This was a field-record study rather than an experiment. The researchers did not directly test the causes of the new geographic distribution or establish whether the German populations have become persistent. The four confirmed records were made between May and August 2022. The authors withheld precise locality information for the fig trees to reduce the risk of vandalism, while making the underlying data available on request.

Wasps were collected from male fig fruits at different locations. Specimens were either immersed in ethanol or died dry before being sent for examination to the Museum Koenig Bonn or the SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung München. At Museum Koenig, the researchers processed 21 specimens from Radolfzell, Sasbach im Kaiserstuhl and Bochum. They extracted DNA and initially attempted to amplify the mitochondrial CO1 barcode region, but the original primer pair produced no sequences.

The researchers then used a newly designed forward primer, Heloridae-CV-F, with the HCO 2198-JJ reverse primer to amplify a 619-base-pair fragment. Twenty of the 21 specimens were successfully sequenced. Eighteen barcodes met the stated German Barcode of Life gold-standard criteria, including chromatogram quality and no more than 1% ambiguities or disagreement between contig sequences. The successful barcodes were uploaded to BOLD in dataset DS-DEBLPSEN.

The researchers aligned the new sequences with one B. psenes sequence and four outgroup sequences downloaded from BOLD, then calculated a neighbour-joining tree using the Tamura–Nei distance model. The analyses supported conspecificity among the German specimens and the B. psenes reference sequence. The maximum intraspecific difference was 1.1%. Specimens from Sasbach im Kaiserstuhl differed by 0.6–1.1% from those from Bochum and Radolfzell, while differences within each cluster reached a maximum of 0.5%. Morphologically, the authors considered all German specimens conspecific. The barcode differences might indicate different source populations, but the study did not establish their origins.

Blastophaga psenes is the sole pollinator of the edible fig, Ficus carica, and its reproduction depends on a coordinated cycle involving male and female trees and several generations of fruit. Male caprifigs contain short-styled gall flowers that host the wasps’ eggs and larvae together with male flowers that supply pollen. Female trees bear long-styled flowers and produce edible fruit. Depending on the cultivar, F. carica can produce up to three fruit generations per year.

The association is obligatory but does not mean that every edible fig cultivar requires pollination. Common-type cultivars, sometimes called Adriatic, can grow and ripen all fruit generations without pollination, although pollination may occur. Smyrna-type cultivars produce only pollinated fruits, while San Pedro-type cultivars can ripen Breba without pollination but require pollination for ripe Fichi. Reproduction of the wasp requires male caprifigs with fruit at the appropriate stages, so warmer conditions alone would not be sufficient to support it in a new area. The increasing availability of male caprifigs in central Europe may therefore have created opportunities for the wasp to reproduce alongside cultivated female trees.

Beyond the four confirmed localities, the study mapped less conclusive observations. Members of a Ficus carica Facebook group reported large numbers of wasps entering fig ostioles or emerging from caprifigs in Würzburg, Karlsruhe and Kippenheim near Offenburg in 2023, but those observations lacked detailed species identification and vouchers. The authors considered them reliable and mapped them separately. Pollinated Main Crop fruits from cultivars requiring pollination were also recorded in Riegel am Kaiserstuhl and Freiburg im Breisgau in 2022 and 2023, and in Wattenscheid, Essen and Rheinfelden in 2023; these observations did not include identified or vouchered wasps.

The authors identified climate change as a possible contributing factor, while emphasizing the wasps’ specialised relationship with F. carica. Unpublished 2023 observations from fig enthusiasts in Alsace, Ghent, The Hague, Graz and Klagenfurt suggested a possible stepwise expansion from western and eastern populations along the Rhine, Danube and Rhône corridors, but these were not part of the verified German dataset. The German populations have not previously been compared with specimens across Europe, leaving the routes and origins of the range extension uncertain. Because the 2022 observations involved wasps produced by successful reproduction and further records were made in 2023, establishment is possible but not demonstrated.

Historical introduction attempts illustrate the uncertainty. B. psenes was successfully introduced in southern California in 1889 to pollinate Smyrna figs, but no subsequent range expansion was observed, while attempts in Texas, southern Arizona and Florida failed. The study therefore provides verified first records and a baseline for monitoring the fig–wasp interaction in Germany. Whether the populations will persist, spread further or alter fig cultivation remains unresolved.

Subject of Research: First verified records and genetic identification of the obligate fig pollinator Blastophaga psenes in Germany

Article Title: The obligate fig-pollinator family Agaonidae in Germany ( Hymenoptera , Chalcidoidea )

Article References: Rehberger, S., Vogel, J., Müller, B., Vasilita, C., Krogmann, L., Schmidt, S., & Peters, R. S. (2024). The obligate fig-pollinator family Agaonidae in Germany (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea). Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, 71(1), 177-183. https://doi.org/10.3897/dez.71.117640

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/dez.71.117640

Keywords: Blastophaga psenes, Agaonidae, fig wasps, Ficus carica, caprifigs, DNA barcoding, citizen science, Germany, pollination, range expansion, obligate, fig-pollinator

The work forms part of HiQBioDiv, “High-resolution quantification of biodiversity for conservation and management,” funded by Latvia’s Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development. The broader project is intended to develop nationwide models for European Union-protected taxa with unfavourable or unknown conservation status, as well as habitat specialists, indicator species and umbrella species. Its stated downstream applications include producing spatially explicit biodiversity layers, prioritising sites and assessing possible additions to the national protected-area network; these remain objectives of the wider project design.

