Phylogenetic Uniqueness Research Articles

A new insular species of Gehyra (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from Papua New Guinea closely related to Gehyra oceanica

The wide-ranging gecko Gehyra oceanica occupies numerous islands across much of the Pacific Ocean basin. Previous work has identified six divergent genetic lineages within lizards assigned to this species. During an expedition to islands off of northern New Guinea we collected lizards of this complex on Crown Island that differ from all other known Gehyra in being sexually dimorphic in colour pattern. We find this population to also be genetically divergent to the other lineages previously identified, as we do with another lineage of populations from nearby islands. Given the unique colour pattern of the Crown Island population, combined with its divergent range of precloacal-femoral pores in males and its phylogenetic uniqueness from other members of this complex, we describe this population as a new species, Gehyra corona sp. nov. currently known only from Crown Island, Papua New Guinea. The discovery of this new species and an additional divergent genetic lineage from within the G. oceanica complex highlights the need for further taxonomic revision of that species complex. It seems likely that the new species we identify will prove endemic to Crown Island, but additional islands from around the Bismarck Sea need survey to establish its full range. Given the undisturbed habitat on most of Crown Island and the low human population there, we suggest that this species’ IUCN Red List conservation status be Least Concern. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:299432A3-6AC1-408D-9CCD-ECCB054A78FF

Behavioural ethogram to inform ex-situ initiatives for a critically endangered bird – the case of the Plains-wanderer

A thorough understanding of behaviour is essential to a species recovery effort, not only to inform management and husbandry decisions, but critically, to ensure optimum survival of released animals and their offspring. The endangered Plains-wanderer, endemic to Australia and the only extant member of its family, is a bird of great conservation significance. Despite their phylogenetic uniqueness and conservation status, very little is known about their basic behavioural ecology. As part of the National Recovery efforts, an ex-situ breeding program was established to create an insurance population with the aim of releasing zoo-bred birds into their natural range. Such programs provide unique opportunities to conduct detailed behavioural and ecological studies. However, such studies are dependent on a comprehensive understanding of basic behaviour and associated social interactions, as well as a common vocabulary across institutions when it comes to describing patterns of behaviour. Therefore, a detailed ethogram is a vital first step. Here we have collated initial behavioural observations and descriptions from three main breeding institutions to create a unified ethogram across sites, with the aim of facilitating future research endeavours. Ultimately a systematic understanding of behaviour will not only improve management and conservation initiatives, but also the understanding of adaptability to potential threats going forward.

The role of the environment and connectivity on multiple facets of local fish diversity in tropical headwater streams

Abstract The identification of multiple facets of biodiversity (e.g., phylogenetic and functional) can help to understand how evolutionary and ecological mechanisms shape the assembly of biological communities. Here, we employed multiple regressions and variance partitions to investigate the effects of environmental conditions, connectivity and space on aspects of the functional and phylogenetic facets of fish fauna in tropical headwater streams of the Xingu River basin, in Eastern Amazonia. We found that the functional and phylogenetic diversities of fish communities are related to local environmental conditions and stream connectivity in the drainage network, with marked differences occurring between the rainy and dry periods. Furthermore, we discovered that functional uniqueness was influenced mainly by environmental factors, whereas phylogenetic uniqueness had a more complex relationship with the influence of local environmental factors and connectivity. Our findings indicate that the fish assemblages of small headwater streams of the Xingu River basin share a close phylogenetic history. This is probably because of the climatic and environmental stability experienced by Amazonian ichthyofauna over evolutionary time. Our findings emphasise the role of niche‐based processes in shaping the unique functional composition of fish assemblages in headwater streams, and highlight the importance of environmental heterogeneity in maintaining the ecological integrity of these freshwater ecosystems.

Let's wait for the evening: nocturnal copulation in a tropical damselfly Phylolestes ethelae (Odonata, Synlestidae)

Sexual selection is one of the main causes of the diversity of reproductive behaviours observed intra- and interspecifically. Here we study the reproductive behaviour of a unique species, Phylolestes ethelae, the only member of the family Synlestidae (Odonata) found in America. Our hypothesis was that the phylogenetic uniqueness of this species and the fact that it lives on an island would produce novel behaviours worth protecting as they are a part of the biodiversity. Between 2017 and 2019 we studied a population of P. ethelae in the National Park Armando Bermúdez in the Dominican Republic by means of mark-recapture techniques and focal observations. The survival rate was estimated as 0.953 ± 0.012 (SE), which translates into an expected lifespan of 20.6 days. We found that some males showed high site fidelity but very little activity, and territorial disputes were almost inexistent. Females, on the other hand, were rarely observed on the river, and were found mainly on the nearby paths and forest. We recorded 28 tandems and observed a total of 17 copulations, lasting an average of 18.6 min. Examination of sperm volumes in females interrupted during copulation indicated that males removed most of the sperm from the female bursa copulatrix during stage I of copula, but they could not remove sperm from the paired spermathecae. The duration of precopulatory tandem was highly variable (from 3 min to 7.8 h). In some cases, copulation was observed shortly (3 min) after tandem formation, mainly during the morning. However, some pairs formed during the morning, remained in tandem for several hours, and mated late, after dusk. Females laid eggs not accompanied by the male. Mating after the main peak of activity might be a strategy which protects sperm investment because females laying eggs after dusk are unlikely to be mated again that day. Further studies are needed to decipher phenotypic correlates of the males that mate after dusk.

The contrary conservation situations of two local critically endangered species, Vaccinium emarginatum (Ericaceae) and Elatostema platyphyllum (Urticaceae), growing on the eastern edge of the distribution

As biodiversity loss continues, there is an urgent need to develop efficient conservation measures to protect diversity with limited conservation resources. Conservation targets have generally been selected based on their population size, but more detailed assessments clarifying the phylogenetic genetic status, history, and phylogenetic uniqueness of rare species is crucial to set more appropriate and effective conservation measures. In Japan, the Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora designated endangered plants with high conservation priority, but >40% of these species also grow overseas. We conducted comparative analyses based on ddRADseq and MIG-seq to evaluate the population conservation status and value of Vaccinium emarginatum and Elatostema platyphyllum which are growing across national borders at the eastern edge of their species distribution range. The analyses revealed contrasting conservation status between the two species; the Japanese population of V. emarginatum had lower genetic diversity at the individual level and phylogenetically differentiated from Taiwanese populations, while that of E. platyphyllum had higher diversity at the individual level and is a relatively recent migrant with little phylogenetical differentiation from Taiwanese populations. The two species, which share the common feature of being critically rare in Japan, showed contrasting genetic/phylogenetic characteristics. This study provided useful information for appropriate conservation measures based on species’ phylogenetic traits and genetic diversity.

Can Biological Traits Serve as Predictors for Fishes' Introductions, Establishment, and Interactions? The Mediterranean Sea as a Case Study.

The Mediterranean Sea (MED) is prone to species' introductions, induced by human activities and/or climate change. Recent studies focus on the biological traits that result in such introductions, yet on a single-area-type approach. Here, we used, analyzed, and compared biological traits derived from FishBase for MED, non-indigenous (NIS) and neonative (NEO) in the Mediterranean, and adjacent Atlantic (ATL) and Red Sea (RS) species. A quantitative trait-based analysis was performed using random forest to determine the importance of traits in the successful establishment in the Mediterranean. MED fishes were mainly demersal, slow growing and small-medium sized, preferring intermediate temperatures. Conversely, ATL were mainly deep-dwelling species, preferring low temperatures. RS and NIS were predominantly reef-associated, thermophilus, and stenothermic. NEO species were stenothermic with preference to intermediate-high temperatures. Omnivores with preference to animals was the most common trophic group among regions. MED species exhibited higher phylogenetic uniqueness (PD50) compared to RS and NIS, indicating that they have long ancestral branches and few descendants. Preferred temperature, habitat type preference and maximum reported length (Lmax) and infinite length (Linf) were the most important predictors in the establishment process. Overall, the results presented here could serve as a baseline for future research, especially by using more refined and/or additional biological trail estimates.

