Madagascar's Biodiversity Research Articles

Genetic variation in Loudetia simplex supports the presence of ancient grasslands in Madagascar

Societal Impact StatementRecognizing Loudetia‐dominated grasslands were widespread prior to human colonization highlights that open ecosystems were and continue to be an important component of Madagascar's biodiversity. A better understanding of the plant species that form grassland ecosystems is necessary for effective land management strategies that support livelihoods, but substantial financial and logistical barriers exist to implementing conservation genetic studies using contemporary genomic tools. Some challenges for population genetic analyses of non‐model polyploids lacking reference genomes can be ameliorated by developing computational resources that leverage a cost‐effective data generation strategy that requires no prior genetic knowledge of the target species. This may benefit conservation programs with small operating budgets while reducing uncertainty compared to status quo microsatellite assays.Summary The extent of Madagascar's grasslands prior to human colonization is unresolved. We used population genetic analyses of a broadly dominant C4 fire‐adapted grass, Loudetia simplex, as a proxy for estimating grassland change through time. We carefully examined the utility of target‐enrichment data for population genetics to make recommendations for conservation genetics. We explored the potential of estimating individual ploidy levels from target‐enrichment data and how assumptions about ploidy could affect analyses. We developed a novel bioinformatic pipeline to estimate ploidy and genotypes from target‐enrichment data. We estimated standard population genetic summary statistics in addition to species trees and population structure. Extended Bayesian skyline plots provided estimates of population size through time for empirical and simulated data. All Malagasy L. simplex individuals sampled in this study formed a clade and possibly indicated an ancestral Central Highland distribution of 800 m in altitude and above. Demographic models suggested grassland expansions occurred prior to the Last Interglacial Period and supported extensive grasslands prior to human colonization. Though there are limitations to target‐enrichment data for population genetic studies, we find that analyses of population structure are reliable. Genetic variation in L. simplex supports widespread grasslands in Madagascar prior to the more recent periods of notable paleoclimatic change. However, the methods explored here could not differentiate between paleoclimatic change near the Last Glacial Maximum and anthropogenic effects. Target‐enrichment data can be a valuable tool for analyses of population structure in the absence a reference genome.

Economic activities and their impacts on the ecosystem and biodiversity in Madagascar (Case of the Eastern region)

Economic activities and their impacts on the ecosystem and biodiversity in Madagascar (Case of the Eastern region)

Natural sources of colorants from Madagascar biodiversity

Natural sources of colorants from Madagascar biodiversity

The loss of biodiversity in Madagascar is contemporaneous with major demographic events

Only 400km off the coast of East Africa, the island of Madagascar is one of the last large land masses to have been colonized by humans. While many questions surround the human occupation of Madagascar, recent studies raise the question of human impact on endemic biodiversity and landscape transformation. Previous genetic and linguistic analyses have shown that the Malagasy population has emerged from an admixture that happened during the last millennium, between Bantu-speaking African populations and Austronesian-speaking Asian populations. By studying the sharing of chromosome segments between individuals (IBD determination), local ancestry information, and simulated genetic data, we inferred that the Malagasy ancestral Asian population was isolated for more than 1,000 years with an effective size of just a few hundred individuals. This isolation ended around 1,000 years before present (BP) by admixture with a small African population. Around the admixture time, there was a rapid demographic expansion due to intrinsic population growth of the newly admixed population, which coincides with extensive changes in Madagascar's landscape and the extinction of all endemic large-bodied vertebrates. Therefore, our approach can provide new insights into past human demography and associated impacts on ecosystems.

Time-lagged effects of habitat fragmentation on terrestrial mammals in Madagascar.

Biodiversity is severely threatened by habitat destruction. As a consequence of habitat destruction, the remaining habitat becomes more fragmented. This results in time-lagged population extirpations in remaining fragments when these are too small to support populations in the long term. If these time-lagged effects are ignored, the long-term impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation will be underestimated. We quantified the magnitude of time-lagged effects of habitat fragmentation for 157 nonvolant terrestrial mammal species in Madagascar, one of the biodiversity hotspots with the highest rates of habitat loss and fragmentation. We refined species' geographic ranges based on habitat preferences and elevation limits and then estimated which habitat fragments were too small to support a population for at least 100 years given stochastic population fluctuations. We also evaluated whether time-lagged effects would change the threat status of species according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessment framework. We used allometric relationships to obtain the population parameters required to simulate the population dynamics of each species, and we quantified the consequences of uncertainty in these parameter estimates by repeating the analyses with a range of plausible parameter values. Based on the median outcomes, we found that for 34 species (22% of the 157 species) at least 10% of their current habitat contained unviable populations. Eight species (5%) had a higher threat status when accounting for time-lagged effects. Based on 0.95-quantile values, following a precautionary principle, for 108 species (69%) at least 10% of their habitat contained unviable populations, and 51 species (32%) had a higher threat status. Our results highlight the need to preserve continuous habitat and improve connectivity between habitat fragments. Moreover, our findings may help to identify species for which time-lagged effects are most severe and which may thus benefit the most from conservation actions.