The published package contains five related datasets. SpeciesList records the criteria used to consider taxa for modelling, while Nomenclature reconciles scientific names and, where available, common names across taxonomic groups and conservation lists. Observations contains the filtered occurrence records, FilteringGuide identifies land-cover classes that may indicate location errors for particular species, and EGVtable specifies candidate ecogeographical variables and their spatial scales. A shared combination of taxonomic group, assigned taxon number, scientific name and species code allows the tables to be filtered and cross-referenced.

Candidate species were drawn from nationwide taxonomic lists and from conservation-oriented groups that included protected, endangered, typical, indicator and umbrella species. Selection also depended on practical modelling constraints. Each candidate needed at least 20 expert-validated observations from 2016–2024 before spatial filtering, and taxa that could not be identified confidently from photographs were excluded. Expert judgement was used to avoid expansive, invasive, non-native, synanthropic, ecologically plastic and taxonomically difficult species whose models were considered unlikely to provide robust or conservation-relevant estimates.

Occurrence records came from the Dabasdati citizen-science portal, the governmental OZOLS nature-data system, PlutoF, the Institute of Plant Protection Research’s Agrihorts collection, several LIFE projects and personal expert databases. Taxonomic-group experts checked identifications where photographs, video or sound recordings were available and screened records for obvious coordinate errors. Records from Dabasdati or OZOLS without photographs were retained only when the observer was also an expert in the relevant taxonomic group.

Each observation retains its source identifier and a three-level relative reliability category—citizen science, expert/research or mixed. Temporal and abundance information are included when available; otherwise, a single observed individual is assumed. Coordinates are expressed in EPSG:3059, the LKS-92/Latvia TM coordinate system, and rounded to species-specific 100-, 1,000- or 5,000-metre grid-cell centres to avoid revealing sensitive locations. Only the last known observation in each grid cell is retained. Under national rules on restricted information, occurrence data for 10 taxa are omitted from the public observation file, including all bat species and the orchid Cypripedium calceolus. The rules also determine the resolutions at which observations and model projections may be published.

The FilteringGuide compares observation positions with broad Corine Land Cover classes representing built-up areas, open landscapes, tree-covered areas, wetlands and water. Coastal-dune species receive an additional check using Latvia’s exclusive economic zone and Baltic Sea coastline files. An observation in a class marked unsuitable for its species is flagged as a potential location error rather than automatically treated as invalid. The guide also records whether land-use and land-cover change analysis has been completed and which landscape classes require assessment.

For observations dated 2016–2024, the authors calculated accumulated environmental change from the year of observation through 2024. The analysis used the 30-metre Global Forest Watch v1.12 tree-cover-loss layer and annual Dynamic World land-cover classifications derived from Sentinel-2 images with cloudiness no greater than 35%. Change was aggregated at the 100-metre analysis-cell level and within landscape radii of 500, 1,250, 3,000 and 10,000 metres. Observations from 2000–2015 and 2025 were included for rare or protected species with very limited records, but these records do not contain the corresponding environmental-change calculations.

The EGV table draws on 538 candidate variables at 100-metre resolution, covering climate, hydrology, terrain, soil, Earth-observation products, landscape diversity and composition, agriculture, forestry, distance to landscape features and other land-cover classes. Species-specific selections use the 100-metre cell, an expert-estimated home-range scale and the next larger landscape scale. The framework seeks to avoid duplicating equivalent information across scales, reduce multicollinearity and spatial autocorrelation, and retain biologically interpretable gradients. For example, forest-dwelling species may use forest age and timber volume at 100 metres, broader age-class proportions at home-range scale and increasingly general forest-cover measures at landscape scale. The publication provides candidate inputs, not fitted coefficients or predicted distributions, and does not evaluate model performance, predictive accuracy or the consequences of using the data in protected-area decisions.

Subject of Research: Preparation of species occurrence data and environmental predictors for habitat suitability modelling in Latvia

Article Title: Occurrence data for habitat suitability modelling to support conservation planning in Latvia: species list, observations and ecogeographical variable selection

Article References: Starka, R., Rūsiņa, S., Auniņa, L., Balalaikins, M., Butkeviča, J., Cera, I., Čakstiņa, D., Čeirāns, A., Gailis, J., Liepiņa, L., Leimanis, I., Mežaka, A., Moisejevs, R., Ozols, J., Pilāte, D., Priedniece, I., Riters, R., Rubene, B., Strazdiņa, L., … Avotiņš, A. (2026). Occurrence data for habitat suitability modelling to support conservation planning in Latvia: species list, observations and ecogeographical variable selection. Biodiversity Data Journal, 14, Article e194577. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.14.e194577

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e194577

Keywords: Latvia, habitat suitability modelling, species occurrences, biodiversity data, conservation planning, citizen science, ecogeographical variables, spatial filtering, data paper, Occurrence, data, habitat

The project centered on the European green toad, Bufotes viridis, a pioneer species associated with temporary, often vegetation-free pools and a species categorized as Vulnerable in Austria. The researchers provided 300 standardized polyethylene mini-ponds to citizen scientists across Austria and installed two additional ponds at the Vienna Zoo. Of the 300 distributed to volunteers, 289 were confirmed by photographs to have been set up and were included in the monitoring results.

