Bumblebees in trouble

For many species, geographical ranges are expanding toward the poles in response to climate change, while remaining stable along range edges nearest the equator. Using long-term observations across Europe and North America over 110 years, we tested for climate change–related range shifts in bumblebee species across the full extents of their latitudinal and thermal limits and movements along elevation gradients.

To investigate bumblebees' responses to climate change, researchers from Canada, Belgium, Germany, UK and US first generated a database of geotagged observations of 67 European and North American bumblebee species from 1901 to 2010.

They compared changes in individual bee species' northward movements in recent decades, against baseline bumblebee activity from 1901 to 1974, when the climate was cooler. To their surprise, bumblebees in recent, warmer decades didn't shift their ranges north. Simultaneously, bumblebee populations disappeared from the southernmost and hottest parts of their ranges, with bumblebees in those locations moving to higher, cooler elevations, where possible. The colleagues also evaluated the roles of factors such as land use and pesticide application, in causing bumblebee range losses - finding no significant correlation.

Bumblebee disappearances from warm, southern areas are just as likely when there is no pesticide use and little agriculture. But we know that increasingly frequent weather extremes, like heat waves, can hit bumblebee species hard, and climate change poses threats that are already being felt.

Global warming has trapped bumblebee species in a kind of climate vise - the result is dramatic losses of bumblebee species from the hottest areas across two continents. For species that evolved under cool conditions, like bumblebees, global warming might be the kind of threat that causes many of them to disappear for good. Unlike so many other species, bumblebees generally haven't expanded into more northern areas. We may need to help these species establish new colonies to the north and at continental scales.

Here is a York university video about this study featuring two of the co-authors, Sheila Colla from Wildlife Preservation Canada and old friend Laurence Packer, world renowned expert on everything Apoidea. 

Biodiversity loss in fish ecosystems

Fish are a main protein source for over a billion people worldwide and is one of the most traded food commodities. However, many commercial fisheries have become unsustainable due to practices such as overfishing and habitat destruction. The pressure of commercial fisheries created a new category of species depletion: commercial extinction. Fish populations are depleted to the point that it is no longer economically feasible to fish for them. While not extinct, these species are certainly no longer playing their traditional roles in their ecosystems. Because there is little evidence to the contrary, there has been the common impression that marine species and ecosystems are generally in good shape. However, as more is learned, that impression is turning out to be wildly misconceived. Here is another good example for that:

A new study conducted by researchers from Singapore, Ireland and the UK shows that as the fish diversity of complex marine food webs declines, fish production resists the change, thereby masking ultimate rapid loss. The researchers used a unique high performance mathematical model known as the Population-Dynamical Matching Model (PDMM) to represent thousands of coexisting species dynamically interacting as a food web in a complex ecosystem. The model allows the representation of features such as prey-switching, where predators preferentially target prey species in abundant supply in order to improve their chances of survival. At the end of a gradual assembly stands a model food web very similar to the natural process. 

The team sequentially deleted fish species from such complex model marine ecosystems and after each deletion, observed the dynamics of the remaining fish species and measured the change in total fish production.

The study results showed that the prey of the deleted fish species tended to resist the biodiversity loss by increasing their production, which helped to mitigate the decrease in total fish production. However, once the biodiversity losses became too great and only about a third of the species in a food web remained, a collapse ensued whereby production sharply declined with further species loss, as the relatively small percentage of remaining species were unable to provide much compensation.

This resistance to change in wild fish ecosystems may be masking a more serious decline in production potential in situations where biodiversity loss is already reported, posing the danger of providing a false sense of assurance until the biodiversity losses become too great.

Discoveries of the week #45

This will be the last issue of the Discoveries of the week in its current form. I have decided to change the format a little and use another blog of mine exclusively for the introduction of newly described species. Starting tomorrow you will find at least one new species a day under a different address. My hope is to interest not only colleagues and collaborators but also non-professionals and the general public in all the diversity of life that is discovered daily. 

