The sponge genus Oscarella is very important for the understanding of the early evolution of Metazoa, but the identification of its species is particularly difficult due to the absence of a skeleton and high polymorphism, leading to an underestimate of its diversity. The discovery of nine distinct morphotypes of Oscarella co-existing in cryptic habitats in south-east Brazil represents a taxonomic puzzle that requires an integrative taxonomic approach for species delimitation. Here we combined genetic (cox-1 and cob genes), morphological, anatomical, cytological, microbiological, reproductive and ecological datasets to delimit and describe three new species of Oscarella, one of which is highly polymorphic. Oscarella aurantia, sp. nov. is orange, microlobate, with metachromatic vacuolar cells, granular cells, and microgranular cells. Oscarella carollineae, sp. nov. is intertidal, cream or red, microlobate, with granulo-vacuolar cells, dense globular cells, and granular cells. Oscarella ruthae, sp. nov. is highly polymorphic, with tubular or papillate lobes; colour violet, pink, purple, red, orange or cream, often with shades of cream or green at the base; abundant clusters of vacuolar cells type 1, and rare vacuolar cells type 2 and microgranular cells. No single character was sufficient for species delimitation due to high intraspecific variation. Integration of multiple datasets was essential to delimit species of Oscarella and would also be helpful for the taxonomy of other polymorphic sponges.

ZooBank LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0CA34949-1C29-46E8-9AB3-E89F73909E37

Cylapinae Kirkaldy, 1903 is a highly diverse lineage of the plant bug family Miridae Hahn, 1831, confined mainly to the tropics. Despite an increasing amount of recent studies on that group, many species remain undescribed and biological data are lacking for most of the taxa. To date, a molecular-based phylogeny has been published only for Rhinomirini Gorczyca, 2000, one out of five Cylapinae tribes. The tribe was rendered as non-monophyletic and the Rhinocylapus Poppius, 1909 complex was transferred to the Fulviini Uhler, 1886. However, phylogenetic relationships within the complex have remained unresolved. In the present study, morphological and molecular data are employed to generate a significantly improved phylogeny of the group compared with previous work. Topologies were constructed using methods of parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference, and were based on an expanded morphological matrix with 65 encoded characters for 38 species and molecular data for 23 species on four markers (COI, 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA). As a result, a more resolved phylogeny of the Rhinocylapus complex is presented. A generic synopsis for the representatives of the complex and key to the genera are provided. Taxonomically and phylogenetically important morphological characters for the Rhinocylapus complex and its subgroupings are discussed. Dorsal habitus images, scanning micrographs of selected morphological structures, and illustrations of male and female genitalia are provided for Proamblia Bergroth, 1910, Punctifulvius Schmitz, 1978, Rhinocylapidius Poppius, 1915, Rhinocylapus Poppius, 1909, Rhinomiridius Poppius, 1909, and Yamatofulvius Yasunaga, 2000.

Triaenonychidae is a family of Opiliones with almost 500 described species distributed in the southern continents. Recent work has provided a solid phylogenetic foundation based on Sanger and ultraconserved element molecular sequence data that resulted in a global reorganisation of the family. In this study, we turn to the South American triaenonychids, aggregating sequences of three markers (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I), re-examining the position of additional South American species and confirming the existence of a new genus. We provide novel information regarding the external morphology of 10 of the 11 South American genera of Triaenonychidae, based on stereomicroscope and SEM images of the body and genitalia. In addition, a new genus Adrianonyx gen. nov. and two new species, Adrianonyx contulmo sp. nov. from the Monumento Natural Contulmo (Chile) and Adrianonyx crypticus sp. nov. from the Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta (Chile) are described.