The Vertebrate Bias

The above pie chart shows the relative proportions of described species in various groups of organisms.  As we can see, most species are invertebrate animals.  Things like snails, flatworms, spiders, sponges, and insects. Now compare that slice of pie to the proportion of GenBank sequences that represent invertebrates: Yes, that thin blue wedge is all [...]

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New Species: Pheidole rugithorax

Pheidole rugithorax Eguchi 2008 – Vietnam In today’s Zootaxa, Katsuyuki Eguchi has a taxonomic revision of the northern Vietnamese Pheidole, recognizing six new ant species for a genus that is already the world’s most diverse.  The revision also contains several nomeclatural changes and a key to the thirty or so species occurring in the region. [...]

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A New Genus of Ant

Opamyrma hungvuong Yamane et al 2008 Vietnam It isn’t every day we get a whole new genus. In this week’s Zootaxa, Seiki Yamane, Tuan Vet Bui, and Katsuyuki Eguchi report the discovery of Opamyrma, an amblyoponine ant from central Vietnam. The full article is behind Zootaxa’s subscription barrier, but detailed specimen photos are already up [...]

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E. O. Wilson on NOVA

I’ve just received the following notice about an upcoming NOVA show on the life of biologist/myrmecologist E. O. Wilson: NOVA is excited to partner with organizations that share our passion for scientific discovery as we spread the word about upcoming shows. On Tuesday, May 20, we invite you to join us for a look at [...]

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New Species: Pheidole pegasus

Pheidole pegasus Sarnat 2008 Fiji Eli Sarnat, the reigning expert on the Ants of Fiji, has just published a lovely taxonomic revision of a group of Pheidole that occur on the islands. Pheidole are found in warmer regions worldwide, but Fiji has seen a remarkable radiation of species that share a bizarre set of spines [...]

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New Species: Technomyrmex fisheri

Technomyrmex fisheri Bolton 2007 Madagascar, line drawing by Barry Bolton Last month, British myrmecologist Barry Bolton published the first ever global synthesis of the ant genus Technomyrmex. The tome describes 37 new species, including Technomyrmex fisheri from Madagascar, named after Brian Fisher of Antweb. I’m always keen to try out new taxonomic keys, so I [...]

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New Species: Idioneurula donegani

Idioneurula donegani Huertas & Arias 2007     Huertas, B. and J. J. Arias. 2007. A new butterfly species from the Colombian Andes and a review of the taxonomy of the genera Idioneurula Strand, 1932 and Tamania Pyrcz, 1995 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Zootaxa 1652: 27-40. The online journal Zootaxa has hosted the publication of 6723 [...]

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New Species: Mystrium maren

  Mystrium maren Bihn & Verhaagh 2007 Discoveries of new species on our little-known planet continue apace. The two known specimens of the impressively toothy Mystrium maren were collected in 2001 in Indonesia, and Jochen Bihn and Manfred Verhaagh just published a paper in Zootaxa describing this ant and another new species, M.leonie. Source: J. [...]

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