A high-altitude population of Hyperboreomyzon polaris (Hirudinea: Glossiphoniidae) in Altai Mountains, South Siberia, Russia.

Hyperboreomyzon polaris Bolotov, Eliseeva, Klass & Kondakov, 2022 (Hirudinea: Glossiphoniidae) is an enigmatic freshwater leech that was recently described based on three specimens from two remote regions of the Eurasian Arctic, that is, the Kolguev Island and Putorana Plateau, Russia. Later on, misidentified historical samples of this species were discovered in the Hirudinea collection of Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia).

A novel assembly pipeline and functional annotations for targeted sequencing: A case study on the globally threatened Margaritiferidae (Bivalvia: Unionida).

The proliferation of genomic sequencing approaches has significantly impacted the field of phylogenetics. Target capture approaches provide a cost-effective, fast and easily applied strategy for phylogenetic inference of non-model organisms. However, several existing target capture processing pipelines are incapable of incorporating whole genome sequencing (WGS).

Phylogeography and ecology of bumble bees on Kolguev Island, a remote European Arctic landmass.

The bumble bee fauna of the Russian Arctic is rather poorly known. Kolguev Island, a remote insular territory in the Barents Sea, is one of the deficiently studied areas. In this study, material on Kolguev's bumble bees is re-examined, phylogeographic data analysed, putative scenarios explaining the origin of the bumble bee fauna on the island discussed, and the biology and phenology of these insular populations described.

Cryptic taxonomic diversity and high-latitude melanism in the glossiphoniid leech assemblage from the Eurasian Arctic.

The family Glossiphoniidae is a diverse and widespread clade of freshwater leeches, playing a significant role in functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The taxonomy and biogeography of leeches from temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions attracted much attention of zoologists, while their taxonomic richness and distribution in the Arctic are poorly understood. Here, we present an overview of the Eurasian Arctic Glossiphoniidae based on the most comprehensive occurrence and DNA sequence datasets sampled to date.

Freshwater mussel conservation: A global horizon scan of emerging threats and opportunities.

We identified 14 emerging and poorly understood threats and opportunities for addressing the global conservation of freshwater mussels over the next decade. A panel of 17 researchers and stakeholders from six continents submitted a total of 56 topics that were ranked and prioritized using a consensus-building Delphi technique. Our 14 priority topics fell into five broad themes (autecology, population dynamics, global stressors, global diversity, and ecosystem services) and included understanding diets throughout mussel life history; identifying the drivers of population declines; defining metrics for quantifying mussel health; assessing the role of predators, parasites, and disease; informed guidance on the risks and opportunities for captive breeding and translocations; the loss of mussel-fish co-evolutionary relationships; assessing the effects of increasing surface water changes; understanding the effects of sand and aggregate mining; understanding the effects of drug pollution and other emerging contaminants such as nanomaterials; appreciating the threats and opportunities arising from river restoration; conserving understudied hotspots by building local capacity through the principles of decolonization; identifying appropriate taxonomic units for conservation; improved quantification of the ecosystem services provided by mussels; and understanding how many mussels are enough to provide these services.

A nearly complete database on the records and ecology of the rarest boreal tiger moth from 1840s to 2020.

Global environmental changes may cause dramatic insect declines but over century-long time series of certain species' records are rarely available for scientific research. The Menetries' Tiger Moth (Arctia menetriesii) appears to be the most enigmatic example among boreal insects. Although it occurs throughout the entire Eurasian taiga biome, it is so rare that less than 100 specimens were recorded since its original description in 1846.

Oriental freshwater mussels arose in East Gondwana and arrived to Asia on the Indian Plate and Burma Terrane.

Freshwater mussels cannot spread through oceanic barriers and represent a suitable model to test the continental drift patterns. Here, we reconstruct the diversification of Oriental freshwater mussels (Unionidae) and revise their taxonomy. We show that the Indian Subcontinent harbors a rather taxonomically poor fauna, containing 25 freshwater mussel species from one subfamily (Parreysiinae).

A new species of the lichen moth genus Tigricollis Singh amp; Kirti, 2016 (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) from eastern Indonesia.

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Trapped on the Roof of the World: taxonomic diversity and evolutionary patterns of Tibetan Plateau endemic freshwater snails (Gastropoda: Lymnaeidae: Tibetoradix).

The high-elevation Tibetan Plateau (western China) is inhabited by a unique, though not particularly species-rich, community of organisms. We explored the species content and evolutionary history of the Tibetan Plateau endemic freshwater snail genus Tibetoradix. Phylogenetic relationships within the genus were reconstructed based on available sequence data.

Diversity, biogeography, evolutionary relationships, and conservation of Eastern Mediterranean freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae).

Located at the junction between Europe, Africa, and Asia, with distinct evolutionary origins and varied ecological and geographical settings, together with a marked history of changes in orogeny and configuration of the main river basins, turned the Eastern Mediterranean into a region of high diversity and endemism of freshwater taxa. Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionidae) from the Western Palearctic have been widely studied in their European range, but little attention has been dedicated to these taxa in the Eastern Mediterranean region and their diversity and phylogeography are still poorly understood. The present study aims to resolve the diversity, biogeography, and evolutionary relationships of the Eastern Mediterranean freshwater mussels.

