Pseudophilautus dilmah, a new species of shrub frog (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from a threatened habitat Loolkandura in Sri Lanka

A new species of shrub frog Pseudophilautus dilmah is described from the Central Hills of Sri Lanka.  This unique species is distinguished from all the other congeners from a combination of characters; snout rounded in lateral aspect, bluntly pointed in dorsal and ventral aspect, canthus rostralis rounded, vomerine teeth, lingual papilla and nuptial pads absent, dermal fringe distinct on inside of fingers III and IV, small blunt tubercles on metacarpal and ulnar folds, toes basally webbed, interorbital area smooth, upper eyelid prominent tubercles present, anterior and posterior dorsum without horny spinules but tubercles present, upper part of flank weakly granular, supratympanic fold distinct, prominent small calcar present at the distal end of the tibia, throat granular, chest and belly coarsely granular.  Based on comparison of 16s rRNA gene we also show that the species is genetically distinct from other members of Pseudophilautus for which gene sequences are available.  The high rate of deforestation and anthropogenic activities threaten this population in its natural habitat. </div

Pseudophilautus dilmah, a new species of shrub frog (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from a threatened habitat Loolkandura in Sri Lanka

A new species of shrub frog Pseudophilautus dilmah is described from the Central Hills of Sri Lanka.  This unique species is distinguished from all the other congeners from a combination of characters; snout rounded in lateral aspect, bluntly pointed in dorsal and ventral aspect, canthus rostralis rounded, vomerine teeth, lingual papilla and nuptial pads absent, dermal fringe distinct on inside of fingers III and IV, small blunt tubercles on metacarpal and ulnar folds, toes basally webbed, interorbital area smooth, upper eyelid prominent tubercles present, anterior and posterior dorsum without horny spinules but tubercles present, upper part of flank weakly granular, supratympanic fold distinct, prominent small calcar present at the distal end of the tibia, throat granular, chest and belly coarsely granular.  Based on comparison of 16s rRNA gene we also show that the species is genetically distinct from other members of Pseudophilautus for which gene sequences are available.  The high rate of deforestation and anthropogenic activities threaten this population in its natural habitat. </div

Structural effects on the magnetic hyperthermia properties of iron oxide nanoparticles

AbstractMagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are heavily explored as diagnostic and therapeutic agents due to their low cost, tunable properties, and biocompatibility. In particular, upon excitation with an alternating current (AC) magnetic field, the NPs generate localized heat that can be exploited for therapeutic hyperthermia treatment of diseased cells or pathogenic microbes. In this review, we focus on how structural changes and inter-particle interactions affect the heating efficiency of iron oxide-based magnetic NPs. Moreover, we present an overview of the different approaches to evaluate the heating performance of IONPs and introduce a new theranostic modality based on magnetic imaging guided–hyperthermia

Lost and found: One of the world's most elusive amphibians, Pseudophilautus stellatus; (Kelaart 1853) rediscovered

Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) has been rediscovered from the Peak Wilderness, Central Hills of Sri Lanka. The species, till now known only from its lost holotype, was the first shrub frog described from Sri Lanka, and had not been reported since then. It was thought to have become extinct for nearly 157 years, being the amphibian species "lost" for the longest amount of time. Here we designate a neotype from the material collected at what we consider its type locality, having considered characters of the lost holotype and provide a complete description. We have conducted a molecular phy-logenetic analysis, on which basis the species is well differentiated from all other Pseudophilautus sequenced so far, and placed in a clade together with P. femoralis, P. frankenbergi, P. mooreorum, and P. poppiae

