Taxonomic Knowledge Research Articles

Convening Expert Taxonomists to Build Image Libraries for Training Automated Classifiers

AbstractDigital imaging technologies are increasingly used to study life in the ocean. To deal with the large volume of image data collected over space and time, scientists employ various machine learning and deep learning algorithms to perform automated image classification. Training of classifiers requires a large number of expertly curated sets of images, a time‐consuming process that requires taxonomic knowledge and understanding of the local ecosystem. The creation of these labeled training sets is the critical bottleneck for building skillful automated classifiers. Here, we discuss how we overcame this barrier by leveraging taxonomic knowledge from a group of specialists in a workshop setting and suggest best practices for effectively organizing image annotation efforts. In our experience, this 2 day workshop proved very insightful and facilitated classification of over 4 years of plankton images obtained at Scripps Pier (La Jolla, CA), focusing on diatoms and dinoflagellates. We highlight the importance of facilitating a dialog between taxonomists and engineers to better integrate ecological goals with computational constraints, and encourage continuous involvement of taxonomic experts for successful implementation of automated classifiers.

Pollen Morphology of Convolvulaceae from Southeastern Amazonian Cangas and Its Relevance for Interaction Networks and Paleoenvironmental Studies.

Serra dos Carajás harbors a unique open plant community in Amazonia, known as canga vegetation, with several endemic species coexisting with the potential threat of large-scale iron ore mining. In this sense, Convolvulaceae occur in a wide variety of canga geoenvironments with multiple flower visitors, but the scarcity of data on its pollen morphology prevents the correct association between Convolvulaceae species with floral visitors, as well as the precise identification of their habitats throughout the Quaternary. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the taxonomic knowledge and refinement of the identification of insect-plant networks of endangered plants, including Ipomoea cavalcantei. Pollen grains were examined by light and scanning electron microscopy (LM and SEM, respectively), and the morphological parameters obtained were statistically analyzed using principal component analysis. Therefore, all species were differentiated based on aperture types and exine ornamentation. The set of morphological characters indicated that echinae morphology, easily identified under LM, was effective for the identification of Ipomoea species. This work represents the first robust pollen database for a precise identification at the species level of Convolvulaceae from southeastern Amazonian cangas.

Taxonomical knowledge, biological spectra and ethnomedicinal plant inventory of Asteraceae family in various areas of Gaza strip, Palestine

Taxonomical knowledge, biological spectra and ethnomedicinal plant inventory of Asteraceae family in various areas of Gaza strip, Palestine

Insight into the phylogeny and metabolic divergence of Monascus species (M. pilosus, M. ruber, and M. purpureus) at the genome level.

Species of the genus Monascus are economically important and widely used in the production of food colorants and monacolin K. However, they have also been known to produce the mycotoxin citrinin. Currently, taxonomic knowledge of this species at the genome level is insufficient. This study presents genomic similarity analyses through the analysis of the average nucleic acid identity of the genomic sequence and the whole genome alignment. Subsequently, the study constructed a pangenome of Monascus by reannotating all the genomes and identifying a total of 9,539 orthologous gene families. Two phylogenetic trees were constructed based on 4,589 single copy orthologous protein sequences and all the 5,565 orthologous proteins, respectively. In addition, carbohydrate active enzymes, secretome, allergic proteins, as well as secondary metabolite gene clusters were compared among the included 15 Monascus strains. The results clearly revealed a high homology between M. pilosus and M. ruber, and their distant relationship with M. purpureus. Accordingly, all the included 15 Monascus strains should be classified into two distinctly evolutionary clades, namely the M. purpureus clade and the M. pilosus-M. ruber clade. Moreover, gene ontology enrichment showed that the M. pilosus-M. ruber clade had more orthologous genes involved with environmental adaptation than the M. purpureus clade. Compared to Aspergillus oryzae, all the Monascus species had a substantial gene loss of carbohydrate active enzymes. Potential allergenic and fungal virulence factor proteins were also found in the secretome of Monascus. Furthermore, this study identified the pigment synthesis gene clusters present in all included genomes, but with multiple nonessential genes inserted in the gene cluster of M. pilosus and M. ruber compared to M. purpureus. The citrinin gene cluster was found to be intact and highly conserved only among M. purpureus genomes. The monacolin K gene cluster was found only in the genomes of M. pilosus and M. ruber, but the sequence was more conserved in M. ruber. This study provides a paradigm for phylogenetic analysis of the genus Monascus, and it is believed that this report will lead to a better understanding of these food microorganisms in terms of classification, metabolic differentiation, and safety.

