Revision of the Southeast Asian millipede genus Orthomorpha Bollman, 1893, with the proposal of a new genus (Diplopoda, Polydesmida, Paradoxosomatidae)


Book Description

ÿThe large genus Orthomorpha is rediagnosed and is shown to currently com-prise 51 identifiable species ranging from northern Myanmar and Thailand in the Northwest to Lombok Island, Indonesia in the Southeast. Of them, 20 species have been revised and/or abundantly illustrated, based on a res-tudy of mostly type material; further 12 species are described as new: O. atypica sp. n., O. communis sp. n., O. isarankurai sp. n., O. picturata sp. n., O. similanensis sp. n., O. suberecta sp. n., O. tuberculifera sp. n., O. subtuberculifera sp. n. and O. latiterga sp. n., all from Thailand, as well as O. elevata sp. n., O. spiniformis sp. n. and O. subelevata sp. n., from northern Malaysia. The type-species O. beaumontii (Le Guillou, 1841) is redescribed in due detail from male material as well, actually being a senior subjective synonym of O. spinala (Attems, 1932), syn. n. Two additional new synonymies are proposed: O. rotundicollis (Attems, 1937) = O. tuberculata (Attems, 1937), syn. n., and O. butteli Carl, 1922 = O. consocius Chamberlin, 1945, syn. n., the valid names to the left. All species have been keyed and all new and some especially widespread species have been mapped. Further six species, including two revised from type material, are still to be considered dubious, mostly because their paraterga appear to be too narrow to represent Orthomorpha species. A new genus, Orthomorphoides gen. n., diagnosed versus Orthomorpha through only moderately well developed paraterga, coupled with a poorly bi- or trifid gonopod tip, with at least some of its apical prongs being short spines, is erected for two species: O. setosus (Attems, 1937), the type-species, which is also revised from type material, and O. exaratus (Attems, 1953), both comb. n. ex Orthomorpha.




Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Myriapodology


Book Description

This special edition of ZooKeys contains papers on systematics presented at the 15th International Congress of Myriapodology held in Brisbane, Australia, 18?22 July 2011. Non-systematics papers from the congress are beingÿ published concurrently in International Journal of Myriapodology volume 6. The International Congress of Myriapodology is held every three years under the auspices of the Centre International de Myriapodologie.




Cladocera


Book Description







Identification and Ecology of Freshwater Arthropods in the Mediterranean Basin


Book Description

Identification and Ecology of Freshwater Arthropods in the Mediterranean Basin covers the entire Mediterranean basin, including parts of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Mediterranean islands, but excluding other biogeographic locations with Mediterranean climates located outside the region. The book provides an extensive description of the taxonomy and ecology of aquatic arthropods encountered in lentic and lotic habitats, as well as in less studied underground and estuarine habitats. It offers expanded taxonomic identification keys to major groups of arthropods with a description of their ecology and distribution. Keys for insects include aquatic larval stages and water-dwelling adults of Coleoptera and Heteroptera. Additional sections focus on taxa that can be encountered in adjacent brackish and estuary ecosystems as long as the taxon primarily occurs in freshwaters. This is a much-needed, comprehensive resource on the taxonomy and ecology of freshwater arthropods with an introduction to recent molecular tools for identifications. It will be particularly useful for freshwater ecologists, limnologists, environmentalists and students in the ecological sciences. - Presents taxonomic keys to genera and species to the majority of aquatic arthropod families - Provides coverage of all freshwater ecosystems of the Mediterranean basin, with case studies and examples - Includes numerous photographs of the aquatic arthropods described in the chapters - Covers the ecology and taxonomy of organisms living in more traditionally studied lakes and streams as well as in less studied underground and estuarine habitats