Pseudophilautus stellatus

Pseudophilautus stellatus Polypedates stellata Kelaart, 1853 Philautus variabilis (Günther 1859; Kirtisinghe 1957) Philautus stellatus (Bossuyt & Dubois 2001; Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda 2005, 2006) Pseudophilautus stellatus (Yu et al. 2010) Neotype. NMSL 2013.09.0 1 NH Adult male 55.3 mm SVL (Figure 2 & 3). Sripada World Heritage Site, (Peak Wilderness), Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka (06° 48 ' 30.89 " N 080° 29 ' 19.18 " E). Alt. 1679 m (Figure 1). Collected by L. J. Mendis Wickramasinghe, Dulan Ranga Vidanapathirana & Sameera Ariyarathne on November 22, 2009. Others. DWC 2013.01. 14, adult female, 48.9 mm SVL; DWC 3013.01. 15, adult male, 39.6 mm SVL. Date, locality and collectors same as neotype. Diagnosis. Pseudophilautus stellatus is assigned to the genus Pseudophilautus as it was well nested within this taxon in our molecular phylogenetic tree (Figure 4). Pseudophilautus stellatus can be distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: Body large size (SVL 55.3); snout rounded in lateral, dorsal and ventral aspects; lingual papilla absent; vomerine teeth present; 3 rd and 4 th fingers with bifid distal subarticular tubercles; tympanum indistinct; supratympanic fold absent. Description of neotype. Body large size (SVL 55.3 mm); head large (HL/SVL 0.4), about as wide as long (HW/HL 1.1), concave above; snout rounded in lateral, dorsal and ventral aspects (ES/DFE 0.8, SN/IN 0.7), its length longer than horizontal diameter of eye (ES/ED 1.5); internasal space concave; canthus rostralis rounded, loreal region concave; interorbital space concave, upper eyelid smaller than interorbital distance (IO/UEW 1.7); internasal distance equal to upper eyelid width (IN/UEW 1.1); distance between front of eyes 2 / 3 the distance between back of eyes (DBE/DFE 1.5); nostrils vertically elliptical without flap of skin laterally, closer to tip of snout; pupil horizontally elliptical; tympanum indistinct; pineal ocellus and vomerine teeth present, small (Left= 4, Right= 6), odontophores oblique and widely separated, between choanae with an angle of 50 0 relative to body axis; tongue large, lanceolate, lingual papilla absent, and conical tubercles absent on tongue. Arm short, robust and strong (LAL/FEL 0.5, UAL/FEL 0.4); forearm shorter than hand length (LAL/HNL 0.7), longer than upper arm (LAL/UAL 1.3); fore arm distinctly enlarged; fingers robust and strong, relative length of fingers I <II <IV <III (FL- 1 /FL- 3 0.5, FL- 2 /FL- 3 0.6, FL- 4 /FL- 3 0.9) (Table 1); tips of finger disks semi circular, enlarged, discs present on all fingers, with distinct basal and circum marginal grooves; dermal fringe present on inside of all fingers, prominent dermal fringe present on exterior edge of finger IV and hand, and ulnar fold; rudimentary webbing present on all fingers, webbing formula I 2 – 2 II 2 +– 3 + III 2 – 2 IV; distal subarticular tubercles prominent, fingers I and II with rounded distal subarticular tubercles, but III and IV fingers with bifid distal subarticular tubercles, comparatively larger distal subarticular tubercle on finger IV; inner palmar tubercle, large, single, oval, prominent, larger than the distal subarticular tubercles; outer palmar tubercle present, but indistinct; supernumerary tubercles present, but indistinct and widespread on palm and on all fingers; prepollex absent (Figure 5 A). Femur 2 1 / 4 times longer than fourth toe length (FEL/TL- 4 2.2); foot length longer than thigh (FOL/FEL 1.4); toes strong, relative length of toes I <II <III <V <IV (TL- 1 /TL- 4 0.4, TL- 2 /TL- 4 0.5, TL- 3 /TL- 4 0.8 (0.78), TL- 5 / TL- 4 0.8 (0.83), tips of toes rounded, enlarged, discs present on all toes with distinct basal and circum marginal grooves; webbing formula I 2 +– 2 - II 1 +– 2 - III 1–2 IV 1 -– 1 +V; lateral dermal fringe on inside of all toes and prominent undulating fringe on postaxial edge of toe V, metatarsal fold, and tarsal fold present but indistinct; tarsal fringe present; distal subarticular tubercles prominent, rounded and single, all equal in size; penultimate subarticular tubercles present on toes III, IV and V; supernumerary tubercles present, but indistinct, wide spread and concentrated on foot and all toes; inner metatarsal tubercle oval prominent and large, its length 1 / 2 the length of toe I (IML/TL- 1 0.5); outer metatarsal tubercle absent (Figure 5 B). Skin on dorsal and lateral snout, head and entire dorsum weakly shagreened; upper flank shagreened to weakly areolate; lower flank weakly areolate to granular; supratympanic fold absent; upper arm, forearm, and hand weakly shagreened; inner thigh dorsally and outer thigh weakly shagreened; leg, tarsus and foot weakly shagreened; a single prominent large blunt tubercle on heel. Skin on ventral side of body: Throat and chest weakly granular; belly granular (Figure 6 A); upper arm weakly granular, forearm granular; thigh granular, leg smooth, tarsus weakly granular. Colour in life. Body colour is bright green with intermittent pinkish white spots; dorsal part of head and dorsum prominent pinkish white spots outlined in dark brown on bright green, intermittent with smaller blurred dark brown blotches (Figure 2–3 & 6 B); flank with transverse dark