Application of DNA Barcoding for Monitoring Madagascar Fish Biodiversity in Coastal Areas

Madagascar is a marine biodiversity hotspot. A recent checklist recorded 1689 marine or transitional water fish species, 2.5% being endemic. To date, studies in this country were mostly focused on adult fishes using morphological-based identification. The early life stages of fishes remain largely understudied. The present work aimed to improve knowledge of fish biodiversity in Madagascar by focusing on post-larval reef fishes and settled juveniles in seagrass meadows of southwest Madagascar by using either species identification keys or DNA barcoding. Up to 119,500 individuals were collected, and 1096 individuals were successfully barcoded. We identified 387 species—85 through their morphology (with 58 unsuccessfully sequenced) and 302 by using CO1 barcoding corresponding to 302 barcode index numbers (BINs). This study added 27 new BINs for the BOLD database, 120 new for Madagascar, but only 159 were assigned a precise species name. By referring to the updated checklist of Madagascar fishes, 10 new species were detected for Madagascar. This number will probably increase when all the barcoded specimens become assigned to precise species names. These preliminary findings stress our poor knowledge of marine fish biodiversity in Madagascar and demonstrate the relevance of DNA barcoding in improving this knowledge.

Distribution and ecology of dictyostelids in Madagascar

Samples for isolation of dictyostelid cellular slime molds were obtained from 20 collecting sites at 18 localities in south central and southeastern Madagascar during May 2009. At least thirty species of dictyostelids representing seven genera were recovered from 52 samples of soil/humus. This total included 17 species described as new to science, 13 species already known from various localities throughout the world, and four isolates that remain unidentified. Fourteen of the new species isolated from these samples are members of the whorl-branched, light-spored genus Heterostelium (formerly Polysphondylium). The overall level of species richness of dictyostelids in Madagascar is greater than what is known for all of mainland Africa sampled to date. Levels of biodiversity in Madagascar were higher for mesic than for xeric vegetation types, and each of the newly described species of Heterostelium appeared to have a limited distribution among the localities sampled.

Unexpectedly diverse forest dung beetle communities in degraded rain forest landscapes in Madagascar

AbstractTropical forests, which harbor high levels of biodiversity, are being lost at an alarming speed. Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, has lost more than half of its original forest cover. Most of the remaining forests are small fragments of primary and secondary forest with differing degrees of human impact. These forests, as well as coffee and fruit plantations, may be important in supporting the forest‐dependent biodiversity in Madagascar but this has been little studied. In Madagascar, dung beetles, which offer important ecosystem services, are largely restricted to forests. We examined the ability of fragmented and degraded forests to support dung beetle diversity, compared to the large areas of primary forest in eastern Madagascar. We found a general trend of a reduction of species with a loss of forest connectivity. In contrast, a higher level of forest disturbance was associated with higher species diversity. In several sites of low‐quality forest as many or more species were found as in less disturbed and primary forests. The average size of dung beetles was smaller in the lower quality localities than in the primary forests. These findings suggest that many forest dung beetles in Madagascar are better adapted to forest disturbance than earlier expected, although they require some level of connectivity to surrounding forest.Abstract in Malagasy is available with online material.

The Management of Forest and Deforestation, Mitigation, and Adaptation of Climate Change in Madagascar

