The future of endangered crayfish in light of protected areas and habitat fragmentation.

The long-term survival of a species requires, among other things, gene flow between populations. Approaches for the evaluation of fragmentation in the frame of freshwater habitats consider only a small amount of the information that combined demography and geography are currently able to provide. This study addresses two species of Austropotamobius crayfish in the light of population genetics, spatial ecology and protected areas of the Carpathians. Advancing the classical approaches, we defined ecological distances upon the rasterised river network as a surrogate of habitat resistance to migration, quantifying the deviations from the species´ suitability range for a set of relevant geospatial variables in each cell of the network. Molecular analyses revealed the populations of the two Austropotamobius crayfish species are clearly distinct, lacking hybridisation. Comparing pairs of populations, we found, in some cases, a strong disagreement regarding genetic and ecological distances, potentially due to human-mediated translocations or the geophysical phenomena of regressive erosion, which may have led to unexpected colonisation routes. Protected areas were found to offer appropriate local habitat conditions but failed to ensure connectivity. The methodology applied in this study allowed us to quantify the contribution of each geospatial (environmental) variable to the overall effect of fragmentation, and we found that water quality was the most important variable. A multilevel approach proved to reveal a better understanding of drivers behind the distribution patterns, which can lead to more adequate conservation measures.

The first record of genus Gryllomorpha Fieber in Romania (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Gryllomorphinae).

Although the fauna of Dobrogea (south-eastern Romania and north-eastern Bulgaria) is relatively well studied, the discovery of a crevice cricket was quite unexpected. Described from Ukraine and known to occur in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan and possibly Uzbekistan, Gryllomorpha miramae is now recorded for the first time in Romania.

A new, morphologically cryptic bush-cricket discovered on the basis of its song in the Carpathian Mountains (Insecta, Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae).

A new, morphologically cryptic species of phaneropterine bush-crickets is described from the grasslands of the Romanian Eastern Carpathians. Despite the morphological and acoustic similarities with the recently described Isophya nagyi Szövényi, Puskás & Orci, I. bucovinensissp. n. is characterized by a peculiar male calling song, with faster syllable repetition rate (160-220 syllables per minute, at 22-27°C) and less complex syllable structure (composed of only two elements instead of three observable in I. nagyi). The morphological description of the new species is supplemented with an oscillographic and spectrographic analysis of the male calling song and male-female pair-forming acoustic duet. An acoustic signal-based identification key is provided for all the presently known species of the Isophya camptoxypha species group, including the new species.

Corrigenda: Iorgu IȘ, Iorgu EI, Puskás G, Ivkovic S, Borisov S, Gavril VD, Chobanov DP (2016) Geographic distribution of Gryllotalpa stepposa (Insecta, Orthoptera, Gryllotalpidae) in South-eastern Europe, with first records for Romania, Hungary and Serbia. ZooKeys 605: 73-82, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.605.8804.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.605.8804.].

The unexpected finding of Parapholidoptera castaneoviridis in south-eastern Romania (Insecta, Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae).

The Balkano-Anatolian genus Parapholidoptera comprises 21 species and the westernmost one, Parapholidoptera castaneoviridis, previously recognized to occur in western Turkey, north-eastern Greece and south-eastern Bulgaria is recorded for the first time from south-eastern Romania, almost 300 km away from the closest known locality. Illustrations and measurements of morphological characters are given and the male calling song from this new, northernmost population is described.

Geographic distribution of Gryllotalpa stepposa in south-eastern Europe, with first records for Romania, Hungary and Serbia (Insecta, Orthoptera, Gryllotalpidae).

Described from the steppe zones north of the Black Sea, Caucasus, and central Asia, Gryllotalpa stepposa Zhantiev was recently recorded from a few localities in Greece, R. Macedonia, and Bulgaria. In May 2015, several specimens were collected from Ivrinezu Mare in Romania, which suggested a continuous distribution area of the species, stretching from the central Balkans to central Asia. Thus, to reveal its actual range of occurrence, a survey of several Orthoptera collections became mandatory and, as expected, a large number of misidentified specimens of Gryllotalpa stepposa were discovered, providing new data on the species distribution in south-eastern Europe, including also the first records of this mole cricket in Serbia and Hungary. Here a full locality list is presented of this species west of Ukraine and Moldova and the current geographic distribution of the genus Gryllotalpa in the Balkans is revised. A key for distinguishing the mole crickets in south-eastern Europe and a distribution map for this region are presented.

Fine-scale population genetics analysis of Platynereis dumerilii (Polychaeta, Nereididae) in the Black Sea: how do local marine currents drive geographical differentiation?

In this study we analyzed at a submeso-geographic scale (2 km) the genetic diversity of two sub-populations of Platynereis dumerilii and correlated this with the physical characteristics of the marine currents along the western Black Sea coast. For this purpose, we developed a set of 13 new polymorphic microsatellite markers and used them to assess the genetic differentiation, as well as the bi-directional migration rates between the studied sub-populations. We also computed the Peclet number (Pe) as an indicator of the relative effect of advection and eddy diffusion on larval dispersion for the specific conditions of the Black Sea study area. The results indicated no genetic structure in P. dumerilii sub-populations which indicates that the longitudinal alongshore currents dominate in the population structuring of this species. This finding is important, because with the average current speeds of 5 cm/sec on the Black Sea coast during May-August we might have expected a certain population structuring to occur. In accordance with the periodical change of direction of the longitudinal current (either form North to South, or form South to North) the gene flow was found to be bi-directional, with the same intensity.

Isolation and characterization of new microsatellite markers for the invasive softshell clam, Mya arenaria (L.) (Bivalvia: Myidae).

The invasive softshell clam (Mya arenaria Linnaeus, 1758) is native to the northwestern region of the Atlantic Ocean. This species has been introduced in the northeast Pacific and along the European coasts, due to intense naval transports and aquaculture, and it is now present in all the European seas. In this paper we describe seven new microsatellite loci for Mya arenaria. The isolated loci are polymorphic with a number of alleles per locus between 6 and 14. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.417 to 0.951, and from 0.643 to 0.895, with an average of 0.716 and 0.775, respectively. These microsatellite markers should be useful in analyzing this species' genetic diversity, which could explain various processes of its invasion history.

Sinanodonta woodiana (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Unionidae): isolation and characterization of the first microsatellite markers.

Sinanodonta woodiana (Lea, 1834) is a large Unionid species with a real invasion success. It colonized Europe, Central America, the Indonesian Islands and recently North America. The species life cycle involves a larval parasitic stage on freshwater fish species which contributes to the spread of the mussel. In this paper we describe, for the first time, eight polymorphic microsatellite loci for the species Sinanodonta woodiana. The genetic screening of individuals confirmed that all loci were highly polymorphic. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 7 to 14 and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.650 to 0.950. These loci should prove useful to study the species population genetics which could help to infer important aspects of the invasion process.

Isolation and characterization of the first microsatellite markers for the endangered relict mussel Hypanis colorata (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Cardiidae).

Hypanis colorata (Eichwald, 1829) (Cardiidae: Lymnocardiinae) is a bivalve relict species with a Ponto-Caspian distribution and is under strict protection in Romania, according to national regulations. While the species is depressed in the western Black Sea lagoons from Romania and Ukraine, it is also a successful invader in the middle Dniepr and Volga regions. Establishing a conservation strategy for this species or studying its invasion process requires knowledge about the genetic structure of the species populations. We have isolated and characterized nine polymorphic microsatellite markers in H. colorata. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 28 and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.613 to 1.000. The microsatellites developed in the present study are highly polymorphic and they should be useful for the assessment of genetic variation within this species.