Integrative Taxonomy of Novel Diaporthe Species Associated with Medicinal Plants in Thailand.

During our investigations of the microfungi on medicinal plants in Thailand, five isolates of Diaporthe were obtained. These isolates were identified and described using a multiproxy approach, viz. morphology, cultural characteristics, host association, the multiloci phylogeny of ITS, tef1-α, tub2, cal, and his3, and DNA comparisons. Five new species, Diaporthe afzeliae, D. bombacis, D. careyae, D. globoostiolata, and D. samaneae, are introduced as saprobes from the plant hosts, viz. Afzelia xylocarpa, Bombax ceiba, Careya sphaerica, a member of Fagaceae, and Samanea saman. Interestingly, this is the first report of Diaporthe species on these plants, except on the Fagaceae member. The morphological comparison, updated molecular phylogeny, and pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) analysis strongly support the establishment of novel species. Our phylogeny also revealed the close relationship between D. zhaoqingensis and D. chiangmaiensis; however, the evidence from the PHI test and DNA comparison indicated that they are distinct species. These findings improve the existing knowledge of taxonomy and host diversity of Diaporthe species as well as highlight the untapped potential of these medicinal plants for searching for new fungi.

A combined approach of DNA metabarcoding collectively enhances the detection efficiency of medicinal plants in single and polyherbal formulations.

Empirical research has refined traditional herbal medicinal systems. The traditional market is expanding globally, but inadequate regulatory guidelines, taxonomic knowledge, and resources are causing herbal product adulteration. With the widespread adoption of barcoding and next-generation sequencing, metabarcoding is emerging as a potential tool for detecting labeled and unlabeled plant species in herbal products. This study validated newly designed rbcL and ITS2 metabarcode primers for metabarcoding using in-house mock controls of medicinal plant gDNA pools and biomass pools. The applicability of the multi-barcode sequencing approach was evaluated on 17 single drugs and 15 polyherbal formulations procured from the Indian market. The rbcL metabarcode demonstrated 86.7% and 71.7% detection efficiencies in gDNA plant pools and biomass mock controls, respectively, while the ITS2 metabarcode demonstrated 82.2% and 69.4%. In the gDNA plant pool and biomass pool mock controls, the cumulative detection efficiency increased by 100% and 90%, respectively. A 79% cumulative detection efficiency of both metabarcodes was observed in single drugs, while 76.3% was observed in polyherbal formulations. An average fidelity of 83.6% was observed for targeted plant species present within mock controls and in herbal formulations. In the present study, we achieved increasing cumulative detection efficiency by combining the high universality of the rbcL locus with the high-resolution power of the ITS2 locus in medicinal plants, which shows applicability of multilocus strategies in metabarcoding as a potential tool for the Pharmacovigilance of labeled and unlabeled plant species in herbal formulations.