brown bands on white (Figure 6 C); loreal and tympanic regions and tympanum small brown blotching on bright green; forelimb prominent pinkish white spots outlined in dark brown on bright green, as in dorsum, absent on upper arm; hind limb prominent pinkish white spots outlined in dark brown on bright green (Figure 6 D), posterior part of femur barred brown; throat, vocal sacs, chest and belly all pinkish white. Colour in alcohol. Colour of spots and strips faded a little from above, but the white spots remain, and the overall green colour changes to a purplish brown. The following combination of characters does not match any known Pseudophilautus species described from the island to date. A fully grown female has the described size of 57 mm (= 2 ¼’), but an adult male is comparatively smaller with an SVL of 51 mm (= 2 ’), very broad fingers, large discs, body colours and patterns. Molecular analysis. The aligned nucleotide sequences span a total of 938 base positions (bp). The analysed dataset consists of parts of the 12 S (380 bp) and 16 S (558 bp) ribosomal RNA genes. Pseudophilautus stellatus could not be sequenced for the last 32 bp of the aligned 12 S fragment. The new mtDNA sequences generated for P. stellatus have been deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. JN 862535 for 12 S and JN 862536 for 16 S). The aligned sequences yielded 490 constant and 379 parsimony-informative characters. The alignment included a total of 69 indels (37 for 12 S and 32 for 16 S). However, gaps were treated as missing data in MP and NJ analyses. The maximum parsimony (MP) heuristic search with all characters weighted equally resulted in six trees, 1784 steps in length with consistency indices of 0.373 and retention indices of 0.660. The distance matrices constructed using Kimura 2 -parameter corrections, and subsequently analysed by neighbor-joining methods, reconstructed the tree shown in. In maximum parsimony and neighbor-joining (NJ) analyses, phylogenetic relationships among clades and their bootstrap (BP) supports are very similar. Arrangements among the 3 clades are strongly supported by BP analyses (100 %) using either MP or NJ searches. Clades containing individuals of one species have 93-100 % BP support (Figure 4). In MP and NJ analyses, P. stellatus groups within the genus Pseudophilautus. The three species P. f e m o r a l i s, P. poppiae and P. m oo re or u m form a subclade with strong BP support (99 % NJ/ 98 % MP). Another well-supported (98 %/ 94 %) subclade includes P. frankenbergi and an unknown species. P. stellatus is falling between those two subclades (Figure 4). The sister-group relationship of P. stellatus with the femoralis - poppiae - mooreorum subclade is only weakly supported with BP values of 50 and 55 %. However, the grouping of all 6 Pseudophilautus species gets 91 % BP support in NJ and 68 % in MP analyses. Regardless of the branching order, P. stellatus is clearly different from the other five Pseudophilautus species in this clade, as the long branch in the phylogram nicely illustrates (Figure 4). Natural history. Typical habitat: These, unusually striking, nocturnal and slow moving amphibians were observed in an area of about 2 km 2 in the Peak Wilderness of the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (Figure 1). They were commonly found in the canopy of the cloud forest, 1-10 m above the forest floor, perched on large sized leaves well camouflaged. The species was observed on misty/foggy days, and were found to be highly seasonal, and very rare. On subsequent visits, 78 individuals were observed within an area which extends to the Ratnapura District at elevations of 1540 m asl by the team within a period of four months, with no overlapping transects. Threats. Amongst the most important threats noted in this region, is the forest dieback phenomena (Figure 7 A&B), possibly due to pollution and/or climate change, which has never been documented in this region before. With decrease in the canopy cover, alien invasive species, such as Clusia rosea, and Pteribium revolutum, are widely distributed in lower areas and is slowly spreading to higher elevations, which can potentially become a threat in the future. The Peak Wilderness is now under severe anthropogenic pressure, because of its religious importance, and is visited every year by a large number of pilgrims who pollute the environment there, especially the streams. As a result, a large amount of garbage gets collected, and the natural forest gets overexploited. Illegal gem mining on either sides of the riverbank within the forest has become another potential threat to the amphibian diversity. Tea plantations in the surrounding areas are slowly expanding and illegal tree felling to cultivate tea, has become a major threat in the area.Published as part of Mendis Wickramasinghe, L. J., Vidanapathirana, Dulan Ranga, Airyarathne, Sameera, Rajeev, Gehan, Chanaka, Amila, Pastorini, Jennifer, Chathuranga, Gayan & Wickramasinghe, Nethu, 2013, Lost and found: One of the world's most elusive amphibians, Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) rediscovered, pp. 112-128 in Zootaxa 3620 (1) on pages 115-122, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3620.1.5, http://zenodo.org/record/22184

