(Press-News.org) For biologists it is an easy matter: spiders have eight legs and insects have six. This fact is important when beholding and recognizing the tiny new species of Spider Water Beetles from the Philippine Island of Mindoro discovered by researchers of the Ateneo de Manila University. Zookeys, an open access international scientific journal launched to accelerate biodiversity research, has published the paper about the curious creatures in its latest issue [Zookeys 321: 35–64 (2013)].
Primarily, the study was intended to find and describe the larvae of known species of the genus Ancyronyx, under which all Spider Water Beetles of the world are compiled. But when the researchers checked the pristine creeks and rivers of the ethnic Buhid's ancestral lands in the Municipality of Roxas, Oriental Mindoro, they found the first new species, now named as Ancyronyx buhid.
The second new species was detected among older collections of undetermined museum specimens. It was confirmed to occur in the waters of the famous Tamaraw Falls, a popular tourist destination in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. It was named Ancyronyx tamaraw after it's "type locality"*.
The newly discovered Buhid Spider Water Beetle has high potential to be used as a bioindicator species for healthy ecosystem conditions, since it fulfills the necessary criteria: (1) it is surprisingly common in clean, pristine running waters all over Mindoro, but (2) it is absent in more or less polluted and altered streams and (3) it can easily be identified in larval and adult stages, by eye-catching color patterns.
The assignment of the immature larvae with the adult beetles was done by DNA tests since the genetic constitution is very similar in individuals of the same species irrespective of the developmental stage, but more varying between different species. The genetic data were deposited at gene bank, and the occurrence data of the Ancyronyx species of Mindoro were submitted to GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Both are curated free access databases.
20 species of Spider Water Beetles are known on earth by now. 11 of them are endemic to the Philippines and cannot be found anywhere else, indicating that the country is the diversity centre of this genus. It emphasizes the importance of the country as a biodiversity hotspot at global scale. More efforts are required to protect the ecosystems and their unique diversity of life forms.
INFORMATION:
* zoological "type specimens" are important vouchers of a taxon (e.g. a new species). They are deposited in scientific collections for safe custody as required by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. The original place of collection of the primary type specimen is the "type locality".
Additional Information:
The study was partly funded by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as part of the PHERnet program and by the Ateneo de Manila University. A fund for free access publication was provided by Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) Open Access Support Project (EOASP). Ateneo researchers are also very thankful to the people and administration of San Vicente, Roxas, who most supported the study as well as for the international cooperation with other institutions, especially the Natural History Museum of Vienna, Austria and the Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Germany from where additional specimens were made accessible for this study.
Original source
Authors (2013) Ancyronyx Erichson, 1847 (Coleoptera, Elmidae) from Mindoro, Philippines, with description of the larvae and two new species using DNA sequences for the assignment of the developmental stages. ZooKeys 321: 35–64. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.321.5395
'Beetle in spider's clothing' -- quaint new species from Philippine Rainforest Creeks
2013-08-06
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
'Nursery nests' are better for survival of young black-and-white ruffed lemurs
2013-08-06
Young Malagasy black-and-white ruffed lemurs are more likely to survive when they are raised in communal crèches or "nursery nests" in which their mothers share the draining responsibility of feeding and caring for their offspring. This is according to anthropological research on lemur infant care by Andrea Baden and colleagues of Yale University. The study, published in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, describes a rare case in which fitness differences, such as infant survival, between cooperative and non-cooperative lemurs are observed.
Baden ...
From harmless colonizers to virulent pathogens: UB microbiologists identify what triggers disease
2013-08-06
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae harmlessly colonizes the mucous linings of throats and noses in most people, only becoming virulent when they leave those comfortable surroundings and enter the middle ears, lungs or bloodstream. Now, in research published in July in mBio, University at Buffalo researchers reveal how that happens.
"We were asking, what is the mechanism behind what makes us sick?" explains Anders P. Hakansson, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. "We are looking ...
New federal guidelines for managing occupational exposures to HIV
2013-08-06
CHICAGO (August 6, 2013) – New guidelines from the United States Public Health Service update the recommendations for the management of healthcare personnel (HCP) with occupational exposure to HIV and use of postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). The guidelines, published online today in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), emphasize the immediate use of a PEP regimen containing three or more antiretroviral drugs after any occupational exposure to HIV.
The PEP regimens recommended in the guidelines ...
Vaccine stirs immune activity against advanced, hard-to-treat leukemia
2013-08-06
Patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) often receive donor transplants that effectively "reboot" their own immune defenses, which then attack and potentially cure the hard-to-treat disease. However, there is a high rate of relapse in these patients, and the transplanted immune cells may also harm normal tissues, causing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).
Now, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that they observed a strong and selective immune response in some patients who received, shortly after ...
Commonly used catheter's safety tied to patient population
2013-08-06
CHICAGO (August 6, 2013) – A new study reports that peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) do not reduce the risk of central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in hospitalized patients. PICCs have become one of the most commonly used central venous catheters (CVCs) in healthcare settings since they are considered easier and safer to use, with less risk of CLABSIs. The study, published in the September issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, demonstrates that the risk ...
The dark side of entrepreneurship
2013-08-06
This news release is available in German. Media reports about alleged anti-social and delinquent behavior of entrepreneurs are no rarity. Such reports direct the attention towards possibly 'hidden' anti-social tendencies in entrepreneurial types. Is it true then, that entrepreneurs are a particularly self-serving species with their own moral ideas and ethical principles? Does he really exist, the type of the entrepreneurial 'homo oeconomicus' who first of all is interested in his own benefit and profit and who abandons ethical and social principles? And if so: what ...
Cancer research implies future for personalized medicine, reduction in animal testing
2013-08-06
VIDEO:
This video shows tissue engineering of a human 3D in vitro tumor test system.
Click here for more information.
On August 6th, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, will publish two new methods for scientists to study and treat tumor growth. The methods introduce a lab-born, human tissue structure with replicated human biochemistry – offering scientists the opportunity to grow, observe, and ultimately learn how to treat biopsied human tumor cells.
The University ...
Family matters: Evolutionary relationships among species of 'magic' mushrooms shed light on fungi
2013-08-06
"Magic" mushrooms are well known for their hallucinogenic properties. Until now, less has been known about their evolutionary development and how they should be classified in the fungal Tree of Life. New research helps uncover the evolutionary past of a fascinating fungi that has wide recreational use and is currently under investigation for a variety of medicinal applications.
In the 19th century, the discovery of hallucinogenic mushrooms prompted research into the mushrooms' taxonomy, biochemistry, and historical usage. Gastón Guzmán, a world authority on the genus ...
New UNH research: Online predators not distinctively dangerous sex offenders
2013-08-06
DURHAM, N.H. – A new University of New Hampshire study challenges the view that online predators are a distinctly dangerous variety of sex offender, requiring special programs to protect youth.
The study from the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center finds that sex offenders who target teens increasingly use Internet and cell phone communications to lure teens into sexual relationships. In crimes that involve such communications, offenders who meet and recruit youth online operate in much the same way as offenders who meet and know youth in ordinary offline environments.
"These ...
Why tumors become drug-resistant
2013-08-06
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Cancer drugs known as ErbB inhibitors have shown great success in treating many patients with lung, breast, colon and other types of cancer. However, ErbB drug resistance means that many other patients do not respond, and even among those who do, tumors commonly come back.
A new study from MIT reveals that much of this resistance develops because a protein called AXL helps cancer cells to circumvent the effects of ErbB inhibitors, allowing them to grow unchecked. The findings suggest that combining drugs that target AXL and ErbB receptors could offer ...