Two new species of Leptanilloides are described: L. copalinga Delsinne & Donoso sp. nov., and L. prometea Delsinne & Donoso sp. nov., based on workers collected in the leaf litter and soil of the Andes of southern Ecuador. Both species belong to the L. biconstricta species-group (formally diagnosed here). The metatibial gland, considered a synapomorphy for Dorylinae, is observed in L. prometea sp. nov. but seems absent in L. copalinga sp. nov. We provide a COI DNA barcode for both species and a revised key for the worker caste of all known species in the genus. We also describe a single male identified as a potential new Leptanilloides species on the basis of morphology. Furthermore, its mitochondrial COI gene sequence does not match any previously barcoded species. However, we refrain from giving it a specific name because of our lack of knowledge about the worker caste. So far, half of the 14 Leptanilloides species have been discovered above 1500 m in the mountain forests or páramos of the Ecuadorian Andes, confirming, if needed, the biological significance of these threatened habitats.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
Excavations in the Bruges’ Medieval outer ports of Hoeke and Monnikerede, located along the Zwin tidal inlet, revealed numerous rounded cobbles of exotic geological provenance among which were two specimens of remarkable mineralogical composition. An interdisciplinary study combining archeological, geological, petrographic-geochemical, and historical research has demonstrated their Mediterranean, i.e., Italian, provenance. A first stone is identified as Carrara marble originating from the alluvial fans of the Apuan Alps, deposited along the Versilian coast near the Renaissance towns of Lucca, Pisa, and Genoa. The second cobble is determined as a bioclastic calcarenite limestone from the Apulian shores. Both finds are interpreted as part of the non-saleable ballast once put in the holds of Italian carracks and galleys that touched the Flemish ports during the late thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. As such, both seemingly ordinary objects constitute a rare material and lithological testimony of an important late Medieval commercial network between the Mediterranean and North Sea coasts. Furthermore, the very rare occurrence of these Mediterranean cobbles compared to thousands of Scando-Baltic and Anglo-Scottish ballast stones in the whole of the Bruges outer harbor area can be related to differences in maritime traffic frequency and sheer commercial volumes. Also, the nature of the ballast itself and the ballasting procedures are important, the whole making Mediterranean ballast stones considerably less detectable in the Bruges’ harbors than their North-European equivalents.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications 2022
