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South American terrestrial Gastropoda in the collection of the Auckland War Memorial Museum
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
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The “Triceratops” leafhoppers. A new species of the genus Cornutipo Evans, 1934 from Northern Queensland, Australia. (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Eurymelinae: Ipoini)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
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The Entognatha, Malacostraca and Myriapoda of the botanical garden Jean Massart (Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
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Updated checklist, origin, distribution, literature and genital drawings of the spiders of the Galápagos Islands
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The list of Galapagos spider species has been updated and now includes 161 species. We provide information on their synonyms and distribution. Existing literature is also mentioned for each species. The species illustrated were all captured by members of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences on various missions to the Galapagos and identified by the first author, and are held in the collections of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
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Flies in the centennial Botanic Garden Jean Massart (Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
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Diet Records for Snakes from Guinea, West Africa
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We present various predation records based on museum-preserved snakes from southeastern Republic of Guinea, West Africa: Aparallactus niger (Atractaspididae) on an earthworm (Oligochaeta); Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia (Colubridae) on Sclerophrys sp. (Anura; Bufonidae); Grayia smithii (Colubridae) and Natriciteres variegata (Natricidae) on Arthroleptis sp(p). (Anura; Arthroleptidae); Grayia tholloni on Xenopus cf. tropicalis (Anura; Pipidae); Toxicodryas pulverulenta (Colubridae) on Agama cf. sankaranica (Agamidae); Elapsoidea semiannulata moebiusi (Elapidae) on Hemisus cf. guineensis (Anura; Hemisotidae); Naja savannula (Elapidae), Afronatrix anoscopus (Natricidae) and Causus maculatus (Viperidae) on Sclerophrys regularis; Psammophis phillipsii (Psammophiidae) on Trachylepis cf. affinis (Scincidae); Causus maculatus on Ptychadena sp. (Anura; Ptychadenidae); Limaformosa guirali (Lamprophiidae) on Atheris chlorechis (Viperidae); and Atheris chlorechis on Hyperolius sp. (Anura; Hyperoliidae). Diagnostic morphological characters are provided for all snakes involved in these records, as well as clutch sizes for pregnant females (Crotaphopeltis hotamboeia and Causus maculatus). We provide identifications for some insects found in the stomachs of the ingested amphibians.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Publishing data to support the fight against human vector-borne diseases
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Vector-borne diseases are responsible for more than 17% of human cases of infectious diseases. In most situations, effective control of debilitating and deadly vector-bone diseases (VBDs), such as malaria, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Zika and Chagas requires up-to-date, robust and comprehensive information on the presence, diversity, ecology, bionomics and geographic spread of the organisms that carry and transmit the infectious agents. Huge gaps exist in the information related to these vectors, creating an essential need for campaigns to mobilise and share data. The publication of data papers is an effective tool for overcoming this challenge. These peer-reviewed articles provide scholarly credit for researchers whose vital work of assembling and publishing well-described, properly-formatted datasets often fails to receive appropriate recognition. To address this, GigaScience’s sister journal GigaByte partnered with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to publish a series of data papers, with support from the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Here we outline the initial results of this targeted approach to sharing data and describe its importance for controlling VBDs and improving public health.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Four notable additions to the South African echinoid fauna (Echinodermata, Echinoidea)
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Although a comprehensive guide to the South African echinoid fauna was published as recently as 2017, four notable additions to the fauna have emerged since that time and are reported on here. The first South African records for Histocidaris purpurata (Thomson, 1872), Echinothrix diadema (Linnaeus, 1758), Mi- crocyphus rousseaui L. Agassiz, in Agassiz and Desor 1846, and Pseudoboletia maculata Troschel, 1869 are presented. All four species have previously been recorded from the Atlantic and/or Indian Oceans and their ranges are thus extended southwards here. These additions increase the total number of echinoid species known from South Africa to 74.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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MODIRISK: Mosquito vectors of disease, collection, monitoring and longitudinal data from Belgium
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The MODIRISK project studied mosquito biodiversity and monitored and predicted biodiversity changes, to actively prepare to address issues of biodiversity change, especially invasive species and new pathogen risks. This work is essential given continuing global changes that may create suitable conditions for invasive species spread and the (re-)emergence of vector-borne diseases in Europe. Key strengths of MODIRISK, in the context of sustainable development, were the links between biodiversity and health and the environment, and its contribution to the development of tools for describing the spatial distribution of mosquito biodiversity. MODIRISK addressed key topics of the global Diversitas initiative, which was a main driver of the Belspo ‘Science for a Sustainable Development’ research program. Three different MODIRISK datasets were published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): the Collection dataset (the Culicidae collection of the Museum of Natural History in Brussels); the Inventory dataset (data from the MODIRISK inventory effort); and the Longitudinal dataset (experiment data used for risk assessments.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Assessing the influences of bee’s (Hymnoptera: Apidae) floral preference on cashew (Anacardiacae) agronomics performances in Côte d’Ivoire.
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This study aimed to assess the influence of bees’ floral preference on cashew agronomics performances in Côte d’Ivoire. Therefore, a sampling design with a total of 40 cashew trees preferred by bees and 40 trees that were not preferred by bees was established in 4 main producing regions. In addition, bees’ foragers and agronomics performances of trees were sampled. As results, a total of 46 bee’ species with a foraging activity of 4±0.32 visits per minute were observed. Apis mellifera (60% of visits, with 2.27±0.17 of visitors per minute) followed by Meliponula bocandei (23% of visits with 0.91±0.18 of visits per minute) contributes significantly to the reproduction of cashew trees, compare to the 44 other bees’ species (17% of visits; with an activity of 0.69±0.03 of visitors per minute). The preferred trees recorded 40.54±0.57 kg of nuts per tree, with 18.39±0.48 fruits per inflorescence, including 37.12±0.4% of useful kernel per raw nut (yield ratio of 65.45±0.66 pound of useful kernel). Conversely, the non-preferred trees obtained 5.24±0.44kg of nuts per tree, with 1.7±0.21 fruits per inflorescence, including 28.69±0.65% of useful kernel per raw nut (50.6±1.15 pound of useful kernel). Hence, the foraging preference of these two Apidae significantly increased the fruiting rate (83.7±0.01%), the yields (87.08±0.0%), and the kernel rate (22.68±1.76%) in raw cashew nuts. Based in these results, we suggest the foraging preference of Apis mellifera as good indicator of high-yielding cashew plants. Moreover, we suggests combination of apicultural and meliponicultrual in cashew farming to boost the yields and farmers livelihoods.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