Significance of Mangrove Biodiversity Conservation in Fishery Production and Living Conditions of Coastal Communities in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island nation where ~59% of the population live in coastal regions. The main income source in these areas is fishing, which contributes to ~44% of the national GDP. Fishery resources depend on mangroves, especially in estuaries and lagoons, as mangroves provide the best nursery grounds for both brackish and marine species that are significant for the island’s fishing industry. However, growing pressures from an increasing population and development are causing substantial damage to mangroves resulting in loss of mangrove diversity. We analyzed whether variation in mangrove diversity within a lagoon system affects fishery production and livelihoods. Along the lagoon we selected three sites, which were 5 km apart from each other, for the survey. We used three 50 m long transects at each site for faunal and floral diversity assessments. The fishery catch was recorded from three crafts in each side. The socio-economic survey was conducted in 30 households per site using a standard questionnaire. In the site with the highest floral and faunal diversity, we also recorded the highest fish catch, but not the highest crab or shrimp catches. Our results confirm that higher mangrove diversity—and not just area—supports higher income generation. Thus, future development should prioritize biodiversity conservation in coastal regions

Modeling and Experimental Studies on Adsorption and Photocatalytic Performance of Nitrogen-Doped TiO2 Prepared via the Sol–Gel Method

Nitrogen-doped TiO2 has a great potential as a photocatalyst under visible light irradiation with applications in the removal of air and water pollutants, and the treatment of bacterial contaminations. In this study, nitrogen-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized via the sol&ndash;gel method and a post-annealing heat treatment approach. The effects of annealing treatment on the photocatalyst crystalline size and degree of crystallinity were analyzed. Methylene blue dye was used as the model water contaminant for the evaluation of the photoactivity of the synthesized nitrogen-doped TiO2 nanoparticles. The degradation of methylene blue was attributed to three mechanisms, i.e., adsorption, photocatalysis, and direct light photolysis. A kinetic model was developed to distinguish the impact of these three different mechanisms on the removal of contaminants. Adsorption and photocatalysis are heterogeneous processes for removing water organic contaminants. The characterization analysis demonstrates that they are relevant to the microstructures and surface chemical compositions of nitrogen-doped TiO2 photocatalysts. The processing&ndash;structure&ndash;performance relationship helped to determine the optimal processing parameters for nitrogen-doped TiO2 photocatalyst to achieve the best performance. While we used methylene blue as the model contaminant, the generalized quantitative model framework developed in this study can be extended to other types of contaminants after proper calibration

Uncovering the Magnetic Particle Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Features of Iron Oxide Nanocube Clusters

Multifunctional imaging nanoprobes continue to garner strong interest for their great potential in the detection and monitoring of cancer. In this study, we investigate a series of spatially arranged iron oxide nanocube-based clusters (i.e., chain-like dimer/trimer, centrosymmetric clusters, and enzymatically cleavable two-dimensional clusters) as magnetic particle imaging and magnetic resonance imaging probes. Our findings demonstrate that the short nanocube chain assemblies exhibit remarkable magnetic particle imaging signal enhancement with respect to the individually dispersed or the centrosymmetric cluster analogues. This result can be attributed to the beneficial uniaxial magnetic dipolar coupling occurring in the chain-like nanocube assembly. Moreover, we could effectively synthesize enzymatically cleavable two-dimensional nanocube clusters, which upon exposure to a lytic enzyme, exhibit a progressive increase in magnetic particle imaging signal at well-defined incubation time points. The increase in magnetic particle imaging signal can be used to trace the disassembly of the large planar clusters into smaller nanocube chains by enzymatic polymer degradation. These studies demonstrate that chain-like assemblies of iron oxide nanocubes offer the best spatial arrangement to improve magnetic particle imaging signals. In addition, the nanocube clusters synthesized in this study also show remarkable transverse magnetic resonance imaging relaxation signals. These nanoprobes, previously showcased for their outstanding heat performance in magnetic hyperthermia applications, have great potential as dual imaging probes and could be employed to improve the tumor thermo-therapeutic efficacy, while offering a readable magnetic signal for image mapping of material disassemblies at tumor sites