Cave Ecology


Book Description

Cave organisms are the ‘monsters’ of the underground world and studying them invariably raises interesting questions about the ways evolution has equipped them to survive in permanent darkness and low-energy environments. Undertaking ecological studies in caves and other subterranean habitats is not only challenging because they are difficult to access, but also because the domain is so different from what we know from the surface, with no plants at the base of food chains and with a nearly constant microclimate year-round. The research presented here answers key questions such as how a constant environment can produce the enormous biodiversity seen below ground, what adaptations and peculiarities allow subterranean organisms to thrive, and how they are affected by the constraints of their environment. This book is divided into six main parts, which address: the habitats of cave animals; their complex diversity; the environmental factors that support that diversity; individual case studies of cave ecosystems; and of the conservation challenges they face; all of which culminate in proposals for future research directions. Given its breadth of coverage, it offers an essential reference guide for graduate students and established researchers alike.




Harvestmen


Book Description

The 25 authors provide a much-needed synthesis of what is currently known about these relatives of spiders, focusing on basic conceptual issues in systematics and evolutionary ecology, making comparisons with other well-studied arachnid groups, such as spiders and scorpions. --from publisher description.




Arthropod Relationships


Book Description

The arthropods contain more species than any other animal group, but the evolutionary pathways which led to their current diversity are still an issue of controversy. Arthropod Relationships provides an overview of our current understanding, responding to the new data arising from sequencing DNA, the discovery of new Cambrian fossils as direct evidence of early arthropod history, and developmental genetics. These new areas of research have stimulated a reconsideration of classical morphology and embryology. Arthropod Relationships is the first synthesis of the current debate to emerge: not since the volume edited by Gupta was published in 1979 has the arthropod phylogeny debate been, considered in this depth and breadth. Leaders in the various branches of arthropod biology have contributed to this volume. Chapters focus progressively from the general issues to the specific problems involving particular groups, and thence to a consideration of embryology and genetics. This wide range of disciplines is drawn on to approach an understanding of arthropod relationships, and to provide the most timely account of arthropod phylogeny. This book should be read by evolutionary biologists, palaeontologists, developmental geneticists and invertebrate zoologists. It will have a special interest for post-graduate students working in these fields.




Arthropod Biology and Evolution


Book Description

More than two thirds of all living organisms described to date belong to the phylum Arthropoda. But their diversity, as measured in terms of species number, is also accompanied by an amazing disparity in terms of body form, developmental processes, and adaptations to every inhabitable place on Earth, from the deepest marine abysses to the earth surface and the air. The Arthropoda also include one of the most fashionable and extensively studied of all model organisms, the fruit-fly, whose name is not only linked forever to Mendelian and population genetics, but has more recently come back to centre stage as one of the most important and more extensively investigated models in developmental genetics. This approach has completely changed our appreciation of some of the most characteristic traits of arthropods as are the origin and evolution of segments, their regional and individual specialization, and the origin and evolution of the appendages. At approximately the same time as developmental genetics was eventually turning into the major agent in the birth of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), molecular phylogenetics was challenging the traditional views on arthropod phylogeny, including the relationships among the four major groups: insects, crustaceans, myriapods, and chelicerates. In the meantime, palaeontology was revealing an amazing number of extinct forms that on the one side have contributed to a radical revisitation of arthropod phylogeny, but on the other have provided evidence of a previously unexpected disparity of arthropod and arthropod-like forms that often challenge a clear-cut delimitation of the phylum.




Cladocera: the Biology of Model Organisms


Book Description

Cladocerans are increasingly used in many fields of science and this volume covers a wide range of such topics. Cladocerans have a strong influence on freshwater ecosystems and in some aspects they can be used in biomanipulation projects. Their fast and easy asexual reproduction offers a wide range of possibilities for studies in many fields of research: genetics, ecology, ecotoxicology, etc. In some ways they are the Drosophila of the present day. Their global distribution makes them of special interest from a phylogenetic and biogeographic as well as an ecological point of view. Apart from the proceedings of previous symposia, there are no other books which cover the whole range of aspects. These proceedings update the last symposia as well as including completely new information on certain fields of research. Target groups are research scientists within ecology, systematic biology, evolutionary biology and population biology. The book could also be a useful source of information for special courses for students of the above mentioned topics.