Saturday 26 November 2016

Researchers' quest to identify freshwater fish parasites in Japan

Hiroshima University scientists have identified a new species of parasite infecting an invasive freshwater fish on the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan. The results are part of a project to find parasites that have arrived in Japan with their non-native hosts and understand the role of parasites in natural ecosystems. Tracking parasites can be one scientific method to monitor ecosystem health and attempt to conserve biodiversity.
The project began in 2012 when one of the researchers was trying to fill some of his free time. Masato Nitta, now a second-year PhD student at Hiroshima University, recognized some invasive fish in the stream that runs through the campus of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan, the university that hosted his research team during their field studies.
"It was just for play, not for official study. I saw two of the invasive catfish and I decided to try to catch them and check what parasites they had because I was curious. When I put the parasites under the microscope, they looked a little bit strange. read more

Lepisiota dispatching Pheidole ant.

A team of scientists conducting a recent biodiversity survey in the ancient church forests of Ethiopia made an unexpected discovery -- a rather infamous ant species (Lepisiota canescens) displaying signs of supercolony formation. According to D. Magdalena Sorger, a post-doctoral researcher with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and a key member of the team, the discovery is significant for two reasons. First, supercolony formation in ants is rare, with documented cases of only around 20 species worldwide. Second, other species in the Lepisiota genus have recently made headlines as worrisome invasive species, one in South Africa's Kruger National Park and another that shut down Australia's Darwin Port for several days. The team's findings, were published inInsectes Sociaux in November.
In Ethiopia, forests frequently surround Orthodox churches, some of which are more than 1,500 years old. These forests range in size from only a few hectares to more than 400 (~1,000 acres) and can be considered relict oases within largely barren land and agricultural fields. While L. canescens is native to the -read more

New salamander species are very tiny, very rare

Researchers report three new species of the world’s smallest salamander from the remote mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. They also warn that the rare creatures are already in danger of dying out.
The three new species are from the enigmatic genus Thorius, the adults of which are smaller than a matchstick. They are, in fact, the smallest four-legged tailed organism on Earth, and their miniaturized bodies are highly unusual for vertebrates, with structures for feeding being among the most prominent.
Although once extremely abundant, populations of Thorius have declined precipitously over the last 30 to 35 years, and living Thorius are now rarely found in nature. The findings underscore the large number of amphibian species that remain to be discovered and formally described, and the need to find and save them before they are lost.
“Salamanders of the highlands of Mexico are closer to extinction than any other on Earth,” says David Wake, one of the coauthors of a paper about the new species in the journal PeerJ. “The main factors are habitat conversion and new -read more

Yellow-bellied Greenbul

R-574-Yellow-bellied-Greenbul~A-Froneman_Claro1The sighting was confirmed by John Wesson of the Wildlife & Environment Society of SA (WESSA) and Birdlife Harties, who says this sighting is of particular interest and importance.
“One of Birdlife Harties’ members saw the bird in Schoemansville around May this year. Last week, another resident of Schoemansville spotted the bird. Karen van Huizen, a resident of Karel Street brought more good news when she confirmed that there are at least two birds and that they have bred in the area. This is a major find, as it means it is not an isolated occurrence of a bird passing through.”
The Yellow-bellied Greenbul with its loud, distinctive call is normally only found in the north eastern parts of the country, especially the Lowveld areas up into Zimbabwe, Mozambique and coming down the coastal areas to around Durban.
It was spotted in De Wildt about three times over a five-year period, and there have been odd sightings in Pretoria and Sun City before.
“As more and more members of the public take an interest in birds, it is likely that other unusual species like these will be found in our area far out of their normal range. This has been the case with a number of Lowveld species that  have moved all the way into Johannesburg, drawn by one of the largest manmade forests in the world,” says John.-read more

