16 research outputs found
Hyperaeschra innotata
No full textHyperaeschra innotata (Hampson, 1896) Phalera innotata * Hampson, 1896; 4: 455. Hyperaeschra innotata; Schintlmeister, 2013; 11: 222. TL: Khasis [Meghalaya, India]; TD: unknown type depository. Distribution: India: Meghalaya. Note: Endemic to NE India. *Hampson mentioned “Swinh. MS.” against the species in volume 4 of Fauna of British India, Moths. Since the species was described there for the first time, the credit as the main author is given to Hampson.Published as part of Chandra, Kailash, Mazumder, Arna, Sanyal, Abesh Kumar, Ash, Anirban, Bandyopadhyay, Uttaran, Mallick, Kaushik & Raha, Angshuman, 2018, Catalogue of Indian Notodontidae Stephens, 1829 (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea), pp. 1-84 in Zootaxa 4505 (1) on page 37, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4505.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/260670
Trachischium sushantai Raha & Das & Bag & Debnath & Pramanick 2018, sp. nov.
No full textTrachischium sushantai sp. nov. (Figures 1, 2) Holotype. ZSI25651 A, National Zoological Collection, ZSI, Kolkata; adult female; from ‘ Jammu’ (Jammu & Kashmir state, India); collected on 4th August, 1993, during Jammu survey; name of collector is given in register as ‘ Rajtilok’. Diagnosis. Trachischium sushantai sp. nov. can be diagnosed by a combination of the following characters: a single nasal and PF, SL (R/L) 6/6, post-ocular 1, DSCH:M: V 13:13:13; VEN 152; SC 23 pairs of which those on anterior half of tail are as long as wide and regular hexagon/ rhomboid shaped, TAL/TL ratio of 0.11, head and dorsum uniform dark brown, venter brown with cream or yellow border on the trailing edges of VEN and SC. Etymology. The new species is named after Sushanta Kumar Das, father of the second author of present paper. He is an enthusiastic nature observer who have spent a significant amount of time of his life in forested areas of West Bengal (India) and nurtured the same interest in the second author. The specific epithet, a patronym, is a noun in genitive case. Description of holotype. Adult female; incised on underside; SVL and TAL of 276 mm and 35 mm respectively; tail small, TAL /TL ratio being only 0.11; head small (HL 7.8 mm, 2.8 % of SVL); head width (HW 4.7 mm) greater than head height (HH 4.2 mm); head indistinct from neck; eye small (ED 1 mm, 12.8 % of HL); ESN 2.9 mm; rostral slightly wider than high (1.1 mm and 0.8 mm, respectively); internasals paired, much shorter than the single PF; frontal pentagonal, 2.8 mm long, longer than its distance from the posterior edge of rostral (1.9 mm), around two and half times wider than supraocular; parietals, being 4.4 mm long, are longer than frontal; 1 pre- and 1 post-ocular; loreal nearly twice wider than high and is in contact with nasal, internasal, frontal, preocular and 1 st and 2nd SL; very small nostril in single forward directed nasal; SL (R/L) 6/6, 1 st smallest and 6th largest, 3rd and 4th touching eye; IL (R/L) 6/6, 1st, 2nd and 3rd IL touch the anterior genial while the 4th one contacts both the anterior and posterior genials; anterior genials longer than posterior genials; TEMP (R/L) 1+2/1+2; maxillary teeth in life were probably around 16 or 17 (counting for missing teeth which were evident by longer than usual gaps between extant teeth at some places), subequal; dorsal scales smooth, including those around the region of the tail base, DSCH:M: V 13:13:13; VEN 152; anal divided; SC 23 pairs, anterior subcaudals (those on anterior half of tail) are as wide as long (4SCW/L 1.05 and 5SCW/L 1.01), regular hexagonal or rhomboid shaped, SC become slightly wider than long on posterior part of tail; tail tip in a spike like scale. Coloration in preservative: head and dorsum uniform dark brown; edges of scales on lower jaw lighter colored; venter brown with outeredges of VEN cream or dirty yellow; underside of tail light brown with the posterior edges of SC bordered with lighter yellowish cream. Comparisons. T. sushantai sp. nov. differs from T. monticola in possessing 13 rows of dorsal scales (vs. 15 rows in the latter), undivided PF (vs. divided PF in T. monticola), 1 post-ocular (vs. usually 2 in the latter) and 152 VEN (vs. less than 125 VEN in T. monticola [Smith 1943])(Table 2). T. sushantai sp. nov. differs from T. leave in having 6 SL, 1 PF, 23 SC and a brown venter (vs. 5 SL, 2 PF, 29– 39 SC and a yellow venter in T. leave). T. sushantai sp. nov. can be diagnosed from T. tenuiceps by having a shorter tail (TAL /TL 0.11), 1 PF, 1 postocular, 23 SC of which the anterior ones are regular hexagonal or rhomboid and a brown venter (vs. TAL /TL 0.15– 0.18, 2 PF and 2 post-oculars, 28–42 SC of which anterior ones are transversely elongated and yellowish or orange ventral coloration in T. tenuiceps). T. sushantai sp. nov. differs from T. guentheri by having a brown venter and 23 pairs of SC (vs. a coral red venter in T. guentheri and SC more than 30 in T. guentheri [Smith 1943]). The new species most