Each mini-pond measured 120 by 90 by 40 cm, held 150 litres of water and had a surface area of 0.98 m². The team selected the commercially available model with the largest surface-to-volume ratio that met their requirements. Ribbed sides and an attachable coconut-fiber mesh were intended to help animals leave the ponds. Participants were asked not to add soil, gravel, sand, stones, plants or wood, thereby maintaining broadly comparable early-successional, oligotrophic conditions, and to replenish the water regularly.

Pond placement prioritized the known post-2000 distribution of the European green toad in Austria. The researchers used the Austrian Herpetofauna Database, unpublished observations and records from iNaturalist to identify areas, including places associated with populations considered lost, such as Carinthia. Applicants were asked about existing garden ponds and whether amphibians had been observed on their properties, and satellite imagery was used to assess barriers and nearby water bodies. Most ponds were installed and filled during the first week of March 2024.

Monitoring was conducted through the custom AmphiApp smartphone application, which transferred observations to a web-integrated database. Citizen scientists were asked to inspect their ponds every second weekend from 2 March through 1 September 2024 and to report additional observations outside the schedule. Records included the date and time, geographic coordinates, relative water level, whether water had been added, a tentative identification, a description, a photograph and, optionally, an audio recording. The team validated the records and generally treated an observation as associated with a mini-pond when the animal was recorded within five metres, although such cases were rare.

Pelophylax species, which could not be distinguished reliably from photographs or recordings and were therefore treated as one taxon, generated 107 records from 47 ponds and represented 42.3% of all reports. The European green toad produced 59 records from 17 ponds, while the common toad, Bufo bufo, produced 17 records from 14. The smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris, was recorded in 12 ponds and the agile frog, Rana dalmatina, in 13. Other observations included the common frog, yellow-bellied toad, fire-bellied toad, European tree frog, alpine newt and crested newt. Reports generally increased during the expected aquatic season, with most made from May through September.

Signs of reproduction—including amplexus, eggs, larvae or metamorphs—were recorded in 29 of the 289 ponds. Evidence of reproduction was reported for eight identified taxa: the smooth newt in six of the 12 ponds where the species was recorded; Pelophylax species in five of 47; the European green toad in three of 17; the common toad in two of 14; the yellow-bellied toad in two of five; and one each for the European tree frog, common frog and alpine newt. The researchers could not confirm reproduction for the agile frog, fire-bellied toad or crested newt. An additional 19 ponds contained reproductive signs that could only be classified as Anura.

To account for the likelihood that amphibians present in a pond went unobserved, the researchers fitted Bayesian single-species occupancy models with the spOccupancy R package. Records were organized into 14 two-week intervals, and only observations within each taxon’s typical reproductive activity period were used. Models were fitted for the smooth newt, European green toad, yellow-bellied toad and Pelophylax species, the four taxa detected in at least 10 intervals. Per-interval detection probabilities were estimated at 0.107, with a 95% Bayesian credible interval of 0.052–0.176, for the European green toad and 0.154, with an interval of 0.062–0.274, for the yellow-bellied toad. Cumulative probabilities over the respective activity periods ranged from 0.658 for the European green toad to 0.836 for the smooth newt. The models found no significant differences among the four species.

These findings provide first-season evidence that small, newly created ponds can attract amphibians and support reproductive activity, but they do not establish the ponds’ long-term effectiveness. The study covered one active season, used fortnightly observations by mostly untrained citizen scientists and could model only four taxa because other species had too few detections across enough intervals. Most volunteers sampled during daylight, which likely reduced detection of nocturnal species, while brief aquatic residency also limited detection of explosive breeders. The authors anticipate that additional species and amphibians may use the ponds during a second season, but that possibility remains a forecast rather than a measured result.

Subject of Research: First-season amphibian colonization and reproduction in Austrian garden mini-ponds monitored through citizen science

Article Title: Early amphibian colonizers of man-made mini-ponds: first results of a citizen science experiment

Article References: Siebert, J., Burgstaller, S., Kornilev, Y. V., Krall, M. M., Hamernik, D., Kremser, J., Loupal, A., Spießberger, M., Zaller, J. G., Schweiger, S., Graf, W., Dörler, D., Heigl, F., & Landler, L. (2025). Early amphibian colonizers of man-made mini-ponds: first results of a citizen science experiment. Herpetozoa, 38, 231-240. https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.38.e153679

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.38.e153679

Keywords: amphibian conservation, citizen science, garden ponds, European green toad, breeding habitats, occupancy modelling, detection probability, Austria, habitat creation, Early, amphibian, colonizers

Long-term monitoring is presented as a way to detect trends in hydrology, vegetation and fauna, distinguish natural variability from anthropogenic pressures and establish baselines for restoration. Restoration monitoring has a different scope: it examines interventions such as hydrological reconnection, sediment reactivation and vegetation re-establishment over shorter, management-relevant periods. The authors argue that combining these approaches supplies rapid feedback on interventions while showing whether observed changes persist over time.

European policy already offers several mechanisms for measuring and improving wetland condition. The Bern Convention promotes cooperation on threatened species and habitats across Europe, while the EU Habitats and Birds Directives support the Natura 2000 network through Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas. The Water Framework Directive assesses aquatic ecosystems using biological, physicochemical and hydromorphological indicators. The adopted Nature Restoration Regulation adds legally binding restoration targets and requirements for consistent monitoring and reporting, but the review notes that realizing their full potential requires coherent implementation across Europe, including beyond the EU.