New spider discovered that disguises itself as a leaf

A new species of spider has been discovered with a novel way of keeping its presence under wraps. So subtle is the newly found creature that you could mistakenly pluck it from a nearby tree with no idea it was an arachnid until you had a handful of spider.
Rather than hanging out all day on a web the new spider instead disguises itself as a leaf. The masquerade is so convincing, the spider has even grown a ‘tail’ to mimic a stalk.
Matjaž Kuntner, of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, came across the spider while in China’s Yunnan province.
With his fellow researchers, Dr Kuntner was shining his torch light at spider silk strands when he came across a patch of odd looking leaves.
“If there’s a web, there’s a spider,” he said.
Looks like a leaf. Is much worse. Picture: Matjaz Kuntner
Looks like a leaf. Is much worse. Picture: Matjaz KuntnerSource:Supplied
As they investigated, the team found what they suspected to be an entirely new type of spider and the first known variant to try its luck at pretending to be leaf.
“Better known in insects, plants, birds, and fish, masquerade in arachnids involves only a handful of spiders ... that resemble flowers, dead twigs, plant detritus, buds, bark, or bird droppings,” said Dr Kuntner in the Journal of Arachnology. “However, genuine leaf masquerade has not been known in arachnids.”
In order to look the full leaf, the spider bunches its legs tightly together so it doesn’t give the game away.read more

Saturday 19 November 2016

Scientists have found a new species of spider in a Chinese rain forest. The species is the first of its kind to mimic a leaf, and researchers still aren't sure why the masquerade is used. The spider uses its silk to stick leaves to tree branches and then lurks among them, likely lying in wait for unsuspecting prey.

Scientists have found a new species of spider in a Chinese rain forest. The species is the first of its kind to mimic a leaf, and the researchers still aren't sure why.Scientists have found a new species of spider in a Chinese rain forest.
The species is the first of its kind to mimic a leaf, and researchers still aren't sure why the masquerade is used.
The spider uses its silk to stick leaves to tree branches and then lurks among them, likely lying in wait for unsuspecting prey.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3945304/The-strange-spider-species-looks-just-like-LEAF-Arachnid-lurks-trees-remained-hidden-years.html#ixzz4QT0y3hyc

New species of 'weird bird'-like dinosaur discovered in China-Tongtianlong limosus

An artistic reconstruction, showing the last-ditch struggle of Tongtianlong limosus as it was mired in mud, interpretation for how the specimen was killed and buried.A farmer and construction workers in China have discovered the remains of a new species of bird-like dinosaur that appears to have died after getting stuck in the mud. The find, experts say, adds weight to the idea that such animals were thriving shortly before the mass extinction 66 million years ago.
Around the size of a sheep, with a beak, wings and a crest on its head, the flightless creature is thought to be a species of oviraptorosaur - a group of bird-like, feathered, toothless and short-skulled non-avian dinosaurs that were roaming the land in the period shortly before an asteroid slammed into Earth off the coast of Mexico, triggering the annihilation of swaths of life. 
“If you saw it alive you would just think it was a weird bird,” said Stephen Brusatte, a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh who, with colleagues in China, co-authored the research published in the journal Scientific Reports.read more

Meet the zebra crayfish, a new species discovered in Alabama-Cambarus clairitae,

Zebra crayfishAlabama already had more documented species of crayfish living in its waters than any other state, but that lead was padded this week as two biologists announced the discovery of a new species called Cambarus clairitae, or the zebra crayfish, which so far has been found only in two small streams north of Birmingham. 
Guenter Schuster and Christopher Taylor's discovery of the new species was published this week in the peer-reviewed, international scientific journal Zootaxa, which specializes in animal classification. 
Schuster said he and Taylor first discovered the crayfish in 2011 during a survey of Gurley Creek, off Highway 79 near the Jefferson-Blount County line, and it was fairly obvious that they had found something new.
"The thing that struck us right off the bat is it was a large crayfish and the coloration was quite unusual with the dark banding," read more

Saturday 12 November 2016

A new species of bat has been found in Alderney

Whiskered BatA species of bat, new to Alderney, has been found in the island.
A bird ringer from the UK went looking for bats in the German tunnel off Barackmaster’s Lane at Longis.
A bat detector was left at the tunnel for an hour to record signals and has detected a Whiskered Bat.
Whiskered Bats, which are very similar to Brandt’s Bats, are fairly common in the UK but the first confirmed sighting in the Channel Islands was in Jersey in 2012.read more

New species of Lyme-related bacteria found on ticks in B.C.

