A New Species of Grigiotermes (Apicotermitinae, Termitidae) from the Northern Atlantic Forest, Delimited by Morphological and Molecular Data

In this paper, we described a new species of Grigiotermes, G. piassava sp. n., from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The imago and worker caste are described, including the gut morphology. The inclusion of the new species in Grigiotermes was based on morphological and DNA data. Apparently, the distribution of the species is limited to the northern region of the Atlantic Forest, located above the São Francisco River, which is considered one of the most threatened sectors of the biome

Tylopilus dunensis (Boletaceae, Basidiomycota): notes on morphological, phylogenetical and distributional aspects

Tylopilus is a worldwide distributed genus of boletes with about 100 known taxa, of which at least 16 are from Brazil and Guyana. Tylopilus dunensis, a species originally described from sand dune habitats in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in northeastern Brazil, has now been recovered in a ‘tabuleiro’ (i.e., tableland forest) from Paraíba. The main phenetic features of this still poorly known species are the orange to orange-ochraceous pileus with yellowish brown margins, unchanging pileus context, the pale cream hymenophore with wide pores, the yellowish stipe, the small and narrow basidiospores, and the long and frequent dextrinoid pseudocystidioid pleurocystidia. After the discovery of the phylloporoid tube trama in our specimens, we emended tube trama type of T. dunensis

Anuran species composition from Chaco and Cerrado areas in Central Brazil

Herein, we present an updated inventory and the variations of frog communities’ composition from five areas of humid Chaco and Cerrado in municipality of Porto Murtinho, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. This municipality is located in an area with three ecoregions: Chaco, Cerrado and Pantanal. Through acoustic and visual nocturnal/diurnal and pitfall evaluations from a period of over five years, we recorded 31 species in the Cerrado and 29 species in the humid Chaco. About 90% of the species were previously registered in the municipality of Porto Murtinho. A non-metric multidimensional analysis based on a presence/absence matrix revealed a separation in our sampling sites and communities with Cerrado and humid Chaco characteristics. This peculiarity in the species composition must be related to the transition zone, with the presence of mixed species characteristics of Cerrado and humid Chaco in both areas in the municipality of Porto Murtinho experiences a high degree of deforestation pressure, which threatens both the Cerrado and humid Chaco vegetation. This highlights the importance of knowledge actions about the richness and composition of species, corroborating ecological tools to support conservation in this region. © 2019, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). All rights reserved

Checklist das libélulas (Insecta: odonata) do Estado do Amazonas, Brasil

Here we provide a checklist of the odonates from Amazonas state, Brazil. We registered 324 species and 101 genera, making Amazonas the Brazilian state with the most Odonata species recorded. The families with the highest number of species were Coenagrionidae with 32 genera and 101 species, followed by Libellulidae with 28 genera and 100 species and Gomphidae with 12 genera and 45 species. Some regions of Amazonas state remain poorly explored, such as the southern area, and large municipalities, such as São Gabriel da Cachoeira. This work underlines the importance of the biological diversity from Amazonas state and the Amazonian Biome for Odonata species richness in Brazil and shows that many areas in the world’s largest tropical forest have not yet been sampled. © 2020, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved

Libélulas do oeste de Minas Gerais, Brasil: Lista de espécies e novos registros

The knowledge about the richness and distribution of Brazilian dragonflies is still being unveiled. Over the years, inventories, reviews, and descriptions have been made. These contributions, apart from the taxonomic value, also provide valuable data on the occurrence of species and their distributions, which are rarely accompanied by notes about natural history and behavior. Keeping this legacy in mind, we collected dragonflies between 2011 and 2019 in Minas Gerais state, which resulted in the registration of 90 species, 41 genera and 11 families. Our results also increase distribution data, an important tool for conservation actions, and provide additional information about habitat and biology of species. © 2020, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved

Amazonian forest termites: a species checklist from the State of Acre, Brazil

The Brazilian state of Acre is located in the southwestern Amazon and it is characterized by a humid tropical forest vegetation that covers plains and mountains. Up to this point, the composition of termite species in the state is not known. The aim of this study was to provide a checklist of termite species or recognizable taxonomic units for the state of Acre. Sampling was conducted through field expeditions at the Serra do Divisor National Park, Chandless State Park, Humaitá Forest Reserve, and Chico Mendes Environmental Park using a standardized rapid termite inventory protocol in the first two areas and active searching collections in the others, without a specific protocol. This study also included occurrence records published in the scientific literature. A total of 128 species and morphospecies of termites were found in Acre, distributed across 59 genera and four families. The most frequently occurring species in Acre was Heterotermes tenuis (Hagen, 1858). The study also identified six new species records for Brazil. The predominant feeding groups were soil-feeders and wood-feeders, as expected from data obtained from surveys in humid tropical forests. Despite the significant number of new records for Acre (112), it is concluded that a larger sampling effort is still required, as many areas of the state have not yet been studied for termites

Cellulose: from biocompatible to bioactive material

International audienceSince the papyri, cellulose has played a significant role in human culture, especially as paper. Nowadays, this ancient product has found new scientific applications in the expanding sector of paper-based technology. Among paper-based devices, paper-based biosensors raise a special interest. The high selectivity of biomolecules for target analytes makes these sensors efficient. Moreover, simple paper-based detection devices do not require hardware or specific technical skill. They are inexpensive, rapid, user-friendly and therefore highly promising for providing resource-limited settings with point-of-care diagnostics. The immobilization of biomolecules onto cellulose is a key step in the development of these sensing devices. Following an overview of cellulose structural features and physicochemical properties, this article reviews current techniques for the immobilization of biomolecules on paper membranes. These procedures are categorized into physical, biological and chemical approaches. There is no universal method for biomolecule immobilization. Thus, for a given paper-based biochip, each strategy can be considered

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time, and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space. While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes, vast areas of the tropics remain understudied. In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity, but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases. To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge, it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost