6932 research outputs found
Sort by
Parapolycentropus.
No full text23 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cmThe genus Parapolycentropus, originally described for two species in 99 myo Burmese amber, is unique among Mecoptera for its long, thin proboscis and possession of just the mesothoracic pair of wings. A new series of 19 specimens with excellent preservation allows description and redescription of virtually all morphological details. Male terminalia are very similar to those of the Holarctic Recent family of "snow fleas," the Boreidae. Thoracic sclerites are highly convergent with nematocerous Diptera in the expansion of the mesothorax and great reduction of the pro- and metathoraces. The metathoracic wing vestige appears to be just the tegula; axial sclerites are lost. Details of the pretarsal claws are described; in P. paraburmiticus Grimaldi and Rasnitsyn the outer claw of the meso- and metathoracic pretarsi is elongate and the inner claw reduced. The proboscis is comprised not of a labial tube and "pseudolabellum" (contra Ren et al., 2009), but is mostly maxillary in origin, with the outer valves probably being galeae and the central, serrated stylet probably the hypopharynx. Abdominal sternites are greatly reduced (more so in females), suggesting that the abdomen was distensible, a feature that is common in some fluid-feeding insects. The proboscis, claw, and sternite modifications indicate that Parapolycentropus fed on the hemolymph of small insects, not the blood of vertebrates
Costa Rican fauna.
No full text75 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 26 cm. Part 1 issued as no. 3730 (2012) of American Museum novitates. Part of the oonopid PBI project. (Acknowledgments)The type species of Costarina, C. plena (O. P.-Cambridge), is widely distributed, occurring from southern Mexico to southern Costa Rica, but Costa Rica also houses an extraordinarily large fauna of endemic, less widely distributed Costarina species. In addition to the two previously described species, C. meridina (Chickering, the female of which is newly described) and C. watina (Chickering), 49 new endemic species are described: C. paraplena, superplena, maritza, cima, elena, monte, murphyorum, chiles, upala, poas, selva, viejo, rafael, azul, carara, nara, aguirre, quepos, carrillo, ramon, isidro, san, cuerici, leones, junio, reventazon, macho, cruz, chonta, barbilla, espavel, veragua, pity, penshurst, hitoy, mooreorum, cerere, frantzius, gemelo, pittier, alturas, cruces, ubicki, palmar, parabio, semibio, jimenez, parapalmar, and osa. Two other species also occur in Costa Rica. Costarina concinna (Chickering) is placed as the male (and hence a senior synonym) of C. potena (Chickering), both of which were described from Volcán, Panama; the species appears to be a relatively widespread, southern vicariant of C. plena. The Panamanian species C. obtina (Chickering) is also newly recorded from Costa Rica, and its female is described for the first time
Dysderoides, Trilacuna, and Himalayana.
No full text108 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm. High-resolution images available online in a supplemental file.The study of many museum specimens of goblin spiders from the Himalayan range and neighboring countries allows for the description of new taxa of the family Oonopidae. The genus Dysderoides Fage is taxonomically reviewed. It comprises small, blind, loricate troglobitic spiders: the type species (D. typhlos Fage, from India) and at least five new species from northern India (D. synrang Grismado and Deeleman) and Thailand (D. muang Grismado and Deeleman, D. kaew Grismado and Deeleman, D. kanoi Grismado and Deeleman, and D. lawa Grismado and Deeleman). The genus Trilacuna, previously known from China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Sumatra, is newly diagnosed by the loss of the furrow connecting the posterior spiracles in males, and is represented in the Himalayan region by seven species: T. aenobarba (Brignoli), from Bhutan (here transferred from Epectris Simon), and six new: four from northern India (T. meghalaya Grismado and Piacentini, T. besucheti Grismado and Piacentini, T. Mahanadi Grismado and Piacentini, and T. loebli Grismado and Piacentini), one from India and Nepal (T. bangla Grismado and Ramírez), and one from Pakistan (T. hazara Grismado and Ramírez). The new genus Himalayana Grismado comprises species very similar to those of Trilacuna, but differs in the characters of the postepigastric scuta and by having an additional acute dorsoprolateral projection on the male palpi. Six new species are assigned to Himalayana: H. kathmandu Grismado (type species), H. castanopsis Grismado, H. parbat Grismado, and H. martensi Grismado (all from Nepal); and H. siliwalae Grismado and H. andreae Grismado (from India). The study of the internal female genitalia of T. meghalaya and T. bangla revealed a complex copulatory system, and an entelegyne condition, apparently