A new genus, a new species, and a new record of the family Darcythompsoniidae Lang, 1936 (Gopepoda, Harpacticoida) from the Gulf of California, Mexico

A new genus and new species of the family Darcythompsoniidae Lang (1936), and a new record of Darcythompsonia fairliensis (T. Scott, 1899), from a coastal lagoon in the south-eastern Gulf of California (Mexico), are reported and fully described and illustrated. Pabellonia olganoguerae gen. no v., sp.nov. shares features with Darcythompsonia T. Scott, 1906, such as the presence of a dimorphic second endopodal segment of the male second swimming leg, and with Kristensenia Por, 1983, the lack of sexual dimorphism in the caudal rami, anal operculum and urosomites. Thus it is considered closely related to these genera, and to represent a third component of mis lineage. Some notes on the biogeography of Darcythompsonia T. Scott, 1906, are also presented.     

Cladistic analysis and a revised classification of fossil and recent mysticetes

A cladistic analysis that includes representatives of all recent genera of mysticetes and several fossil species that were previously referred to the family Cetotheriidae, with tooth-bearing mysticetes and an archaeocete as an outgroup, is presented here. The result of this analysis forms the base of a revised classification of Mysticeti. Cetotheriidae is redefined as a monophyletic family, which includes the genera Cetotherium , Piscobalaena , and a new subfamily Herpetocetinae, including Herpetocetus , Nannocetus , Metopocetus , and Cephalotropis . Eschrichtiidae is the closest sister taxon to Cetotheriidae. A few species are referred to Eomysticetoidea, whereas the remaining species that were previously referred to Cetotheriidae appear in four clades that branch off from the lineage leading to Balaenopteridae. These are a Mauicetus clade and three clades that are named as new families Aglaocetidae, Pelocetidae, and Diorocetidae.  © 2007 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2007, 150 , 875–894.     

The Phylogeny of the Lophopidae and the Impact of Sexual Selection and Coevolutionary Sexual Conflict

A cladistic analysis of Lophopidae was performed, using 73 observed morphological characters and 41 taxa. This analysis involved 36 genera belonging to the Lophopidae family and 5 outgroups. For a better understanding of the selected characters some illustrations are provided. The most parsimonious cladograms obtained show that the Lophopidae cannot be considered as a monophyletic lineage unless two genera are withdrawn from this family: Hesticus Walker, 1862, and Silvanana Metcalf, 1947. The systematic position of these two genera remains uncertain. They cannot yet be included in another family of Fulgoromorpha. A cladistic analysis of each of the 19 remaining Fulgoromorphan families must be performed first. A new family could be created for these two genera, but not before we are sure that these two genera are in no way members of an existing family. The outgroup problem is discussed. The monophyletic lineage represented by the Lophopidae can be divided into four natural groups: Carriona⁺, Makota⁺, Sarebasa⁺, and Bisma⁺. When a cladistic analysis is completed using a data matrix without characters linked to females, the cladogram obtained presents a disrupted basal resolution. Female characters appear to bring a phylogenetic signal important basally in the evolution of the Lophopidae but also apically, directly between the relationships of some genera. A similar analysis, using a matrix without characters linked to males, provides a phylogeny disrupted between the groups that form the Lophopidae and in the basal resolution in these groups. The respective impacts of the genitalic characters are discussed in relation to sexual selection conflict.     

Revision of the Late Paleozoic Family Vidrioceratidae Plummer et Scott (Ammonoidea)

This paper provides a review of the evolution of opinions on the composition and history of the development of the family Vidrioceratidae Plummer et Scott, 1937, which played an important role in the Carboniferous–Permian ammonoid biota. The division of the group into subfamilies, for which the generic composition is determined and the morphogenetic trends are reconstructed, is reinterpreted. The status and species composition of the genera Pamirites Toumanskaya and Prostacheoceras Ruzhencev are emended. The familial assignments of the “problematic” genera Leites Bogoslovskaya, 1990, Jilingites Liang, 1982, and Peritrochia Girty, 1908 are revised.     