Functional rarity and evolutionary uniqueness of threatened species across different scales and habitats in a Central European flora

Abstract With the potential extinction of threatened species, communities and species pools could become functionally and phylogenetically impoverished, especially if threatened species had distinct traits and evolutionary histories compared to least concern species. Alternatively, threatened species would have similar traits and evolutionary histories, and their extinction could imply the loss of functionally and phylogenetically ‘redundant’ species. We tested whether threatened plant species are functionally and phylogenetically rarer than least concern species. We considered two scales of plant assemblage (plots and species pools) from an intensively sampled temperate region (Czech Republic), using a sample of 23,072 vegetation plots classified into eight habitat groups. We analysed the traits and phylogeny of 1,730 species of angiosperms recorded in these plots. We found that the potential loss of threatened species could have minor functional and phylogenetic consequences for the communities in any habitat and at each assemblage scale. However, detailed analysis of individual traits revealed that some threatened species tend to have some unique trait value, such as being small and having lighter seeds. Phylogenetically unique species tended to be the most functionally rare, although this pattern was only weakly significant. This generally suggests similar conservation strategies for functionally rare and evolutionarily unique species. Policy implications. We show how novel tools related to functional rarity and phylogenetic uniqueness could be used to understand the role of threatened species in communities and different habitat types. This allows to understand which species and habitats could provide great functional and phylogenetic contributions to biodiversity to better guide management and conservation programmes. To fully achieve this potential, greater efforts in collecting functional trait information for threatened species remain urgent as well as considering both individual and combined trait information when estimating the functional originality of species.

The global loss of floristic uniqueness

Regional species assemblages have been shaped by colonization, speciation and extinction over millions of years. Humans have altered biogeography by introducing species to new ranges. However, an analysis of how strongly naturalized plant species (i.e. alien plants that have established self-sustaining populations) affect the taxonomic and phylogenetic uniqueness of regional floras globally is still missing. Here, we present such an analysis with data from native and naturalized alien floras in 658 regions around the world. We find strong taxonomic and phylogenetic floristic homogenization overall, and that the natural decline in floristic similarity with increasing geographic distance is weakened by naturalized species. Floristic homogenization increases with climatic similarity, which emphasizes the importance of climate matching in plant naturalization. Moreover, floristic homogenization is greater between regions with current or past administrative relationships, indicating that being part of the same country as well as historical colonial ties facilitate floristic exchange, most likely due to more intensive trade and transport between such regions. Our findings show that naturalization of alien plants threatens taxonomic and phylogenetic uniqueness of regional floras globally. Unless more effective biosecurity measures are implemented, it is likely that with ongoing globalization, even the most distant regions will lose their floristic uniqueness.

A SMALL NEW ARBOREAL SPECIES OF WEST INDIAN BOA (BOIDAE; CHILABOTHRUS) FROM SOUTHERN HISPANIOLA

Thirteen species of West Indian boas (Chilabothrus) are distributed across the islands of the Greater Antilles and Lucayan Archipelago. Hispaniola is unique among this group of islands in having more than two species of Chilabothrus—three are currently recognized. Here we describe a fourth species from Hispaniola, a newly discovered distinctive species of small boa from the dry forest of the Barahona Peninsula, southwestern Dominican Republic, near the border with Haiti. This new species resembles in body size and in other aspects its closest relative Chilabothrus fordii (Günther 1861), with which it appears to be allopatric. The new species, which we describe as Chilabothrus ampelophis sp. nov., differs from C. fordii in body, head, and snout shape; in scalation; in both coloration and color pattern; and in phylogenetic uniqueness. Some relevant meristic characters from C. ampelophis sp. nov. fall between C. fordii and C. gracilis (Fischer 1888), accentuating the morphological and likely ecological differences from its sister species C. fordii. The discovery of this new species is especially important as it appears to be among the smallest boid (Boidae) species, has an arboreal specialization, and is found in a very restricted and highly threatened habitat.

A SMALL NEW ARBOREAL SPECIES OF WEST INDIAN BOA (BOIDAE; CHILABOTHRUS) FROM SOUTHERN HISPANIOLA

Thirteen species of West Indian boas (Chilabothrus) are distributed across the islands of the Greater Antilles and Lucayan Archipelago. Hispaniola is unique among this group of islands in having more than two species of Chilabothrus—three are currently recognized. Here we describe a fourth species from Hispaniola, a newly discovered distinctive species of small boa from the dry forest of the Barahona Peninsula, southwestern Dominican Republic, near the border with Haiti. This new species resembles in body size and in other aspects its closest relative Chilabothrus fordii (Günther 1861), with which it appears to be allopatric. The new species, which we describe as Chilabothrus ampelophis sp. nov., differs from C. fordii in body, head, and snout shape; in scalation; in both coloration and color pattern; and in phylogenetic uniqueness. Some relevant meristic characters from C. ampelophis sp. nov. fall between C. fordii and C. gracilis (Fischer 1888), accentuating the morphological and likely ecological differences from its sister species C. fordii. The discovery of this new species is especially important as it appears to be among the smallest boid (Boidae) species, has an arboreal specialization, and is found in a very restricted and highly threatened habitat.