closely resembles T. fuscum from which it can be distinguished by its shorter tail (TAL / TL 0.11) compared to T. fuscum (vs. TAL /TL 0.13–0.18 [± 0.14 in 27 specimens] in T. fuscum), 23 pairs of SC of which anterior ones are regular hexagonal/rhomboid with 4SCW/L 1.05 and 5SCW/L 1.01 (vs. 30–44 SC in T. fuscum [31–41 in females examined by us], SC wider than long and are not regular hexagonal/rhomboid with 4SCW/L 1.33–3 [± 1.6 in 22 specimens] and 5SCW/L 1.27–2.7 [± 1.6 in 21 specimens] in physically examined specimens [specimens of T. fuscum examined from photographs too had SC number within the range given here and were distinctly wider than long]). Distribution. Trachischium sushantai sp. nov. is currently known only from its type locality in Jammu (Jammu & Kahmir, India) (Figure 3). Natural history. Unknown.Published as part of Raha, Sujoy, Das, Sunandan, Bag, Probhat, Debnath, Sudipta & Pramanick, Kousik, 2018, Description of a new species of genus Trachischium with a redescription of Trachischium fuscum (Serpentes: Colubridae: Natricinae), pp. 549-561 in Zootaxa 4370 (5) on pages 550-553, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4370.5.6, http://zenodo.org/record/114735
RETRACTED: Activation of p38MAPK by repetitive low-grade oxidative stress leads to pro-survival effects
No full textThis article has been removed consistent with Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal. Please see http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy.The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.Reason: It was brought to our attention that loading control scans in two sets of figures among a total of 14 sets of figures presented in the article (BBA-MCR 1773:367-374, 2007) bear similarities. The first author, who was solely responsible for these experiments, regrets that due to inadequate archiving of the primary scans, dating back a number of years, he is unable to provide original unedited scans of the two sets of loading control blots at this point of time to conclusively establish the authenticity of the loading control scans. The authors therefore retract the article at this time. However, the actual experimental data, the conclusions and the resulting model are absolutely sound and the authors have reproduced most of the data. The authors fully intend to republish the data.Prosenjit SenPrabir Kumar ChakrabortySanghamitra Rah
Phytoplankton cell volume and diversity in Indian Sundarbans
No full text1914-1921Present
study focuses on the cell volume and diversity of phytoplankton, which are
unique indicators of aquatic salinity.
Cell volume and Shannon Weiner Species Diversity Index values of the
documented phytoplankton in two significantly different salinity sectors in the
Indian Sundarbans: western and central were compared. Western sector exhibited
higher Shannon Weiner Species Diversity Index value (mean Ĥ value = 3.2715) compared to that of
the central sector (<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:
" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" "times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;="" mso-bidi-language:bn"="" lang="EN-US">mean Ĥ value = 3.2504). Cell volume of the
observed species was also more in the western sector (118.83 µm3 to
304322.23 µm3<span style="font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:="" en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">) compared to the central sector (114.23 µm3 to
295199.31 µm3<span style="font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:="" en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="" lang="EN-US">), thus indicating the regulatory role of
salinity on the free floating producer community in the aquatic ecosystem.
ANOVA results indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) in phytoplankton
diversity and cell volume between the western and central Indian Sundarbans.</span
Influence of Suspended Solid on in situ and ex situ Chlorophyll-a: A Case Study of Indian Sundarbans
No full textPhytoplankton cell volume and diversity in Indian Sundarbans
No full text208-215Present
study focuses on the cell volume and diversity of phytoplankton, which are
unique indicators of aquatic salinity. We compared the cell volume and Shannon
Weiner Species Diversity Index values of the documented phytoplankton in two
significantly different salinity sectors in the Indian Sundarbans: Western and
Central. Western sector exhibited higher Shannon Weiner Species Diversity Index
value (mean ´
value = 3.2504). Cell volume of the observed species was also more in the
western sector (118.83 μm3 to 304322.23 μm3) compared to
the central sector (114.23 μm3 to
295199.31
μm3), thus indicating the regulatory role of salinity on the free
floating producer community in the aquatic ecosystem. ANOVA results indicate
significant differences (<span style="font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:
Symbol">R < 0.05) in phytoplankton diversity and cell volume between
the western and central Indian Sundarbans.
</span
Characterization of a species-specific repetitive DNA from a highly endangered wild animal, Rhinoceros unicornis, and assessment of genetic polymorphism by microsatellite associated sequence amplification (MASA)
No full textWe have cloned and sequenced a 906 bp EcoRI repeat DNA fraction from Rhinoceros unicornis genome. The contig pSS(R)2 is AT rich with 340 A (37.53%), 187 C (20.64%), 173 G (19.09%) and 206 T (22.74%). The sequence contains MALT box, NF-E1, Poly-A signal, lariat consensus sequences, TATA box, translational initiation sequences and several stop codons. Translation of the contig showed seven different types of protein motifs, among which, EGF-like domain cysteine pattern signatures and Bowman-Birk serine protease inhibitor family signatures were prominent. The presence of eukaryotic transcriptional elements, protein signatures and analysis of subset sequences in the 5' region from 1 to 165 nt indicating coding potential (test code value=0.97) suggest possible regulatory and/or functional role(s) of these sequences in the rhino genome. Translation of the complementary strand from 906 to 706 nt and 190 to 2 nt showed proteins of more than 7 kDa rich in non-polar residues. This suggests that pSS(R)2 is either a part of, or adjacent to, a functional gene. The contig contains mostly non-consecutive simple repeat units from 2 to 17 nt with varying frequencies, of which four base motifs were found to be predominant. Zoo-blot hybridization revealed that pSS(R)2 sequences are unique to R. unicornis genome because they do not cross-hybridize, even with the genomic DNA of South African black rhino Diceros bicornis. Southern blot analysis of R. unicornis genomic DNA with pSS(R)2 and other synthetic oligo probes revealed a high level of genetic homogeneity, which was also substantiated by microsatellite associated sequence amplification (MASA). Owing to its uniqueness, the pSS(R)2 probe has a potential application in the area of conservation biology for unequivocal identification of horn or other body tissues of R. unicornis. The evolutionary aspect of this repeat fraction in the context of comparative genome analysis is discussed
Salea horsfieldii Gray 1845
No full textRedescription of Salea horsfieldii Gray Gray (1845) based his description of this species on two syntypes, both of which were females. He stated that this species is found in ‘ India, Afghanistan’. Günther (1864), however, reported that the evidently wrong attribution of those specimens’ origin to Afghanistan was actually caused by a mistake on the jar label and only ‘India’ was thereafter considered as the type locality (Boulenger 1885; Smith 1935). Both syntypes are in good state of preservation. Here we redescribe them in detail. The characters of NHM 1946.8.14.12 appear first and those of NHM 1946.8.14.11 are mentioned in square brackets where characters differ. Morphometric and meristic data are shown in Table 2. Redescription of the syntypes (based on NHM 1946.8.14.12 and NHM 1946.8.14.11): (Table 2, Figure 2) Adult females, SVL 79 mm [75 mm]; tail measuring twice as long as the SVL (TL/ SVL 1.94 [2.06]; TrL 37.4 mm [33.4 mm]; although the body was probably compressed in life, after almost 172 years of preservation the trunk has become somewhat flattened (BW/BH 1.23 [1.1]); head moderately sized (HL/SVL 0.25 [0.27]), elongated (HW/ HL 0.71 [0.59]) and almost as wide as high (HW/HH 1.01 [1.13]); eye moderate sized (ED/HL 0.24); orbit diameter is greater than tympanum diameter; EErD nearly equal to one ED; END subequal to ED whereas ESD greater than ED. Snout obtusely pointed; rostral scale nearly thrice wider than high; rostral separate from nasal by one scale; scales on snout rugose, not smaller than those on occiput; keeled scales on supraocular region smaller than those on frontal and occipital region; scales on frontal and occipital region rugose and those on the midline of these two regions are somewhat elongated; no post-orbital spines; canthus rostralis and supracilliary edge sharp; CN (R/L) 3/ 3 [2/3]; nasal single and hexagonal with oval nostril and nasal touches 1 st and 2 nd SL; SUB (R/L) 8/8 (8/10); no ‘wedge’ scales between SUB and SL; SL (R/L) 8/8 [8/8], SL squarish except the 1 st and the last one which are wedge-shaped; tympanum exposed; 3 large, rugose scales from behind orbit to above tympanum; no supratympanic spines; a very low nuchal crest, formed of two rows of strongly keeled, compressed scale rows and the nuchal crest resembles a serrated ridge without well defined spines; mental subpentagonal with two small postmentals behind it; IL (R/L) 7/7; gular scales strongly keeled, imbricate