New species and new records of Manota Williston from Colombia, Brazilian Amazonia, and Costa Rica (Diptera, Mycetophilidae)

The following five species are described as new: Manota clava sp. n. (Colombia), Manota multilobata sp. n. (Colombia), Manota perplexa sp. n. (Costa Rica), Manota setilobata sp. n. (Colombia) and Manota subaristata sp. n. (Colombia). In addition, new records for the following 11 species are presented: Manota acuminata Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Costa Rica), Manota arenalensis Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Costa Rica), Manota corcovado Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Costa Rica), Manota costaricensis Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Costa Rica), Manota diversiseta Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Colombia, Brazilian Amazonia, Costa Rica), Manota minutula Hippa, Kurina & Saaksjarvi, 2017 (Brazilian Amazonia), Manota multisetosa Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Costa Rica), Manota parva Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Colombia, Costa Rica), Manota pisinna Hippa & Kurina, 2013 (Brazilian Amazonia), Manota spinosa Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Colombia) and Manota squamulata Jaschhof & Hippa, 2005 (Costa Rica). Distribution patterns include (1) species known only locally in Costa Rica or Colombia, (2) distributions connecting Central America to west Andes lowlands, and (3) north-west Neotropical components, extending from Central America to Brazilian Amazonia. The possible biogeographical and taxonomical context of Manota species with a widespread distribution is considered

Catalytic Synthesis of Acetonitrile by Ammonolysis of Acetic Acid

The influence of principal parameters (reagent ratio, reaction temperature, temperature gradients along a catalyst layer) on the yield of the desired product was studied in the reaction of acetonitrile synthesis from acetic acid over γ-alumina. Thus, the increase in ammonia:acetic acid ratio leads to the increase in acetonitrile selectivity and yield. In this work it has been demonstrated that initial temperatures of 360-380 °C are optimum to effectively carry out the process of acetonitrile synthesis. The increase in reaction temperature allows one to increase the yield of acetonitrile, but at elevated temperatures the catalyst carbidization and contamination of the desired product were observed. The additives to the reaction mixture of the substances that decrease the rate of compaction products (CP) formation and participate in the desired product formation are very effective for decreasing the catalyst carbidization. The effect of the composition of a reaction mixture on a catalyst lifetime is considered. The addition of ethyl acetate to acetic acid promotes a greater carbidization as compared to pure acetic acid. The application of a mixture of acetic acid with acetic anhydride at similar acetonitrile yield decreases the catalyst carbidization

Timeless standards for species delimitation

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Trajectories of Early Adolescent Loneliness: Implications for Physical Health and Sleep

The current study examines the relationship between prolonged loneliness, physical health, and sleep among young adolescents (10–13 years; N = 1214; 53% girls). Loneliness was measured at 10, 12 and 13 years of age along with parent-reported health and sleep outcomes. Using growth mixture modelling, 6 distinct trajectories were identified: ‘low increasing to high loneliness’ (n = 23, 2%), ‘high reducing loneliness’ (n = 28, 3%), ‘medium stable loneliness’ (n = 60, 5%), ‘medium reducing loneliness’ (n = 185, 15%), ‘low increasing to medium loneliness’ (n = 165, 14%), and ‘low stable loneliness’ (n = 743, 61%). Further analyses found non-significant differences between the loneliness trajectories and parent-report health and sleep outcomes including visits to health professionals, perceived general health, and sleep quality. The current study offers an important contribution to the literature on loneliness and health. Results show that the relationship may not be evident in early adolescence when parent reports of children’s health are used. The current study highlights the importance of informant choice when reporting health. The implications of the findings for future empirical work are discussed

Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi

Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

A new species of Cordyla Meigen from Norway (Diptera: Mycetophilidae)

A new species of fungus gnats in the genus Cordyla Meigen, 1803, C. bomloensis sp. n., is described based on adult material from southwestern Norway. Both the male and the female are described, photographed and their terminalia figured. The new species belongs in the C.fusca-group. It seems to be most closely allied to C. brevicornis (Staeger, 1840) and C. pusilla Edwards, 1925 from which it is differing prevalently by structures of the male and female terminalia. Its seemingly isolated distribution in southwestern Norway is briefly commented on

Annotated checklist of fungus gnats from Sweden (Diptera: Bolitophilidae, Diadocidiidae, Ditomyiidae, Keroplatidae and Mycetophilidae).

The first modern Swedish checklist of fungus gnats of the families Bolitophilidae, Diadocidiidae, Ditomyiidae, Keroplatidae and Mycetophilidae is presented. The checklist results from a comprehensive literature research as well as treatment of a considerable determined and undetermined material from Swedish museum collections and recent material from several sources. To get better grounds for judging many old and doubtful records from Sweden, a nearly complete review of fungus gnats from the J. W. Zetterstedt collection at the Museum of Zoology in Lund has been undertaken and identifications corrected where needed. In order to preserve nomenclatural stability three species names are reinstated, all with priority over junior synonyms, viz. Orfelia lugubris (Zetterstedt, 1851) comb. n. = Orfelia tristis (Lundström, 1911) syn. n., Ectrepesthoneura ovata Ostroverkhova, 1977 = Ectrepesthoneura bucera Plassmann, 1980 syn. n., and Dynatosoma thoracicum (Zetterstedt, 1838) sens. auct. nec Zaitzev = Dynatosoma norwegiense Zaitzev & Økland, 1994 syn. n. We further find the holotype of Mycetophila grisea Zetterstedt, 1852 to be identical to Mycetophila perpallida Chandler, 1993, but retain Mycetophila perpallida pending a review of other possible synonyms with precedence. Ectrepesthoneura pubescens (Zetterstedt, 1860) is found to be a synonym of Ectrepesthoneura unifurcata (Zetterstedt, 1860) comb. n. syn. n. where the first name is retained as valid due to page priority. Four names described by Zetterstedt remain nom. dub., viz.: Mycomya diluta (Zetterstedt, 1860), Mycomya (Mycomya) notata (Zetterstedt, 1860), Brevicornu fusculum (Zetterstedt, 1838), and Brevicornu obscurellum (Zetterstedt, 1838) comb. n. Stigmatomeria obscura (Winnertz, 1863) sp. restit. is found to be a distinct species separate from Stigmatomeria crassicornis (Stannius, 1831). New combinations are suggested for Exechia praedita Plassmann, 1976 = Exechiopsis (Xenexechia) praedita (Plassmann, 1976) comb. n., and for Rhymosia pectinacea Ostroverkhova, 1979 = Pseudexechia pectinacea (Ostroverkhova, 1979) comb. n. Having removed 17 published species names with doubtful or wrong records (listed at the end) we find that the published sources comprise altogether 585 species. 137 species are reported for the first time in Sweden, bringing the total up to 722. Additional 36 species considered to be new to science are mentioned for completeness, but will be further presented and described elsewhere. Hence, at present the known fauna (including claimed undescribed species) comprises 758 species in 83 genera; 25 species of the family Bolitophilidae, 5 of the family Diadocidiidae, 3 of the family Ditomyiidae, 45 of the family Keroplatidae, 679 of the family Mycetophilidae and 1 in the unplaced genus Sciarosoma Chandler. For each species a full account of published Swedish sources with pagination, all synonyms used in Sweden, and the currently known distribution in the Swedish provinces as well as the known world distribution is given. The Swedish species of fungus gnats are generally very widespread: 47% being widespread in Europe, 43% being distributed in the Eastern Palaearctic Region, and 25% having a Holarctic distribution. We find significantly higher species richness in the boreal forests of northern Sweden, but only 3% of the species so far described are known only from the Nordic biogeographical region