(photo courtesy of Kamloops This Week).Merritt Herald

New species of Lyme-related bacteria found on ticks in B.C.

By  on November 10, 2016
(photo courtesy of Kamloops This Week).
(photo courtesy of Kamloops This Week).
By: Cam Fortems (Kamloops This Week)
A new species of bacteria that can cause Lyme disease has been found in ticks on dogs and, in one case, on a child in B.C.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) reported the finding this week to the public and medical community.
The species is closely related to Borrelia mayonii, which previously was only known to be in the midwestern United States.
Borrelia mayonii is a newly discovered species of bacteria that can cause Lyme disease in people.
The tick that carried the new species is found in B.C., including in the Thompson-Okanagan.
While the finding is a scientific curiosity, Dr. Eleni Galanis, a physician-epidemiologist with the BCCDC, said it is considered a low risk due to its rarity.
Neither the child in the Central Interior, nor the two dogs in the Lower Mainland, have shown signs or symptoms of Lyme disease since having the ticks removed.
“We don’t know why it emerged here in B.C,” Galanis said, adding it may have been transported by bird or animal or emerged independently.
Ticks that carry the typical bacteria that may cause Lyme disease are found in the Thompson Valley.
But this area is not considered a high risk for acquiring the disease.
The highest risk areas are in Greater Vancouver and on Vancouver Island.
The BCCDC said less than one per cent of ticks tested in B.C. carry bacteria that can cause Lyme disease.read more
The prevalence of Lyme-causing bacteria in B.C. ticks has  remained consistently low.

Dog's dinner: DNA clue to how dogs became our friends

Dogs like to scrounge from humansDogs have been dining on human food scraps since the early days of their domestication, it appears.
Our canine companions developed the ability to digest starchy foods during the farming revolution thousands of years ago, according to DNA evidence.
Scientists think dogs may have been domesticated from wolves when they came into settlements, scrounging for food.
Modern dogs can tolerate starch-rich diets, unlike their wolf cousins, which are carnivores.
A study of DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of ancient dogs at archaeological sites in Europe and Asia suggests their ability to eat starchy foods goes back millennia.
Lead researcher Dr Morgane Ollivier of ENS de Lyon, France, said human cultural development has influenced the first domesticated animal, the dog.
DNA samples from 8,000 to 4,000 years ago show the dog's ability to digest starch is ancient - hailing back to a time when hunter-gatherer societies adopted agriculture.-read more

Tongtianlong limosus,-Unknown dinosaur almost blown to oblivion

Newly discovered dinosaur, Tongtianlong limosusA newly discovered species of dinosaur has been identified from an extraordinarily complete Chinese fossil almost destroyed by dynamite.
It was preserved raising its beaked head, with feathered wings outstretched in the mud it was mired in when it died 72 million years ago.
The new creature has been named Tongtianlong limosus, "muddy dragon on the road to heaven".
"It was found at a construction site by workmen when they were dynamiting, so they nearly blasted this thing off the hillside," said University of Edinburgh palaeontologist Dr Stephen Brusatte.
"We almost never knew about this dinosaur."read more

UK red squirrels carry 'a form of leprosy' - scientists

The effects of the disease can be seen on the squirrel's ear and muzzleBritish red squirrels are infected with two different strains of the bacterium that causes leprosy, according to a study.
Leprosy was thought to have died out in the UK in medieval times, but these recent discoveries confirm that red squirrels carry the disease.
Despite this, researchers are keen to stress that the squirrel infection poses little, if any, threat to humans.
The research is published in the journal, Science.
In 2014 scientists studying red squirrel populations in Scotland noticed that some of the animals had abnormal growths on their ears, snout and limbs.
"We found that they were suffering from a form of leprosy," Prof Anna Meredith from the University of Edinburgh told the BBC's Science in Action.
The red squirrel is an endangered species found across Eurasia.
UK populations are especially under threat due to habitat loss, as well as through direct competition and the deadly effects of squirrel poxvirus following the -read more

