Systema Naturae Research Articles

“Picking up signals” in male genital morphospace and integrating phylogenomics to delimit Neotropical Nylanderia Emery species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Abstract Genital morphology, a cornerstone in taxonomy that predates Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae, is vital for species delimitation. However, the widely accepted paradigm that genitalia are taxonomically informative lacks robust testing between closely related species, and supporting evidence is often limited to taxonomic literature in which genitalia are assumed a priori to be species-specific. The cosmopolitan ant genus Nylanderia Emery includes 123 described species, with most in the Neotropics still undescribed. Workers are often morphologically cryptic, and males are rare in collections but required for morphological delimitation. Using Ultraconserved Elements (UCEs) from 236 samples, including 53 Neotropical Nylanderia species, we reconstructed a phylogenetic framework to compare the genitalia (gonopods) of males collected alongside workers. We used geometric morphometrics on images of slide-mounted genitalia from 16 species and nano-CT scans of Nylanderia fulva (Mayr) and Nylanderia pubens (Forel) genital capsules and interpreted results considering phylogeny under maximum likelihood and the multispecies coalescent. We found strong morphological and molecular support for 2 distantly related American clades, identifiable by gonopod shape, with significant differences observed among most species. Three previously reported COI clades of N. fulva were not supported as monophyletic, nor were their gonopods significantly different. However, N. pubens was supported as distinct by all phylogenetic and 3DGM results. Our findings emphasize the importance of male genitalia for delimiting species boundaries and revising Neotropical Nylanderia. Given their importance, particularly in morphologically cryptic taxa, we recommend a greater focus on linking male and worker phenotypes, which can be facilitated through comprehensive nest series collection.

Peter Artedi's early observations of the spotted hyena and other exotic animals during a visit to London (1734–1735)

Eye-witness accounts of a living “panther”, a leopard, two tigers and a hyena, appended to “Idea institutionum Trichozoologiae”, an unpublished manuscript on mammal classification by Swedish naturalist Peter Artedi (1705–1735), made during a visit to London sometime between early November 1734 and June 1735, are described. Interest is focused on his account of the hyena, which appears to have been the only modern source for Carl Linnaeus, who acknowledged Artedi in the first edition of Systema naturae. Evidence is provided to show that Artedi's account was accurate and original, having never had the opportunity to witness the animal previously.

Peter Artedi’s ‘Idea institutionum Trichozoologiae’ and the classification of mammals

ABSTRACT Among several manuscripts left behind by Swedish naturalist Peter Artedi following his untimely death in 1735 is an unfinished effort to classify the mammals, or the ‘hairy animals’, as Artedi called them. Titled ‘Idea institutionum Trichozoologiae’ (‘An outline of the principles of the science of hairy animals’), it presents a four-tier hierarchy composed of orders, sections (‘sectio’), genera and species, that foretells the work of Carl Linnaeus. An analysis of the impact that Artedi’s account might have had on Linnaeus’s treatment of the mammals in the various editions of his Systema naturae is presented. Results show that both authors owed much to the earlier work of English naturalist John Ray, with precedent going back to Aristotle.

Why We Must Teach Our Students about Race

Editorial| March 01 2023 Why We Must Teach Our Students about Race Joseph L. Graves, Jr. Joseph L. Graves, Jr. Joseph L. Graves Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University gravesjl@ncat.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar gravesjl@ncat.edu The American Biology Teacher (2023) 85 (3): 133. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2023.85.3.133 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Joseph L. Graves; Why We Must Teach Our Students about Race. The American Biology Teacher 1 March 2023; 85 (3): 133. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2023.85.3.133 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe American Biology Teacher Search Twenty years ago, I wrote a piece for the newsletter of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study explaining how important it was to teach high school students about human biological variation and conceptions of race. The issue of variation within species has been of interest to naturalists beginning in the eighteenth century. Unfortunately, when Linnaeus published the tenth edition of Systema Naturae in 1758, he included a description of human varieties ranked hierarchically, with Europeans at the top and Africans at the bottom, as influenced by the colonialism and racism of the time. Thus began the sad history of Europeans deploying pseudoscientific schemes to classify and rank human beings. Fortunately, using concepts from the neo-Darwinian synthesis of the twentieth century based on genetic variation and phylogenetic methods, we know that modern humans do not display biological races, but earlier views are frustratingly long-lasting. Despite our modern understanding of biological variation, race... You do not currently have access to this content.

Tra nubi, selve, giardini e tassonomie: nuova liuteria elettromeccanica ed elettroacustica nelle pratiche musicali di Mauro Lanza, Andrea Valle e Simone Pappalardo

The research presented in this article investigates the artistic practices of Mauro Lanza, Andrea Valle and Simone Pappalardo, with particular attention to the concrete use and the theoretical definition of their new electromechanical and electroacoustics instruments. The paper considers the works Le Nubi non scoppiano per il peso (2011) by Mauro Lanza, the cycle Selva Petrosa (2019-2020) by Andrea Valle, the cycle Systema Naturae (2013-2017) by Andrea Valle and Mauro Lanza, and the performative practice by Simone Pappalardo. Starting from the definition of instrumental apparatus, the discussion presents the organological problems related to the new electromechanical and electroacoustic lutherie, and examines the definitions of electromechanical and electroacoustic instrument. The works of the three composers are analyzed from the point of view of the instrumental equipment, by investigating the algorithmic control techniques of the musical materials that have been used for organizing the instrumental component, and the different signals for controlling the computational component.

Los microbios de Linneo

One of the great geniuses of biology was the Swedish physician Carlos Linnaeus (1707-1778). He was called princeps botanicorum for his great contribution to the classification of plants. However, his undying fame is due to his work Systema Naturae in which he creates a binomial taxonomic system to classify all living and non-living beings into three kingdoms: the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom. In his taxonomic scheme, the animalicles or microorganisms discovered by the Dutch scholar Antoine van Leeuwenhoek in 1676, were tentatively classified in the animal kingdom, within the class Vermes or Worms. The idea that these little animals were the cause of infectious diseases was imagined by Linnaeus and developed in depth by Johannes C. Nyander and Johannes Carolus Roos, two of his disciples, who published this idea in their theses Exanthemata viva in 1757 and Mundus invisibilis in 1767, respectively.

International Palaeoentomological Society—20 years after

Fossilised insects probably brought man’s attention since the prehistory, since first amber with an insect entombed in resin was found. Amber was collected and used by humans first in the Upper Paleolithic period, perhaps as long ago as 20,000 years (Beck et al., 2009; Burdukiewicz, 2009; Płonka & Kowalski, 2017). The written testimonies on amber inclusions goes back to Ancient Rome (Plinius Secundus, 77). During 17th and 18th centuries the inclusions in amber were noted by philosophers (Bacon, 1638), their values discussed and illustrated (e.g., Sendel, 1742) and their importance to understanding the history of life pointed (Kant in Hagen, 1821). Shortly after Linnaeus “Systema Naturae” editions, the first research using binomial names for insect included in the copal was published (Bloch, 1776) and Pleistocene record of Recent beetle was noted by Fabricius (1775). Notes and information on fossil insects from imprints and amber were presented by Lang (1708), Bertrand (1763), Linnaeus (1778) and Volta (1796). The first regular description of beetle inclusion in Baltic amber came from Gravenhorst (1806) and works of de Serres (1828, 1829) seems to be the first with more detailed overview and description of insects as adpression fossils. Therefore, human’s palaeoentomological interests predates official beginning of modern taxonomy and palaeoentomology as science is as old as modern entomology (Azar et al., 2018).

EmAlcyonium/em embursa/em Linnaeus, 1758 is not a sponge.

In the 10th edition of the Systema Naturae (Linnaeus, 1758), which is the starting point of the Code for Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN Art. 3), Linnaeus named three species of the genus Alcyonium, A. arboreum, A. digitatum, and A. bursa. The genus name Alcyonium was based on the 16th and 17th century pre-Linnaean use for a diversity of marine organisms, including cnidarians, sponges, bryozoans, and algae. In the first valid presentation of the genus name, Linnaeus narrowed this down to comprise two clear cnidarians (A. arboreum, currently Paragorgia arborea, and A. digitatum, still accepted under this name and subsequently assigned as type species), but the pre-Linnaean diversity perhaps explains why the third species, A. bursa, was not recognized as a cnidarian. Linnaeus defined it as 'Alcyonium acaule pulposum subglobosum. Habitat in O. Europaea.' (translated as: Alcyonium without stalk, fleshy, semiglobular. From the European Ocean).' Attempts to fix its identity among contemporary authors at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century followed a checkered course, with opinions varying from algae to tunicates and sponges.

Back in time to unlock the future: tracing the type-specimens of Corallus hortulana (Linnaeus, 1758) (Serpentes: Boidae), with designation of a lectotype for the Amazon tree boa.

