In this paper, we redescribe the apteronotid fish Orthosternarchus tamandua, the only species of its genus. Historically, O. tamandua was rare in collections and only limited anatomical data was available for this species. However, numerous specimens have become available recently as a result of deep-water trawls in the main channel of the Amazon River, thereby making this redescription possible. In addition to describing the external anatomy and osteology of O. tamandua, we present data on their electronic organ discharges (EODs) recorded at time of capture, and review what is known of its distribution and ecology. We describe and illustrate the osteology of O. tamandua, and in doing so, clarify many aspects of its skeleton. For instance, contrary to previous reports, O. tamandua does possess a lateral ethmoid, although it is exceptionally small. We conclude by discussing the EODs of O. tamandua in comparison to those of other apteronotids and the anatomical characters used in the support of phylogenetic hypotheses of the genus within the family Apteronotidae.

We describe a new species of apteronotid electric fish, Adontosternarchus nebulosus, from the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon. Adontosternarchus nebulosus differs trenchantly from its congeners in its boldly contrasting color pattern of irregular, dark blotches on the back and sides followed posteriorly by a long pallid area extending far onto the caudal peduncle; relatively few anal-fin rays (112–154, mean 133.2); relatively few vertebrae counted to base of last anal-fin ray (52–57, mean 54.5); and a relatively deep body, 21–33% of distance to origin of dorsal filament. Adontosternarchus nebulosus is common in the Amazon main and tributary river channels.

Key Words: Species novum: Adontosternarchus nebulosus Lundberg and Cox Fernandes

Mesoamerica is famous for its complex biota assembled from diverse sources. The recent discovery of a highly distinct freshwater catfish, Lacantunia enigmatica (Lacantuniidae), in Chiapas, México, added an unresolved taxon to this biogeographic puzzle. Morphology has not resolved the relationships of Lacantunia among the >3000 species of Siluriformes. We added Lacantunia to an expanding phylogenetic study of family-level taxa of living catfishes using >3.6 kilobases of nuclear DNA. We find that Lacantunia is derived from within a multi–family clade of African freshwater catfishes. Without living or fossil intermediates marking a wider lacantuniid distribution, this is an extraordinary case of biogeographic disjunction. Continental clades distributed in the New and Old World tropics are often explained by vicariance of Gondwanan ancestors of deep Mesozoic age. However, our fossil-calibrated, relaxed-clock molecular analyses estimate lacantuniid divergence between 75 to 94 mya, after separation of Africa and South America. During Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary, warm conditions and North Atlantic and Beringian land bridges provided migration routes for numerous warm-adapted taxa between the Old World and North America. In mid-Eocene, freshening of warm surface waters of the Arctic and adjacent oceans may have facilitated the intercontinental dispersion of non-marine organisms. These northern pathways are novel predictive hypotheses for explaining disjunct distributions of tropical freshwater fishes such as the relictually endemic Lacantunia and its African sister clade.

Trimmatothele umbellulariae is placed in synonymy with Anisomeridium biforme. Lecidea schizopeltica is placed in synonymy with Lecidea truckeei. Malcolmiella granifera is reinstated to the North American lichen mycota.

The crane fly family Cylindrotomidae is newly recorded for Mongolia. Four species, Cylindrotoma distinctissima (Meigen, 1818), C. nigriventris Loew, 1849, Diogma glabrata (Meigen, 1818), Phalacrocera replicata (Linnaeus, 1758) are first recorded in Mongolia from sampling during 2002–2006. An illustrated key to identify these species, and the regional C. japonica Alexander, is presented. The two subspecies of Diogma glabrata (Meigen, 1818), D. g. megacauda Alexander 1931 and the nominotypical subspecies, are not supported as distinct.

The current taxonomy of freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionoida) in the Palearctic (western and northern Eurasia, from Western Europe to Eastern Russia, Korea and Japan) is confused by two competing species concepts: the Biological Species Concept (BSC) and the Comparatory Method (CM). The CM uses the “frontal contour” of the shell as the primary/sole character to delimit bivalve species. Based upon review of the literature, 45 Biological species in 16 genera are recognized in the Palearctic vs. 156 Comparatory species in 34 genera. I argue that the Comparatory Method is typological and that the “species” recognized have no evolutionary or biological basis. The traditional, Biological species are regarded as better representative of actual species diversity, but further revision is required. The problematic legacy of the Nouvelle École on Palearctic freshwater mollusk systematics is discussed.

Reproductive Character Displacement (RCD) has long been of interest to evolutionary biologists because of its association with speciation and reproductive isolation. Most studies of RCD focus on only a single species; however, when information about the evolutionary responses of two species is available, a possible pattern emerges: RCD often appears to be asymmetrical. Possible causes of displacement asymmetries are varied and include asymmetrical costs of hybridization, constraints, the effects of relative abundance, and extinction. Yet in spite of this variety, further study may show that asymmetries in RCD contain important clues about the interactions pf species in contact zones.

A list of the 3 families, 26 genera, and 92 species of Protura known from North America (including Mexico) is given: Eosentomidae ( 3 genera, 59 species); Acerentomidae (19 genera, 28 species); Protentomidae (4 genera, 5 species). A new species, Eosentomon carolinae n. sp., from North Carolina is described. A taxonomic key to the species in the genus Eosentomon north of Mexico is also given. Protura remain uncollected and unknown for many large geographical areas of North America.

