Taxonomy Based on Science Is Necessary for Global Conservation [Formal comment]

Taxonomy is a scientific discipline that has provided the universal naming and classification system of biodiversity for centuries and continues effectively to accommodate new knowledge. A recent publication by Garnett and Christidis expressed concerns regarding the difficulty that taxonomic changes represent for conservation efforts and proposed the establishment of a system to govern taxonomic changes. Their proposal to “restrict the freedom of taxonomic action” through governing subcommittees that would “review taxonomic papers for compliance” and their assertion that “the scientific community\u27s failure to govern taxonomy threatens the effectiveness of global efforts to halt biodiversity loss, damages the credibility of science, and is expensive to society” are flawed in many respects. They also assert that the lack of governance of taxonomy damages conservation efforts, harms the credibility of science, and is costly to society. Despite its fairly recent release, Garnett and Christidis\u27 proposition has already been rejected by a number of colleagues. Herein, we contribute to the conversation between taxonomists and conservation biologists aiming to clarify some misunderstandings and issues in the proposition by Garnett and Christidis. Placing governance over the science of taxonomy blurs the distinction between taxonomy and nomenclature. Garnett and Christidis\u27s proposal is far-reaching but represents a narrow perspective of taxonomy, as utilized by conservation, and reflects an increasingly broad misunderstanding throughout biology of the scientific basis of taxonomy, formalized nomenclature, and the relationship between them. This trend may have resulted from the attenuation of instruction in taxonomic principles and, in particular, nomenclature at many universities, in part because of a shift in research priorities away from taxonomy

Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation

Peer reviewe

Rds Of Propylea Quatuordecimpunctata (Coleoptera:coccinellidae) From Long Island, New York: Evidence For A Naturalized Population Before 1991

Volume: 107Start Page: 36End Page: 3

New genera and subgenera of augochlorine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae).

Two new augochlorine genera, Chlerogelloides and Xenochlora, and three new subgenera, Megalopta (Noctoraptor), Megommation (Stilbochlora), and Megommation (Cleptommation), are described and figured. Three new combinations are made: Megommation minutum (Friese), Xenochlora nigrofemorata (Smith), and Xenochlora ianthina (Smith). Six new species are described: Chlerogelloides femoralis, Xenochlora ochrosterna, Xenochlora chalkeos, Megalopta (Noctoraptor) byroni, M. (N.) noctifurax, and Megommation (Stilbochlora) eickworti. Megalopta (Noctoraptor) and Megommation (Cleptommation) are parasitic, possibly on other species of Megalopta and Megommation, respectively, and together increase the number of origins of cleptoparasitism in the tribe Augochlorini to three. For each genus-group taxon, modified couplets are provided for Eickwort's key to the genera of Augochlorini

New genera and subgenera of augochlorine bees (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) /

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27 Apoidea (Hymenoptera)

The known bee fauna of Mexico is the result of 236 years of taxonomic work during which ca. 95 authors have contributed to the description of species. The authors that, at present, have described the majority of the Mexican species are: Cockerell (with 443 taxa), Timberlake (393), Cresson (187), Smith (92), LaBerge (68), Michener (62), and Vachal (50), who have contributed 77.5% of all known taxa. The apifauna of Mexico is composed of seven families (if one include Anthophoridae in Apidae), 144 genera, and 1800 species and subspecies. The families with the greatest numbers of species are Apidae (597) and Andrenidae (522), representing 62% of the total. The remainder: Colletidae (98), Oxaeidae (10), Halictidae (217), Melittidae (11), and Megachilidae (345), represent 38% of the taxa. The genera richest in species are: Perdita (248), Megachile (110), Andrena (91), Lasioglossum (79), Exomalopsis (74), Heterosanis (57), Centris (54), Colletes (51), Melissodes (48), and Calliopsis (45) collectively representing 48% of all taxa. In contrast, there are 38 and 21 genera (41%) with one and two species, respectively. The genera Paragapostemon, Aztecanthidium, Agapanthinus and Loxoptilus are endemic to Mexico. Pectinapis, Mexalictus and Xenopanurgus have species which borely range into the United States and might also be considered endemics. The diversity of Mexican bees appears intermediate between those of the United Stated and Central America

Nesting Biology of Glenostictia pictifrons (F. Smith) (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae: Bembicini)

A population of Glenostictia pictifrons in Kansas practices progressive provisioning, using Diptera of at least 7 families as prey. Nests have a single terminal cell at a mean depth of 4. 1 cm, which is also the average depth at which the shallow soil is underlain by bedrock at this nesting site. Adult females provision one nest at a time, spending a mean of 5.5 days per nest. The wasps make an outer closure when away from the nest, but no inner closure, and neither sex spends the night or periods of inclement weather inside nests. Wasps do not level mounds while digging or after completion of a new nest, although the mound is completely levelled during final closure. The egg is laid erect on the base of the wing of the first prey placed in the cell, and the cocoon has an outer shroud of silk embedded with prey remains. Circumstantial evidence suggests nest parasitism by the mutillid wasp Dasy mutilla quadriguttata (Say)

Why Did the Bee Eat the Chicken? Symbiont Gain, Loss, and Retention in the Vulture Bee Microbiome.

Diet and gut microbiomes are intricately linked on both short and long timescales. Changes in diet can alter the microbiome, while microbes in turn allow hosts to access novel diets. Bees are wasps that switched to a vegetarian lifestyle, and the vast majority of bees feed on pollen and nectar. Some stingless bee species, however, also collect carrion, and a few have fully reverted to a necrophagous lifestyle, relying on carrion for protein and forgoing flower visitation altogether. These "vulture" bees belong to the corbiculate apid clade, which is known for its ancient association with a small group of core microbiome phylotypes. Here, we investigate the vulture bee microbiome, along with closely related facultatively necrophagous and obligately pollinivorous species, to understand how these diets interact with microbiome structure. Via deep sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and subsequent community analyses, we find that vulture bees have lost some core microbes, retained others, and entered into novel associations with acidophilic microbes found in the environment and on carrion. The abundance of acidophilic bacteria suggests that an acidic gut is important for vulture bee nutrition and health, as has been found in other carrion-feeding animals. Facultatively necrophagous bees have more variable microbiomes than strictly pollinivorous bees, suggesting that bee diet may interact with microbiomes on both short and long timescales. Further study of vulture bees promises to provide rich insights into the role of the microbiome in extreme diet switches. IMPORTANCE When asked where to find bees, people often picture fields of wildflowers. While true for almost all species, there is a group of specialized bees, also known as the vulture bees, that instead can be found slicing chunks of meat from carcasses in tropical rainforests. In this study, researchers compared the microbiomes of closely related bees that live in the same region but vary in their dietary lifestyles: some exclusively consume pollen and nectar, others exclusively depend on carrion for their protein, and some consume all of the above. Researchers found that vulture bees lost some ancestral "core" microbes, retained others, and entered into novel associations with acidophilic microbes, which have similarly been found in other carrion-feeding animals such as vultures, these bees' namesake. This research expands our understanding of how diet interacts with microbiomes on both short and long timescales in one of the world's biodiversity hot spots

Range extension of Pseneo punctatus Fox and notes on predation of an introduced sharpshooter, Homalodisca coagulata (Say)

Volume: 77Start Page: 54End Page: 5