Source pool diversity and proximity shape the compositional uniqueness of insular mammal assemblages worldwide

AbstractAimIslands have been the test bed of several theories in community ecology, biogeography, and evolutionary biology. Progress within these disciplines has given a more comprehensive and mechanistic understanding of the processes governing variation in species richness among islands. However, it remains unclear whether these same processes also explain variation in species and phylogenetic composition among islands. Integrating theory from ecology and biogeography, we infer the roles of dispersal, selection, and stochasticity on the composition of insular assemblages within archipelagos. We further assess the influence of source pool diversity and connectivity on the compositional uniqueness of insular assemblages.LocationIsland systems worldwide.TaxonMammals.MethodsWe compiled data on species composition of nonvolant mammals on ~200 islands in nine archipelagos distributed worldwide from the literature. We used variation partitioning to quantify the relative influence of the environment (selection) and geographic distance (dispersal) relative to a null model (stochasticity, randomness) on taxonomic and phylogenetic compositional turnover within archipelagos. We then used a linear mixed model to gain further insight into the underlying mechanisms shaping variation in assemblage composition among islands at a global scale. Specifically, we assessed the influence of source pool diversity, isolation from the source pool, and island characteristics on compositional uniqueness.ResultsOur results suggest that within‐archipelago variation in the composition of insular mammal assemblages is associated with stochastic or unmeasured processes rather than abiotic selection or dispersal limitation. The diversity and proximity of the source pool, as well as some island characteristics, explained variation in phylogenetic, but not taxonomic, compositional uniqueness globally. Globally, isolated islands associated with phylogenetically diverse source pools exhibit high phylogenetic uniqueness whereas well‐connected islands associated with phylogenetically clustered source pools show the opposite trend. Phylogenetically unique assemblages also tend occur on islands with a small elevational span and low annual temperature variation.Main conclusionsTaken together, our results suggest that source pool diversity, along with the potential for colonization from those pools, has a strong influence on the composition of insular mammal assemblages worldwide.

Functional and phylogenetic uniqueness of helminth and flea assemblages of two South African rodents

The loss of a particular species from a community may have different effects on its functioning, depending on the presence or absence of functionally similar or phylogenetically close species in that community (redundancy). Redundancy is thus defined as the fraction of species diversity not expressed by functional or phylogenetic diversity. We assessed functional and phylogenetic alpha- and beta-redundancy in helminth and flea assemblages of two species of South African rodents, Rhabdomys dilectus and Rhabdomys pumilio, using community uniqueness as the inverse indicator of redundancy. We asked whether patterns of functional and phylogenetic alpha- and beta-uniqueness differed between (i) parasite groups (endo- versus ectoparasites), (ii) host species within parasite groups, and (iii) biomes within host species. We found differences between the two hosts in the functional and phylogenetic alpha-uniqueness (but not beta-uniqueness) of flea, but not helminth, assemblages. Significant correlations between the alpha-uniqueness of parasite assemblages and the total parasite prevalence were found only for phylogenetic uniqueness and only in helminths. Pairwise site-by-site dissimilarities in uniqueness (beta-uniqueness) and pairwise dissimilarity in prevalence were significantly associated (positively) in helminths but not in fleas. A between-biome difference in functional (but not phylogenetic) alpha-uniqueness was found in both helminth and flea assemblages harboured by R. pumilio. We conclude that the resilience of parasite assemblages in terms of the effect on hosts depends not only on their transmission strategy but also on traits of host species and environmental factors.

Unusual opecoelids from Red Sea triggerfishes with special reference to characteristic concepts of the Opistholebetinae Fukui, 1929 (Digenea: Opecoelidae).