A new freshwater leech species from Asian Swamp Eel stocks in China.

Discoveries of new Hemiclepsis species (Hirudinea: Glossiphoniidae) in East and Southeast Asia were expected. A peculiar freshwater leech was found on the body surface of Asian Swamp Eel Monopterus albus (Synbranchiformes: Synbranchidae) in Jingzhou, Hubei Province, China. Here, we describe this leech species as Hemiclepsis yangtzenensis sp.

Three new species of the genus Nudina Staudinger, 1887 from northern Indochina (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae: Lithosiini).

Three new species of the genus Nudina Staudinger, 1887 are described from northern Indochina: N. ankistro Volynkin, Huang, Bolotov Spitsyn, sp. nov.

Is the South African leech Barbronia gwalagwalensis Westergren amp; Siddall, 2004 (Hirudinida: Erpobdelliformes: Salifidae) a Paleotropical species?

The freshwater leech family Salifidae Johansson has a Paleotropical range, with a hotspot of species richness in the Oriental Region, and a few species endemic to Africa, Madagascar, and Reunion. Barbronia gwalagwalensis Westergren Siddall, 2004 was thought to be a characteristic example of the latter group being a lineage endemic to South Africa. However, we found that this species also occurs in Asia (Myanmar and Korea).

Male of Spilarctia mikeli Bolotov, Kondakov amp; Spitsyn, 2018, an endemic species from Flores Island, Lesser Sunda Archipelago (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae).

The Lepidoptera fauna of the island of Flores (Lesser Sunda Archipelago, Indonesia) shares a large proportion of endemic species, which may reach 80100% in several groups (Zolotuhin Witt 2005; Nässig et al. 2009; Zolotuhin 2009; Nässig Bouyer 2010; Yakovlev 2015; Spitsyn Potapov 2020; Spitsyn Bolotov 2020). A plethora of new species was described from this island during the last 15 years, e.

New freshwater mussels from two Southeast Asian genera Bineurus and Thaiconcha (Pseudodontini, Gonideinae, Unionidae).

The Mekong and Chao Phraya rivers harbor a species-rich freshwater mussel assemblage containing a large radiation of the Pseudodontini species. Members of the genera Bineurus Simpson 1900 and Thaiconcha Bolotov et al., 2020 primarily inhabit small and medium-sized tributaries of these rivers.

A new fossil piddock (Bivalvia: Pholadidae) may indicate estuarine to freshwater environments near Cretaceous amber-producing forests in Myanmar.

The lower Cenomanian Kachin amber from Myanmar contains a species-rich assemblage with numerous plant and animal fossils. Terrestrial and, to a lesser degree, freshwater species predominate in this assemblage, while a few taxa with marine affinities were also discovered, e.g.

The Crown Pearl: a draft genome assembly of the European freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758).

Since historical times, the inherent human fascination with pearls turned the freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera (Linnaeus, 1758) into a highly valuable cultural and economic resource. Although pearl harvesting in M. margaritifera is nowadays residual, other human threats have aggravated the species conservation status, especially in Europe.

The role of anthropogenic habitats in freshwater mussel conservation.

Anthropogenic freshwater habitats may provide undervalued prospects for long-term conservation as part of species conservation planning. This fundamental, but overlooked, issue requires attention considering the pace that humans have been altering natural freshwater ecosystems and the accelerated levels of biodiversity decline in recent decades. We compiled 709 records of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionida) inhabiting a broad variety of anthropogenic habitat types (from small ponds to large reservoirs and canals) and reviewed their importance as refuges for this faunal group.

Does differential phosphorus processing by plankton influence the ecological state of shallow lakes?

Shallow lakes have a tendency to settle into turbid or clear-water states, the latter having lower concentrations of total phosphorus (TP). However, how P-cycling is affected by and perhaps contributes to maintaining the different states is not well understood, in part because quantifying the processes involved by traditional methods is difficult. To elucidate these processes, we conducted experiments using P-PO as a tracer on samples collected from the unrestored, unvegetated sections of Huizhou West Lake where turbid water prevails as well as the restored, clear-water, macrophyte-rich waters of the lake.

First freshwater mussel-associated piscicolid leech from East Asia.

Parasites and symbionts of freshwater mussels are poorly understood, although a diverse assemblage of mussel-associated leeches (Glossiphoniidae) was recently described. Here, we report on the discovery of a fish leech (Piscicolidae) in the mantle cavity of the freshwater mussel Cristaria plicata (Unionidae) in the Russian Far East. It is the first member of this leech family being associated with freshwater molluscs.

Symbiotic cooperation between freshwater rock-boring bivalves and microorganisms promotes silicate bioerosion.

Bioerosion is a process with a high socio-economic impact that contributes to coastal retreat, and likely to increase with climate change. Whereas limestone bioerosion is well explained by a combination of mechanical and chemical pathways, the bioerosion mechanisms of silicates, which are harder and chemically more resistant, remain elusive. Here we investigated the interface between siltstone and freshwater rock-boring bivalves Lignopholas fluminalis (Bivalvia: Pholadidae).