and slightly mucronate; no distinct gular sac apart from an indistinct fold; no transverse fold across gular region; Ante-humeral fold absent; dorsal scales keeled, imbricate and directed backward (scales on ventro-lateral part of trunk, however, show a slight downward tilt); homogenous dorsal scales are mostly subequal with very lighter coloured ones on flank which are a little larger than adjacent scales; SM 36 [38]; no dorsal crest; ventrals strongly keeled, imbricate and mucronate; VEN 53 [50]. Forearm subequal to upper arm in length (FAL/UAL 1.11 [1.25]); Femur subequal to crus in length (FL/CL 1.05 [0.93]); scales on limbs rhomboid, keeled; five slender digits with recurved claws on both manus and pes; lamellae under digits bicarinate; FnLam (R/L) 17/18 [23/21] and TLam (R/L) 24/21 [24/23]. Tail slightly compressed with rhomboid, keeled scales. Top of head of NHM 1946.8.14.12 a light brown colour with dark brown scales scattered randomly and several scales have dark brown edges; loreal, nasal and supralabial region whitish cream with brown edging on posterior border of SL; a dark brown post-orbital streak which ends at the angle of jaw; lower jaw cream, some gular scales with dark brown borders at their edge; in this specimen dorsum is light brown with five dark brown blotches on dorsal midline; flanks blotched and mottled with dark brown; limbs alternatively banded with light and dark brown with a light coloured streak behind thigh; venter whitish cream; tail dark and light banded. Overall ground colouration of dorsum NHM 1946.8.14.11 is grayish brown; patterns of head and limbs similar to the former specimen; dorsal pattern is very faint in this specimen; venter cream. Variations: Ranges of mensural and meristic characters are summarized in Table 2. This species shows sexual dimorphism in several characters and one of them—nuchal and dorsal ornamentation of males—has recently been shown to be present from a very young, even juvenile age (Daniel et al. 2017). Males have a prominent nuchal crest composed of flattened lanceolate spines longest of which are about one and half times of orbit diameter. Dorsal crest of males, which is separated from nuchal crest by 3–5 scales, consists of 16–20 spines from beginning point to sacrum. The dorsal crest continues over the anterior part of tail as a much lower crest. Nuchal and dorsal spines are composed of single, elongated, lanceolate scales with one upwardly directed, keeled scale on each side of their base. Nuchal and dorsal spines are banded alternatively with black and white. Males have a small gular sac. Trunk and tail of males are more strongly compressed than they are in females. Females also have a low nuchal crest composed of two rows of compressed, keeled scales (5/ 6 in number). Females do not possess dorsal crest although adult females usually have a trace of a serrated ridge of keeled scales along dorsal midline. Dorsal, ventral and gular scales are slightly more overlapping in males than they are in females. Colouration of this species is highly variable. Most of the specimens fade to a light brown colour in preservative over time, but the specimens we observed in nature have an olivaceous green background colour. Most of the preserved specimens that we observed and those we observed in the wild had two cream dorsolateral stripes. Some specimens (e.g. ZSI 26220), however, lacked these stripes. Some males (e.g. NHM 1867.8.11.13) show a striking colour pattern where the ground colour is yellowish cream with a dark blackish brown border along the edges of their dorsal scales and also a mottling of the same colour. The dorsal surface of the males’ head sometimes have a dark brown ground colour with an orange yellow spot at the centre of each scale. Generally dark brown transverse blotches are present on the dorsal surface of all specimens and these are interrupted by the light dorsolateral stripes in the specimens which possess these. In several specimens the post-orbital stripe, instead of reaching the angle of mouth, runs along the sides of nape up to forelimb. Light coloured (often white in males), larger sized scales are present sporadically on flank. In one specimen we collected from Pykara (Tamil Nadu, India)— ZSI 26219 —there are 5 ‘wedge’ scales present on the right side of head and 6 on the left side (Figure 3). These are truly ‘wedge’ scales in the sense that these are located in between 4 scales—2 SUB and 2 SL—and therefore cannot be regarded as mere fragmentation of any SUB or SL. However, one specimen (CAS 94351) from a place near Pykara in the collection of the California Academy of Science (California) did not possess