So, for the last time in this format and on this blog:

Six new species of the genus Paraschistura

Paraschistura aredvii

The Iranian species of Paraschistura are reviewed, and diagnoses are presented for all eleven recognized species. Paraschistura bampurensis, P. cristata, P. kessleri, P. nielseni and P. turcmenica are considered valid; P. sargadensis is a synonym of P. kessleri and P. turcomanus is a synonym of P. turcmenica. Six new species are described. Paraschistura abdolii, new species, from the Sirjan basin and the western tributaries of the Hamun-e Jaz Murian basin is distinguished by having a very slender body and scales restricted to the caudal peduncle and to the back in front of the dorsal-fin origin in few individuals. Paraschistura aredvii, new species, from the Zohreh drainage, is distinguished by having scales on the back, no suborbital flap and the pelvic-fin origin posterior to the dorsal-fin origin. Paraschistura hormuzensis, new species, from the Minab drainage, is distinguished by having scales on the back, a pointed snout and a triangular suborbital flap in males. Paraschistura naumanni, new species, from the Kol drainage, the Mond drainage and the Lake Maharlo basin, is distinguished by having scales on the back, no suborbital flap in males and the pelvic-fin origin below the dorsal-fin origin. Paraschistura pasatigris, new species, from the Karun and Karkheh drainages, is distinguished by having scales on the back and a suborbital flap in males pointed downwards. Paraschistura susiani, new species, from the Jarahi drainage, is distinguished by having scales on the back and a roundish suborbital flap in males. The presence of an additional undescribed species is suggested from the Mond River drainage by the molecular data presented. All species, except unstudied P. kessleri are also characterized by fixed diagnostic nucleotide substitutions in the mtDNA COI barcode region. Paraschistura Prokofiev, 2009 is given precedence over Metaschistura Prokofiev, 2009.

Yes, I do have a soft spot for new fish species as regular readers of this blog might have guessed already. After all I am a fish researcher by trade. This new publication comes with six new loach species from different drainage systems in Iran. Iran is home to eleven species of this recently described genus, the new species are included in that number.

DNA Barcodes available

Ctenidiosomus austrinus

A new species of flea of the genus Ctenidiosomus Jordan, 1931 (Siphonaptera: Pygiopsyllidae) is described from Phyllotis osilae J. A. Allen, 1901, from Salta Province, Argentina. This is the first time that Ctenidiosomus has been recorded in Argentina. A key to species of males of Ctenidiosomus is presented.

A new flea species found on birds and small mammals in Argentina. The specific name is derived from the Latin term austrinus (southern) because this new species represents the southern-most record of any known species of the genus.

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Megaselia albalucifrons

With 1,400 described species, Megaselia is one of the most species-rich genera in the animal kingdom, and at the same time one of the least studied. An important obstacle to taxonomic progress is the lack of knowledge concerning the phylogenetic structure within the genus. Classification of Megaselia at the level of subgenus is incomplete although Schmitz addressed several groups of species in a series of monographs published from 1956 to 1981. Another problem is the lack of molecular phylogenetic analyses to support morphology-based conclusions. As a contribution towards addressing these problems, we here circumscribe a previously unrecognized monophyletic lineage of Megaselia consisting of species similar to M. lucifrons. We base this taxonomic decision on morphological study of an extensive phorid material from Sweden, complemented by molecular analyses of select exemplars using two markers (COI and 28S). We name the clade the lucifrons species group, and show that it contains three distinct species. Our results also demonstrate that Megaselia subnitida Lundbeck, 1920, previously treated as a synonym of M. lucifrons Schmitz, 1918, is a separate species, and we remove it from synonymy. The third species in the group was previously unknown; we describe it here as M. albalucifrons sp. n.

Scuttle flies are one of the most diverse families of flies. There are currently more than 4,000 described species, and experts think that this may represent as little as 10% or less of the true diversity. The largest genus in this family is Megaselia and it just got another new member from Sweden.

DNA Barcodes available

Agaporomorphus julianeae

Agaporomorphus julianeae sp. n. is described from the Biological Field Station Panguana, in Huànuco province of central Peru. The new species belongs to the A. knischi-group sensu Miller 2005. Together with A. knischi Zimmermann, 1921 and A. colberti Miller & Wheeler, 2008 this is the third species of the genus with broadly enlarged male antennomeres. The new species can be separated from A. colberti and A. knischi by the smaller please expanded male antennomere VIII, and the form of the median lobe. Important species characters (median lobe, male antennae, metafemur, colour pattern) of the new species and A. knischi are figured, and the habitat, a temporary blackwater forest pond, and its species rich water beetle coenosis are illustrated and described in detail. The Brazilian A. mecolobus Miller, 2001, only known from the type material from Sao Paulo, is here recorded for Minas Gerais. Habitus photos of four additional Agaporomorphus species and Hydrodytes opalinus (Zimmermann, 1921) are provided. Altogether ten species of Agaporomorphus are now known.