For river–floodplain systems, the review recommends a landscape-scale perspective combining hydrological connectivity, geomorphology, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Periodic inundation links rivers and floodplains and regulates exchanges of water, nutrients and sediment that support habitat diversity and ecological integrity. In large rivers, competing demands from navigation, flood control, hydropower, agriculture and settlements can make full naturalisation infeasible, so the review presents process-based, multifunctional restoration as a practical approach to recovering ecological processes while balancing economic and social needs.

Systematic evaluation of restoration outcomes remains limited despite the expansion of river and floodplain restoration across Europe, and the review reports that post-restoration monitoring is rarely included in wetland restoration guidelines. Policy-driven assessments focus on selected organism groups and therefore capture only part of floodplain biodiversity. As one highlighted example, the BioAu-Tool is a stakeholder co-designed method for riverbanks and floodplains that assesses vascular plants, terrestrial and aquatic molluscs, ground beetles, amphibians and birds across 18 Central European floodplain types. It offers habitat-screening and detailed species-analysis levels and supports before-and-after or space-for-time comparisons; nationwide testing of its efficiency and user-friendliness was still underway, with no results reported in the review.

Remote sensing and artificial intelligence can add capacity but carry technical and operational limits. Cited work using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data reported wetland classification accuracies above 85%, and some studies identified flooded areas with accuracy of up to approximately 98%. UAV photogrammetry achieved reported accuracies of 80–95% when classifying macrophyte taxa and functional groups, although submerged vegetation was harder to detect in deeper or turbid water. Satellite data can be affected by cloud cover, gaps, limited ground validation and insufficient fine-scale resolution, while UAV surveys require personnel, time and money. Separately, a convolutional neural network trained on 90 EPT taxa—mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies—reported 98.7% overall classification accuracy; the review also describes potential identification speed gains, rather than results from a Europe-wide deployment.

Other approaches can also provide alternatives to conventional observation or identification. Sensor networks can transmit water-level, soil-moisture, connectivity and flow measurements to cloud-based analytical systems, which the review describes as potential support for detecting inundation shifts, moisture anomalies and connectivity changes. Environmental DNA metabarcoding detects species presence or community composition from water, sediment or soil and, in cited studies, revealed fish community structure and invasive species more rapidly than conventional methods. Citizen science has produced results closely matching professional monitoring in Germany’s FLOW project, where volunteers used protocols aligned with the Water Framework Directive to assess macroinvertebrates, hydromorphology and pesticide pressures in small streams.

Climate information is necessary for interpreting ecological change because temperature, precipitation, drought and extreme events affect wetlands, while wetlands themselves influence water storage, greenhouse-gas fluxes and local microclimates. The review cites IPCC projections of significantly greater risks from weather extremes, drought and intense precipitation by 2081–2100 under high-emission scenarios, and European projections indicating temperature increases of 1.9–6.1 °C relative to pre-industrial levels. Proposed indicators include water-table depth, inundation duration, consecutive dry days, maximum five-day precipitation, water temperature, inflow and outflow volumes, soil moisture and vegetation greenness. Modelled coastal scenarios involving habitat loss exceeding 50% with sea-level rise of 0.25 m or less are described as possible tipping-point conditions, not observed outcomes across Europe.

Initiatives including RESI, SWOS, Restore4Life, SELINA, Biodiversa+, eLTER, DANUBIUS-RI, LifeWatch ERIC and MAMBO provide components for a more connected European monitoring architecture. The review nevertheless describes progress as fragmented and project based, with overlapping but disconnected datasets and indicators. It proposes shared standards, interoperable databases and coordinated governance linking field observations, hydrological measurements, remote sensing, ecosystem-service models, climate-informed modelling and citizen-generated data. Limitations include uneven standards and capacity, particularly between EU and non-EU countries, institutional fragmentation, underfunded monitoring and the difficulty of upscaling local observations across dynamic floodplains. The review’s central conclusion is that sustained monitoring should connect ecological condition, ecosystem services and governance to support adaptive restoration and policy evaluation across Europe.

Subject of Research: Review of integrated biodiversity and restoration monitoring for European riparian wetlands

Article Title: Towards effective and integrated riparian wetland monitoring in Europe: challenges and opportunities

Article References: Cvijanović, D., Stammel, B., Novković, M., Adamescu, M., Baumane, M., Bonn, A., Ehlert, T., von Gönner, J., Januschke, K., Kaden, U. S., Schipper, C., Schulz-Zunkel, C., & Scholz, M. (2026). Towards effective and integrated riparian wetland monitoring in Europe: challenges and opportunities. Nature Conservation, 62, 121-148. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.62.167089

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.62.167089

Keywords: riparian wetlands, biodiversity monitoring, wetland restoration, hydrology, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, environmental DNA, citizen science, European policy, ecosystem services, Towards, effective

Specimen A measured 300.2 millimetres in total length and weighed 244.7 grams, while specimen B measured 166.3 millimetres and weighed 38.6 grams. Both are now preserved in ethanol in the university collection under catalogue number OMRG_06_2025. Morphological examination followed the standard protocols of Hubbs and Lagler, with measurements taken to an accuracy of 0.1 millimetres.

