An example of a possible leech-bryozoan association in freshwater

Associations of various invertebrate species with bryozoans and sponges are a well-known marine phenomenon but such epizooic communities are far less diverse in freshwater environments. Here an occurrence of numerous leeches Alboglossiphonia cf. papillosa (Braun, 1805), in interstitial spaces between zooids of a colony of the freshwater bryozoan species Plumatella aff. fungosa (Pallas, 1768) in Eastern Siberia is described. To the best of our knowledge, this record appears to be the first known example of a leech-bryozoan association, although such relationships deserve further research

Designing a memorial place

The design and selection of a memorial stone and the site of the grave, both of which represent the deceased, can be a central issue for people bereaved by traffic accidents. This was revealed in an interview survey of recent Swedish roadside memorials and other memorial places. In this article we consider the design and selection of the memorial stone and gravesite as expressions of continuing care for the deceased and as a way to offer comfort to the bereaved. Materiality, representation and presence will be discussed as crucial parts of the link between the living and the dead. Communicative, spatial and physical values are important also in the professional's design of common public memorial places. Of specific interest for this text are two design practice-based terms, memory object and passage landscape, which may be used by landscape architects when designing memorial places, such as cemeteries and public monuments. Throughout this text, we argue that memorial places like these are capable of bridging the gap between the space of life and the space of death, as well as supporting the regeneration of present memories and the construction of future ones

International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 × 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist

Barbronia gwalagwalensis Westergren & Siddall 2004

Barbronia gwalagwalensis Westergren & Siddall, 2004 Figures 3-6 Type. Holotype, AMNH Annelida 5261, fixed in 10% buffered formalin and stored in 70% ethanol (American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA). Type locality. “ Maia’s Dam, Gwalagwala, a tented-camp near Hoedspruit, South Africa ” (Westergren & Siddall 2004). Material examined. MYANMAR: Salween River drainage, Lake Inle basin, Kyee Phyu Lake, 20.8142°N, 96.9690°E, 23.ii.2018, 2 specimens, fixed in 96% ethanol [voucher RMBH Hir_58_3; one specimen sequenced: COI acc. no. MN 295405]. The sample is deposited in the RMBH — Russian Museum of Biodiversity Hotspots, N. Laverov Federal Center for Integrated Arctic Research of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Arkhangelsk, Russia. Morphology of Myanmar’s sample. Small leeches, 10–15 mm long (ethanol-preserved specimens). Body subcylindrical, vermiform, tapering anteriorly and posteriorly. Dorsum light brown. Three pairs of eyespots: first dorsal, on II; second and third pairs dorsolateral on IV, and separated from anterior pair by four complete annuli. Caudal sucker directed ventrally. Clitellum indistinct (juveniles), with male and female gonopores separated by seven and one-half annuli, and with two accessory copulatory pores ventrally: one anterior of the male gonopore at X/XI, and second posterior of the female gonopore at XIII/XIV. Three pairs of pharyngeal stylets. These features correspond well to the protologue of the species, although the type series comprised full-grown adults up to 25 mm long with pronounced clitellum and distinct accessory copulatory pores (Westergren & Siddall 2004). Habitat. The specimens were collected on a submerged bamboo stick and an empty shell of the freshwater mussel species Lamellidens ferrugineus (Annandale) found near the shore of a shallow eutrophic lake with silty bottom and rich aquatic plant assemblages. They co-occurred with the freshwater glossiphonid species Alboglossiphonia sp. (Hirudinida: Glossiphoniidae) [voucher no. RMBH 58_2; COI acc. no. MN 295404] and the triclad species Dugesia sp. (Tricladida: Dugesiidae) [voucher no. RMBH 58_1]. The Dugesia species was very abundant. Distribution. This species appears to be widespread throughout the Paleotropical Region as it was found in South Africa, Southeast Asia (Myanmar), and East Asia (Korea). The occurrence from the Durance River (Rhône Basin) in southeastern France (Corse et al. 2017) most likely reflects a recent human-mediated or native dispersal event towards southern Europe. Comments. The nominal taxon Trocheta quadrioculata Oka, 1922 was described from the Inle Lake in Myanmar (Oka 1922). The type locality of this species is close to our finding of B. gwalagwalensis (ca. 25-30 km SSW). Currently, Inle Lake’s taxon is placed within Salifidae as Odontobdella quadrioculata (see Nesemann & Sharma 2012). Based on the protologue (Oka 1922), it does not have accessory copulatory pores and, hence, cannot be linked to the genus Barbronia (see Westergren & Siddall 2004). The fauna of the family Salifidae in Myanmar seems to be largely underestimated, and comprises only two species, i.e. B. gwalagwalensis and O. quadrioculata.Published as part of Klass, Anna L., Kondakov, Alexander V., Vikhrev, Ilya V., Bespalaya, Yulia V., Lunn, Zau, Chan, Nyein, Gofarov, Mikhail Y. & Bolotov, Ivan N., 2021, Is the South African leech Barbronia gwalagwalensis Westergren & Siddall, 2004 (Hirudinida: Erpobdelliformes: Salifidae) a Paleotropical species?, pp. 585-595 in Zootaxa 4974 (3) on pages 589-591, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4974.3.7, http://zenodo.org/record/477812

Cryptic taxonomic diversity and high-latitude melanism in the glossiphoniid leech assemblage from the Eurasian Arctic

Abstract The family Glossiphoniidae is a diverse and widespread clade of freshwater leeches, playing a significant role in functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The taxonomy and biogeography of leeches from temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions attracted much attention of zoologists, while their taxonomic richness and distribution in the Arctic are poorly understood. Here, we present an overview of the Eurasian Arctic Glossiphoniidae based on the most comprehensive occurrence and DNA sequence datasets sampled to date. This fauna contains 14 species, belonging to five genera and three subfamilies. One genus and five species are new to science and described here. The world’s northernmost occurrences of glossiphoniids are situated on the Taymyr Peninsula at 72° N, although further records at higher latitudes are expected. Most Arctic leeches are characterized by broad ranges crossing several climatic zones (e.g., Glossiphonia balcanica and G. nebulosa), although the distribution of two new species may be confined to the high-latitude areas. The Taymyr Peninsula with the nearby Putorana Plateau represents the most species-rich area (totally 9 species), while the European Arctic, Iceland, Kolyma Highland, and Chukotka Peninsula house depleted faunas (2–4 species per subregion). Finally, we show that the high-latitude melanism is a common phenomenon in glossiphoniid leeches