The taxonomic and ecological status of the environmentally restricted spongillid species of North America. I. Spongilla sponginosa Penney 1957

The taxonomic validity, present distribution, and specific threats to the existence of the freshwater sponge,Spongilla sponginosa Penney were investigated. This species, reported only from the type locality, Week's Pond, Sumter County, South Carolina, has apparently been extirpated due to highly acidic pH levels in the pond water. Examination of holotype materials indicate some question of the validity of S. sponginosa as a distinct species.     

柏科分类和分布：亚科,族和属

柏科Cupressaceae和杉科Taxodiaceae有许多相似之处,近年来不少分类学家主张把两科合并成广义的柏科。原杉科中的金松属Sciadopitys与两科其他属的差异较大,被提升为单种科Sciadopity-aceae。本文根据球果可育种鳞的位置把柏科(狭义)分为2亚科,即上部种鳞不可育的柏木亚科Cupres-soideae和上部种鳞可育的澳洲柏亚科Callitroideae。综合其他形态学和解剖学证据,柏木亚科又分4族,即柏木族Cupresseae(包括:柏术属Cupressus、杂交柏属×Cupressocyparis、扁柏属Chamaecyparis和福建柏属Fokeinia)、侧柏族Thujopsideae(包括:崖柏属Thuja、罗汉柏属Thujopsis和侧柏属Platycladus)、圆柏族Junipereae(包括:圆柏属Juniperus和海参威柏属Microbiota)以及香漆柏族Tetraclineae(包括:翠柏属Calocedrus和香漆柏属Tetraclinis)。澳洲柏亚科又分3族,即澳洲柏族Actinostrobeae(包括:西澳柏属Actinostuobus、澳洲柏属Callitris、智利柏属Fitzroya和杉叶柏属Neocallitropsis)、南非柏族Widdring-toneae(包括:白智利柏属Pilgerodendron、塔斯曼柏属Diselma和南非柏属Widdringtonia)以及甜柏族Libocedreae(包括:甜柏属Libocedrus、巴布亚柏属Papuacedrus和南美柏属Austrocedrus)。柏科21个属的地理分布可划分为5种类型,即:(     

A technique for using hair tubes beneath the snowpack to detect winter-active small mammals in the subnivean space

The study of winter-active small mammals beneath the snowpack has proved challenging for researchers because of the relative inaccessibility. We present a technique using hair tubes that permits the detection of small mammals active in the subnivean space. Hair tubes are cylindrical or funnel-shaped structures containing suitable bait and an adhesive surface that harvests hairs from small mammals as they attempt to reach the bait. Hair tubes eliminate many of the difficulties often associated with live trapping and permit the expansion of systematic sampling to larger scales than allowed by conventional live-trapping methods. The technique was used successfully to detect five small mammal species in the subnivean space in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP) in southeastern Australia. These included the common bush-rat, Rattus fuscipes; the dusky and agile antechinus, Antechinus swainsonii and A. agilis; the broad-toothed rat, Mastacomys fuscus; and the mountain pygmy possum, Burramys parvus. Although hair tubes have a number of limitations, such as not providing a measure of abundance or allowing the identification of individual animals, we believe that these limitations are balanced by the fact that the technique can be used at any spatial scale. Hair tubes are particularly suited to studies of animal distribution at the landscape-scale, because many hair tubes can be deployed and dispersed over large areas, and monitored on a regular basis by a small team of researchers. The technique also makes use of readily available, low-cost materials and could be easily adapted to a range of conditions and different target species.     

中国四齿藓科的订正

对中国四齿藓科的分类及分布进行了全面研究。据陈邦杰等前人报道,本科在中国分布仅１属１种。现经作者们搜集到的２３６份中国四齿藓科标本（原均被鉴定为四齿藓ＴｅｔｒａｐｈｉｓｐｅｌｕｃｉｄａＨｅｄｗ．）,重新解剖观察后鉴定,发现除原有之广布种四齿藓外,尚有此次新发现的中国新分布种：疣柄四齿藓ＴｅｔｒａｐｈｉｓｇｅｎｉｃｕｌａｔａＧｉｒｇ,另有傅星及高谦等在川西发现新分布原丝藓Ｔｅｔｒｏｄｏｎｔｉｕｍｂｒｏｗｎｉａｎｕｍ（Ｄｉｃｋｓ）Ｓｃｈｗａｅｇｒ．,以及Ｈ．Ｖｉｌ和曹同在吉林发现的无助原丝藓Ｔｅｔｒｏｄｏｎｔｉｕｍｒｅｐａｎｄｕｍ（ＦｕｎｃｋｅｘＳｔｕｒｍ）Ｓｃｈｗａｅｇｒ．,故本科在中国分布增至２属４种,本文对此４种在中国及世界分布均进行了讨论。     

Ophiuroid remains from the Toarcian of Sainte-Verge (Deux-Sèvres, France): paleobiological perspectives