Automated plant species identification from the stomata images using deep neural network: A study of selected mangrove and freshwater swamp forest tree species of Bangladesh

Stomatal traits of leaves are critical for regulating the exchange of gases between plant tissues and the atmosphere, and thus play a crucial role in the physiological activities of plants. The hypothesis of this study is that distinct stomatal features among different species grown in diverse habitats can serve as a potential marker for species identification. Leaf samples were collected from the mangrove forests of Sundarbans and the freshwater swamp forests of Ratargul in Bangladesh. In total, we examined 11 species from eight different families. We used deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to automatically identify tree species from microscopic stomatal imprints, as there is currently no established protocol for this task. For model training, 80% (866 images) of the data was used for training the models. Our study observed significant variations in stomatal attributes such as length, width, and density among different species, families, and habitats. These variations could help in accurate species identification by machine learning approaches used in the present study. An empirical comparison was conducted among EfficientNetV2, Xception, VGG16, VGG19, MobileNetV2, ResNet50V2, Resnet152, DenseNet201, and NasNetLarge. We propose a novel approach called the “Normalized Leverage Factor” that utilizes accuracy, precision, recall, and f1-score to select the optimal model. This approach eliminates the non-uniformity of the scores. Although MobileNetV2 achieved an accuracy of 99.06%, our findings indicate that EfficientNetV2 is the optimal model for species identification. This is due to its higher normalized leverage factor (1.92) compared to MobileNetV2 (1.88). The findings demonstrate that plants of diverse habitats show a unique footprint of stomata that offers an innovative method of species identification using DCNN. The study would help to develop a stomatal image-based user interface to identify species even without expert taxonomic knowledge and could be particularly useful in fields such as pharmacology, conservation biology, forestry, and environmental science.

Recording earthworm diversity on the tropical island of Martinique using DNA barcoding unveiled endemic species in bromeliad plants

In a context of accelerating biodiversity loss, some species may become extinct before taxonomists have time to collect and describe them. This is an even more critical problem for taxa with poor taxonomic knowledge, such as earthworms in the tropics. To overcome this taxonomic impediment, we investigated earthworm diversity on the tropical island of Martinique using DNA barcoding. Firstly, we sampled earthworms at 81 sites evenly distributed in two categories corresponding to natural and anthropized environments. We obtained a total of 684 sequences of a fragment of the COI gene. MOTU delimitation and morphological identification suggested that this dataset corresponded to 49 putative species, of which 16 were known exotic species. The rarefaction curve suggested that the sampling effort was not sufficient to capture total earthworm diversity in the natural environment and that many more species could be discovered. Secondly, we focused on a heterogeneous landscape around the town of Morne Rouge, where arboreal earthworms were sampled using a standardized protocol. We found 8 different species in epiphytic plants, three of which were found almost exclusively in bromeliad plants that were sampled above 1.4 m from the ground. The presence of these species, probably endemic to Martinique and new to science, was significantly correlated to the proportion of forest land cover. The most common earthworm in these habitats was Dichogaster andina, an exotic species found in bromeliads and Heliconia plants that were sampled at every height from the bottom of the tree up to 6.8 m. Its presence was correlated to the proportion of total river length in the landscape, suggesting that rivers may act as a dispersal vector. This study therefore highlights the great diversity of earthworms in Martinique, while emphasizing the main threats to this biodiversity, namely the alteration of habitats and the presence of invasive species.

Descripción de las espermatecas y testículos de Triatoma melanocephala Neiva y Pinto, 1923 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Triatominae)

Triatoma melanocephala is an endemic species of Brazil. Phenotypic (external morphology) and molecular studies were performed to contribute to the taxonomy and phylogeny of triatomines, since few studies on the internal morphology of these were found. In order to contribute to the biological, morphological and taxonomic knowledge of the subfamily Triatominae, this work describes the internal morphology of the reproductive apparatus of adult males and females of T. melanocephala. For this work 30 specimens from Jequié, Bahia, Brazil were used. Triatoma melanocephala’s reproductive system included slim spermathecae insertions, large/medium rounded terminal bodies, and irregular ellipsoid-shaped testicles with a transparent, vitreous appearance. These results contribute to the knowledge of the reproductive biology of this species of vectorial importance and show taxonomic relevance, as well as possible application in systematic studies.

