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The cicada genus Tugelana Distant, 1912 (Hemiptera, Cicadidae): phylogenetic position and conservation status

- Villet, Martin H, Edwards, Shelley

Authors: Villet, Martin H , Edwards, Shelley
Date: 2021
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/440628 , vital:73798 , https://africaninvertebrates.pensoft.net/article/66891/
Description: The cicada genus Tugelana Distant, 1912 is monotypic and endemic to south-eastern Africa. Material was not available for a recent molecular phylogeny of its tribe, so its precise phylogenetic placement is unestablished. Consequently, a 627 bp sequence of the cytochrome oxidase gene was obtained and its candidate relatives identified as several species of Platypleura Amyot and Audinet-Serville, 1843 using the BOLD Identification System and NCBI Genbank’s BLAST. Bayesian inference analyses indicated that the type species, the Maputaland Orangewing Cicada Tugelana butleri Distant, 1912, is closely related to the Dune Koko Orangewing Cicada Platypleura zuluensis Villet, 1989, which has a geographical distribution that is parapatric with T. butleri and which has aberrant genitalia for a member of Platypleura. This pair of species is placed fairly deep within the African clade of Platypleura. We therefore formally recognized Platypleura Amyot and Audinet-Serville, 1843 as a senior synonym of Tugelana Distant, 1912, syn. nov., and assign T. butleri Distant, 1912 to Platypleura as Platypleura butleri (Distant 1912), comb. nov. The species occurs on the wooded grasslands of the Maputaland coastal plateau east of Lebombo Mountains and south of Maputo Bay. Its Extent of Occurrence is about 6360 km2, which would qualify it as Vulnerable under the IUCN’s classification criteria for conservation status.
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Date Issued: 2021

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A new genus and three new species of South African Cicadettini (Hemiptera Cicadidae Cicadettinae).

- Sanborn, Allen F, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Sanborn, Allen F , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2020
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441261 , vital:73871 , https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4885.4.7
Description: Ingcainyenzane irhiniensis n. gen., n. sp. and Ingcainyenzane nolukhanyoensis n. gen., n. sp. are described from Eastern Cape and Ingcainyenzane umgeniensis n. gen., n. sp. is described from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Notes on its biology of the species and a key to species of the genus are also provided.
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Date Issued: 2020

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Afromelampsalta, a new genus, a new species, and five new combinations of African cicadettine cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae: Cicadettinae):

- Sanborn, Allen F, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Sanborn, Allen F , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2020
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140680 , vital:37909
Description: Afromelampsalta n. gen. is described for African species currently assigned to the genera Melampsalta Kolenati, 1857. Cicadetta Kolenati, 1857 and Pauropsalta Goding and Froggatt, 1904, and the new species Afromelampsalta luteofasciata n. gen., n. sp. is described. Afromelampsalta aethiopica (Distant, 1905) n. comb., A. cadisia (Walker, 1850) n. comb. and A. leucoptera (Germar, 1830) n. comb. are reassigned from Melampsalta to Afromelampsalta n. gen., A. limitata (Walker, 1852) n. comb. is transferred from Cicadetta Kolenati, 1857 and A. mimica (Distant ,1907) n. comb. is transferred from Pauropsalta Goding and Froggatt, 1904 to Afromelampsalta n. gen. Notes on the biology of the new species, a description of the exuvia of A. mimica n. comb., and a key to the species of African Cicadettini are provided.
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Date Issued: 2020

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Intermediate disturbance promotes diversity and the conservation of dung beetles (Scarabaeoidea: Scarabaeidae and Aphodiidae) in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

- Tocco, Claudia, Midgley, John M, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Tocco, Claudia , Midgley, John M , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2020
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442195 , vital:73966 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2020.10.005
Description: Environmental fluctuations, such as changes in climate, agricultural management and anthropogenic land-use patterns can affect the diversity of organisms inhabiting an area. Losses of biodiversity alter ecosystems processes, eroding their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Dung beetles are critical ecosystem service providers, making them an ideal ecological indicator to explore the effects of land-use change on biodiversity. Dung beetles were sampled across three land-use types, in the summers of 2015 and 2016 in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Game ranching is regarded as a relatively low-intensity land use type. It was compared with cattle ranching (medium intensity) and dairy farming (high intensity) to examine their effect on dung beetle assemblage metrics (abundance, species richness and true Shannon diversity index), guild diversity (as nesting guilds) and spatial turnover. The intermediate grazing intensity of cattle ranching supported a higher abundance and diversity of both whole dung beetle assemblage and the nesting guilds, followed by the game ranches and then dairy farms. Differences between the sampling years were dependent on the beetle nesting guild, and largely correlated with rainfall and temperature. Cattle and game ranches shared a higher number of species than either shared with dairy farms. Whittaker's Beta-diversity index showed the highest species turnover between game ranches and dairy farms. A mix of game and cattle ranching, minimising dairy farming or restricting it to already ecological degraded sites, appears the best alternative for maintenance of dung beetle diversity and their ecosystem services. The year-to-year trends of the data were in general consistent, confirming that dung beetles are reliable ecological indicators; but also suggest that climate change that affects rainfall will result in the reduction of the abundance and diversity of this key ecological group.
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Date Issued: 2020

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Nocturnal oviposition behavior of blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) in the southern hemisphere (South Africa and Australia) and its forensic implications:

- Williams, Kirstin A, Wallman, James F, Lessard, Bryan D, Kavazos, Christopher R J, Mazungula, D Nkosinathi, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Williams, Kirstin A , Wallman, James F , Lessard, Bryan D , Kavazos, Christopher R J , Mazungula, D Nkosinathi , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2017
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140832 , vital:37922 , DOI: 10.1007/s12024-017-9861-x
Description: Published research has offered contradictory evidence of the occurrence of nocturnal oviposition by carrion-breeding blowflies, a behavior that can affect the interpretation of forensic estimates of a minimum post mortem interval (minPMI) by up to 12 hours, depending on latitude and season. The majority of published studies are from the northern hemisphere. Field experiments were conducted in South Africa and Australia that extend observations to species of the southern hemisphere. Various vertebrate carrion was exposed at night in summer under different lunar phases and/or artificial lighting, and in woodland and pasture areas. Three laboratory experiments were also conducted. No nocturnal oviposition occurred outdoors in Berry, Australia, but Lucilia cuprina, Lucilia sericata and Chrysomya megacephala laid eggs outdoors at night in Grahamstown and Durban, South Africa. In laboratory experiments L. sericata, L. cuprina, Chrysomya chloropyga and Chrysomya putoria laid eggs and Calliphora augur deposited larvae under nocturnal conditions.
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Date Issued: 2017

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Species identification of adult African blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) of forensic importance:

- Lutz, Lena, Williams, Kristin A, Villet, Martin H, Ekanem, Mfon

Authors: Lutz, Lena , Williams, Kristin A , Villet, Martin H , Ekanem, Mfon
Date: 2017
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/140620 , vital:37904 , DOI: 10.1007/s00414-017-1654-y
Description: Necrophagous blowflies can provide an excellent source of evidence for forensic entomologists and are also relevant to problems in public health, medicine, and animal health. However, access to useful information about these blowflies is constrained by the need to correctly identify the flies, and the poor availability of reliable, accessible identification tools is a serious obstacle to the development of forensic entomology in the majority of African countries. In response to this need, a high-quality key to the adults of all species of forensically relevant blowflies of Africa has been prepared, drawing on high-quality entomological materials and modern focus-stacking photomicroscopy. This new key can be easily applied by investigators inexperienced in the taxonomy of blowflies and is made available through a highly accessible online platform. Problematic diagnostic characters used in previous keys are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2017

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Two new species of Xosopsaltria Kirkaldy, 1904, with a key to the species of South African pygmy bladder cicadas (Hemiptera Cicadidae Cicadettinae Tettigomyiini)

- Sanborn, Allen F, Villet, Martin H

Authors: Sanborn, Allen F , Villet, Martin H
Date: 2016
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441274 , vital:73873 , https://mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4092.2.3
Description: Two species, Xosopsaltria brachyptera n. sp. and Xosopsaltria vitripennis n. sp., are described as new. Notes on their biology and a key to the South African pygmy bladder cicadas are also provided.
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Date Issued: 2016

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Climate change effects on animal and plant phylogenetic diversity in southern Africa

- Pio, Dorothea V, Engler, Robin, Linder, H Peter, Monadjem, Ara, Cotterill, Fenton P D, Taylor, Peter J, Schoeman, M Corrie, Price, Benjamin W, Villet, Martin H, Eick, Geeta, Salamin, Nicholas, Guisan, Antoine

Authors: Pio, Dorothea V , Engler, Robin , Linder, H Peter , Monadjem, Ara , Cotterill, Fenton P D , Taylor, Peter J , Schoeman, M Corrie , Price, Benjamin W , Villet, Martin H , Eick, Geeta , Salamin, Nicholas , Guisan, Antoine
Date: 2014
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441874 , vital:73930 , https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12524
Description: Much attention has been paid to the effects of climate change on species' range reductions and extinctions. There is however surprisingly little information on how climate change driven threat may impact the tree of life and result in loss of phylogenetic diversity (PD). Some plant families and mammalian orders reveal nonrandom extinction patterns, but many other plant families do not. Do these discrepancies reflect different speciation histories and does climate induced extinction result in the same discrepancies among different groups? Answers to these questions require representative taxon sampling. Here, we combine phylogenetic analyses, species distribution modeling, and climate change projections on two of the largest plant families in the Cape Floristic Region (Proteaceae and Restionaceae), as well as the second most diverse mammalian order in Southern Africa (Chiroptera), and an herbivorous insect genus (Platypleura) in the family Cicadidae to answer this question. We model current and future species distributions to assess species threat levels over the next 70 years, and then compare projected with random PD survival. Results for these animal and plant clades reveal congruence. PD losses are not significantly higher under predicted extinction than under random extinction simulations. So far the evidence suggests that focusing resources on climate threatened species alone may not result in disproportionate benefits for the preservation of evolutionary history.
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Date Issued: 2014

