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Biodiversity Journal 2012, 3 (2): 97-155

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 097-098
    David P. Cilia & John Abbas
    The genus Amphidromus Albers, 1850
  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 099-106

    Kailash Chandra & Devanshu Gupta
    First report on five species of genus Onthophagus Latreille, 1802 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae) from Madhya Pradesh, India, and their description of external male genitalia

    ABSTRACT
    Onthophagus (Onthophagus) duporti Boucomont, 1914, O. (O.) mopsus (Fabricius, 1792), O. (O.) orissanus Arrow, 1931, O. (O.) truncaticornis (Schaller, 1783) and O. (Colobonthophagus) paliceps Arrow, 1931 are recorded for the first time from Madhya Pradesh (India) with their external male genitalia diagnosed for the first time. A checklist pertaining to Madhya Pradesh including 34 species of Onthophagus distributed in six subgenera is also provided.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 107-110

    Riccardo Giannuzzi-Savelli, Ignazio Sparacio & Nunzia Oliva
    Nomenclatural observations on the Erctella Monterosato, 1894 species (Gastropoda, Helicidae) from the “Rocca” of Cefalù (Italy, Sicily)

    ABSTRACT
    The taxon “cephalaeditana” was introduced in 1986 by the authors to indicate a endemic species from the “Rocca” of Cefalù; this species was discovered, named, but never described by E. Pirajno sicilian naturalist (1809-1864). The unusual description was accepted under Articles 11d and 13a of the ICZN Code edition in use at that time, but not to create nomenclatural uncertainties that would be obviously aggravated by the possible introduction of other names, different from the one Pirajno wanted to use for this discovery, we proceed here to a formal (re-)description of the taxon in question.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 111-118.

    Shaik Khaleel Basha, Gudivada Sudarsanam, Dalazak Parveen & Ammnish Verma
    Conserving Biodiversity of Yerramalais of Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh, India, through People’s Biodiversity Registers Program

    ABSTRACT
    Ecological degradation and its corollary -biodiversity loss- pose a serious threat to development. The program of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR) is an attempt to promote folk ecological knowledge and wisdom. A program "PBR" for in-situ conservation of biological diversity involving local communities has been initiated in recent years. PBR helps in building an open and transparent information system on biodiversity resources from village level upwards. The register contains comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal and other traditional knowledge associated with them. The main objective of this paper is to create awareness in villagers regarding how to preserve, protect biodiversity and equitably make use of TDK of medicinal plants. The process of preparation of PBRs, as well as the resultant documents, could serve a significant role in promoting more sustainable, flexible, participatory systems of management and in ensuring a better flow of benefits from economic use of the living resources to the local communities. Indigenous people (Sugalis) are playing an important role in conservation of TDK of Yerramalais. Knowledge about 38 different types of medicinal plants used by indigenous people for various diseases like leucoderma, snake bite, scorpion sting, jaundice, wounds, rheumatism are recorded.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 119-122

    Sawika Kunlapapuk, Sitthi Kulabtong & Chirachai Nonpayom
    Two new records of freshwater fishes (Cypriniformes, Balitoridae and Atheriniformes, Phallostethidae) from Thailand

    ABSTRACT
    A balitorid fish, Hemimyzon nanensis Doi et Kottelat, 1998 (Cypriniformes, Balitoridae) is newly recorded from Ngim River, Yom Basin, North Thailand and a priapium fish, Neostethus lankesteri Regan, 1916 (Atheriniformes, Phallostethidae) is newly recorded from the estuary of Petburi Basin, West Thailand. Description and distribution data of the two freshwater fish are provided here.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 123-128

    Danilo Scuderi
    A new species of Petaloconchus Lea, 1843 from the Mediterranean Sea (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Vermetidae)

    ABSTRACT
    Petaloconchus (Macrophragma) laurae n. sp. is a vermetid here described as new. It is very similar in shell characters to both the species reported for the Mediterranean sea, the fossil Petaloconchus intortus (Lamarck, 1818) and the recent Petaloconchus (Macrophragma) glomeratus (Linnaeus, 1758), but the peculiar structure of the internal keels and the protoconch distinguish the new species from all the congeners; the external morphology of the soft parts add a new item in the discrimination of the recent species. The holotype of P. glomeratus is housed in BMNH and it is here compared with the new species.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 129-131