Three digeneans belonging to the Opecoelidae are reported and described from triggerfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Balistidae) collected in the northern Red Sea off Egypt. Both Macvicaria longicirrata (Manter, 1963) Aken-Ova, Cribb Bray, 2008 and Neopycnadena tendu (Bray Justine, 2007) n. comb. were recovered from the intestine of the titan triggerfish, Balistoides viridescens (Bloch Schneider)-each represents a new host record-and Gaevskajatrema balistes n. sp. was found parasitizing the lower intestine of the Picasso triggerfish, Rhinecanthus assasi (Forsskål). We continue to support synonymy of Gaevskajatrema ponticum (Koval, 1966) Machkevsky, 1990 with Gaevskajatrema perezi (Mathias, 1926) Gibson Bray, 1982, not as a differentiated species. We adopt the restricted posterior extension of the ceca and vitellarium to the testicular zone, without extension of either into the post-testicular space, as diagnostic in distinguishing Gaevskajatrema. Gaevskajatrema balistes n. sp. differs from G. perezi based on its substantially smaller body size with fewer eggs, a longer cirrus-pouch reaching ovarian level and it parasitizes a distinct host group from a structurally and ecologically different ecosystem. Neopycnadena n. gen. is erected for Pseudopycnadena tendu Bray Justine 2007 based on its possessing a large broadly oval cirrus-pouch with a massive field of prostatic cells occupying the entire volume of the cirrus-pouch, a wide, cup-shaped and thick-walled ejaculatory duct, distinct dorsal position of the excretory pore, the bifurcal dextral position of the genital pore, its report from a distinct host group and distant locality and its phylogenetic uniqueness compared with Pseudopycnadena fischthali Saad-Fares Maillard 1986. Neopycnadena n. gen. is ecologically similar to opistholebetines in their life-cycles and morphology; however, phylogenetically separate from opistholebetines as well as from the Polypipapiliotrematinae Martin, Cutmore Cribb in Martin, Sasal, Cutmore, Ward, Aeby Cribb, 2018 and members of Clade [C] of Martin and colleagues, thus we conclude that Neopycnadena n. gen. is unique. Neopycnadeninae n. subfam. is proposed to accommodate Neopycnadena n. gen. We consider that the probable characterization of tetraodontiform specialist taxa (as indicated by the presence of a muscular post-oral ring) and the specificity of the Opistholebetinae Fukui, 1929 sensu stricto with a tetraodontiform host are no longer reliable characters differentiating Gaevskajatrema and Macvicaria Gibson Bray, 1982. The nature of the post-oral structure is discussed and it is adopted to be a diagnostic feature at the generic level among taxa of the Opistholebetinae sensu latu. It is concluded that the expanded concept of the Opistholebetinae is more supported than the restricted one, Birendralebes Srivastava Ghosh, 1972 remains incertae sedis within the Opecoelidae Ozaki, 1925 rather than in the Opistholebetinae, and we provide a generic key to the Opistholebetinae.

A simple translation from indices of species diversity to indices of phylogenetic diversity

Measures of phylogenetic diversity have two main objectives: first disentangling the processes that drive species assemblages and second defining priorities of conservation while considering how much each species might contribute to biodiversity. A now widely used approach for measuring phylogenetic diversity consists in summing branch lengths on phylogenetic trees. Thanks to this approach, a change of perspective has been done since the 90s in the ecological literature: to measure biodiversity in sites, species in compositional indices have been replaced, often implicitly and sometimes explicitly, with phylogenetic units (units on the branch lengths of a phylogenetic tree). Here we highlight how any traditional index of species diversity, can be adapted, with this simple change of perspective, to measure phylogenetic diversity. We analyze other potentials of this simple family of indices: the ratio of phylogenetic diversity to the associated species diversity may offer a meaningful way to apprehend phylogenetic uniqueness in communities; and the phylogenetic diversity standardized by its maximum value may provide a meaningful way to apprehend phylogenetic evenness. Theoretically, the same approach could be applied to functional dendrograms to assess functional diversity, evenness and uniqueness. However this requires, somehow, to force functional data to adhere to a hierarchical structure of functional differences between species. As an illustration, we analyze phylogenetic and functional diversity in plant communities along a primary succession in Italy. Overall, this simple framework has a critical potential for future analyses of tree-based diversity as it benefits from myriads of previous researches on the measures of species diversity and species evenness.