Checklist of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of Oaxaca, an important hotspot of biodiversity in Mexico

Background: Oaxaca, a southern State in Mexico, belongs to the Mesoamerican hotspot of biodiversity. The taxonomic and diversity knowledge of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in Oaxaca State is scattered and accessibility to it is difficult.
 Questions: Which AMF species have been identified in Oaxaca and which is their distribution?
 Studied species: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
 Study site: State of Oaxaca, Mexico.
 Methods: It was prepared an updated and annotated checklist of the AMF species with frequency of occurrence and the sampling sites where the species had been registered. All studies carried out previously (to date, 2022) were considered. Information on AMF taxa was available in scattered form in different publications in physical and electronic media, theses, projects, technical reports, and scientific papers.
 Results: The checklist includes 78 species, distributed among 23 genera, 10 families, and four orders. The most diverse families were Glomeraceae (26 species), followed by Gigasporaceae (20) and Acaulosporaceae (15), whereas the most diverse genera were Acaulospora and Glomus (15 and eight species, respectively). The most frequent species were Funneliformis geosporus, Acaulospora scrobiculata, and A. spinosa. The highest species diversity has been reported under the rhizosphere of Agave angustifolia, A. karwinskii, and Zea mays (39, 36, and 34 species, respectively). A new AMF species was recently isolated from the rhizosphere of a microendemic agave.
 Conclusions: The recorded AMF species of Oaxaca State confirms its position as one of the states with the highest AMF species diversity of Mexico.

Taxa of Vascular Plants Endemic to the Pannonicum Floristic Region

Following the work of Tatár (1939), no new revised and detailed list was made of endemic plants of the Pannonicum phytogeographical region, which takes into account the latest research results. A survey of vascular plants endemic and subendemic to the Pannonicum is presented here based on a critical revision of published and sometimes unpublished data on contemporary taxonomic and chorological knowledge. For this, it was necessary to review the delineation of Pannonicum and the problem of drawing the boundaries. I would also like to draw the attention to the Pannonian flora islands outside the Carpathians, which descend along the sandy alluvium of the Danube. The research covers 11 countries: Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and a small part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and Bulgaria (flora islands). The final evaluation of endemic status was made for 225 taxa of vascular plants, including 143 taxa confirmed as endemic or subendemic to the Pannonicum, 5 narrowly distributed taxa shared endemic of the Pannonicum and western part of the Carpaticum and 77 taxa are not endemic according to current taxonomic and phytogeographical knowledge (the list does not include hybrids). The final list of endemic and subendemic taxa includes 42 species, 29 subspecies and 73 apomictic species (including 47 taxa of Sorbus and 23 taxa of Taraxacum). Tatár mentions 55 taxa (without apomicts) of which only 29 (53%) are still considered endemic today. In terms of habitat preferences for (sub)endemic taxa most plants (excluding apomictic taxa) occur in rocky or sandy habitats.

Knowledge shortfalls' interactions shadow our perception of species' exposure to human threats

Only a small fraction of the species on Earth is known (Linnean shortfall), while geographic ranges of already described species are poorly documented (Wallacean shortfall). While the effect of both shortfalls in conservation assessments has been analyzed and discussed individually, it is still unclear how these knowledge shortfalls interplay affect our perception of species' exposure to human-driven changes. To asses this, by simulating virtual species in a geographically-fragmented ecoregion, we raised hypothetical scenarios of taxonomical and/or geographical knowledge accumulation through time. We described how such accumulation affects our perception of species' exposure to climate and land-use changes. We found that filling both Wallacean and Linnean shortfalls separately, could generate contrasting perceptions on the potential response of species to a given threat. Moreover, the filling of both gaps together would increase or decrease our risk perception depending, exclusively, on the trend of taxonomic changes. These findings highlight a clear but poorly considered interplay between Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls. Trends on basic knowledge accumulation for a given taxon, especially its taxonomic stability, will determine the degree and direction of our biases in estimating its exposure to human threats. Robust assessments of taxonomic effort and geographic ignorance are essential in conservation assessments. There is also a pressing need to bridge the gap between taxonomic and biogeographic efforts, taking into account the interplay between geographic and taxonomic knowledge deficits, to achieve accurate conservation assessments and resource allocations.