Corallus hortulana presents a large array of tones and color pattern variability throughout its distribution (= polychromatism), which trigged the description of several taxa now considered to be primary synonyms. Linnaeus described two of these (Boa enydris and Boa hortulana) on the same page of the 10th Edition of the Systema Naturae. However, both names had been widely used in literature almost in an optional way, until their formal synonymization more than two centuries after the original description. Additionally, the type specimen of Boa hortulana was reported as missing since the late 19th century. These two factors may have enabled the unjustified switched association of types, which was perpetuated in the literature to the present day. Our main goals here were to trace the correct type specimens for each species through a literature review and specimen examination, and to amend the switched association of type material. We found two specimens in the collection of the Uppsala University that are unmistakably associated with Boa hortulana. Herein we designate one of them as its lectotype in order to promote nomenclatural stability considering its huge phenotypic variability and the future possibility of eventually splitting the species.

Priority of Carl Linnaeus as the author of the oldest species of Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda): Daphnia pulex (Linnaeus, 1758) and Polyphemus pediculus (Linnaeus, 1758).

In taxonomy, it is important to maintain chronological order in taxon naming and understanding. Here, I confirm that according to the rules of Zoological Nomenclature, Carl Linnaeus must be regarded as the author of two common cladoceran taxa, Daphnia pulex (Linnaeus, 1758) and Polyphemus pediculus (Linnaeus, 1758). Both were established in the 10th Edition of "Systema Naturae", the starting point of Zoological Nomenclature. The history of these taxa is described.

Canarium urceus (Linné, 1758) Studies Part 1: The Recircumscription of Strombus urceus Linné, 1758 (Neostromboidae: Strombidae),” Strombus urceus Linné, 1758 (Neostromboidae: Strombidae)

Strombus urceus Linné, 1758 is a gastropod species that is one of the most variable and well documented through the centuries. However, we found the present identity of Strombus urceus misleading. Abbott (1960) designated the type locality, and confirmed type specimen, based on the microfiche of the Uppsala University, Museum of Evolution Zoology Section Collection, which formed the basic reference set for the Museum S:æ R:æ M:tis Luovicæ Ulricæ (1764), Linné’s primary set of organisms from which he ordered the species in the Systema Naturae. This review resolves the taxonomic identity of Strombus urceus Linné, 1758 (= Canarium urceus (Linné, 1758)) through conforming the type and explicitly defining a range for that phenotype, and this then providesthebasisforfutureworkthatwilldeal withthegreaterStrombusurceus Linné,1758diverse phenotypiccomplexanditscurrentlyassignedregionalformsandvarietiesbythepresentauthors.

Zur Narrativisierung der Natur

Abstract This essay investigates the narrative structures employed to describe nature in Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte (1790). Blumenbach’s text can be read as the product of two fundamentally different (and opposed) narrative models which both have roots in the eighteenth-century discipline of natural history. On the one hand, the text shows traces of a static, predominantly spatially oriented model of representing nature, associated during the eighteenth century in particular with Carl Linné’s influential Systema naturae (first published 1735). The text, however, also demonstrates the advantages of a temporal, dynamic model of nature, introduced into Enlightenment natural history by Buffon’s Histoire naturelle (1749–1788). In addition, Blumenbach’s text also articulates the transition from natural history to anthropology, a new discipline emerging in the final decades of the eighteenth century that provides Blumenbach, who will be instrumental for its introduction, with a new set of narrative strategies.

Zur Narrativisierung der Natur

Abstract This essay investigates the narrative structures employed to describe nature in Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte (1790). Blumenbach’s text can be read as the product of two fundamentally different (and opposed) narrative models which both have roots in the eighteenth-century discipline of natural history. On the one hand, the text shows traces of a static, predominantly spatially oriented model of representing nature, associated during the eighteenth century in particular with Carl Linné’s influential Systema naturae (first published 1735). The text, however, also demonstrates the advantages of a temporal, dynamic model of nature, introduced into Enlightenment natural history by Buffon’s Histoire naturelle (1749–1788). In addition, Blumenbach’s text also articulates the transition from natural history to anthropology, a new discipline emerging in the final decades of the eighteenth century that provides Blumenbach, who will be instrumental for its introduction, with a new set of narrative strategies.

The Literature cited by Linnaeus in the Amphibian and Reptile section of Systema Naturae X

The Literature cited by Linnaeus in the Amphibian and Reptile section of Systema Naturae X

Are baculum size and allometry a response to post-copulatory sexual selection in promiscuous males of the house mouse?