A new diving beetle species named after Juliane Diller, deputy director of the Zoologische Staatssammlung in Munich, and head and owner of the Biological Field Station Panguna, in recognition of her longstanding efforts in biological research and nature conservation in Peru.

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Trachionus mandibularoides

Trachionus acarinatus, Trachionus albitibialis, Trachionus brevisulcatus, Trachionus mandibularoides

The genus Trachionus Haliday, 1833 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Alysiinae, Dacnusini) is reported for the first time from China. The genus is represented by four new species from Shaanxi province (NW China), which are described and illustrated. An identification key to the species in China is presented, a key to the genera of the Trachionus group and notes on the relationships with other Palaearctic species are added.

More braconid wasps. The four new species belong to a genus which includes parasitoids of the larvae of the fly genus Phytobia. All names were chosen based on unique morphological features.

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Bolanthus turcicus

A new species Bolanthus turcicus Koç & Hamzaoğlu, sp. nov. was discovered on Hasan Mountain (Turkey, Aksaray province) where it grows on volcanic stony slopes and alpine steppe. its description, images, chorology and ecology, and threat category are provided in this article. It was compared with a closely related species, Bolanthus minuartioides (Jaub. & Spach) Hub.-Mor., B. huber-morathii C.Simon, B. spergulifolius (Jaub. & Spach) Hub.-Mor., B. frankenioides (Boiss) Bark., B. mevlanae Aytaç based on its general morphology and seed micromorphology.

The name of this new species of the carnation family gives it away - it was discovered in Turkey. It is an endemic species known only from the type gathered on the Hasan Mountain.
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Range expansion of the Lyme disease vector

Since 1975, Lyme disease has been diagnosed in 49 US states, with about 300,000 cases a year, concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in diagnoses. In Pennsylvania, for example, diagnoses rose 25 percent between 2013 and 2014. Scientists attribute the spread to the fact that populations of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), which carry the bacteria that causes the disease, now flourish in areas once thought to be devoid of ticks. A 2012 study confirmed a tight association between populations of blacklegged ticks and numbers of human cases and also documented increases in tick populations in areas of the Northeast that were previously thought to not harbor ticks.

In a new study, researchers used genetic and phylogeographic analyses to determine the origin and recent migratory history of newly discovered tick populations in the Northeastern United States. The researchers considered two hypotheses: either the "new" tick populations were actually not new but reflected growth in populations that were previously in the area at undetectable levels, or the populations could have arisen from ticks moving in from other areas, likely by hitching a ride on birds or mammals.

To determine the recent population history of blacklegged ticks in the Northeast, they analyzed data collected in four locations in New York's Hudson River Valley between 2004 and 2009. They sequenced portions of the mitochondrial DNA (16S rRNA, COII, Control region) to understand the relationships between tick populations and how they changed over time. Too bad that they did not include COI in their study to allow connection to existing DNA Barcode data. There are hundreds of sequences on BOLD which would perhaps have allowed for a much larger phylogeographic analysis.

In any event, their findings indicate that the ticks moved into new areas from established populations, mainly through short-distance, local moves. The phylogeographic analysis indicates that ticks mainly moved in progressive south-to-north migration events between neighboring locations, with occasional long-distance movements.

We know that migrating birds can transfer ticks over hundreds of miles during their annual movements. But since the majority of movements documented in this study took place over short distances, less than 100 kilometers, it is not clear under what circumstances animals were moving the ticks. The colleagues roughly estimated that the northernmost locations were colonized 14 years ago, the second most northern 31 years ago and the third most northern 40 years ago. These findings are supported by the fact that no ticks were found in the northernmost site when sampling was done in the early 2000s.

The reason for the population expansion remains unclear. It is possible that the ticks are adapting to new local environments, or that changes in land use and climate are making the new environments more suitable for them. While more work remains to be done to understand what is driving the movement and expansion of ticks, knowing more about their migrations could help inform efforts to protect the public from Lyme disease. Any knowledge on patterns of disease spread could have implications for strategies to control ticks in order to reduce disease. 