Phylogeny of the family Sialidae (Insecta: Megaloptera) inferred from morphological data,with implications for generic classification and historical biogeography

Sialidae (alderflies) is a family of the holometabolous insect order Megaloptera, with ca. 75 extant species in eight genera distributed worldwide. Alderflies are a group of “living fossils” with a long evolutionary history. The oldest fossil attributed to Sialidae dates back to the Early Jurassic period. Further, the global distribution of modern‐day species shows a remarkably disjunctive pattern. However, due to the rareness of most species and scarcity of comprehensive taxonomic revisions, the phylogeny of Sialidae remains largely unexplored, and the present classification system is in great need of renewal. Here we reconstruct the first phylogeny for Sialidae worldwide based on the most comprehensive sampling and broadest morphological data ever presented for this group of insects. All Cenozoic alderflies belong to a monophyletic clade, which may also include the Early Jurassic genus ?Dobbertinia, and the Late Jurassic genus ?Sharasialis is their putative sister taxon. Two subfamilies of Sialidae are proposed, namely ?Sharasialinae subfam. nov. and Sialidinae. Austrosialis is the sister of all other extant genera, an assemblage which comprises three monophyletic lineages: the Stenosialis lineage, the Ilyobius lineage, and the Sialis lineage. The revised classification of Sialidae is composed of 12 valid genera and 87 valid species. Ilyobius and Protosialis are recognized as valid generic names, while Nipponosialis is treated as a synonym of Sialis. Reconstruction of the ancestral area proposes a global distribution of alderflies in Pangaea before their diversification. The generic diversification of alderflies might have occurred before the breakup of Pangaea, but the divergence of some lineages or genera was probably promoted by the splitting of this supercontinent.     

A revision of the family Ciconiidae (Aves)

Behavioural and morphological characteristics of all members of the stork family are summarized. References are given to other papers where these subjects are discussed in greater detail for each group of storks. Based on the evidence now available, a revised classification is suggested (Table II) which divides the Ciconiidae into three tribes, six genera, and 17 species. The following genera (of Peters, 1931) are synonymized with other existing genera: Ibis, Sphenorhynchus, Dissoura, Euxenura , and Xenorhynchus. It is further suggested that Scopus should be placed in a suborder of its own and that Balaeniceps be placed in a monotypic family adjacent to the Ciconiidae, pending further study.     

Phylogeny and circumscription of the near-endemic Brazilian tribe Microlicieae (Melastomataceae)

The members of tribe Microlicieae in the flowering plant family Melastomataceae are nearly all endemic to the cerrado biome of Brazil. Traditional classifications of the Melastomataceae have attributed between 15 and 17 genera to the Microlicieae, but subsequent revisions have circumscribed the tribe more narrowly. The monophyly and intergeneric relationships of the Microlicieae were evaluated through phylogenetic analyses with molecular and morphological data sets. Incorporation of DNA sequences from the intron of the chloroplast gene rpl16 into a previously generated family-wide data set yielded a clade comprising Chaetostoma, Lavoisiera, Microlicia, Rhynchanthera, Stenodon, and Trembleya ("core Microlicieae"), with Rhynchanthera as the first-diverging lineage. The other four genera of Microlicieae sampled are placed in other clades: Eriocnema with Miconieae; Siphanthera with Aciotis, Nepsera, and Acisanthera of Melastomeae; Castratella as sister to Monochaetum of Melastomeae; and Cambessedesia as part of an unresolved polytomy in a large clade that includes most Melastomataceae. Analyses of the chloroplast genes rbcL and ndhF that included three core genera produced similar results, as did the combined analysis of all three data sets. Combined parsimony analyses of DNA sequences from rpl16 and the nuclear ribosomal intercistronic transcribed spacer (ITS) region of 22 species of core Microlicieae yielded generally low internal support values. Lavoisiera, recently redefined on the basis of several morphological characters, was strongly supported as monophyletic. A morphological phylogenetic analysis of the Microlicieae based on 10 parsimony-informative characters recovered a monophyletic core Microlicieae but provided no further resolution among genera. Penalized likelihood analysis with two calibration time windows produced an age estimate of 3.7 million years for the time of initial divergence of strictly Brazilian core Microlicieae. This date is in general agreement with the estimated age of the most active stage of development of cerrado vegetation and implies an adaptive shift from hydric to seasonally dry habitats during the early evolution of this group.     

On the affinities of the burrowing asps Atractaspis (Serpentes: Atractaspididae)

An analysis is presented of a sample of Atractaspididae ( sensu McDowell) plus Macrelaps, Aparallactus, Apostolepis, Elapomorphus, Homoroselaps and six genera of African elapids in respect of squamation, reproductive organs, skull, head muscles and vertebrae. Homoroselaps is linked with the African Elapidae and is returned to that family. Scattered special resemblances to atractaspids are interpreted as homoplasies. Some interrelationships of the African elapids are suggested. The South American Apostolepis and Elapomorphus represent a separate, possibly related, lineage at the same grade level as the African Atractaspididae. Macrelaps and Aparallactus are transferred to the Atractaspididae. Atractaspis emerges as a low grade but highly divergent member of the family. Macrelaps is the most primitive. The other taxonomic units are completely resolved with, however, the anomaly of reversal to the seemingly primitive states of six characters in four lineages (six genera). The Atractaspididae, Apostolepis and Elapomorphus are regarded as low grade members of the Caenophidia. It is suggested that early in the history of the caenophidian lineage a venom apparatus was acquired, prior to the major radiation of the group. Many descendent lineages show regression of the venom apparatus.     