Madagascar is on the first conservation priority for high rates of deforestation and endemism. Deforestation has been extensive, but the impacts of forest loss on biodiversity have not been well quantified. Deforestation is a phenomenon contributor to species, biodiversity’s extinction, and the disappearing of tropical forest accelerates the rate of destruction and accelerates climate change degradation. Madagascar’s forests and its biodiversity are considered as one of the most biologically rich and unique in the world, but due to this deforestation, the endemic species and biodiversity of Madagascar are endangered and indeed, this phenomenon has changed Madagascar the green Island into the red Island. The aim of this paper is to highlight what Madagascar needs, what the country has and what are the barriers to mitigate deforestation and how is the impact of climate change. The findings of this study show that Madagascar has a total land area of 59,199,127 ha; in 2010, the country has 4,628,241 ha of primary forest with 16,450,024 of tree cover. However, this statistic continues to decrease gradually in 2018 represented by 4,060,522 ha of primary forest, and has lost 567,719 ha of its forest; only 13,772,127 ha of tree cover has been registered. It is as well stated that apart from the lack of funding, timber logging and fuel wood, the ancestral practices are locally known as “Tavy” which is the most destructor of primary forest in Madagascar. This phenomenal calamity led to extinct thousands of Madagascar species and its biodiversity, and contributes to increasing the heat of this planet and one of the responsible for the acceleration of climate change. This paper illustrates how Madagascar adapts to the impacts of climate change and how the country contributes to its commitment to the Paris Agreement.

2019 ATBC Honorary Fellows

In 1963, the Council of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation established the election of Honorary Fellows as “persons of long distinguished service to tropical biology.” This is the highest award given by the Association: To date more than 80 Honorary Fellows from over 15 countries have been elected by the Council. This year, we are fortunate to have two outstanding Fellows. On behalf of The Honorary Fellow Nomination Committee, we present the 2019 Honorary Fellows as follows: Professor Jonah Ratsimbazafy is a renowned Malagasy primatologist who has made substantial contributions to the conservation of Madagascar’s imperiled biodiversity, especially saving iconic, evolutionary unique and endemic Malagasy primates from the brink of extinction, through his research, teaching and outreach activities. His efforts in environmental protection and conservation in Madagascar has been internationally recognized with prestigious awards like the Disney Conservation Hero Award. He has been invited to present seminars worldwide. Professor Ratsimbazafy earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from SUNY Stony Brook University, New York (2002), and is currently the President of GERP (Groupe d’Etude et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar), an organization that advocates for the conservation of lemurs. He is also a Professor in the Department of Paleontology and Anthropology at the University of Antananarivo and has been a mentor for many young Malagasy anthropologists. He has been a very active researcher and has published more than 90 scientific papers. He has also been an active member of various national and international conservation organizations. He is currently serving as the Vice-Chair of IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group—Madagascar section, and as a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Primatology and the Madagascar Conservation and Development journal. He also served as Co-Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for ATBC 2019 and was one of the keynote speakers (Figure 1). Dr. Goodman received his PhD from the University of Hamburg, Germany. He is a MacArthur Field Biologist on staff for the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and has spent three decades documenting biodiversity in Madagascar as a conservation biologist in residence in collaboration with WWF. His research interests include inventories of poorly known forest areas, description of animals and their natural history in Madagascar. He has written and edited some of the most important books for natural history and biological conservation of fauna and flora in Madagascar, including Natural History of Madagascar (2003), Extinct Madagascar (2014) and most recently, a recent three volume set “Terrestrial Protected Areas of Madagascar” (2019). He has made critical contributions to education and capacity building for conservation biology in Madagascar. He is the founder of the Association Vahatra, a grassroots organization that promotes conservation of native fauna in Madagascar, while training the next generation of biologists and conservation scientists. For these activities, he has been recognized by many awards, including Conservation Leadership Award of WWF (2004), MacArthur Foundation Fellow (2005) and Leopold Prize of the American Society of Mammalogy (2018). He served as a key member of the Scientific Committee of ATBC Annual Meeting in 2019, gave a keynote presentation and was instrumental in securing funding to support the participation of Malagasy students (Figure 2).

REBIOMA Data Portal, Tool for Conservation Planning in Madagascar

Recognizing the abundance and the accumulation of information and data on biodiversity that are still poorly exploited and even unfunded, the REBIOMA project (Madagascar Biodiversity Networking), in collaboration with partners, has developed an online dataportal in order to provide easy access to information and critical data, to support conservation planning and the expansion of scientific and professional activities in Madagascar biodiversity. The mission of the REBIOMA data portal is to serve quality-labeled, up-to-date species occurrence data and environmental niche models for Madagascar’s flora and fauna, both marine and terrestrial. REBIOMA is a project of the Wildlife Conservation Society Madagascar and the University of California, Berkeley. REBIOMA serves species occurrence data for marine and terrestrial regions of Madagascar. Following upload, data is automatically validated against a geographic mask and a taxonomic authority. Data providers can decide whether their data will be public, private, or shared only with selected collaborators. Data reviewers can add quality labels to individual records, allowing selection of data for modeling and conservation assessments according to quality. Portal users can query data in numerous ways. One of the key features of the REBIOMA web portal is its support for species distribution models, created from taxonomically valid and quality-reviewed occurrence data. Species distribution models are produced for species for which there are at least eight, reliably reviewed, non-duplicate (per grid cell) records. Maximum Entropy Modeling (MaxEnt for short) is used to produce continuous distribution models from these occurrence records and environmental data for different eras: past (1950), current (2000), and future (2080). The result is generally interpreted as a prediction of habitat suitability. Results for each model are available on the portal and ready for download as ASCII and HTML files. The REBIOMA Data Portal address is http://data.rebioma.net, or visit http://www.rebioma.netfor more general information about the entire REBIOMA project.