The fish displayed the classic lizardfish silhouette: an elongate, cylindrical body, a short-based first dorsal fin, a small adipose second dorsal fin, a forked caudal fin and a lateral line running to the tail base. Diagnostic details clinched the identification, including four scale rows above the lateral line, lanceolate teeth on the jaws alternating long and short, well-developed lingual teeth on the tongue, and a long flap on the anterior nostril. Dorsal fin rays numbered 13, anal fin rays 8, pelvic fin rays 8, pectoral fin rays 12 and caudal fin rays 19, with 59 pored lateral line scales counted in specimen A and at least 56 in the damaged specimen B.

Colouration provided further confirmation. In the thawed specimens the back was reddish and the belly pale, crossed by at least seven irregular darker bands with narrow ventral extensions, dark brown patches along the upper flanks, yellowish fins with transverse dark bands, barred lips, a red-marked eye and a distinctive dark blotch at the tip of the snout. An underwater photograph taken on 3 May 2025 by a diver at Cirkewwa, off the northwestern coast of Malta at 20 metres on hard bottom covered with macroalgae, revealed the animal in life: four large red-brown bands across the back between the dorsal fin origin and the caudal fin base, alternating with orange bands, sparse sky-blue shades and a black spot on the upper surface of the snout.

This livery matches historical descriptions of Synodus synodus published as far back as Fowler in 1936. Polymerase chain reactions were run in 25 microlitre volumes with GoTaq G2 Flexi DNA polymerase under a cycling profile of 35 cycles, and amplification success was verified by 2 percent agarose gel electrophoresis before sequencing in both directions. The resulting consensus sequences were compared against public repositories using BLASTn in NCBI GenBank and the Identification Engine of the Barcode of Life Data System, and have been deposited under GenBank accession numbers PV904155 and PV904156.

The Maltese sequences showed a maximum identity of only 95.40 percent with reference sequences of Synodus synodus from the western Atlantic. In a neighbour-joining tree reconstructed in MEGA 11 from 35 public COI sequences of the species, plus 11 sequences of five congeneric species as comparative outgroups, the Maltese fish did not cluster with the western Atlantic specimens. Instead they formed a separate, well-supported cluster with 99 percent bootstrap support.

The authors attribute this pattern to the limited representation of Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic populations in public databases, noting that no eastern Atlantic COI sequences of the species are currently available in BOLD to corroborate the assignment further. That genetic gap fits with what is already known about the species. The diamond lizardfish is native to both sides of the Atlantic, ranging from Uruguay to Canada in the west and from Senegal to northern Angola in the east, including island groups such as Madeira, the Canaries and Cape Verde.

Earlier work by Frable and colleagues and by Russell has shown that eastern and western Atlantic populations are genetically distinct, and Norman suggested as early as 1935 that an eastern subspecies might exist. Eastern Atlantic individuals also tend to grow larger, reaching about 30 centimetres standard length against roughly 15 centimetres in the west. The Maltese confirmation also casts doubt on recent reports of a different lizardfish from the eastern Mediterranean.

Synodus randalli, a benthopelagic tropical species of the western Indian Ocean known from the Red Sea to South Africa, was reported for the first time in the Mediterranean in 2023 at Iskenderun Bay in Turkey, with subsequent records from Crete and Mersin Bay. Yet the authors flag multiple inconsistencies. The Mediterranean specimens were caught far shallower than the 140 to 250 metre depth range reported for the species, their sizes greatly exceed the 11 to 13 centimetre maximum standard length of Synodus randalli, their pectoral fins fail to reach the diagnostic line from pelvic fin base to dorsal fin origin, and they show eight anal-fin rays where the species should have nine.

Most tellingly, the specimen photographed at Iskenderun displays the dark snout blotch characteristic of Synodus synodus. The authors conclude that the identity of these eastern Mediterranean records warrants direct comparison with the species they have now confirmed in Malta. Why has the diamond lizardfish gone so long undetected in the central Mediterranean?

The authors suggest it may simply be uncommon, or that it has been under-recorded because of its cryptic behaviour and its resemblance to other lizardfishes, including the native Atlantic lizardfish Synodus saurus and the invasive Lessepsian migrant Saurida lessepsianus, which entered the basin from the Red Sea through the Suez Canal. Warming Mediterranean waters, documented in recent assessments, together with empty ecological niches created by overfishing, could favour the reproduction and spread of an existing population or enable a fresh wave of expansion from the eastern Atlantic. Notably, the same fisher who provided the two study specimens reports having caught at least five to ten similar individuals at the same location since January 2025, all sold before they could be formally documented.

The study updates the known fish fauna of the Maltese Archipelago and illustrates the growing power of citizen science in tracking shifting marine distributions. Campaigns such as Spot the Alien Fish succeed best when key stakeholders, particularly fishers, are engaged, since fishers hold valuable local ecological knowledge about where unfamiliar species appear. The authors stress that combining classical morphological examination with molecular approaches remains essential for accurate identification in taxonomically challenging groups, and that the scarcity of records so far makes further research on the distribution of the diamond lizardfish across the Mediterranean basin a clear priority.