Systematic and phylogenetic significance of the seed coat in the shrubby African Iridaceae, Nivenia, Klattia and Witsenia

MANNINGJ. C. & GOLDBLATT, P., 1991. Systematic and phylogenetic significance of the seed coat in the shrubby African Iridaceae, Nivenia, Klattia and Witsenia. The seeds of Nivenia, Klattia and Witsenia, a natural alliance within Nivenioideae, are among their most distinctive features, and seed number and shape constitute at least two synapomorphies for this monophyletic lineage. In this paper we survey the structure of the seed surface of five species of Nivenia and one each of Klattia and Witsenia by scanning electron microsopy (SEM), and study the development of the seed coat in a representative species of each of the three genera. Outgroups for comparison were selected from genera inside and outside the subfamily. The six genera of Nivenioideae are united in having a 3 (– 2) seriate outer integument but the shrubby genera are unique in the family in their tangentially flattened ovules which mature into depressed, flat, scutiform seeds. They display a range of variation in seed coat characters but are specialized in the subfamily and family in having a transparent outer integument. Other genera have pigmented deposits in the outer epidermis of the outer integument. Nivenia and Witsenia are further specialized in having a partially exfoliating outer integument. Klattia is unique among the shrubby genera in having deposits in the second layer of the tegmen, in retaining an intact outer epidermis of the tegmen, and in the fusiform shape of the epidermal cells and striate surface of the seed. Our results are incorporated in a cladogram that expresses our current understanding of the phylogenetic relationships of Nivenioideae.     

A new genus of Canuellidae (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) associated with Atlantic bathyal sea-urchins

Both sexes of Echinosunaristes bathyalis gen. ct sp. n. are described from the rectum of a deepwater spatangoid sea-urchin Palaeopneustes sp. taken off San Salvador Island, Bahamas. The new genus displays strong sexual dimorphism in body form, size, antennules and caudal rami. E. bathyalis can also be readily distinguished from the other members of the family by the specialized geniculation mechanism of the male antennule, the atypical reductions in the mouthparts and the unusual facies of the swimming legs. On the basis of the structure of the genital field in both sexes, Echinosunaristes is placed in the Sunaristes lineage which groups species that arc primarily associated with crustacean hosts. A ncw genus Intersunaristes is established to accommodate Sunaristes curticaudata Thompson & A. Scott, 1903 and S. dardani Humes & Ho, 1969. Canuella paenelanitica Fiers, 1992 is formally transferred to the genus Elanella Por, 1984. Records of Canuellidae associated with other invertebrates arc compiled and a key to the 17 genera of the family is presented.     

Multilocus analysis of a taxonomically densely sampled dataset reveal extensive non-monophyly in the avian family Locustellidae

The phylogeny of most of the species in the avian passerine family Locustellidae is inferred using a Bayesian species tree approach (Bayesian Estimation of Species Trees, BEST), as well as a traditional Bayesian gene tree method (MrBayes), based on a dataset comprising one mitochondrial and four nuclear loci. The trees inferred by the different methods agree fairly well in topology, although in a few cases there are marked differences. Some of these discrepancies might be due to convergence problems for BEST (despite up to 1×10(9) iterations). The phylogeny strongly disagrees with the current taxonomy at the generic level, and we propose a revised classification that recognizes four instead of seven genera. These results emphasize the well known but still often neglected problem of basing classifications on non-cladistic evaluations of morphological characters. An analysis of an extended mitochondrial dataset with multiple individuals from most species, including many subspecies, suggest that several taxa presently treated as subspecies or as monotypic species as well as a few taxa recognized as separate species are in need of further taxonomic work.     