On specimen killing in the era of conservation crisis - A quantitative case for modernizing taxonomy and biodiversity inventories.

Background to the workFor centuries taxonomy has relied on dead animal specimens, a practice that persists today despite the emergence of innovative biodiversity assessment methods. Taxonomists and conservationists are engaged in vigorous discussions over the necessity of killing animals for specimen sampling, but quantitative data on taxonomic trends and specimen sampling over time, which could inform these debates, are lacking.MethodsWe interrogated a long-term research database documenting 2,723 land vertebrate and 419 invertebrate taxa from Madagascar, and their associated specimens conserved in the major natural history museums. We further compared specimen collection and species description rates for the birds, mammals and scorpions over the last two centuries, to identify trends and links to taxon descriptions.ResultsWe located 15,364 specimens documenting endemic mammals and 11,666 specimens documenting endemic birds collected between 1820 and 2010. Most specimens were collected at the time of the Mission Zoologique Franco-Anglo-Américaine (MZFAA) in the 1930s and during the last two decades, with major differences according to the groups considered. The small mammal and bat collections date primarily from recent years, and are paralleled by the description of new species. Lemur specimens were collected during the MZFAA but the descriptions of new taxa are recent, with the type series limited to non-killed specimens. Bird specimens, particularly of non-passerines, are mainly from the time of the MZFAA. The passerines have also been intensely collected during the last two decades; the new material has been used to solve the phylogeny of the groups and only two new endemic taxa of passerine birds have been described over the last two decades.ConclusionsOur data show that specimen collection has been critical for advancing our understanding of the taxonomy of Madagascar’s biodiversity at the onset of zoological work in Madagascar, but less so in recent decades. It is crucial to look for alternatives to avoid killing animals in the name of documenting life, and encourage all efforts to share the information attached to historical and recent collections held in natural history museums. In times of conservation crisis and the advancement in digital technologies and open source sharing, it seems obsolete to kill animals in well-known taxonomic groups for the sake of enriching natural history collections around the world.

Extinct Madagascar: picturing the island's past

The landscapes of Madagascar have long delighted zoologists, who have discovered, in and among the island's baobad trees and thickets, a dizzying array of animals, including something approaching one hundred species of lemur. Madagascar's mammal fauna, for example, is far more diverse, and more endemic, than early explorers and naturalists ever dreamed of. But in the 2,500 or so years since the arrival of the island's first human settlers, the vast majority of its forests have disappeared, and in the wake of this loss a number of species unique to Madagascar have vanished forever into extinction. In Extinct Madagascar, noted scientists Steven M. Goodman and William L. Jungers explore the recent past of these land animal extinctions. Beginning with an introduction to the geologic and ecological history of Madagascar that provides context for the evolution, diversification, and, in some cases, rapid decline of the Malagasy fauna, Goodman and Jungers then seek to recapture these extinct mammals in their environs. Aided in their quest by artist Velizar Simeonovski's beautiful and haunting paintings - images of both individual species and ecosystem assemblages reproduced here in full color - Goodman and Jungers reconstruct the lives of these lost animals and trace their relationships to those still living. Published in conjunction with an exhibition of Simeonovski's paintings set to open at the Field Museum, Chicago, in the fall of 2014, Goodman and Jungers' awe-inspiring book will serve not only as a sobering reminder of the very real threat of extinction, but also as a stunning tribute to Madagascar's biodiversity and a catalyst for further research and conservation.