Saturday 5 November 2016

43 New Species Of Scaffold Web Spider Discovered In Asia

A study into spider individuals collected from across Asia over the past 15 years has revealed 43 scaffold web spiders (Nesticidae) that have stayed hidden from science until now. The new species were described in a paper in ZooKeys. The studied family of scaffold web spiders is a relatively small group of arachnids, which can be found at almost any locality, apart from Siberia, Central Asia, Northern and Southern Africa and places at high latitude. Prior to the study by researchers from Sichuan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the species numbered 245 in total, 12 of which are extinct and known from fossils only. A curious peculiarity in these spiders is their comb of serrated bristles, located on their rear legs, used to pull silk bands for their webs. Drs. Lin Yucheng, Francesco Ballarin and Li Shuqiang carried out morphological and molecular studies to discover remarkable diversity of scaffold web spiders from across China, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Madagascar, increasing the number of scaffold web spider species known by man by about twenty percent. The researchers have also established a new genus (Speleoticus) for five previously known but misplaced species, which spend a lot of their time taking shelter in caves. The majority of scaffold web spiders in temperate climates tend to be medium-sized, long-legged, and prefer cave-like environments. The species found in the tropical and subtropical areas are, on the other hand, usually smaller, with shorter legs, and can be quite often spotted outside, where they crawl in forest litter, on grass, and under stones. Read more from Asian Scientist Magazine at: http://www.asianscientist.com/2016/11/in-the-lab/scaffold-web-spider-asia/

Is there a new human species waiting to be discovered?

It may be time to add more branches to the human family tree. Researchers have come up with a estimation tool to determine the traits we have in common with early humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how our histories crossed paths.
In the process of comparing these ancient populations from 50,000 to 70,000 years ago against modern ones, the researchers encountered an intriguing question mark. When looking at the process of admixture, the transfer of genes from one isolated population to another, they realized that ancient human history might be more complex than previously thought.
    When applied to the modern populations of Europe and East Asia, the model works reasonably well. But within the modern population of Pacific Islanders living in Melanesia -- which includes Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands -- the model suggests that something is missing in the equation.read more and see video

    Cruise tourist finds new species of ant in Cayman

    Cayman News ServiceWhen James Wetterer docked in the Cayman Islands during his Caribbean cruise holiday in April he set off to see the sights, but he did not head to Seven Mile Beach or Stingray City. Instead, the professor at Florida’s Atlantic University headed for the nearest patch of red mangroves to continue his research, where he stumbled upon a unique species of ant that has never been identified before.
    Wetterer tells the story of his discovery in this month’s edition of Flicker, the bi-monthly magazine produced by the Terrestrial Research Unit of the Department of Environment (DoE).
    Wetterer had been working on the insects living in the dead hollow twigs in mangrove areas of Florida and had discovered that rare ant species were often found in red mangroves because of their unique habitat, often completely isolated by water from dry land. During his Cayman visit he collected a few specimens from the mangroves he managed to find around the Camana Bay area, and when he cut open the twigs he found an ant he had never seen before.read more

    World's smallest snake discovered

    This exclusive clip reveals for the first time the world’s smallest known snake as it tucks in to a meal of young ants. Although not yet formally described, this new snake (Tetracheilostoma sp. nov.) is part of the thread snake familyIt is thought to be even smaller than the Barbados threadsnake, its close cousin and the previous holder of the "world's smallest snake" title.
    This diminutive serpent is just 10cm long and as slim as a strand of spaghetti. In fact, it is so small that it could slither through a pencil if the lead was removed. It is believed that this thread snake is only found on the island of Martinique, a relatively close neighbouring island to Barbados in the Lesser Antilles.read more and see video

    'Flasher' frog found hidden in Australian swamp

    A rare species of frog which startles predators by flashing its bright orange groin has been discovered in swampland on Australia's east coast.
    Not much bigger than a human fingertip, Mahony's Toadlet has a distinctive marbled underbelly.
    The species was discovered by accident not far from the airport at Newcastle, 160km (100 miles) north of Sydney.
    The tiny amphibian has been named after Professor Michael Mahony, a renowned frog expert and conservationist.read more and see video