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A comparison of two sampling methods for surveying mammalian herbivore impacts on beetle communities in the canopy of Acacia drepanolobium in Kenya

- Kuria, Simon K, Villet, Martin H, Palmer, T M, Stanton, M L

Authors: Kuria, Simon K , Villet, Martin H , Palmer, T M , Stanton, M L
Date: 2010
Language: English
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6860 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011150
Description: Even though several methods are used to sample and monitor canopy arthropods, there are no studies to indicate which of these methods is more effective.We compared the efficacy of the beating and canopy fogging methods in collecting beetles that inhabit Acacia drepanolobium (Harms) tree canopies at Mpala Research Centre in Laikipia district, Kenya. These trees grow naturally on the black cotton soils of the Laikipia ecosystem, accounting for more than 98%of the overstorey at the study site, and are important for local cattle and wildlife production. The ultimate objective of this study was to determine the effect of differential grazing and browsing pressure from large mammalian herbivores on the beetle communities of A. drepanolobium. Seven hundred and twenty trees 1.0–2.5 m tall were sampled using each method, making a total of 1440 trees. Sampling using the two methods was done concurrently and repeated quarterly over a period of 14 months. In total, 4320 individuals were collected, 1456 by beating and 2864 by fogging. The methods jointly yielded beetle specimens from 13 families and 55 morphospecies. Fogging collected significantly more beetle morphospecies than beating, and there was a significant interaction effect between method and sampling date. We found that numerically Anthicidae and Curculionidae responded positively to the presence of cattle.We also found that Anthicidae sp. A and Myllocerus sp. A numbers significantly increased in plots where livestock were grazed.
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Date Issued: 2010

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Spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) from black cotton soil habitats of a highland savanna biome in Laikipia, central Kenya

- Warui, Charles M, Villet, Martin H, Young, Truman P

Authors: Warui, Charles M , Villet, Martin H , Young, Truman P
Date: 2004
Subjects: To be catalogued
Language: English
Type: text , article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/442705 , vital:74025 , https://tpyoung.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk4821/files/inline-files/spiders%20in%20highlands.pdf
Description: Spiders were sampled at Mpala Research Centre, Laikipia, Kenya using pitfall trapping and sweep netting. Sampling was conducted from May 2001 to July 2002. A total of 10,487 individuals from 132 species belonging to 30 families were recorded. The family Salticidae had the highest number of species (24), followed by Gnaphosidae (20), Araneidae and Lycosidae (15 each), Theridiidae and Thomisidae (8 each) and Zodariidae (4). Most of the other families had fewer than 4 species. Throughout the study period, species not previously sampled emerged after rainfall peaks. Many species are apparently undescribed, highlighting the inadequate documentation of these taxa in Kenya. We suggest that the spider fauna of black cotton soil habitats is rich and useful for environmental monitoring, that further surveys using other collecting methods are needed, and that support for the conservation of this ecosystem should be continued. The study once more reveals the urgent need for taxonomic studies on Kenyan invertebrates.
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Date Issued: 2004

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Molecular identification of some forensically important blowflies of southern Africa and Australia

- Harvey, M L, Mansell, M W, Villet, Martin H, Dadour, I R

Authors: Harvey, M L , Mansell, M W , Villet, Martin H , Dadour, I R
Date: 2003
Language: English
Type: text , Article
Identifier: vital:6953 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011986
Description: One major aspect of research in forensic entomology is the investigation of molecular techniques for the accurate identification of insects. Studies to date have addressed the corpse fauna of many geographical regions, but generally neglected the southern African calliphorid species. In this study, forensically significant calliphorids from South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana and Zimbabwe and Australia were sequenced over an 1167 base pair region of the COI gene. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to examine the ability of the region to resolve species identities and taxonomic relationships between species. Analyses by neighbour-joining, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods all showed the potential of this region to provide the necessary species-level identifications for application to post-mortem interval (PMI) estimation; however, higher level taxonomic relationships did vary according to method of analysis. Intraspecific variation was also considered in relation to determining suitable maximum levels of variation to be expected during analysis. Individuals of some species in the study represented populations from both South Africa and the east coast of Australia, yet maximum intraspecific variation over this gene region was calculated at 0.8%, with minimum interspecific variation at 3%, indicating distinct ranges of variation to be expected at intra- and interspecific levels. This region therefore appears to provide southern African forensic entomologists with a new technique for providing accurate identification for application to estimation of PMI.
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Date Issued: 2003

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