Assessing the drivers of biodiversity in Madagascar by quantifying its hydrologic properties at the watershed scale

Motivated by a theory developed by Wilmé et al. (2006) according to which, watersheds of Madagascar with headwaters at high altitude respond differently to drought from those with headwaters confined to relatively low elevations, with possibly profound effects on the biodiversity patterns of the island, we analyzed multi-year basin-specific observations of soil moisture and vegetation water content (derived from NRL's WindSat radiometer) and their response to precipitation departures (derived from TRMM 3B42 V7) from its local mean. These datasets were analyzed to investigate the hydrologic properties at the basin scale, including the speed with which vegetation and soil moisture respond to precipitation anomalies. We also looked at the basin-specific normalized radar surface-backscattering cross-sections from NASA's QuikSCAT Scatterometer, to obtain information on the vegetation regimes of the various Malagasy basins. Finally, we correlated the basin response to the precipitation forcing, and compared the amplitude and time lag of the correlations across watersheds with high elevation headwaters versus those with low elevation headwaters in the aim of evaluating the drought-response hypothesis of Wilmé et al. (2006). Our results indicate that the vegetation water content time series exhibit several features that are consistent with those of the majority of the bioclimatic zones of the island. Specifically, although the speed of the response of the vegetation water content varies significantly among the different basins, it is inter-annually consistent for each watershed, while the soil–moisture time series are less consistent than the vegetation water content time series. This study is a first step in the quantification of the hydrologic properties derived from microwave remote sensing, and which could potentially shed new light on the different intra-annual responses of watersheds to precipitation anomalies. Furthermore, this analysis offers important insights into the hydro-geomorphologic drivers associated with biodiversity patterns in Madagascar, contributing to a better understanding of the mechanisms that determine biotic diversification across the various bioclimatic regions of the island.

Defining species in an advanced technological landscape

The answer to the proffered question, "What is a species?" is considered one of the fundamental issues of biological science, as well as one of the most polarizing and sometimes acrimonious problems. Dozens of species concepts have been defined, but none are universal for implementation across all taxa. Within the past thirty years, the ability to analyze DNA data has progressed to the point that multiple methodologies can be simultaneously applied to the same evolutionary questions. The use of restriction fragment length polymorphisms, microsatellites, and mitochondrial (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA (nucDNA) sequence data has unarguably changed how we look at diversity and intensified the concept debate through the proliferation of species descriptions. Over the past two decades, Madagascar's biodiversity has gone through a tremendous taxonomic expansion by the elevation of subspecies to species and through novel descriptions, especially within the nocturnal lemurs. With the tremendous continuous loss of habitat, exponential human population growth, and stochastic changes predicted over coming decades, elucidating the earth's biodiversity will never be more important than now. Here, we examine species concepts and their attendant criteria. We predict how technological advances will alter, improve and, we hope, fully consolidate the unity of thoughts related to this central topic of evolutionary biology and its numerous interconnected disciplines.

Diversification rates have declined in the Malagasy herpetofauna

The evolutionary origins of Madagascar's biodiversity remain mysterious despite the fact that relative to land area, there is no other place with consistently high levels of species richness and endemism across a range of taxonomic levels. Most efforts to explain diversification on the island have focused on geographical models of speciation, but recent studies have begun to address the island's accumulation of species through time, although with conflicting results. Prevailing hypotheses for diversification on the island involve either constant diversification rates or scenarios where rates decline through time. Using relative-time-calibrated phylogenies for seven endemic vertebrate clades and a model-fitting framework, I find evidence that diversification rates have declined through time on Madagascar. I show that diversification rates have clearly declined throughout the history of each clade, and models invoking diversity-dependent reductions to diversification rates best explain the diversification histories for each clade. These results are consistent with the ecological theory of adaptive radiation, and, coupled with ancillary observations about ecomorphological and life-history evolution, strongly suggest that adaptive radiation was an important formative process for one of the most species-rich regions on the Earth. These results cast the Malagasy biota in a new light and provide macroevolutionary justification for conservation initiatives.

Vulnerability of baobab species to climate change and effectiveness of the protected area network in Madagascar: Towards new conservation priorities

Baobab species are representative of the high biodiversity and endemism rates that place Madagascar in the top three of the countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. In this study, we estimated the vulnerability of three endangered Malagasy baobab species (Adansonia grandidieri Baill., Adansonia perrieri Capuron and Adansonia suarezensis H. Perrier) to climate change and the effectiveness of the protected area network (PAN) for the future conservation of these species. To estimate the environmental niche of the species, we used an original data-set based on satellite image analysis to detect species presence and an ensemble modelling approach using three species distribution models (GLM, GAM and MaxEnt). We projected the species distribution in 2050 and 2080 using an ensemble forecasting approach combining the three species distribution models and three global circulation models for climate projections. Measures of connectivity were employed to assess the present and future effectiveness of the existing PAN. Among the three baobab species studied, two are severely threatened by climate change (A. perrieri and A. suarezensis), in part because the present PAN does not overlap with future species distribution areas. Recently, strong efforts have been made in designing an optimised PAN to conserve Madagascar outstanding biodiversity. Nevertheless, its future effectiveness is questioned by the potential shifts in species distributions due to predicted changes in climate. In the context of climate change, alternative strategies such as ecological restoration would also have to be adopted to conserve biodiversity in Madagascar.