    Roberto A. Pantaleoni, Gabriel Martínez del Mármol Marín & Raúl León Vigara
    Second record of Pseudimares aphrodite H. Aspöck et U. Aspöck, 2009 (Neuroptera, Myrmeleontidae)

    ABSTRACT
    Some adults of Pseudimares aphrodite H. Aspöck et U. Aspöck, 2009 were observed and photographed while attracted by light in Southern Morocco, in August 2009 and 2011. Only the typus of this species, a male, was known previously from South Morocco too. Moreover the genus Pseudimares Kimmins, 1933 is perhaps the most enigmatic taxon among Neuroptera Myrmeleontidae. Its second species Pseudimares iris Kimmins, 1933 from Southern Iran is known also only in the type series, a male and a female. What little information we know about Pseudimares is reported.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 132-136

    Rinaldo Nicoli Aldini & Roberto A. Pantaleoni
    Zephyr’s wings: Tiepolo’s imagination or the antlion Pseudimares Kimmins,1933 (Neuroptera, Myrmeleontidae) as his model?

    ABSTRACT
    When Giambattista Tiepolo, in his painting ‘Triumph of Zephyr and Flora’, gave Zephyr dragonfly-like wings with eyespots, was he inspired by pure imagination or did he have an insect he had previously seen in mind: the rare and astonishing Pseudimares? It is impossible to be sure. The authors of the present note point out the innovatory characteristic of the pictorial arrangement adopted by Tiepolo for the wings, compared with stylistic elements which were fashionable before and during his epoch, and suggest the reasons why we cannot rule out that the artist could have been inspired by a model, a specimen of Pseudimares, two centuries before the scientific discovery of this very rare antlion, at present only known from Iran and Morocco. A short account is provided on the bio-ecological significance of the eyespots found on insect wings.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 137-144

    David P. Cilia & John Abbas
    A new species of Hemiplecta Albers, 1850 (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Ariophantidae) from Sumatra, Indonesia

    ABSTRACT
    The ariophantid Hemiplecta belerang sp. nov. from South Sumatra is described in this paper. It is compared with its closest congeners, from which it is geographically and reproductively isolated.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 145-150

    Ivano Adamo, Francesco Carandente, Camillo Pignataro, Paolo Crovato & Nicola Maio
    New records of Heteroptera (Hemiptera) from Campania, Southern Italy

    ABSTRACT
    During a two-year faunistic research (2010 and 2011) carried out in three different areas of Campania (the Crater of Astroni, the Matese Mountains, and the Alburni Mountains: Site of Community Importance, SCI, - Special Protection Area, SPA) eight species of Heteroptera that are new records for the region were collected.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 151-152

    Pasquale Micali & Alberto Villari
    New report of Neolepton discriminatum Palazzi et Villari, 2001 for Ustica island (Bivalvia, Veneroida, Neoleptonidae)

    ABSTRACT
    A complete specimen and two loose valves of Neolepton discriminatum Palazzi et Villari, 2001 were found in Ustica island, at Punta Spalmatore at a depth of about 30 m. Up to now, this species was known only for the original description, based on specimens collected inside submarine caves of the coast near Taormina (North-Eastern Sicily). In the same sample of shell grit it was encountered also a specimen of Skeneoides digeronimoi La Perna, 1998, a species the description of which is based on material collected inside a cave of Ustica, on the opposite side of the island, about four miles away from Punta Spalmatore.

  • Biodiversity Journal, 3 (2): 153-155

    Satya Prakash, Anil Kumar Mishra & Mohammad Raziuddin
    A new record of cream coloured morph of Naja kaouthia Lesson 1831 (Reptilia, Serpentes, Elapidae) from Hazaribag, Jharkhand, India

    ABSTRACT
    A rare cream coloured morph of monocellate cobra, Naja kaouthia Lesson, 1831 without hood mark has been recorded for the first time from Hazaribag town residential area (Jharkhand state), outside the known range of the snake extant distribution.