Subject of Research: First confirmed record of the diamond lizardfish Synodus synodus in Maltese waters, central Mediterranean Sea

Article Title:  Synodus synodus ( Actinopterygii , Aulopiformes , Synodontidae ) in the coastal waters of Malta, central Mediterranean Sea

Article References: Deidun, A., Corsini-Foka, M., Zava, B., Marrone, A., Catalano, G., Crobe, V., & Tinti, F. (2025). Synodus synodus (Actinopterygii, Aulopiformes, Synodontidae) in the coastal waters of Malta, central Mediterranean Sea. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, 55, 403-411. https://doi.org/10.3897/aiep.55.173159

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/aiep.55.173159

Keywords: Synodus synodus, diamond lizardfish, Malta, Mediterranean Sea, DNA barcoding, COI gene, invasive species, marine biodiversity, citizen science, Synodontidae, neonative species, ichthyology

The records cover the Greater North Sea, including the Kattegat, Skagerrak and English Channel; the Celtic Seas; the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast; and the Western Mediterranean Sea. Professional fisheries data came primarily from ObsMer, France’s observer programme for commercial fishing vessels. Observers sampled landings, discards and bycatches under a stratified design based on geography, quarterly season, vessel-size class and fleets.

Operations covered exclusive economic zones belonging to France, Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and Norway, with some localised high-seas coverage. In Corsica, STARESO monitored small-scale fishing from 2009 to 2015 using a protocol described as comparable to ObsMer; programmes after 2015 were not included. Scientific sources included standardised bottom-trawl and acoustic-trawl surveys, MedSeaCan and CorSeaCan canyon expeditions, and Pelagis aerial and vessel-based observations.

Bottom trawls primarily detect benthic and demersal species and most such surveys did not sample beyond 500 metres. Acoustic trawl surveys target commercial pelagic fish and can record elasmobranchs as bycatch. The canyon campaigns used a remotely operated vehicle or two-seater submarine to collect photographs, videos and biological samples at depths of 90 to 700 metres across 13 selected areas in the Gulf of Lion and around Corsica.

Pelagis aerial surveys recorded observations of megafauna at the sea surface from an altitude of 180 metres while flying at 167 kilometres per hour. Two observers scanned a strip extending 200 metres to either side of the aircraft, documenting large fish and other megafauna without a distance limit. Weather and turbidity were also recorded because they can affect detection.

Vessel-based Pelagis observations were conducted aboard oceanographic vessels during several scientific surveys, with one or two dedicated observers recording conditions, megafauna and other objects encountered. Citizen-science records came from the ELASMED observatory, BioObs platform and APECS national basking-shark recording scheme. Unlike the scientific surveys, these submissions were opportunistic rather than collected under standardised sampling protocols.

ELASMED contributed records from the Western Mediterranean, while BioObs and APECS covered a broader group of marine sub-regions. BioObs applied geographic and feasibility checks and used photographs when available, while APECS retained only observations assigned reliability levels 1a, 1b or 2. Between two and five references were consulted for each species.

A record was geographically plausible when more than half of the relevant references confirmed the species’ presence in the ICES division where it was recorded. Both minimum and maximum thresholds were used for bathydemersal and bathypelagic species; only maximum thresholds were applied to other species. The validation thresholds were fixed to provide a consistent and reproducible framework.

The authors acknowledge that species can depart from known biological or ecological ranges, including during range shifts or in rare observations, and that expert judgement was applied when records were ambiguous. French taxonomic specialists assessed occurrences within their areas of expertise, and every retained occurrence was assigned one of four certainty levels. Spatial precision also varied: some records retained exact coordinates, fishing operations could use the centroid of deployment and retrieval positions, and sensitive ObsMer records were generalised to ICES statistical subrectangles measuring 0.16 degrees of latitude by 0.33 degrees of longitude.

The resource includes 86 species—seven Holocephali and 79 Elasmobranchii—rather than all 106 chondrichthyan species reported for French metropolitan waters. The difference reflects species not recorded in the compiled sources during 2003–2021, potentially because of rarity, limited detectability or their association with habitats that were not surveyed. Geographic coverage extends from 36.00° to 62.33° north and from −15.93° to 12.86° longitude, while the temporal range runs from 1 August 2003 to 21 December 2021.

Scientific names follow TAXREF version 18. Two linked data resources are provided: an event table describing sampling events and their characteristics, and an occurrence table listing species encounters linked to those events by event identifier. An event without a linked occurrence indicates that no species of interest was captured or observed.

The dataset is released under a Creative Commons Public Domain Waiver and is intended to support reuse in scientific analysis, conservation planning and reporting under national and European marine-biodiversity rules.

Subject of Research: A quality-controlled occurrence dataset of chondrichthyan species in French metropolitan waters and the North-East Atlantic and Western Mediterranean Sea, 2003–2021.

Article Title: Distribution dataset of chondrichthyan species occurring in French metropolitan waters and across the North-East Atlantic

Article References: Bisch, A., Stephan, P., Elliott, S., Barreau, T., Bousquet, C., Colombet, L., Dorémus, G., Marengo, M., Lapinski, M., Rohr, A., Sichel, F., Stephan, E., & Acou, A. (2026). Distribution dataset of chondrichthyan species occurring in French metropolitan waters and across the North-East Atlantic. Biodiversity Data Journal, 14, Article e191625. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.14.e191625

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e191625

Keywords: chondrichthyans, France, occurrence dataset, North-East Atlantic, Western Mediterranean, marine biodiversity, fisheries monitoring, citizen science, quality control, marine conservation, Distribution, dataset

This was an observational field report based on opportunistic captures obtained through collaboration with local fishers. It focused on the eastern Sicilian coast between Catania, at 37.54639°N, 15.17410°E, and Portopalo di Capo Passero, at 36.69326°N, 15.14161°E. The specimens came from artisanal trammel nets used to target the common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, rather than from a standardized survey designed to estimate population density or distribution.