Analysis of Patterns of Bushmeat Consumption Reveals Extensive Exploitation of Protected Species in Eastern Madagascar

Understanding the patterns of wild meat consumption from tropical forests is important for designing approaches to address this major threat to biodiversity and mitigate potential pathways for transmission of emerging diseases. Bushmeat consumption has been particularly poorly studied in Madagascar, one of the world's hottest biodiversity hotspots. Studying bushmeat consumption is challenging as many species are protected and researchers must consider the incentives faced by informants. Using interviews with 1154 households in 12 communes in eastern Madagascar, as well as local monitoring data, we investigated the importance of socio-economic variables, taste preference and traditional taboos on consumption of 50 wild and domestic species. The majority of meals contain no animal protein. However, respondents consume a wide range of wild species and 95% of respondents have eaten at least one protected species (and nearly 45% have eaten more than 10). The rural/urban divide and wealth are important predictors of bushmeat consumption, but the magnitude and direction of the effect varies between species. Bushmeat species are not preferred and are considered inferior to fish and domestic animals. Taboos have provided protection to some species, particularly the Endangered Indri, but we present evidence that this taboo is rapidly eroding. By considering a variety of potential influences on consumption in a single study we have improved understanding of who is eating bushmeat and why. Evidence that bushmeat species are not generally preferred meats suggest that projects which increase the availability of domestic meat and fish may have success at reducing demand. We also suggest that enforcement of existing wildlife and firearm laws should be a priority, particularly in areas undergoing rapid social change. The issue of hunting as an important threat to biodiversity in Madagascar is only now being fully recognised. Urgent action is required to ensure that heavily hunted species are adequately protected.

The impact of Cyclone Fanele on sifaka body condition and reproduction in the tropical dry forest of western Madagascar

Cyclones have been suggested to play a major role in the evolutionary history of the flora and fauna of Madagascar (Wright 1999). In spite of the proposed significance of cyclonic activity, very little is known about the specific effects of cyclones on Malagasy ecosystems (Birkinshaw & Randrianjanahary 2007). Understanding the effects of these severe natural disturbances requires comparing data collected both before and after the event. Because cyclones are stochastic, researching the influence of cyclones on Madagascar's biodiversity is difficult and opportunities to study their impact on forests are rare. Nevertheless, studies of the impact of cyclones on Malagasy biota are imperative because models of global climate patterns predict that large-scale tropical disturbances will increase in frequency and intensity in the future (Metcalfe et al. 2008).

DNA-based association of adults and larvae in Baetidae (Ephemeroptera) with the description of a new genusAdnoptilumin Madagascar

The mayfly fauna of Madagascar is highly diverse and largely endemic. Many species remain undescribed, and many species are known from only the larval or adult life stage. The high biodiversity in Madagascar and in other areas has led to an increasing reliance on DNA-based approaches to taxonomy, i.e., to define species boundaries and to associate different developmental stages. We used the general mixed Yule-coalescent (GMYC) model to combine population- and species-level sequence variation of mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid (mtDNA) to detect species boundaries in Baetidae mayflies (Ephemeroptera). Starting with a database of 240 sequences (57 species), significant clustering of newly sequenced larvae allowed us to establish 1 new species and 1 new combination and to associate adult and larval stages for both. A molecular phylogeny using additional nuclear (18S) and mtDNA (rrnS, rrnL) gene regions recovered the new species and new combination as a monophyletic group, distinct from other Afrotropical lineages. Therefore, we established a new genus, Adnoptilum, endemic to Madagascar. Adnoptilum gen. n. can be distinguished from other species in both the imaginal and adult stages and appears to belong to the Bugilliesia complex. We conclude that routine sampling of population- and species-level genetic diversity, combined with coalescent-based methods of species delineation, has great potential to become a standard procedure for the study of poorly known taxonomic groups.