas on the northern parts of Fort Riley in Riley County (Pitts, LeValley, and Klinger, 1987). A porcupine also was observed in the mid1990's by H. Abel (Conservation Division, Fort Riley Military Reservation, personal communication) near Milford Reservoir along the Riley County border. The specimen we obtained in 1997 is the first collected from Riley County. In Kansas, porcupines inhabit forests and riparian communities, and most specimens collected in Kansas seem to be associated with major river sys-

The fringed leaf frog, Cruziohyla craspedopus is rarely sampled in the Brazilian Amazon, probably due to low detection probability associated with its arboreal habit. The knowledge about the species’ distribution stems from successive additions of occasional occurrence records, which indicate that the species is widely distributed throughout Amazonia. We present new occurrence records to update the geographic range of the species, which is hereby extended 224 km to the northeast. We also present morphological data from collected specimens and discuss the updated range from the geographic and ecological points of view. We show that the range of the leaf frog crosses several main tributaries along the southern bank of the Amazonas River, although the species occurrence is apparently limited by a minimum tree cover of 70%.

The migration patterns of birds breeding at high latitudes have undergone major changes during the Holocene, as species expanded from small refugia following the last glaciation. Unique features of genetic migration programs and species‐specific dispersal patterns have resulted in various levels of migratory connectivity. High migratory connectivity can occur when populations expanding from different refugia maintain historically distinct wintering sites, or when species expanding their breeding ranges maintain a constant migratory vector. Alternatively, species may develop novel routes to nearby wintering sites during range expansion, also leading to high migratory connectivity. Here, we analyse light‐level geolocator and multisensor data logger tracks of great reed warblers Acrocephalus arundinaceus from a population at its eastern range limit in Kazakhstan. We compare their migration routes with published data from five Western Palearctic populations to understand how migration patterns have evolved as the breeding range expanded. Mitochondrial DNA data suggest that Kazakhstan was colonised from the western part of the range, but the logger data show that Kazakh great reed warblers winter in East Africa together with conspecifics from Turkey. This indicates that their migration route did not arise as a simple parallel shift of an unchanged vector‐based programme, but required drastic modifications of the migratory directions to maintain African wintering quarters. A remarkable finding in our study was the detection of a novel spring migration strategy. We found that birds leave the African wintering quarters already in February to spend up to two months at an intermediate staging area in southern Iraq, half‐way to their breeding grounds in Kazakhstan. We call this a two‐step spring migration strategy and discuss the conditions that may promote the evolution of such a behaviour.

The studies included 9 populations of <i>Carex arenaria</i> L. and 7 populations of <i>Carex ligerica</i> Gay, compared with each other on grounds of variability analysis, related to rhizome characters. The sedges reach in the area of Poland their eastern range limits, with isolated populations spread along the range margins. The studied plants were placed in a greenhouse in homogenous conditions,which made possible an analysis of genetic variability in the populations. The obtained results point to the absence of gene flow between the studied species and, thus, to their clearly distinct character. Genetic drift was postulated as one of the causes of the obtained variability pattern.

Mark-recapture studies show that polar bears are distributed at varying densities throughout Lancaster Sound during winter and spring. Major concentrations occur along the north and south coasts and the transverse floe edge at the mouth of the sound. As the ice melts, some bears move west whereas others move to nearby land areas. There is some evidence that as the ice forms, polar bears return from their summer locations to eastern Lancaster Sound. Polar bears of Lancaster Sound are part of the larger population whose western range extends to Barrow Strait, Prince Regent Inlet, Wellington Channel and Jones Sound. The southern and eastern range limits are unknown although this population may extend at least to Clyde River on northeastern Baffin Island and probably to Greenland. Maternity denning appears to be widespread over the study area probably because of the abundance of suitable habitat. We estimated a population of 1031 ± 236 polar bears in Lancaster Sound during 1979: however, more estimates are needed to determine if this relatively high number is normal for the area.Key words: polar bear, distribution, movement, abundance, Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound, summer retreat, denning

Many highly mobile species, such as migratory birds, can move and disperse over long distances, yet exhibit high levels of population genetic structuring. Although movement capabilities may enable dispersal, gene flow may be restricted by behavioural constraints such as philopatry. In the present study, we examined patterns of genetic differentiation across the range of a highly mobile, colonial waterbird. American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) breed across continental North America and are currently experiencing a range expansion, especially on the eastern range limit. To assess patterns of genetic structuring, we sampled 333 individuals from 19 colonies across their North American range. The use of ten variable microsatellite markers revealed high levels of allelic richness with no population differentiation. Both Bayesian and frequentist approaches to examining genetic structuring revealed a single panmictic population. We found no evidence of genetic structuring across the Continental Divide or between migratory and non-migratory colonies. The lack of any genetic structure across the range indicates that, unlike other waterbirds with similar life-history characteristics, extensive gene flow and presumably low philopatry appear to preclude genetic differentiation. The lack of population genetic structure in American white pelicans provides an example of range-wide panmixia, a rare phenomenon in any terrestrial species.