Great genital variation occurs across animal species, likely reflecting the operation of sexual selection. We quantified bacular, testicular, and vesicular size, variation, and allometry in house mice (Laurentii in: Mus musculus Linnaeus, Systema naturae 10th ed, Salvii, Stockholm, 1758) from the western Carpathians (Slovakia). We investigated whether baculum size is related to size of reproductive organs (testicular length and width, and vesicular length), and with body size (head-and-body length), which is not directly involved in reproduction. The corrected coefficient of variation (CV’) for all bacular, testicular, and vesicular traits was significantly higher than non-sexual somatic traits. The negative allometry and weak relationship between baculum size and head-and-body length obtained in presented study (OLS regression) suggest that the Mus musculus baculum is under stabilizing selection. We also assumed that penile width as related to bacular thickness could be a reliable indicator of quality during copulation.

Protichneumon pisorius (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae)—The First Record From India

Protichneumon pisorius Linnaeus (Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata., Laurnetii Salvii, Holmiae, 824 pp 1758) is reported for the first time from India. A brief diagnosis and images of the species are provided to validate this new faunal record from India. Ichneumonidae is one of the largest families of the Hymenoptera with over 39 subfamilies. The number of valid species of Ichneumonidae is about 25,292 however, the number of described species is 35,660 which includes over 10,000 junior synonyms [2, Yu, personal communication]. The genus Protichneumon belongs to the subtribe Protichneumonina (Ichneumonidae: Ichneumoninae: Protichneumonini) and include 23 valid species, mostly of Holarctic origin found in the Oriental Zone in the highlands [boreal-mountain species; 2, 3]. Recently some authors have moved the genus Heresiarches to Protichneumonini tribe and, under the Code (priority), renamed tribe Protichneumonini into Heresiarchini. However, this opinion is mostly disagreed and still debatable with Heresiarchini been considered as an independent tribe [Tereshkin, personal communication]. The members of the genus Protichneumon are recognized by their prominent size (15–20 mm), drab coloration and shares most similarities with species of genus Coelichneumon. These insects specialize in parasitizing the Sphingidae, Arctiidae, Lymantriidae, Notodontidae, Noctuidae, Geometridae, Pyralidae and Tortricidae moths Tereshkin (Linzer biologische Beitrage 41(2):1317–1608, 2009), Heinrich (Arthropods of Florida and neigboring areas. Vol 9—Ichneumoninae of Florida and neighboring states. Florida Departament of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Contribution 400:1–350, 1977).

THE EUROPEAN BISON OF THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY IN PARIS AND THE HISTORY OF ZOOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY MUSEOGRAPHY IN THE XVIII AND XIX CENTURY

This article presents a history of the European bison specimens preserved at the National Museum of NaturalHistory (MNHN) in Paris. The inventory made in 1945 by Jacques Millot, who first noticed the importance of these collections for the conservation of the species, constitutes a starting point of the present analysis. The oldest European bison of the MNHN collection came from the royal menagerie of Versailles. Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton was the first who has published a description of the species, four years before publication of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus. Then Georges Cuvier, when working on the MNHN collections, distinguished the European bison from aurochs and compared it to the American bison. His research has contributed to the development of the notion of “extinct species”. This article presents also the history of the European bison from the Zoo of Cologne and the specimens from Petersburg, by Friedrich von Brandt, with a focus on the difficulties of obtaining specimens of the European bison in XIX century. European bison specimens from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris have played a particularly important role in the history of the species biology. They also offer an interesting perspective for genetic studies on the species.

Textilia Linnaeana: Global 18th Century Textile Traditions & Trade by Viveka Hansen