木灵藓科分类与系统学研究：历史、问题和展望

木灵藓科(Orthotrichaceae)是藓类植物中的第3大科。该科不仅种类多, 生态类型特殊, 而且是世界公认的多样化程度高、分类难度大、系统关系复杂的类群。当代木灵藓科植物分类系统学研究主要集中在该科的地区志编写和专属分类修订。目前, 除了热带美洲、热带非洲的变齿藓属(Zygodon)和火藓属(Schlotheimia)部分类群外, 木灵藓科主要类群的分类修订工作已基本完成, 但是有关亚科和属的划分和地位以及各属之间的关系等方面仍存在众多争议。木灵藓科分支系统学研究也不够系统全面, 有的仅应用了单个基因片段, 或者只涉及少数类群。因此, 需要基于更多的分子和形态学性状, 进一步开展世界木灵藓科植物的系统发育研究, 建立一个更趋自然的木灵藓科分类系统。     

An immunological analysis of the phylogenetic relationships between two enigmatic frogs, Myobatrachus and Arenophryne

The monotypic Australian frog genera Myobatrachus and Arenophryne occur in Western Australia. Myobatrachus has a bizarre appearance with a small, narrow head and extremely short limbs—features which may represent adaptations to its forward burrowing habit and dietary specialization on termites. Because of its unusual morphology, Myobatrachus has been interpreted as a representative of an old lineage dating back to the early Tertiary or late Mesozoic era. Phylogenetic analysis of albumin evolution in these two genera, as well as five additional purportedly related frog genera, demonstrates that Myobatrachus and Arenophryne are one another's closest genetic relatives and these lineages most likely diverged in the Miocene. The genera Metacrinia and Pseudophryne are most closely related to the lineage giving rise to Myobatrachus and Arenophryne , with these two major lineages diverging in the early Miocene.     

Molecular phylogeny of the horse flies: a framework for renewing tabanid taxonomy

Horse flies, family Tabanidae, are the most diverse family‐level clade of bloodsucking insects, but their phylogeny has never been thoroughly explored using molecular data. Most adult female Tabanidae feed on nectar and on the blood of various mammals. Traditional horse fly classification tends towards large heterogeneous taxa, which impede much‐needed taxonomic work. To guide renewed efforts in the systematics of horse flies and their relatives, we assembled a dataset of 110 exemplar species using nucleotide data from four genes—mitochondrial CO1, and nuclear 28S, CAD and AATS. All commonly recognized tribes in Tabanidae are represented, along with outgroups in Tabanomorpha. The phylogeny is reconstructed using Bayesian inference, and divergence times are estimated using Bayesian relaxed clock methods with time constraints from tabanid fossils. Our results show Athericidae strongly supported as the lineage most closely related to Tabanidae, and Pangoniinae and Tabaninae as monophyletic lineages. However, Chrysopsinae is nonmonophyletic, with strong support for both a nonmonophyletic Bouvieromyiini and for Rhinomyzini as sister to Tabaninae. Only the tribes Philolichini, Chrysopsini, Rhinomyzini and Haematopotini are recovered as monophyletic, although Scionini is monophyletic with exclusion of the peculiar genus Goniops Aldrich. Mycteromyia Philippi and Adersia Austen, two enigmatic genera sometimes placed in separate family‐level groups, are recovered inside Pangoniini and Chrysopsini, respectively. Several species‐rich genera are not recovered as monophyletic, including Esenbeckia Rondani, Silvius Meigen, Dasybasis Macquart and Tabanus L. Tabanidae likely originated in the Cretaceous, and all major extant groups were present by the early Palaeogene. This newly revised phylogenetic framework for Tabanidae forms the basis for a new assessment of tabanid diversification and provides context for understanding the evolution of trophic specialization in horse flies.     

Tibial combs in the Cydnidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) and their functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic significance

Tibial combs in representatives of the family Cydnidae are described in detail for the first time. The structure was studied in 98 species of 58 genera representing all the subfamilies, among them 16 species were investigated using scanning electron microscopic (SEM) techniques. In addition, Parastrachia japonensis (Scott, 1880) of the family Parastrachiidae, and two species of Dismegistus Amyot and Serville, 1843 (a genus of uncertain systematic position within Pentatomoidea) have also been studied. Morphological terminology is proposed for all the structures connected with tibial combs and the term 'the tibial comb complex' is suggested; its functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic significance is also discussed. The genera of Cydnidae can be classified into two groups depending on differences in the tibial comb complex, when it is present; moreover, its absence in the tribe Scaptocorini (Cephalocteinae) is demonstrated for the first time and is regarded as an autapomorphy of this tribe. Data on the occurrence of tibial combs in other families of true bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are also briefly reviewed, and an anagenetic trend in their evolution in terrestrial Heteroptera is hypothesized. The presence of tibial combs on all legs is regarded as the most plesiomorphic state.     