From a control perspective, if you know they are moving extremely easily, you could control them in your backyard but they might be back in a week. If we want to reduce tick populations over the long term, this means we have to start thinking about more sophisticated approaches.

Save the Bees with High Tech

Bee populations and other pollinators face multiple, synergistically acting threats, which have led to population declines, loss of local species richness and pollination services, and extinctions. However, our understanding of the degree, distribution and causes of declines is patchy, in part due to inadequate monitoring systems, with the challenge of taxonomic identification posing a major logistical barrier. Pollinator conservation would benefit from a high-throughput identification pipeline.

The UK's National Pollinator Strategy plans a large-scale bee monitoring programme. Traditional monitoring involves pinning individual bees and identifying them under a microscope. But the number of bees needed to track populations reliably over the whole country makes traditional methods unfeasible. New research shows how the process could become quicker, cheaper and more accurate. This would allow conservationists to detect where and when bee species are being lost, and importantly, whether conservation interventions are working.

The group of researchers from the UK and China used metagenomic mining and resequencing of mitochondrial genomes of bulk samples of wild bees. They assembled the mitogenomes of 48 UK bee species and then shotgun-sequenced total DNA extracted from 204 bees that had been collected in 10 pan-trap samples from farms in England and been morphologically identified to 33 species. Each sample data set was mapped against the 48 reference mitogenomes. The process did not require taxonomic experts (with the exception of the morphology-based identification for the proof of concept and still proved to be more accurate. Also, by skipping the PCR step through direct sequencing, the method was able to estimate the biomass contributed by each species, which opens the way to tracking population trajectories.

The big challenge is that there are hundreds of wild bee species per country, almost 300 in the UK alone. Even with the necessary expertise, it would be impossibly time-consuming to count and identify all the bees in each location. Large-scale bee monitoring programmes would really benefit from this type of DNA sequencing. The method can easily be scaled up to track more species, like the 1000 or so total pollinating insects in the UK. We can find out where species diversity or abundance is highest -- for example in the countryside or in city parks- and how species diversity is affected by farming methods -- for example, to see if habitat set-asides support more bees. 

Discoveries of the week #44

Nanipora kamurai

A new genus and species of octocoral with a calcium-carbonate skeleton, Nanipora kamurai sp. n., is described from a shallow coral reef in Okinawa, Japan. Contrary to most octocorals, the skeleton is composed of crystalline aragonite as in blue coral Heliopora. The results of molecular phylogenetic analyses of sequences of mtMutS, COI, and ITS1-5.8s-ITS2-28S region suggest Nanipora gen. n. specimens should be included in order Helioporacea. Based on morphological results compared with other Helioporacea including the genus Epiphaxum (family Lithotelestidae), we establish the new genus Nanipora within Lithotelestidae. This is the first time that a close molecular phylogenetic relationship between Heliopora and a related genus within Helioporacea has been revealed.

Octocorals comprise about 3,000 species including the blue coral, soft corals, sea pens, and gorgonians. They have a characteristic internal skeleton and polyps with eight tentacles. The name of this new genus refers to the Japanese ‘nani’ which means ‘what is this?’, as the genus is highly unusual in having an aragonitic skeleton; ‘pora’ means ‘pore’. The name is used for many anthozoan (especially scleractinian) species with porous skeleton. The species name honors the Jazz pianist Hidefumi Kamura,who has continued playing classic style be-bop jazz since Okinawa was ruled by U.S. forces, and who can now be considered as a ‘relict’ classical be-bop jazz musician.

DNA Barcodes available

Niphargus cvetkovi

A new species of the order Amphipoda and the family Niphargidae is described. Niphargus cvetkovi sp. n. was found in groundwaters from Bulgaria. The new species can be attributed to the aquilex-tauri species group and undoubtedly to the tauri sub-group. It resembles some species of this group, such as N. tauri Shellenberg, 1933; N. jurinaci S. Karaman, 1950; N. kragujevensis S. Karaman, 1950; N. remus G. Karaman, 1992 and N. osogovensis S. Karaman, 1959. The main morphological characteristics of the new species are discussed and compared with the species of tauri sub-group.