Reviewed by: Textilia Linnaeana: Global 18th Century Textile Traditions & Trade by Viveka Hansen Alexander Mawyer Textilia Linnaeana: Global 18th Century Textile Traditions & Trade, by Viveka Hansen. Mundus Linnæi Series. London: The ik Foundation & Company, 2017. isbn 978-1-904145-32-5; 517 pages, illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. us$72.00. Over more than two centuries, the experiences of Cook’s officers, surgeons, naturalists, artists, able-bodied sailors, and Pacific Islander inter-locutors have been minutely scrutinized. Today, a radically unexpected finding is required to make much of a stir in the sails of the relevant discourses. Or so I would have thought. Viveka Hansen’s Textilia Linnaeana: Global 18th Century Textile Traditions & Trade demonstrates that scholars engaged in the fundamental work of their particular disciplines can have subtle yet notable contributions for colleagues working in distant fields. Hansen, an expert in eighteenth-century textiles, makes a finely woven contribution to the history of science with insights at the intersection of emerging eighteenth-century botanical science, commerce, and material culture. Her work also has implications for the study of Oceania’s eighteenth-century age-of-encounter, the roots of globalization in the region, the sometimes shadowy economic motivations for Pacific navigation, and a more pluralistic vision of the place of “national projects” in European Pacific voyaging. Textilia Linnaeana is the latest volume in the Mundus Linnæi Series devoted to republishing the transformative works of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, generally known for his contributions to taxonomic conventions and the study of sexual reproduction among plants. Twenty richly hued chapters illuminate the place of textiles in the eighteenth century across hundreds of cultures around the globe, as Hansen closely scrutinizes the travels, experiences, field science, and findings of Linnaeus’s seventeen most favored students, whom he baptized his “Apostles.” These lieutenants, some of whom became scientific giants in their own right, were strategically deployed by Linnaeus for [End Page 598] undertaking basic research, gathering botanical and zoological specimens around the globe, publicizing Linnaeus’s theoretical and methodological work, and advocating for his place in the froth of the Enlightenment’s refashioning of botanical science as a formal endeavor. The apostles included two of Cook’s best-known companions in the first and second navigations, Daniel Solander and Anders Sparrman. That these two naturalists were trained by Linnaeus has not been missed by prior commentators. However, this relationship has generally been treated as a colorful fact, little more than a delightful bit of trivia, and it may have seemed unimportant to those less interested in the history of botany or the history of science more generally. Hansen’s volume suggests a different perspective on the role of these early scientists. Daniel Solander (1733–1782) was born at Piteå, on the Gulf of Bothnia, attended Uppsala University, and studied natural history under Linnaeus, who chose him to communicate the Systema Naturae, published in 1735, to the emerging Royal Society and the community of British naturalists in London. Solander became an employee of the British Museum and worked from 1763 to catalog its natural history collections. At some point, he became friendly with Joseph Banks, despite their differences in social status. Under Banks’s patronage, Solander was appointed to the suite of naturalists aboard the Endeavor on Cook’s first navigation in 1768–1771. Solander died young at age forty-nine. His immensely productive life was devoted to the primary work of cataloging the tens of thousands of new floral and faunal species gathered during Cook’s first voyage for the British Museum, presenting emerging work to the Royal Society, and supporting Banks’s ongoing scientific endeavors, including a late period of fieldwork in Iceland. However, Solander published no primary account whatsoever of his Pacific experiences. Andreas Sparrman (1748–1820) was born in Tensta, in Sweden’s Uppland, and enrolled at Uppsala as a precocious nine-year-old. Sparrman studied medicine and natural history under Linnaeus and was deployed to South Africa for the empirical incorporation of that bioregion into the Linnaean project. There, in 1772, Sparrman met Johann Reinhold and Georg Forster before Cook’s departure from the Cape and was invited to join them on the Resolution for the remainder...

<p><strong>“Palaeoentomology”: A modern journal for a science dealing with the past</strong></p>

Palaeoentomology started in the late XVIIIth century, shortly after the 10th edition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae (the foundation of modern taxonomy), when papers on the curiosities of insects entombed in fossil resins were published. The beginning of XIXth century (with the growing interest in geological sciences and prehistoric life) witnessed the first attempts to study and describe insects from sedimentary rocks. This discipline then developed during the XIXth and beginning of the XXth centuries; and resulted in some major works and reviews (summarizing the knowledge on fossil insects and other terrestrial arthropods) published in the geological and biological literature. The XXth century was a period of relatively slow but constant development in palaeoentomology, during which the famous “Treatise on invertebrate paleontology: Arthropoda 4. Superclass Hexapoda” (cataloguing the knowledge on fossil insects) was published (Carpenter, 1992). At the beginning of XXIst century, palaeoentomology grew significantly and exponentially; and two major manuals (“History of insects” and “Evolution of the insects”) were published (Rasnitsyn & Quicke, 2002; Grimaldi & Engel, 2005, respectively). These manuals helped to encourage more students and researchers to work on fossil insects and other terrestrial arthropods.

Genetic diversity of Barbary lion based on genealogic analysis

Genetic diversity of Barbary lion based on genealogic analysis