Phylogeny of the genera Entamoeba and Endolimax as deduced from small-subunit ribosomal RNA sequences

We sequenced small-subunit ribosomal RNA genes (16S-like rDNAs) of 10 species belonging to the genera Entamoeba and Endolimax. This study was undertaken to (1) resolve the relationships among the major lineages of Entamoeba previously identified by riboprinting; (2) examine the validity of grouping the genera Entamoeba and Endolimax in the same family, the Entamoebidae; and (3) examine how different models of nucleotide evolution influence the position of Entamoeba in eukaryotic phylogenetic reconstructions. The results obtained with distance, parsimony, and maximum-likelihood analyses support monophyly of the genus Entamoeba and are largely in accord with riboprinting results. Species of Entamoeba producing cysts with the same number of nuclei from monophyletic groups. The most basal Entamoeba species are those that produce cysts with eight nuclei, while the group producing four-nucleated cysts is most derived. Most phylogenetic reconstructions support monophyly of the Entamoebidae. In maximum-likelihood and parsimony analyses, Endolimax is a sister taxon to Entamoeba, while in some distance analyses, it represents a separate lineage. The secondary loss of mitochondria and other organelles from these genera is confirmed by their relatively late divergence in eukaryotic 16S-like rDNA phylogenies. Finally, we show that the positions of some (fast-evolving) eukaryotic lineages are uncertain in trees constructed with models that make corrections for among-site rate variation.     

Phylogeny and classification of the Catantopidae at the tribal level (Orthoptera, Acridoidea)

The grasshopper family Catantopidae is a well-known group, whose members include some of the most notorious agricultural pests. The existing classifications of the family are mostly utilitarian rather than being based on phylogenetic analysis and therefore unable to provide the stability desired for such an economically important group. In the present study, we present the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the family based on morphology. By extensively sampling from the Chinese fauna, we included in the present analysis multiple representatives of each of the previously recognized tribes in the family. In total, we examined 94 genera represented by 240 species and evaluated 116 characters, including 84 for external morphology and 32 for male genitalia. The final matrix consists of 86 ingroup taxa and 88 characters. Our phylogenetic analyses resulted in a high resolution of the basal relationships of the family while showed considerable uncertainty about the relationships among some crown taxa. We further evaluated the usefulness of morphological characters in phylogeny reconstruction of the catantopids by examining character fit to the shortest trees found, and contrary to previous suggestions, our results suggest that genitalia characters are not as informative as external morphology in inferring higher-level relationship. We further suggest that earlier classification systems of grasshoppers in general and Catantopidae in particular most probably consist of many groups that are not natural due the heavy reliance on genitalia features and need to be revised in the light of future phylogenetic studies. Finally, we outlined a tentative classification scheme based on the results of our phylogenetic analysis.     

THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY HOMO: A REPLY TO SCOTT

Scott presents a welcome reply to our article, “A single lineage in early Pleistocene Homo” (Van Arsdale and Wolpoff 2012 ). However, Scott's reply mischaracterizes and fails to directly address the hypothesis of a single lineage that we test. Additionally, the approach taken by Scott fails to replicate the methods used in our analysis. As Scott himself suggests, our null hypothesis of a single evolving lineage in early Homo remains without refutation. Although many evolutionary scenarios might explain the complex pattern of variation present in the early Homo fossil record, the most parsimonious remains that of a single lineage displaying evolutionary change over time.     

Python phylogenetics: inference from morphology and mitochondrial DNA

We used nucleotide sequences from four mitochondrial genes and structural features of the mitochondrial control region, combined with a revised, previously published, morphological data set to infer phylogenetic relationships among the pythons. We aimed to determine which of two competing hypotheses of relationships of the genera Aspidites and Python best explains the evolutionary and bioegeographical history of the family. All analyses of the combined data recover a set of relationships in which (1) the genus Python is paraphyletic with the two east Asian species, P. reticulatus and P. timoriensis , as the sister lineage to the seven Australo-Papuan python genera. We support recognition of a distinct genus for the P. reticulatus  +  P. timoriensis clade; (2) the remaining species of the genus Python form a clade which is the sister lineage to the remainder of the family; (3) the genus Aspidites is embedded among the Australo-Papuan genera. The seemingly primitive characteristics of Aspidites may be better interpreted as reversals or specializations that have accompanied a switch to burrowing in this genus. Resolution of the relationships among the Australo-Papuan lineages is weak, possibly because of rapid diversification early in the history of the radiation. We assessed the tempo of the Indo-Australian python radiation using a maximum likelihood framework based on the birth–death process. We find strong support for elevated speciation rates during the period when Australia collided with the proto-Indonesian archipelago. The data support an origin for pythons outside Australia, followed by a radiation into Australia during the mid-Tertiary.  © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2008, 93 , 603–619.