Eleven specimens were obtained at Portopalo, Marzamemi, Siracusa, Avola and Catania. Recorded capture depths ranged from 8 to 18 metres, and captures occurred in rocky, sandy and mixed habitats. When the animals were not heavily damaged, the researchers documented the capture date, geographical coordinates, depth, fishing gear, sex and carapace width and length. Carapace dimensions were measured with a caliper accurate to within one millimetre.

The researchers identified the crabs using diagnostic characters described in earlier taxonomic work, including four prominent anterolateral teeth, cheliped morphology and colour pattern. Preserved voucher specimens were deposited in the zoological collection of the Ente Fauna Marina Mediterranea under the codes EFMM181225, EFMM231225 and EFMM090126. Among specimens whose dimensions were recorded, carapace width ranged from 36 millimetres in a female collected at Portopalo on 13 November 2025 to 59 millimetres in a male captured at Avola on 23 December.

Both sexes were represented in the captures, but no ovigerous females were found. The observations therefore document the presence of multiple individuals, including males and females, but do not establish that the species is reproducing locally. The repeated captures across nearby locations and within a short interval support the hypothesis of a local population at an early stage of establishment rather than a single isolated introduction, although establishment was not directly measured through systematic abundance or reproductive surveys.

The first confirmed record of G. giardi in Italian waters was documented in November 2025 at Portopalo di Capo Passero in southeastern Sicily. At the time, it was also the westernmost reported Mediterranean occurrence. The species is native to the Red Sea and Arabian Sea and reaches the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. It was historically confused with Gonioinfradens paucidentatus before its taxonomic revalidation by Galil and colleagues in 2018. Since that revalidation, it has been reported from the Aegean, Ionian and Levantine basins.

The Sicilian records extend the documented range of G. giardi westward and strengthen the biogeographic significance of the first Italian report. The report places these observations within a broader pattern of non-indigenous species entering the Mediterranean amid climate warming, intensified maritime traffic and continued ingress through the Suez Canal. It also notes that portunid crabs have expanded rapidly within the sea, with several species becoming established, although the new observations do not demonstrate how G. giardi compares with those species in abundance or ecological impact.

The ecological consequences of this expansion remain uncertain. The report states that G. giardi may interact with native benthic communities, but it provides no specific data on the crab’s feeding ecology, trophic role or competitive behaviour toward native portunids. Any effects on benthic invertebrate populations or local food webs therefore remain hypothetical. The species is also smaller than portunids such as Callinectes sapidus and Portunus segnis, which are known to interfere with trammel-net fisheries; its direct or indirect effects on small-scale coastal fisheries are presently unknown and unquantified.

Collaboration with fishers allowed the researchers to detect the species at multiple sites, habitats and depths over a short period, while retained vouchers and recorded measurements documented the captures. The authors identify long-term monitoring, early impact assessment and the integration of fishers’ observations through citizen-science networks as priorities for the Ionian coast. Based on the repeated and geographically coherent captures, they consider further geographic spread and increasing local abundance probable in the near future, but these outcomes are predictions rather than measured results of the field report.

Subject of Research: Early evidence of establishment of the Lessepsian crab Gonioinfradens giardi along Sicily’s Ionian coast

Article Title: Rapid expansion of a Lessepsian migrant crab, Gonioinfradens giardi ( Crustacea , Brachyura , Portunidae ), in the Ionian Sea: New records and early evidence of establishment

Article References: Tiralongo, F., Leotta, P., Accolla, H., Tibullo, D., & Felici, A. (2026). Rapid expansion of a Lessepsian migrant crab, Gonioinfradens giardi (Crustacea, Brachyura, Portunidae), in the Ionian Sea: New records and early evidence of establishment. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, 56, 145-149. https://doi.org/10.3897/aiep.56.185183

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/aiep.56.185183

Keywords: Gonioinfradens giardi, Lessepsian migrants, Sicily, Ionian Sea, Mediterranean Sea, non-indigenous species, crab establishment, citizen science, Suez Canal, marine biodiversity, Rapid, expansion

The researchers received photographs from the fishers and contacted them directly for information about the catches. The images were examined with Google Reverse Image Search to check that they had not previously been published elsewhere. Species identification was based on visible diagnostic characters, including a moderately long, bluntly conical snout, five long gill slits, relatively large dark eyes, long pectoral fins, narrow triangular teeth, a sharp change from grey-brown dorsal to white ventral coloration, and a lunate caudal fin with a subterminal notch. The absence of a secondary caudal keel distinguished the sharks from the porbeagle, Lamna nasus. A maximum total length of 1.75 metres was used to classify a great white shark as young-of-the-year.

In the Croatian record, the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries in Split received photographs in August 2018 from a fisherman who had sought identification of an elasmobranch. The shark had been caught six nautical miles south of Glavat Island in a gillnet deployed at approximately 125 metres depth to target large demersal fish. It was dead when the fishing gear was retrieved, and the specimen had already been partially processed.

