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Brantley Omar posted an update 4 days, 11 hours ago
Given the importance of acoustic communication in intraspecific recognition during mating activity, acoustic traits have been widely used to clarify the taxonomy of anurans. They have been particularly useful in the study of taxa with high morphological similarity such as the Neotropical genus Physalaemus. Here, we reviewed the acoustic repertoires of the species of Physalaemus based on homology hypotheses in order to make comparisons more properly applicable for taxonomic purposes. We covered all the known clades and species groups for the genus, analyzing 45 species (94 % of the currently recognized taxa). Different call types were labeled with letters (i.e., A, B, and C) to avoid speculative functional propositions for the call types. In order to identify correctly the observed frequency bands, we propose a method to interpret them based on the predicted graphic behavior on audiospectrogram and on the mathematic relationship among bands considering each kind of band production (e.g., harmonics and sidebands). We found different acoustic traits between the major clades P. signifer and P. cuvieri. Species in the P. signifer clade have more than one call type (67 % of species in the clade). Furthermore, all species of this clade have A calls with pulses and/or low fundamental frequency ( 1 s) with ascendant and periodic frequency modulation. Calls of the species in the P. biligonigerus and P. gracilis groups usually have continuous whine-like calls with call envelopes very variable within species. In addition, we describe traits in the genus for the first time, such as complex traits not predicted by simple and linear acoustic models (nonlinear phenomena), and discuss the application of acoustic traits to taxonomy and phylogenetics and morphological constraints of the vocal apparatus that might be related to the different acoustic properties found.Hoplopholcus Kulczyński, 1908 is a genus of relatively large pholcid spiders, ranging from eastern Central Europe to Crete, the Levant, and Georgia. Species in this genus are often difficult to distinguish from each other, and the reexamination of previously published material revealed many misidentifications. The present study provides redescriptions of the ten previously described species and descriptions of six new species, all based on males and females Hoplopholcus suluin sp. n., H. konya sp. n., H. atik sp. n., and H. bursa sp. n. from Turkey, H. gazipasa sp. n. from Turkey and Greece, and H. dim sp. n. from Turkey and Cyprus. The main conclusion is that several species need further investigation, based on focused sampling and ideally including molecular data. Some species seem to include morphologically distinct epigean and hypogean populations; others may eventually need to be split into two or more species. Further undescribed species are most likely to occur in Turkey.A general introduction to the water mites of Madagascar is given, together with a survey of the diversity of the early derivative superfamilies Eylaoidea, Hydrachnoidea, and Hydryphantoidea. The family Teratothyadidae (genera Teratothyas and Teratothyasides) and the hydryphantid subfamilies Euthyadinae (genera Javathyas and Trichothyas) and Wandesiinae (genus Wandesia) are recorded for the first time from Madagascar, the latter being new for the Ethiopian bioregion. One subgenus in the family Teratothyadidae, Ascoteratothyas subgen. nov. (genus Teratothyas) and eighteen species are described as new to science Hydrodroma amoenoderma, H. lasioderma, H. megalonyx, H. mesembrina, H. poseidon, Javathyas nasipalpis, Wandesia pelipoda, W. anjozorobensis, Teratothyas (s. str.) digitata, T. (s. str.) aucta, T. (s. str.) proceripapillata, T. (s. str.) planipapillata, T. (Ascoteratothyas) levigata, T. (A.) porrigens, T. (A.) reducta, Teratothyasides heptaplax, T. ravenala and T. vanilla. Previous Madagascan records of Hydrodroma despiciens (Müller, 1776) and H. capensis (K. Viets, 1914) are attributed to H. poseidon. The subgenus Pseudowandesia is synonymized with the nominate subgenus. New locality records for other species include the first recording on the island of Hydrodroma perreptans (K. Viets, 1913) and H. zhokhovi Tuzovskij, 2014. Limnochares connexa Tuzovskij Gerecke 2009 is redescribed. A dichotomous key leads to species level for the groups treated here, to family level for representatives of the remaining four superfamilies present on Madagascar.Ortiz et al. (2018) described a new species of lysianassid amphipod, Shoemakerella fissipro, from Gulf of California, northeastern Pacific Ocean. Although the description and figures presented by Ortiz et al. (2018) fully characterize the new species, the journal issue in which the description appeared was published online only, and the article in which the new name appeared did not include a ZooBank registration number (LSID), required for validation of new names in electronic-only publications (ICZN 2012). As a result, the name Shoemakerella fissipro Ortiz, Capetillo Winfield, 2018, as published in Cahiers de Biologie Marine 59 599-605, is not available according the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN 1999, 2012). Therefore, the present note serves to validate name Shoemakerella fissipro by fulfilling ICZN conditions for nomenclatural availability.Rob Van Soest (pers. communication) remarked that Spongia (Heterofibria) cooki Samaai, Pillay Janson, 2019 is a junior primary homonym of Spongia vermiculata cookii Hyatt, 1877, now accepted as Spongia (Spongia) cookii Hyatt, 1877. Following the ICZN (art. 57.2, art. 58.14 [regarding -ii and -i], ICZN 1999) the published species name (Samaai et al. 2019) is unavailable and we now suggest replacing the name with Spongia (Heterofibria) peddemorsi following art. 60, ICZN (1999). The holotype is deposited into the collection at the Iziko South African Museum, Cape Town, SAM-A24791, for further collection data see Samaai et al. 2019.Hippomonavella charrua n. sp. is introduced based on material from the continental shelf off Uruguay. selleckchem Bilaminar fragments of this species were also found in mid-Holocene deposits of Destacamento Río Salado Member, Canal de las Escobas Formation (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina), ca. 6,000 yr BP. Hippomonavella charrua n. sp. resembles H. brasiliensis Ramalho, Muricy Taylor, 2008, but differs from this species in its more triangular and protruding avicularia occurring in just a small proportion of zooids. Hippomonavella charrua n. sp. is the third species of the genus with both fossil and Recent representatives. The tatiform ancestrula and the early astogeny are described for the first time in a species of Hippomonavella.