Lichens as spatially transferable bioindicators for monitoring nitrogen pollution

Excess nitrogen is a pollutant and global problem that harms ecosystems and can severely affect human health. Pollutant nitrogen is becoming more widespread and intensifying in the tropics. There is thus a requirement to develop nitrogen biomonitoring for spatial mapping and trend analysis of tropical biodiversity and ecosystems. In temperate and boreal zones, multiple bioindicators for nitrogen pollution have been developed, with lichen epiphytes among the most sensitive and widely applied. However, the state of our current knowledge on bioindicators is geographically biased, with extensive research effort focused on bioindicators in the temperate and boreal zones. The development of lichen bioindicators in the tropics is further weakened by incomplete taxonomic and ecological knowledge. In this study we performed a literature review and meta-analysis, attempting to identify characteristics of lichens that offer transferability of bioindication into tropical regions. This transferability must overcome the different species pools between source information – drawing on extensive research effort in the temperate and boreal zone – and tropical ecosystems. Focussing on ammonia concentration as the nitrogen pollutant, we identify a set of morphological traits and taxonomic relationships that cause lichen epiphytes to be more sensitive, or more resistant to this excess nitrogen. We perform an independent test of our bioindicator scheme and offer recommendations for its application and future research in the tropics.

A contribution to the taxonomic knowledge of the genus \(\textit{Thrinchostoma (Thrinchostoma}\) s. str.) Saussure (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) from Vietnam, with new records of three species and a key to species

Four species of the little-known bee genus Thrinchostoma Saussure, 1890 from Vietnam are presented including Thrinchostoma (Thinchostoma s. str.) tonkinense Blüthgen, 1926 and three new records: T. (T.) flaviscapus Bülthgen, 1926; T. (T.) sladeni Cockerell, 1913; and T. (T.) yunnanense Niu & Zhu, 2016. The occurrence of T. (T.) tonkinense Blüthgen, 1926 in Vietnam is confirmed. A key to species and distribution map of four species of the genus Thrinchostoma are also provided for Vietnam.

New distributional records of fireflies (Coleoptera, Lampyridae, Luciolinae) from two Eastern States of India with notes on their biology and an updated Indian checklist.

The subfamily Luciolinae Lacordaire, 1857, a group of flashing fireflies, is composed of approximately 400 described species in the world. Though the taxonomy of this group has been fairly well established in Southeast (SE) Asia and the Australopacific Region, there is scope of gathering further information regarding taxonomic knowledge on this group from India. Until now, 32 Luciolinae species from nine genera have been reported from India, which is only about 8% (32 out of 400) of the world Luciolinae fauna. With this in mind, several faunistic surveys were conducted in Odisha and West Bengal States of India to explore the firefly fauna of the two States. The faunistic surveys conducted in the Odisha and West Bengal States of India have revealed six new distributional records of Luciolinae firefly species belonging to the genera Abscondita Ballantyne, Lambkin & Fu 2013, Asymmetricata Ballantyne 2009, Pteroptyx Olivier 1902 and Sclerotia Ballantyne 2016 in the two States, earlier which were recorded from other States of India. Of the already recorded species, Abs.perplexa is recorded for the first time from both the States, whereas Abs.chinensis, Asy.ovalis and Scl.aquatilis present new records for Odisha State and Pt.malaccae and Scl.substriata for West Bengal State. The newly-recorded taxa are presented with their examined materials, diagnoses and brief biological notes. Some more distinguishing characters were added for the male genitalia of Abs.perplexa and Asy.ovalis. Further, a checklist of Luciolinae firefly species already recorded from India is also presented.

