This report describes 7 new species of Drosophila found in the Eastern Arc mountains and on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania: D. baucipyga, D. gata, D. kilimanjarica, D. neogata, D. paragata, D. pilocornuta and D. usambarensis spp.n. Two new species complexes, the megapyga species complex (Sophophora subgenus, melanogaster group, montium subgroup) and the gata species complex (Drosophila subgenus) are introduced. Only one species, D. baucipyga of the montium subgroup, has a geographical range matching the whole Eastern Arc, from the Usambara Mts. in the north-east of Tanzania to Mt. Uzungwa in the south-south west of the country. Five others, including one representative of the dentissima group of the Sophophora subgenus, D. usambarensis, and four representatives of the Drosophila subgenus, D. gata, D. neogata, D. paragata and D. pilocornuta, were found only in the Usambara Mts. Two of these five, D. usambarensis and D. pilocornuta were found only in West-Usambara, while two other related species, D. gata and D. paragata, were found only in East-Usambara. Only the distribution of D. neogata covers the whole of the Usambara mountains. Outside the Eastern Arc, another representative of the dentissima group, D. kilimanjarica, was found only on Mount Kilimanjaro. This new, highly specific, montane fauna of Drosophila further contributes to the unique biological diversity of the Eastern Arc Mts. The biogeographic affinities of the new taxa suggest past connections with the Virunga and Ruwenzori ranges and further west with the Cameroon Volcanic Line. It indicates, in particular, that the Eastern Arc forests have passed through a succession of coalescence and fragmentation events.
The Neochauliodes sundaicus species-group is newly proposed, containing six species and endemic to Indo-Malaysia. All six species are described and illustrated, including two new species: Neochauliodes parvus Liu, Hayashi & Flint, sp. n. and N. peninsularis Liu, Hayashi & Flint, sp. n. Full species status is given to N. maculatus Stitz, 1914, stat. n. and N. borneensis van der Weele, 1909, stat. n. A cladistic analysis is conducted to reconstruct the species level phylogeny of the N. sundaicus group based on the morphological data. Combining the present morphological phylogeny and historical geography of Indo-Malaysia, the origin and speciation of this species-group is briefly discussed.
This review considers factors affecting the flight capacity of carabid beetles and the implications of flight for carabids. Studies from the Dutch polders in particular show that young populations of carabids consist predominantly of macropterous species and macropterous individuals of wing-dimorphic species. Also populations of wing-dimorphic carabid species at the periphery of their geographical range contain high proportions of macropterous individuals. However, studies from Baltic archipelagos show that older populations of even highly isolated island habitats contain considerable proportions of brachypterous species and individuals. This suggests that macroptery is primarily an adaptation for dispersal and that there exists a mechanism for subsequently reducing the ratio of macropterous to brachypterous species under stable conditions, due to the competitive advantage of brachyptery. Populations in isolated habitats, such as islands and mountains, have high proportions of brachypterous species. Many macropterous species do not possess functional flight muscles. Species of unstable habitats, such as tree canopies and wet habitats, are mostly macropterous. Brachypterous species tend to disappear from disturbed habitats. There is uncertainty regarding the extent to which carabid dispersal is directed and how much passive. Both Den Boer and Lindroth recognized that mostly macropterous individuals of macropterous and wing-dimorphic species disperse and found new populations, after which brachyptery tends to rapidly appear and proliferate in the newly founded population. It is most likely that the allele for brachyptery would arrive via the dispersal of gravid females which had mated with brachypterous males prior to emigration. Whilst many studies consider wing morphology traits of carabid beetles to be species-specific and permanent, a number of studies have shown that the oogenesis flight syndrome, whereby females undertake migration and subsequently lose their flight muscles by histolysis before eventually regenerating them after reproducing, has been reported for a growing number of carabid species. Wing morphology of carabid beetles clearly offers strong potential for the study of population dynamics. This field of study flourished during the 1940's to the late 1980's. Whilst a considerable amount of valuable research has been performed and published, the topic clearly holds considerable potential for future study., Stephen Venn., and Obsahuje bibliografii
Parasitological examination of freshwater fishes of the Phongolo River in north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa resulted in the discovery and morphological and molecular characterisation of a new species of Wenyonia Woodland, 1923 (Cestoda: Caryophyllidea). The new species from the plain squeaker, Synodontis zambezensis Peters (Siluriformes: Mochokidae), is morphologically most similar to Wenyonia acuminata Woodland, 1923, a species reported from three species of Synodontis in north-eastern, western and central Africa (Sudan, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo). Both these species are markedly different from congeners by having a nematoform body and a digitiform scolex. Wenyonia gracilis sp. n. differs from W. acuminata in its general body size, length and width of main body regions (testicular and uterine regions), a posterior extension of the testes into the uterine region, numerous postovarian vitelline follicles filling the entire medulla, eggs c. 1/3 larger in size, and a scolex with an apical introvert but devoid of longitudinal furrows and a well-defined base. Wenyonia gracilis is the seventh species in the genus and the first autochthonous caryophyllidean ever reported and described from southern Africa (south of the Zambezi River)., Bjoern C. Schaeffner, Divan van Rooyen, Ruan Gerber, Tomáš Scholz, Nico J. Smit., and Obsahuje bibliografii