The first records of Dasypoda crassicornis (Friese, 1896) for Italy are reported. The species was found in three sites in western Liguria and the Piedmont Cottian Alps, thus extending its eastern range limit, previously known in France. The collecting site habitats and wildflowers visited by the species are also described.

Understanding the mechanisms that generate biogeographic range limits is a long-standing goal of ecology. It is widely hypothesized that distributional limits reflect the environmental niche, but this hypothesis is complicated by the potential for intraspecific niche heterogeneity. In dioecious species, sexual niche differentiation may cause divergence between the sexes in their limits of environmental suitability. We studied range boundary formation in Texas bluegrass (Poa arachnifera), a perennial dioecious plant, testing the alternative hypotheses that range limits reflect the niche limits of females only versus the combined contributions of females and males, including their interdependence via mating. Common garden experiments across a longitudinal aridity gradient revealed female-biased flowering approaching eastern range limits, suggesting that mate limitation may constrain the species' distribution. However, a demographic model showed that declines in λ approaching range limits were driven almost entirely by female vital rates. The dominant role of females was attributable to seed viability being robust to sex ratio variation and to low sensitivity of λ to reproductive transitions. We suggest that female-dominant range limits may be common to long-lived species with polygamous mating systems and that female responses to environmental drivers may often be sufficient for predicting range shifts in response to environmental change.

-The eastern range limit of the Franklin's ground squirrel (Spermophilus franklinii) in North America extends into northwest Indiana. We determined the species' current range in Indiana using live traps at 370 survey sites in 20 counties from July 1984 to August 1990. We captured 120 Franklin's ground squirrels in 5161 trap days at 36 (9.7%) sites. Its current distribution is limited to nine of the westernmost counties in northwest Indiana. No squirrels were found in eight counties at the eastern periphery of the species' previously known range. Mean capture rate and frequency of squirrel occurrence relative to trapping effort did not differ among four land use types. Franklin's ground squirrels were not found in many seemingly suitable areas. Research is needed to identify preferred habitat and to aid in managing this species. Urban development, agricultural expansion, and conversion to row crops may have reduced the amount of grassland habitat available to support Franklin's ground squirrels.

The realized distribution of animals is often delimited by climatic factors which define, next to the specific habitat and food availability, their species-specific potential distribution. We studied the environmental limi- tations affecting the realized breeding and wintering dis- tributions of the Citril Finch (Carduelis citrinella), one of the few endemic bird species of European mountain ranges. To assess the environmental limits that shape the seasonal distribution, we used species distribution models (SDMs) derived from macroclimate in combination with land cover information. Our data suggest a high congruence between the potential modelled breeding distribution of the Citril Finch and the currently known breeding sites, indicating a high level of niche filling. The unusual absence in several suitable breeding habitats at the eastern and northern range limit (Eastern Alps, Carpathians, Bavarian Forest, Harz Mountains, Fichtelgebirge, Krkonose Mountains) is likely linked to a combination of both missing resources and restricted physiological migration capacities from the available wintering grounds. Since the accomplished migratory distances hardly exceed more than 500 km, it seems likely that the distance to the main wintering areas is too large for exceeding eastern and northern range limits. We discuss the differences in SDM outcomes when including distal predictor variables instead of using proxi- mal predictors alone, and highlight the importance of considering a seasonal niche duality to gain more insights into complex range effects in species with seasonal ranges.

With c. 1400 known species, Begonia is one of the largest plant genera. In order to address the evolution of Begonia we have produced maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood cladograms for 26S and ITS sequence data. Sequences were obtained from a total of 35 species of Begonia, one species of Symbegonia and two species of Datisca. The resulting phylogenetic hypotheses suggest that the most basal members of Begonia are from Africa, with American and Asian clades nested within the paraphyletic African Begonia. Despite marked morphological heterogeneity the endemic Begonia of Madagascar and the south Indian ocean islands form a monophyletic group. As currently circumscribed, Begonia is paraphyletic with the New Guinean endemic Symbegonia nested deeply within it and most closely related to species from the Asian section Petermannia. Analysis of a smaller ITS dataset, including three accessions of Symbegonia and nine accessions of Begonia section Petermannia, further suggests that Symbegonia is nested within section Petermannia, resolving within a monophyletic clade of New Guinean species. Morphological synapomorphies of Symbegonia are reviewed and this taxon is sunk into the genus Begonia, where it is given sectional status.