Macroinvertebrate biomonitoring in Latin America: Progress and challenges

Macroinvertebrates are used as bioindicators worldwide, but the high diversity of macroinvertebrate species and endemism in Latin America (LA) requires greater knowledge of this group to increase the effectiveness of biomonitoring. We examined some of the primary taxonomic and ecological studies on macroinvertebrates in the region, quantified the number of papers that used foreign and local indices, examined alternative approaches to bioassessment that may be more relevant for the region, and explored freshwater ecosystem management in LA. Here, we highlight the need to increase taxonomic knowledge and the number of specialists in local fauna, establish and maintain taxonomic collections in public institutions, and make online databases on the biodiversity in each country available. However, we also demonstrate that taxonomy specialists of different nationalities do collaborate on the generation of fundamental information about biodiversity in LA. We found that 57% of the 215 reviewed scientific articles from LA used foreign but locally adapted indices for biomonitoring aquatic ecosystems. Only 21% of these articles presented local indices developed in LA. New technologies, such as environmental DNA, offer substantial potential for bioassessment but only in regions where sufficient taxonomic knowledge exists and where species-level stressor–response relationships are well described. In the absence of more complete taxonomic records, there could be some value in developing biological trait and multimetric indices, and occupancy models could be developed to analyze the relationship between taxa and stress factors. These tools could be adopted by researchers to generate more accurate biotic indices based on local taxa. Finally, in LA, bioindicators are used to support scientific research more often than as environmental monitoring tools. Environmental laws and regulations that support the biomonitoring of LA freshwaters and unified criteria for evaluating and monitoring aquatic ecosystems are essential to face regional and global challenges.

Discovery of the Streamlined Haloarchaeon Halorutilus salinus, Comprising a New Order Widespread in Hypersaline Environments across the World.

The class Halobacteria is one of the most diverse groups within the Euryarchaeota phylum, whose members are ubiquitously distributed in hypersaline environments, where they often constitute the major population. Here, we report the discovery and isolation of a new halophilic archaeon, strain F3-133T exhibiting ≤86.3% 16S rRNA gene identity to any previously cultivated archaeon, and, thus, representing a new order. Analysis of available 16S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic data sets showed that the new isolate represents an abundant group in intermediate-to-high salinity ecosystems and is widely distributed across the world. The isolate presents a streamlined genome, which probably accounts for its ecological success in nature and its fastidious growth in culture. The predominant osmoprotection mechanism appears to be the typical salt-in strategy used by other haloarchaea. Furthermore, the genome contains the complete gene set for nucleotide monophosphate degradation pathway through archaeal RuBisCO, being within the first halophilic archaea representatives reported to code this enzyme. Genomic comparisons with previously described representatives of the phylum Euryarchaeota were consistent with the 16S rRNA gene data in supporting that our isolate represents a novel order within the class Halobacteria for which we propose the names Halorutilales ord. nov., Halorutilaceae fam. nov., Halorutilus gen. nov. and Halorutilus salinus sp. nov. IMPORTANCE The discovery of the new halophilic archaeon, Halorutilus salinus, representing a novel order, family, genus, and species within the class Halobacteria and phylum Euryarchaeota clearly enables insights into the microbial dark matter, expanding the current taxonomical knowledge of this group of archaea. The in-depth comparative genomic analysis performed on this new taxon revealed one of the first known examples of an Halobacteria representative coding the archaeal RuBisCO gene and with a streamlined genome, being ecologically successful in nature and explaining its previous non-isolation. Altogether, this research brings light into the understanding of the physiology of the Halobacteria class members, their ecological distribution, and capacity to thrive in hypersaline environments.

Carexquixotiana (Cyperaceae), a new Iberian endemic from Don Quixote's land (La Mancha, S Spain).