uniform for the entire genus and probably for Dysderoides and Himalayana as well. The males of the three genera have a complex set of paraembolic laminae with brushes of filiform structures, among which discharges a gland through a thin, tortuous cuticular tube. The genitalic and somatic morphology of the three genera suggest that they conform a monophyletic group, here named "Dysderoides complex," and that their closer relatives can be found among Prethopalpus Baehr et al., and other genera related to Silhouettella Benoit. The loss of the membranous diagonal area on the base of the anterior lateral spinnerets is proposed as a synapomorphy of an advanced group of loricatae oonopids usually referred as gamasomorphines. Furthermore Triaeris glenniei Fage, described from a single female from a cave in Uttarakhand, is redescribed and transferred to Camptoscaphiella Caporiacco
High resolution images for 'Morphological and geographic definitions of the Sulawesian shrew rats Echiothrix leucura and E. centrosa (Muridae, Murinae), and description of a new species of sucking louse (Phthiraptera, Anoplura). (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 391)'
No full textHigh resolution images for 'Morphological and geographic definitions of the Sulawesian shrew rats Echiothrix leucura and E. centrosa (Muridae, Murinae), and description of a new species of sucking louse (Phthiraptera, Anoplura).' (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 391) - http://hdl.handle.net/2246/654
Snakes and hemipenes.
No full text112 pages : illustrations (some color), map ; 26 cm.Eutrachelophis, new genus is established to accommodate E. bassleri, new species, and E. steinbachi (Boulenger), new combination; a third species close to E. bassleri awaits naming. These taxa are placed in the Eutrachelophiini, new tribe, to express hypothesized relationship with the Xenodontini, which are defined by presence of hemipenial apical discs (a character lost in several species). The acalyculate spiny hemipenis of Eutrachelophis bassleri is unique among "xenodontines" in having a noncapitate, well-formed capitulum in the form of a nude dome; bifurcation is lacking even in the insertion of the major retractor muscle; the sulcus spermaticus is centrolineal in the retracted organ but becomes centrifugal during eversion. The hemipenis of Eutrachelophis steinbachi is strikingly different in being deeply divided, with long spiny lobes tipped with tufts of sender spines, but it resembles those of some other colubrids (e.g., South American Xenodon suspectus; African Mehelya poensis). Based on hemipenial comparisons, E. bassleri and E. steinbachi seem unlikely congeners. Nonetheless, global comparisons of viscera, head glands, head muscles, color pattern, skull, and dentition indicate that they are congeneric despite hemipenial differences. Neither E. bassleri nor E. steinbachi shows sufficient resemblance to any other "xenodontine" that would suggest an alternative phylogeny. Overall resemblance in so many details, especially of the skull, is not reasonably explained by convergence. Therefore, contrary to dogma, the hemipenes in this case provide no clues to generic affinity. An explanatory hypothesis has Eutrachelophis bassleri and E. steinbachi derived from common stock, but with hemipenial lobes in the bassleri lineage suppressed during embryonic development. It further suggests that the unusual broad, hemispherical nude apex in E. bassleri is homologous with the interlobular smooth, expandable terminal basin in E. steinbachi. The hemipenial differences in Eutrachelophis are not inconsistent with growing awareness that evolution of male genitalia may outpace changes in other characters without predictable limits to complexity. Fine-scale Hox gene expression might account for the novel hemipenis of E. bassleri. Although it is well established that snake hemipenes generally give at least a hint of relationship, a widely held belief that they are taxonomically stable and relatively free of selection pressures must be abandoned. Hemipenes (and probably female cloacae) are not "neutral" or "uncorrelated" characters but are subject to intense selection pressure requiring successful copulation, hence successful reproduction. The belief that one description or illustration suffices to typify a species (or genus) has no merit without proper sampling. Intraspecific variation is commonplace in geographically widespread species--sometimes, not always, signaling the presence of unnamed cryptic species. Examples are given of intraspecific variation in different kinds of hemipenial features. Also provided are examples of evolutionary plasticity and extreme divergence in snake hemipenes, with a few references to female cloacae, about which much less is known...
Original catalogue of Edwards collection of Lepidoptera.
Get PDFThe Collection is in the American Museum of Natural History's Dept. of Entomology
Systematics of Chiasmocleis and Syncope.
