Taxonomic revision of the southern African genus Pachyphymus Uvarov, 1922 (Orthoptera: Acridoidea: Euryphyminae).

The southern African endemic genus, Pachyphymus Uvarov, 1922 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Euryphyminae), is the only genus in the Euryphyminae subfamily with enlarged and hump-shaped pronotal crests. Here, we redescribe two species using newly evaluated diagnostic characters: P. carinatus Dirsh, 1956 and P. cristulifer (Serville, 1838); and describe two new species: P. samwaysi n. sp. and P. namaquensis n. sp. Of the 23 genera of Euryphyminae, Pachyphymus is arguably the most morphologically distinct. However, the species of Pachyphymus, like those of the other Euryphyminae, are difficult to distinguish morphologically because of a high degree of intraspecific variation. Height and shape of the pronotal crests and rugosity of the pronotum were previously considered diagnostic but are strongly variable within species. Degree of infumation of the hind wing is strongly conserved and is the single best diagnostic character in most cases. However, one population of P. cristulifer, which is isolated from the mainland population by a mountain range, shows very little conservation in this character. Additionally, one population of P. namaquensis and one population of P. cristulifer, both from outlying regions of their geographic range have intermediate wing infumation as well as other morphological characters. This may indicate recent or ongoing hybridization or divergence of the geographically overlapping species. This study emphasizes the need for molecular analysis to complement detailed morphological diagnosis of the species of Euryphyminae, a notoriously under-studied and taxonomically problematic group. 

Mutualistic interactions between ants and fungi: A review.

The large amount of dead plant biomass caused by the final extinction events triggered a fungi proliferation that mostly differentiated into saprophytes degrading organic matter; others became parasites, predators, likely commensals, and mutualists. Among the last, many have relationships with ants, the most emblematic seen in the Neotropical myrmicine Attina that cultivate Basidiomycota for food. Among them, leaf-cutting, fungus-growing species illustrate an ecological innovation because they grow fungal gardens from fresh plant material rather than arthropod frass and plant debris. Myrmecophytes shelter "plant-ants" in hollow structures, the domatia, whose inner walls are lined with thin-walled Ascomycota hyphae that, in certain cases, are eaten by the ants, showing a form of convergence. Typically, these Ascomycota have antibacterial properties illustrating cases of farming for protection. Ant gardens, or mutualistic associations between certain ant species and epiphytes, shelter endophytic fungi that promote the growth of the epiphytes. Because the cell walls of certain Ascomycota hyphae remain sturdy after the death of the mycelium, they form resistant fibers used by ants to reinforce their constructions (e.g., galleries, shelters for tended hemipterans, and carton nests). Thus, we saw cases of "true" fungal agriculture involving planting, cultivating, and harvesting Basidiomycota for food with Attina. A convergence with "plant-ants" feeding on Ascomycota whose antibacterial activity is generally exploited (i.e., farming for protection). The growth of epiphytes was promoted by endophytic fungi in ant gardens. Finally, farming for structural materials occurred with, in one case, a leaf-cutting, fungus-growing ant using Ascomycota fibers to reinforce its nests.

A new Gonamytta katydid from central Mozambique (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Meconematinae).

A new small predatory katydid Gonamytta deboisselae sp. n. is described from mid-elevation montane forest habitat in central Mozambique; this species is a putative endemic of Mt. Gorongosa. The call of the new species is ultrasonic, with the peak frequency at 38.2 kHz. Anepitacta (A.) scrofina Beier, 1965 is transferred to Gonamytta based on the morphology of the male terminalia.

Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) of Gorongosa National Park and Central Mozambique.

A list of 60 species of the Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera) recorded from Gorongosa National Park and provinces Sofala and Manica in central Mozambique is provided and their natural history is discussed. Of these, 58 species are illustrated and bioacoustic data are presented for 47 species. Two new genera and 9 new species are described: Gorongosa carri gen. et sp. n., Ovonotus abreuae gen. et sp. n., Afroagraecia muagurai sp. n., Enyaliopsis iaculator sp. n., Eurycorypha parkeri sp. n., Eurycorypha stalmansi sp. n., Eulioptera carolli sp. n., Eulioptera mutembai sp. n., and Parpyrrhicia guytonae sp. n. Four species of Ruspolia are recognized as potentially new and their bioacoustic data are presented. Pseudorhynchus pungens meridionalis Ragge, 1969 is synonymized with Pseudorhynchus pungens pungens (Schaum, 1853); Angustithorax spiniger Massa, 2015 is synonymized with Oxyecous magnus Ragge, 1956; and the synonymy of Lanista africana (Walker, 1870) with Lanista annulicornis (Walker, 1869) is reversed. Two species, G. carri and O. abreuae, appear to be endemic to Mt. Gorongosa and 24 species are recorded for the first time from Mozambique.

Testing the Efficacy of Global Biodiversity Hotspots for Insect Conservation: The Case of South African Katydids.

The use of endemism and vascular plants only for biodiversity hotspot delineation has long been contested. Few studies have focused on the efficacy of global biodiversity hotspots for the conservation of insects, an important, abundant, and often ignored component of biodiversity. We aimed to test five alternative diversity measures for hotspot delineation and examine the efficacy of biodiversity hotspots for conserving a non-typical target organism, South African katydids. Using a 1° fishnet grid, we delineated katydid hotspots in two ways: (1) count-based: grid cells in the top 10% of total, endemic, threatened and/or sensitive species richness; vs. (2) score-based: grid cells with a mean value in the top 10% on a scoring system which scored each species on the basis of its IUCN Red List threat status, distribution, mobility and trophic level. We then compared katydid hotspots with each other and with recognized biodiversity hotspots. Grid cells within biodiversity hotspots had significantly higher count-based and score-based diversity than non-hotspot grid cells. There was a significant association between the three types of hotspots. Of the count-based measures, endemic species richness was the best surrogate for the others. However, the score-based measure out-performed all count-based diversity measures. Species richness was the least successful surrogate of all. The strong performance of the score-based method for hotspot prediction emphasizes the importance of including species' natural history information for conservation decision-making, and is easily adaptable to other organisms. Furthermore, these results add empirical support for the efficacy of biodiversity hotspots in conserving non-target organisms.

Using image processing to detect and classify narrow-band cricket and frog calls.

An automatic call recognition (ACR) process is described that uses image processing techniques on spectrogram images to detect and classify constant-frequency cricket and frog calls recorded amidst a background of evening sounds found in a lowland Costa Rican rainforest. This process involves using image blur filters along with thresholding filters to isolate likely calling events. Features of these events, notably the event's central frequency, duration and bandwidth, along with the type of blur filter applied, are used with a Bayesian classifier to make identifications of the different calls. Of the 22 distinct sonotypes (calls presumed to be species-specific) recorded in the study site, 17 of them were recorded in high enough numbers to both train and test the classifier. The classifier approaches 100% true-positive accuracy for these 17 sonotypes, but also has a high false-negative rate (over 50% for 4 sonotypes). The very high true-positive accuracy of this process enables its use for monitoring singing crickets (and some frog species) in tropical forests.