Despite centuries of work, the basic taxonomic knowledge of the flora of the Iberian Peninsula is still incomplete, especially for highly diverse and/or difficult genera such as Carex. In this study, we conducted an integrative systematic study based on molecular, morphological and cytogenetic data to elucidate the taxonomic status of several problematic Carex populations from La Mancha region (S Spain) belonging to Carexsect.Phacocystis. These populations have been traditionally considered of uncertain taxonomic adscription, but close to C.reuteriana due to their morphological appearance and ecological preferences. A detailed morphological and cytogenetic study was performed on 16 La Mancha's problematic populations (Sierra Madrona and Montes de Toledo) to compare them with the other Iberian sect. Phacocystis species. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis was conducted using two nuclear (ITS, ETS) and two plastid (rpl32-trnLUAG, ycf6-psbM) DNA regions, including representatives from all species of sect. Phacocystis. We found a significant degree of molecular and morphological differentiation that supports the recognition of La Mancha's problematic populations as a new Iberian endemic species, described here as Carexquixotiana Ben.Benítez, Martín-Bravo, Luceño & Jim.Mejías. Our results reveal that C.quixotiana, unexpectedly, is more closely related to C.nigra than to C.reuteriana on the basis of phylogenetic relationships and chromosome number. These contrasting patterns reflect the taxonomic complexity in sect. Phacocystis and highlight the need for integrative systematic approaches to disentangle such complicated evolutionary scenarios.

Investigating the diversity of bioluminescent marine worm Polycirrus (Annelida), with description of three new species from the Western Pacific.

Bioluminescence, a phenomenon observed widely in organisms ranging from bacteria to metazoans, has a significant impact on the behaviour and ecology of organisms. Among bioluminescent organisms, Polycirrus, which has unique emission wavelengths, has received attention, and advanced studies such as RNA-Seq have been conducted, but they are limited to a few cases. In addition, accurate species identification is difficult due to lack of taxonomic organization. In this study, we conducted comprehensive taxonomic survey of Japanese Polycirrus based on multiple specimens from different locations and described as three new species: Polycirrus onibi sp. nov., P. ikeguchii sp. nov. and P. aoandon sp. nov. The three species can be distinguished from the known species based on the following characters: (i) arrangement of mid-ventral groove, (ii) arrangement of notochaetigerous segments, (iii) type of neurochaetae uncini, and (iv) arrangement of nephridial papillae. By linking the bioluminescence phenomenon with taxonomic knowledge, we established a foundation for future bioluminescent research development. We also provide a brief phylogenetic tree based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences to discuss the evolution of bioluminescence and the direction of future research.

New insights into the diversity of cryptobenthic Cirripectes blennies in the Mascarene Archipelago sampled using Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS).

Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) are artificial mini-reefs designed for standardized sampling of sessile and small motile cryptobenthic organisms. ARMS are also effective for collecting small cryptobenthic fishes, such as the combtooth blennies of the genus Cirripectes. Recent studies discovered several Cirripectes species endemic to islands or archipelagos, in spite of the generally broad distributions of tropical and subtropical blennies. Thus, to evaluate the diversity and distribution of Cirripectes species in the Mascarene Archipelago, a little-studied region but an important biodiversity hotspot, complete mitochondrial genomes, and nuclear rhodopsin genes were sequenced for 39 specimens collected with ARMS deployed on outer reef slopes at Reunion and Rodrigues islands. Mitochondrial COI sequences were analyzed to integrate these specimens within the largest dataset of publicly available sequences. Three species were found in the Mascarene Archipelago, Cirripectes castaneus, Cirripectes randalli, and Cirripectes stigmaticus. C.castaneus and C.stigmaticus both have an Indo-Pacific distribution with several haplotypes shared among distant localities. In agreement with the literature, C.randalli shows a small-range endemism restricted to the Mascarenes. We confirmed the presence of C.castaneus, C.randalli, and C.stigmaticus in Rodrigues, and the presence of C.stigmaticus in Reunion. This study contributes to filling the gaps in taxonomic and molecular knowledge of the reef cryptobiome in the South-West Indian Ocean, and provides the first complete mitogenomes for the genus, a crucial step for future molecular-based inventories (e.g., eDNA).