Six species of slugs and one species of land snail were collected using carrion-baited pitfall traps containing propylene glycol in seven forested localities in the New Philadelphia area of Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Three of the localities were former strip mines. Species richness did not correlate significantly with forest patch size, proximity of the traps to the forest edge, or mining history, but species richness of slugs was greater in forests containing Quercus (oak). Pallifera fosteri F.C. Baker, 1939 is a first record for Tuscarawas County. Of the slugs, 24 of 58 individuals (41%) were species of the uncommonly encountered genus Pallifera. Future studies should evaluate whether propylene glycol is useful for attracting Pallifera species.

A floristic study based on epilithic samples collected from Bolivian cloud forest streams yielded a total of 172 taxa, 41 of which were new or could not be determined based on available literature. Five new taxa at the species and form levels (Gomphonema andinum, G. pumilum var. elegans f. biseriatum, G. pumilum var. rigidum f. biseriatum, Nitzschia boliviana, and N. soratensis) and two new combinations (Pseudostaurosira laucencis and Ulnaria contracta) are presented. Undetermined taxa are only listed herein and a more detailed study will be presented at a later date. The large number of taxa found in only a few samples suggests the Bolivian cloud forests may be a hot spot for epilithic diatom diversity. The use of combined light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) data is of prime importance in the study of this diversity.

Four taxa are added to the fossil history of catfishes based on new identifications and descriptions of material from the Miocene Urumaco Formation in northwestern Venezuela. Three of the fossil catfishes belong to the family Doradidae (thorny catfishes); one, Doras dioneae, represents a new species, the first fossil doradid to be formally named, and the other two, Doraops cf. zuloagai and Rhinodoras cf. thomersoni, are referred to modern taxa endemic to the Maracaibo basin. The fourth fossil catfish belongs to the family Pimelodidae (long-whiskered catfishes) and is assigned to Platysilurus, a modern genus that occurs in the Maracaibo, Orinoco, Amazon, and large rivers of the Guianas. These fossil taxa inhabited the paleo-Amazon-Orinoco, a large ancient river system that drained the South American continent northward prior to the uplift of the Eastern Andes and Coastal Cordilleras and concomitant isolation of the Maracaibo basin in the Late Miocene (ca. 8 Ma).

Species novum: Doras dioneae Sabaj Pérez, Aguilera and Lundberg

First fossil species of phantom flies (Diptera, Ptychopteridae) is described from Baltic amber (Eocene). Its affinities to recent Ptychoptera Meigen, 1803 are discussed.

SPECIES NOVA: Ptychoptera (Ptychoptera) eocenica n. sp

Evidence of tetrapods is scarce in the early Mississippian. Following Romer's Gap, a time of some 15 million years at the beginning of the Mississippian when remains of tetrapods and other continental organisms are rare, only sporadic skeletal and footprint fossils are found. We report here on new specimens of the tetrapod ichnogenera Hylopus and Palaeosauropus from the middle of the Mauch Chunk Formation (middle to upper Mississippian) of Eastern Pennsylvania. These document walking and swimming behaviors by at least two basal tetrapod taxa, perhaps an anthracosaur and a temnospondyl, and show evidence for the beginning of the second period of tetrapod diversification.

The use of molecular markers has greatly increased our understanding of unionoid systematics. However, it is critical that their use in phylogenetic studies be conducted with the correct methodologies in order to ensure that the correct interpretations of evolutionary history are made. The phylogenetic relationships of a selection of Anodonta were investigated by Hoeh (1990), who found variation in 23 allozyme loci. These allozymes were coded using the presence/absence of alleles, yielding 67 characters used in a phylogenetic analysis. The resulting phylogeny was used as evidence to recommend the elevation of Pyganodon and Utterbackia to full generic status. Since the publication of Hoeh (1990) the coding of characters using the presence/absence of alleles has been shown to be invalid and has been superseded by mutation coding, with the locus as the character. The phylogenetic analysis of 20 characters, coded using mutation coding, yielded two equally parsimonious trees and an interpretation markedly different from that of Hoeh (1990). Both trees supported the monophyly of Pyganodon and Utterbackia. However, the genus Anodonta was paraphyletic with respect to both Pyganodon and Utterbackia. The one Eurasian species (Anodonta cygnea) was resolved as the sister of the remaining ingroup taxa, including Pyganodon, Utterbackia, and the North American Anodonta. These findings lead to a taxonomic problem, requiring further phylogenetic analysis of the Anodontinae. In order to test the phylogenetic hypotheses presented herein, we strongly recommend the construction of a phylogeny for all anodontine taxa using a combination of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences.

This paper reports on a recent biotic survey of the Fiji Islands (Fiji Terrestrial Arthropod Survey) sponsored by the Schlinger Foundation and the National Science Foundation. A total of 52 new species and 11 new genera of crickets are added to the previously known 21 species and 16 genera. All of the new taxa are from the four largest islands: Viti Levu, Vanua Levu, Taveuni, and Kadavu. [For data on HOLOTYPES see Postscript on page 218].

Twenty-one new species are described in a new genus, Mexitettix. Another new genus, Mexacris, is erected for two species previously placed in Phaedrotettix. Both new genera are known only from eastern Mexico — from Coahuila south to Vera Cruz. Mexitettix extends south to Hidalgo. Both species consist of entirely flightless species whose forewings are small pads which extend from the prontum to cover the auditory tympana. Mexitettix lives among weeds and bushes in dry country, often among rocks in eroded landscapes and mountain sides.

Thirty-nine new species of Cardiodctatylus Saussure are described from the western Pacfic region—between Tonga and Samoa in the East and Ishigaki Island near Taiwan. Much collecting through the Pacific indicates that the genus does not extend east of Samoa. Species of Mikluchomaklaia, Madasumma, Landreva, Lebinthus and Modicogryllus are also described.