No full text96 pages, 15 pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 26 cm. High-resolution images available online in a supplemental file.A taxonomic assessment of the microhylid genera Chiasmocleis and Syncope occurring in the Amazon basin and Guiana Shield is presented. Syncope Walker, 1973, is considered a junior synonym of Chiasmocleis Méhelÿ, 1904, based on the monophyly of the group as a unit. To avoid secondary homonymy with Syncope carvalhoi Nelson, 1975 (senior homonym), a replacement name, Chiasmocleis lacrimae, nom. nov., is given to Chiasmocleis carvalhoi Cruz, Caramaschi, and Izecksohn, 1997 (junior homonym). From integrative analyses of morphological, acoustic, and a phylogenetic analysis of three genes (two mitochondrial, 16S: up to 557 bp, COI: up to 658 bp; and one nuclear, tyrosinase: up to 532 bp), we recognize 16 species in the area of study, 13 of which were previously known and three are described as new: Chiasmocleis albopunctata; C. anatipes; C. antenori; C. avilapiresae; C. bassleri; C. carvalhoi; C. devriesi; C. haddadi, sp. nov.; C. hudsoni; C. magnova; C. papachibe, sp. nov.; C. royi, sp. nov.; C. shudikarensis; C. supercilialba; C. tridactyla; C. ventrimaculata. Chiasmocleis jimi Caramaschi and Cruz, 2001, is considered a junior synonym of Chiasmocleis hudsoni Parker, 1940. Species accounts are provided for all 16 species, as is a compilation of available data, including type specimens, type localities, morphological diagnoses, variation, tadpoles (only from literature), advertisement calls (calls of several populations described for the first time), and natural history. Photographs and updated data on geographical distributions, with maps, are also provided. The evolution of some phenotypic traits is studied in light of a phylogeny of the group
Three new species of Musseromys (Muridae, Rodentia), the endemic Philippine tree mouse from Luzon Island. (American Museum novitates, no. 3802)
Get PDF27 pages : illustrations, map ; 26 cm.We describe and name three new species of Musseromys from the mountains of northern Luzon based on morphological and DNA sequence data. Previously, Musseromys was known only from one species from the lowlands of central Luzon. These are the smallest-known members of the cloud rat clade of endemic Philippine murids, weighing only 15-22 g, an order of magnitude smaller than the previously smallest known members of the clade (Carpomys spp.), and more than two orders of magnitude smaller than the largest members (Phloeomys spp.). These discoveries raise the number of native murids documented on Luzon to 43, 93% of which are endemic, and 88% of which are members of two endemic Philippine clades. Musseromys is inferred to have originated in montane habitats, probably in the Central Cordillera of northern Luzon, with movement to two other areas on Luzon, one in montane habitat and one in lowland habitat, associated with the speciation process
Ponsoonops and Bipoonops.
No full text70 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm. Part of the goblin spider Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) project. (Introduction)Two new genera, Ponsoonops and Bipoonops, are established for groups of species characterized by sexually dimorphic dorsal abdominal scutum expression (with a scutum present in males but not females), male palps with a separate cymbium and bulb, and a patterned abdomen. Both genera belong therefore to the Varioonops complex, represented now by three described Neotropical genera. Members of Ponsoonops are united by three putative synapomorphies in males: a "pierlike" dorsal scutum completely fused to the epigastric scutum, a patch of short setae ventrodistally on metatarsi I and II, and a short anteromedian protrusion on the endites. Female Ponsoonops specimens differ from other members of the Varioonops complex in having small lateral sclerites at the epigynal area and a smooth sternum. Members of Bipoonops share a large, irregularly shaped, rather indistinct dark spot posteriorly on the carapace, a putative synapomorphy, and a moderately rugose sternum surface; males are characterized by a distinct, bipartite conductor. A total of 22 Ponsoonops species, 21 new to science, are described: P. duenas, P. hamus, and P. tacana from Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, P. bilzi, P. lucha, P. samadam, P. sanvito, and P. viejo from Costa Rica, P. bollo, P. boquete, P. coiba, P. fanselix, P. frio, P. lerida, P. mirante, P. panto, P. salimsa, and P. vuena from Panama, P. pansedro from Colombia, P. micans (Simon, transferred from Dysderoides) from Venezuela, P. yumuri from Cuba, and P. lavega from the Dominican Republic. Bipoonops is described for three new species found on the western slope of the Andes in Ecuador: B. baobab, B. pucuna, and B. tsachila