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The ants of the Galápagos Islands (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): a historical overview, checklist, and identification key
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The Galápagos ant fauna has long been understudied, with the last taxonomic summary being published almost a century ago. Here, a comprehensive and updated overview of the known ant species of the Galápagos Islands is provided with updated species distributions. The list is based on an extensive review of literature, the identification of more than 382,000 specimens deposited in different entomological collections, and recent expeditions to the islands. The ant fauna is composed of five subfamilies (Dolichoderinae, Dorylinae, Formicinae, Myrmicinae, and Ponerinae), 22 genera, 50 species, and 25 subspecies, although three species (Crematogaster crinosa Mayr, 1862, Camponotus senex (Smith, 1858), and Solenopsis saevissima (Smith, 1855)) are considered dubious records. Finally, an illustrated identification key of the species found in the archipelago is presented.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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The ants of the Galápagos Islands (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): a historical overview, checklist, and identification key
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The Galápagos ant fauna has long been understudied, with the last taxonomic summary being published almost a century ago. Here, a comprehensive and updated overview of the known ant species of the Galápagos Islands is provided with updated species distributions. The list is based on an extensive review of literature, the identification of more than 382,000 specimens deposited in different entomological collections, and recent expeditions to the islands. The ant fauna is composed of five subfamilies (Dolichoderinae, Dorylinae, Formicinae, Myrmicinae, and Ponerinae), 22 genera, 50 species, and 25 subspecies, although three species (Crematogaster crinosa Mayr, 1862, Camponotus senex (Smith, 1858), and Solenopsis saevissima (Smith, 1855)) are considered dubious records. Finally, an illustrated identification key of the species found in the archipelago is presented.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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The archaic beaked whale Ninoziphius platyrostris: clues on the evolutionary history of the family Ziphiidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti)
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The arrow points north - endemic areas and post-Devensian assembly of the British empidoidea fauna (Insecta: Diptera)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
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The Australian issid planthopper genus Orinda Kirkaldy, 1907: New subgenera, new species, host plant and identification key (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Issidae)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
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The avifauna, conservation and biogeography of the Njesi Highlands in northern Mozambique, with a review of the country’s Afromontane birdlife
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
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The backward jump of a box moss mite
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The bats of the Congo and of Rwanda and Burundi Revisited (Mammalia: Chiroptera)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
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The Beauchâteau Quarry in the Ardennes
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RBINS Staff Publications
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The biodiversity of the Eocene Messel Pit
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The Messel Pit is a Konservat-Lagerstätte in Germany, representing the deposits of a latest early to earliest middle Eocene maar lake, and one of the first palaeontological sites to be included on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One aspect of Messel that makes it so extraordinary is that its sediments are rich in different fossilised organisms – microfossils, plants, fungi, invertebrate animals and vertebrates – that are rarely preserved together. We present an updated list of all taxa, named or not, that have been documented at Messel, comprising 1409 taxa, which represent a smaller but inexactly known number of biological species. The taxonomic list of Labandeira and Dunne (2014) contains serious deficiencies and should not be used uncritically. Furthermore, we compiled specimen lists of all Messel amphibians, reptiles and mammals known to us. In all, our analyses incorporate data from 32 public collections and some 20 private collections. We apply modern biodiversity-theoretic techniques to ascertain how species richness tracks sampling, to estimate what is the minimum asymptotic species richness, and to project how long it will take to sample a given proportion of that minimum richness. Plant and insect diversity is currently less well investigated than vertebrate diversity. Completeness of sampling in aquatic and semiaquatic, followed by volant, vertebrates is higher than in terrestrial vertebrates. Current excavation rates are one-half to two-thirds lower than in the recent past, leading to much higher estimates of the future excavation effort required to sample species richness more completely, should these rates be maintained. Species richness at Messel, which represents a lake within a paratropical forest near the end of the Early Eocene Climate Optimum, was generally higher than in comparable parts of Central Europe today but lower than in present-day Neotropical biotopes. There is no evidence that the Eocene Messel ecosystem was a “tropical rainforest.”
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024