A new cave-dwelling Amphipod species named after the Bulgarian groundwater scientist Lyubomir Cvetkov. 

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Geophilus hadesi

A new geophilomorph centipede, Geophilus hadesi sp. n., is described from caves in the Velebit Mountain, central Croatia. Together with Geophilus persephones Foddai & Minelli, 1999, described from Pierre Saint-Martin cave in France, they are the only two remarkably troglomorphic geophilomorphs hitherto known. The new species apparently belongs to a group of Geophilus species inhabiting mainly Western and Southern Europe, with a uniquely modified pretarsus in the second maxillae. G. hadesi sp. n. shows unusual traits, some of which commonly found in troglobitic arthropods, including exceptionally elongated antennae, trunk segments and leg claws. The species is described upon specimens found in two caves at a depth below -250 m. Another two specimens apparently belonging to the same species have been recorded in another deep vertical cave at -980 m and -1100 m. The latter represents the world’s deepest record of Chilopoda as a whole.

The species name is derived from Hades, god of the underworld in the Greek mythology and husband of Persephone, in analogy with the name of the only other known troglobite in the genus.

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Flexamia whitcombi

A previously unknown species of the North American leafhopper genus Flexamia, F. whitcombi sp. n., is described from pinebarren smokegrass (Muhlenbergia torreyana (Schult.) Hitchc.), a state-listed threatened grass in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The serrata species group, to which it belongs, is redefined and a key to the species of the group is provided. This is the first reported insect association with M. torreyana.

The new leafhopper species occurs in the most densely populated state in the US where its host , the pinebarren smokegrass (Muhlenbergia torreyana) grows, The species name honors the mentor of the author, the late Dr. Robert Whitcomb.

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Tumidusternus fujianensis

Tumidusternus gen. n., along with T. fujianensis sp. n. (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae, Aspidimerini) from China is described and illustrated. A key to the tribe Aspidimerini is given.

The genus name is a combination of the Latin words tumidus and sternum, referring to its tumid (swollen) sternum. The species name refers to the holotype locality, Fujian, China.

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Pyropia montereyensis, Pyropia columbiensis, Pyropia protolanceolata, Pyropia bajacaliforniensis

Recent molecular studies indicate that the Pyropia lanceolata species complex on the west coast of North America is more speciose than previously thought. Based on extensive rbcL gene sequencing of representative specimens we recognize seven species in the complex, three of which are newly described: Py. montereyensis sp. nov., Py. columbiensis sp. nov., and Py. protolanceolata sp. nov. The new species are all lanceolate, at least when young, and occur in the upper mid to high intertidal zone primarily in winter and early spring. Pyropia montereyensis and Py. columbiensis are sister taxa that are distributed south and north of Cape Mendocino, respectively, and both occur slightly lower on the shore than Py. lanceolata or Py. pseudolanceolata. Pyropia protolanceolata is known thus far only from Morro Rock and the Monterey Peninsula, California; it occurs basally to the other species in the complex in the molecular phylogeny. A fourth newly described species, Pyropia bajacaliforniensis sp. nov., is more closely related to Py. nereocystis than to species in this complex proper. It is a thin species with undulate margins known only from Moss Landing, Monterey Bay, California, and northern Baja California; it also occurs in the high intertidal in spring. Porphyra mumfordii, a high intertidal winter species that has frequently been confused with species in the Py. lanceolata complex, has now been confirmed to occur from Calvert Island, British Columbia, to Pescadero State Park, California.

Three of the four new marine red algae species were named after their respective type locality, one (P. protolanceolata) after its position in a phylogenetic tree.

DNA Barcodes available

Order of Canada honours father of DNA Barcoding

Established in 1967 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Order of Canada is the cornerstone of the Canadian Honours System, and recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. The Order recognizes people in all sectors of Canadian society. Their contributions are varied, yet they have all enriched the lives of others and made a difference to this country. Since its creation, more than 6 000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order.

Yesterday the Governor General of Canada, David Johnston announced the new appointments to the order of Canada and among them Paul Hebert for his achievements as an evolutionary biologist, notably as a pioneer of DNA Barcoding. The Order of Canada has three different categories, companion, officer and member, ranked in order. Paul was made an officer which recognizes national service or achievement.

Congratulations to Paul, a well deserved honour.