Phylogenetic and compositional diversity are governed by different rules: a study of fleas parasitic on small mammals in four biogeographic realms

We studied patterns of phylogenetic and compositional diversity of fleas parasitic on small mammals and asked whether these patterns are affected by environmental variation or evolutionary/historical processes. We considered environmental variation via both off‐host (air temperature, precipitation, the amount of green vegetation, latitude) and host‐associated (phylogenetic and species composition) environments. The indicators of evolutionary/historical processes were phylogenetic and compositional uniqueness estimated via phylogenetic or compositional, respectively, β‐diversity of either fleas or hosts. We found that phylogenetic uniqueness of flea assemblages was the main predictor of their phylogenetic diversity in all realms. In addition, host phylogenetic diversity and uniqueness played also some role in the Palearctic, whereas the effect of the off‐host environment was either extremely weak or absent. Compositional diversity of fleas was consistently affected by compositional diversity of hosts in all realms except the Neotropics. The effect of the off‐host environment on compositional flea diversity was substantial in all realms except the Palearctic. No effect of latitude on either metric of flea diversity was found. We conclude that phylogenetic diversity of fleas is driven mainly by evolutionary/historical processes, whereas drivers of their compositional diversity are associated with current ecological conditions.

Phylogenetic Uniqueness of Honeybee Apis Cerana from the Korean Peninsula Inferred from The Mitochondrial, Nuclear, and Morphological Data

Abstract Apis cerana is an Eastern honeybee species distributed throughout Asia and closely related to the Western honeybee species Apis mellifera distributed across all of Africa, Europe and Western Asia, and subdivided into thirty confirmed subspecies. Currently, A. cerana is an endangered bee species in contrast to A. mellifera. We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome of A. cerana from the Jeollanam-do province of South Korea and uploaded to the DDBJ/Genbank database(AP018431). MtDNA sequence is 15.925 bp long, has 84% AT-content and 16% GC-content and contains 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes, one AT-rich region and four non-coding intergenic regions (NC1-4). All protein-coding genes are started by ATT and ATG codons, except the genes ATP8 and ND4, which started by ATC and ATA, respectively, and are stopped by the common codons TAA and TAG. A comparative analysis of the whole mtDNA sequences of A. cerana from Korea and Taiwan, A. c. cerana from China and A. c. japonica from Japan showed that the genetic divergence of the Korean A. cerana sample from subspecies A. c. cerana (2.57%) and A. c. japonica (2.58%) matched to the level of genetic divergence of mtDNA between animal subspecies (0.8-8%). Based on the comparative analysis of complete mtDNA (~16,000 bp), two nuclear gene VG and EF1- α sequences (~8,000 bp) and morphological measurements (six parameters), we assumed that Korean A. cerana, Chinese A. c. cerana and Japanese A. c. japonica are different subspecies at an early stage of sub-speciation and could be called further as subspecies of Apis cerana koreana.

Breaking the rule: Five larval instars in the podonomine midge Trichotanypus alaskensis Brundin from Barrow, Alaska

Except for one unconfirmed case, chironomid larvae have been reported to pass through four larval instars between egg and pupal stages. We have observed a fifth larval instar to be a standard life-cycle feature of the podonomine Trichotanypus alaskensis Brundin 1966 in tundra ponds on the Arctic Coastal Plain near Barrow, Alaska. T. alaskensis has a one-year life cycle in these arctic ponds. Adults emerge in June ~2-3 weeks after pond thaw, then mate and oviposit; most newly-hatched larvae reach instar IV by October when pond sediments freeze. Overwintering larvae complete instar IV within a few days of thaw, then molt again to a fifth larval instar. Imaginal discs, normally seen only during instar IV in Chironomidae, develop across both instars IV & V prior to pupation and adult emergence. While monitoring larval development post-thaw in 2014, we noticed freshly-molted T. alaskensis larval exuviae a week or more prior to any pupation by that species. In 2015-16 we reared overwintering instar IV larvae from single pond sources, individually with daily monitoring, through molts to instar V, pupa, and adult. Some overwintering instar II and III larvae were reared as well, but were few in number. During 2016 we also reared T. alaskensis progeny (from eggs) through instar II, thus documenting head capsule size ranges for all five instars in a single pond’s population. Without individual rearings, the fifth larval instar was not readily apparent for two reasons: 1) The molt itself occurs immediately after thaw and is so synchronous it is difficult to discern in daily field samples. 2) The head capsule size increment between instars IV-V is much lower than the ratio predicted by the Brooks-Dyar Rule. Up through instar IV, the Brooks-Dyar ratio for T. alaskensis ranged 1.30-1.61, but during the IV-V molt head capsule dimensions (sexes pooled) increased by a ratio of 1.09 – comparable to the magnitude of sexual dimorphism in head capsule size within each of the final two larval instars. Individual rearings coupled with 2014-2016 field surveys in nine other ponds suggest that five larval instars is an obligatory trait of this species at this location. As this is the first confirmed case of five larval instars in a chironomid, the phylogenetic uniqueness of this trait needs further investigation.