The Toarcian sediments exposed at Sainte-Verge (Deux-Sèvres, France) are especially rich in echinoderm remains. The present paper describes and illustrates the ophiuroids. On the basis of lateral arm plates, 13 species are distinguished, including two new ones: Sinosura fasciata sp. nov. and Sinosura extensa sp. nov. Most of the recognized species have been recorded previously from the Late Toarcian and Aalenian in Germany and, to a lesser extent, from the late Early Jurassic of England and Switzerland. High similarities between the faunas of northwest Europe suggest a boreal provincialism of ophiuroids. The recognition of 13 species is comparable to the diversity known from other stratigraphic levels (Jurassic and Cretaceous) or in the richest stations of recent oceans. The species association of the Toarcian of Sainte-Verge, with two Ophiolepididae, one Ophiacanthidae, four Ophioleucidae, two Ophiodermatidae, two Ophiuridae, and one Hemieuryalidae may be compared with species associations of recent shelf, offshore environments. Such persistence of components of diversity and ecological affinities of species suggests strong evolutionary conservatism of the ophiuroids, after a rapid radiation during the earliest Jurassic. © 2002 Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.     

Systematics and palaeoecology of middle Toarcian Asteroidea (Echinodermata) from the “Seuil du Poitou”, Western France

Complete, articulated starfish fossils are rare. However, more frequently encountered dissociated skeletal elements (ossicles) permit reliable taxonomic identification, making them a valuable data source for diversity estimates. Nearly 300 asteroid ossicles, collected from the middle Toarcian marls in western France can be assigned to five species. Four species and two genera are described: Comptoniaster vrinensis nov. sp. (Goniasteridae), Poncetaster crateri nov. gen. nov. sp. (Stauranderasteridae), Galbaster recurrans nov. gen. nov. sp. (Goniasteridae) and Pentasteria? liasica nov. sp. (Astropectinidae). The known diversity of Early Jurassic asteroids is increased from 12 to 16 species. These taxa illustrate the diversification of crown-group asteroids early in the Jurassic, following the Permo-Triassic crisis. They also reflect bias of the fossil record, and imply the existence of numerous ghost lineages in the evolutionary trees of extant groups. Variation in asteroid diversity across the “Seuil du Poitou” was driven by ecological constraints. The relative frequency (abundance of ossicles and diversity) of goniasterids and stauranderasterids increases in shallower environments. The Benthopectinidae, represented by Plesiastropecten hallovensis, occurred primarily from deep-shelf sediments. Similar ecological patterns are observed for more recent fossil and extant relatives, which further supports the idea of conservative evolution in post-Palaeozoic starfishes since the Early Jurassic.     

The effect of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cercidium praecox</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Prosopis laevigata</Emphasis> on vertical distribution of soil free-living nematode communities in the Tehuacán Desert,Mexico

Vegetation cover is known to act as an abiotic mediator influencing the structure of soil fauna communities in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. The aim of the current research was to determine the spatial dispersion of the soil free-living nematode community under the canopy of Cercidium praecox and Prosopis laevigata during the rainy season. These shrubs are the dominant plant associations in the western part of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley in Mexico. Soil samples were taken from each 10-cm depth between 0 and 50 cm in August 2004. Our results demonstrated that the abundance and structure of the soil free-living nematode communities in the study area were strongly dependent on plant effects, specified by limited factors such as soil moisture and organic matter availability. The greatest degree of abundance of soil-free-living nematodes (88%) was found in the upper (0–10 cm) soil layer. Plant parasites were the most abundant trophic group under the two plants (58 and 36% under Parkinsonia (Cercidium) praecox and Prosopis laevigata, respectively), whereas omnivore-predators were the most dominant (96%) in inter-plant spaces. The fungivore/bacterivore (F/B) ratio was found to be the most useful tool of the ecological indices tested in the present study, reflecting the vertical distribution of the free-living nematode communities beneath different plant species in the different soil layers. The soil free-living nematode communities and their vertical distribution were found to be affected by plant ecophysiological adaptation, soil moisture, and the interaction between them.     

Molecular study of the genus Astraeus

The aim of the present work was to determine phylogenetic relationships among Astraeus species and to support macroscopic and microscopic characters of Astraeus with analysis of the ITS rDNA region. Collections of Astraeus basidiomes were made from different geographical areas in Thailand and compared with existing collections made worldwide. The marriage of observations on morphological features, including basidiospore ornamentation and molecular data demonstrated the presence of several Astraeus species. Sequences for 41 Astraeus collections were compared and the phylogenetic analyses grouped Thai Astraeus collections into two distinct groups. One contained A. odoratus and an Asian species described herein as A. asiaticus. There are at least two additional species: A. pteridis, and one so far un-named from North America. Our results show that molecular data can be used in combination with traditional morphological characteristics to resolve taxonomic uncertainties in the genus Astraeus.     

A new species and new records of minuta-group Gnamptogenys from Brazil (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

We report new records of Gnamptogenys caelata Kempf (1967) and Gnamptogenys minuta (Emery, 1896) from Brazil. We also describe Gnamptogenys piei n. sp. from Southeast Brazil. This distinctive new species is known only from a single worker found in leaf litter from montane forests of the Mantiqueira mountains in Itatiaia National Park, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The specimen was collected at 1991 m above sea level, an infrequent altitude for minuta-group ants, usually more common at lower altitudes. The new species is imaged, compared with other minuta-group species, and an updated identification key for all known species of the minuta-group is included.