such scales whereas one of the two syntypes of Salea jerdonii (NHM 1946.8.14.4) did have ‘wedge’ scales; these were, however, much smaller in size. The ‘wedge’ scales of the specimen from Pykara can therefore be considered an example of intrapopulational variation. Distribution: Salea horsfieldii has been recorded only from the Nilgiri hill range situated north of the Palghat gap, in western Tamil Nadu state (Figure 7). This record is undisputed. Roux (1928) mentioned one specimen from Vandaravu hill which is situated south of Palghat gap. Probably following Roux’s work, Smith (1935) included both Nilgiri and Palni hills in its range. Several authors (e.g. Murthy 1985; Daniel 2002; Das 2002) have subsequently included Palni hills in the distributional range of this species. However, Bhupathy & Kannan (1997) stated that during their study on the agamids of Western Ghats they failed to find specimen of this species anywhere south of the Palghat gap. Srinivas et al. (2008) agreed with the viewpoint of the aforementioned authors regarding the distribution of S. horsfieldii. Ganesh & Aengals (2011) reported on a specimen of S. horsfieldii collected by T. S. N. Murthy of Zoological Survey of India. It reportedly originated from Thandikudi in the Palni hills. The rather brief description of the specimen and associated photograph confirms the identification as S. horsfieldii according to current taxonomy. However, any of the aforesaid dubious recorded localities is most likely to be the result of collections becoming muddled. The Palghat gap is a very important biogeographic barrier and deeply divergent sister clades of several animal groups are often found on opposite sides of this barrier (e.g. John et al. 2013; Robin et al. 2015; Vijayakumar et al. 2016; Robin et al. 2017). To the best of our knowledge, no recent publications mention any first-hand account of sightings of this species in the Palni hills. The third author of the present paper did not come across it in the Palni hills during field work in 2011. Very recently Daniel et al. (2017) supported Bhupathy & Kannan’s (1997) opinion on the distribution of S. horsfieldii and regarded it to be a Nilgiri hills endemic. For all these reasons, we also regard the record of this agamid from Palni hills as dubious and in need of review. We would like to mention here, given that the Palghat gap is a biogeographic barrier, there is strong possibility that should this population be found in the Palni hills, they may be genetically divergent and therefore a different evolutionary lineage. One record from Kudremukh hills is generally considered to be erroneous (Ganesh & Aengals 2011; Srinivasulu et al. 2014). Kelaart (1854) listed S. jerdonii, a synonym of S. horsfieldii, for Sri Lanka but that has proved to be in error (Srinivasulu et al. 2014). Natural History: This species is an inhabitant of humid montane ‘shola’ forests and tea plantations situated between 1600–2500 meters above sea level (Das 2002; Srinivasulu et al. 2014). Smith wrote that this lizard frequents ‘bushes, hedges, and gardens’. We observed them in the morning hours (0900 hr) through to noon (1400 hr) on both cloudy and sunny days. All the members of this species were seen by us in either ‘shola’ type forests or tea estates at 1.5–10 feet above the ground on bushes or trees. The overall gait of this lizard is like that of Calotes spp. but it is considerably slower in movement than the latter. Wall (1922) stated that males of this species assume a bright green colour with yellow head and gular sac when excited. We observed one excited female developing a bluish colour along the edges of some of its dorsal scales. This species primarily eats insects (Das 2002) but recently Kumar et al. (2017) recorded a case of predation on Raorchestes signatus, an endemic bush frog species, by this agamid lizard. Interestingly, we too often found Raorchestes spp. in the same locality where S. horsfieldii was observed, giving further evidence of their predator-prey interaction. Platyplectrurus madurensis and Psammophilus dorsalis were observed to live sympatrically with S. horsfieldii during our survey. They lay 3– 4 eggs (17 X 9 mm) (Smith 1935) and females with eggs were seen in September (Bhupathy & Kannan 1997).Published as part of Das, Sunandan, Campbell, Patrick D., Deuti, Kaushik, Bag, Probhat & Raha, Sujoy, 2019, A contribution to the systematics of Salea anamallayana (Beddome, 1878) and S. horsfieldii Gray, 1845 (Squamata: Agamidae: Draconinae), pp. 563-583 in Zootaxa 4563 (3) on pages 566-570, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4563.3.9, http://zenodo.org/record/260148