Phylogenetic uniqueness, not latitude, explains the diversity of avian blood parasite communities worldwide

AbstractAimCharacterizing macroecological patterns in biodiversity is key to improve our understanding of community assembly. Global biodiversity for many taxa follows a latitudinal gradient, with increased diversity in tropical latitudes. Less is known about global parasite biodiversity, inhibiting our ability to predict how global change will impact parasitic disease emergence. Using distribution and phylogenetic data for 2,386 avian haemosporidian blood parasites (genera Plasmodium, Haemoproteus and Leucocytozoon), I assessed how contemporary and historical drivers influence the composition of parasite communities worldwide.LocationGlobal.Time periodCurrent.Major taxa studiedHaemosporidian blood parasites.MethodsParasite distribution and cytochrome b sequence data were accessed from an open‐source database. Bayesian phylogenetic tree distributions were constructed for each parasite genus using two substitution models to capture uncertainty. Hierarchical regressions assessed effects of environmental variation, latitude and phylogenetic β‐diversity (βdiv; a proxy for phylogenetic uniqueness) on the diversity and asymmetry of parasite communities around the globe.ResultsI uncovered biodiversity hotspots and identified broad variation in global diversity patterns among parasite genera. Community diversity increased with increasing phylogenetic uniqueness for all three parasite genera; however, these diverse and unique regions did not consistently occur in the tropics. I found no evidence of a latitudinal diversity gradient, and support for a latitudinal gradient in community phylogenetic asymmetry was weak.Main conclusionsGlobal variation in avian haemosporidian phylogenetic diversity does not reflect a latitudinal gradient. Instead, parasite biogeography may reflect fundamental differences in host‐switching tendencies or the timing of avian evolutionary radiations. Examining the interplay between shared evolutionary history and phylogenetic diversity can provide important insights into the drivers of parasite biodiversity at global scales.

Gazelletta kashiwaensis sp. nov. (Medusettidae, Phaeodaria, Cercozoa), Its Morphology, Phylogeny, Distribution, and Feeding Behavior.

A phaeodarian morphotype, characterized by the feet surrounded with forked pedal spines with anchor-like structures, was collected in the subtropical North Pacific. Considering the morphological and phylogenetic uniqueness, this morphotype is described as Gazelletta kashiwaensis sp. nov. The distribution of this new species is possibly affected by the Kuroshio Current. The feeding behavior of living phaeodarians was first filmed: the present new species floated in the water column stretching "protoplasmic webs" and collected diatoms by repeating the expansion and retraction of "pseudopodium-like tentacles".

How effective are protected areas in conserving tree taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity in subtropical Brazilian Atlantic Forests?

We assessed the effectiveness of a protected area (PA) network in representing tree taxonomic and phylogenetic uniqueness in subtropical Atlantic Forests (Rain, Mixed and Seasonal Forests). Using a network of plots distributed over ∼95,000 km2 in southern Brazil, we first map the distribution of species richness (SR), beta diversity (BD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) across the extent of remaining forest in the region. We then tested whether areas of taxonomic and phylogenetic uniqueness are either over- or under-protected based on the existing PA network (3% coverage) and at least 10% coverage, and assessed whether protection is distributed equally for each uniqueness area type. Here, areas of taxonomic uniqueness were defined as those with higher contribution than the mean to the total BD, and areas of phylogenetic uniqueness as those with higher or lower PD than expected by chance given their SR, and sites exhibiting spatial congruence or mismatch between PD and SR. We found a high percentage of representation of both areas of uniqueness across the extent of remaining forest. However, our analyses showed that these areas are poorly and unequally captured by the PA network; they are on average less protected than expected based on at least 10% coverage and have high inequality of protection. Our results suggest that both beta diversity and evolutionary history of angiosperm trees are not adequately protected, and indicate relevant areas to extend the current PA network. We also emphasize the need to consider a multifaceted approach to maximize protection of the Atlantic Forest biodiversity.