The fisherman estimated the Croatian animal’s total length at 175 centimetres and total weight at 45 kilograms. A hook was embedded in its upper jaw, which the researchers considered likely to have remained from an earlier capture. The available photographs documented the head, jaws, teeth, caudal peduncle and a severed caudal fin, allowing the researchers to assess features used in the species identification. Because the animal was dead and partly processed when documented, the study did not involve a standardized examination of a living or intact specimen.

The second observation occurred on 23 June 2025 off Montenegro. Staff from the Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Montenegro received photographs from a fisherman who had previously contributed to the country’s elasmobranch-reporting initiative. That initiative began in 2016 and was later formalized as “#pošaljiajkulu,” or “send the shark.” The shark was caught in a set gillnet deployed at 115 metres depth, approximately seven nautical miles offshore from the entrance to Boka Kotorska Bay.

Unlike the Croatian specimen, the Montenegrin shark was alive when the net was retrieved. The fisherman estimated its total length at approximately 1.3–1.4 metres. It was only lightly entangled, and it was released after photographs were taken. It appeared exhausted from its attempts to free itself and swam away slowly. The observation therefore documents a capture and release, not a tracked movement, measured survival outcome or demonstration that the animal remained in the area.

The records provide additional encounters beyond a previously published young-of-the-year great white shark caught near Rogoznica, Croatia, in September 2023. A widely used definition of a shark nursery requires newborn and young-of-the-year animals to be encountered more frequently than elsewhere, to remain in or return to the area for extended periods, and to use the habitat repeatedly across years. The two new records and the 2023 observation support repeated encounters, but they do not establish greater relative abundance, residency, return rates or long-term habitat use. The authors note that no unequivocal great white shark nursery has yet been identified in the Mediterranean basin.

Continental shelf habitat may nevertheless be relevant to the species’ early life stages. The Adriatic, Aegean Sea and Strait of Sicily contain extensive shelf areas shallower than 200 metres, with numerous islands in the Adriatic and Aegean. Telemetry studies conducted in other regions have found that young great white sharks generally occupy shallow coastal waters, often over insular shelves at sea-surface temperatures of 10–25°C, and other evidence indicates movement between the immediate shoreline and the middle continental shelf. These findings offer context for the Adriatic observations but do not show how either documented shark used the habitat.

The authors also discuss a possible relationship between Mediterranean warming and the distribution of young great white sharks, while emphasizing that the two records cannot test such a hypothesis. The Eastern Adriatic is warming, including at depth, and its broad shelf and coastal productivity could be relevant to early-stage sharks. However, a cluster of documented encounters could also reflect increased reporting and greater awareness among fishers rather than an ecological shift. The study’s small, opportunistic sample and reliance on fisher testimony prevent it from distinguishing a new ecological pattern from a previously overlooked aspect of the species’ early life history or determining whether the Eastern Adriatic is a stable nursery, a seasonal developmental and foraging habitat, or part of a broader network of Mediterranean habitats.

Subject of Research: Citizen-science records of young great white sharks in the Eastern Adriatic Sea

Article Title: Recent observations of two young-of-the-year great white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias ( Elasmobranchii , Lamniformes , Lamnidae ), in the Eastern Adriatic Sea

Article References: Ćetković, I., Bernardi, J., Ugarković, P., De Maddalena, A., Dragičević, B., Ikica, Z., & Pešić, A. (2026). Recent observations of two young-of-the-year great white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias (Elasmobranchii, Lamniformes, Lamnidae), in the Eastern Adriatic Sea. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, 56, 151-158. https://doi.org/10.3897/aiep.56.188503

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/aiep.56.188503

Keywords: great white shark, Eastern Adriatic, citizen science, shark bycatch, nursery habitat, Croatia, Montenegro, marine conservation, fisher observations, Recent, observations, young-of-the-year

Much of the Friday afternoon programme was devoted to applied entomology, especially the recognition and management of potentially invasive insects in Switzerland. Stève Breitenmoser of Agroscope Changins presented a study of companion plants, or associated cultivation, and damage caused by the cabbage flea beetle, Psylliodes chrysocephala, in winter oilseed rape. Tanja Sostizzo of Agroscope Reckenholz addressed the Japanese beetle as an invasive pest in Switzerland, while Lukas Seehausen of CABI Delémont discussed biological control of non-native insects in the country.

The protocol lists these contributions as presentations and gives no numerical outcomes, so the report cannot establish how effective any particular management method was or whether the approaches performed differently from one another. Other Friday talks addressed invasive species in urban settings and questions concerning establishment. Marcus Schmidt of the City of Zurich’s Department of Environment and Health presented work on controlling the invasive ant Tapinoma magnum in Zurich.

Ann-Christin Honnen of the Tropical Health Institute Basel discussed invasive mosquitoes in Switzerland and the routes to successful establishment. The programme also included Lisa Fisler of the Swiss Centre for the Faunal Mapping, who reported on hoverflies, or Syrphidae, in Switzerland, including current knowledge, applications and projects, and Sarah Rohr of the University of Bern and the Natural History Museum Bern, who presented work on glacier flies in the Selhofen Zopfen wetland. Gabi Müller of the City of Zurich described the first recorded occurrence of the subterranean termite Reticulitermes grassei in northeastern Switzerland, covering a survey of the infestation and control work.

Daniel Burckhardt of the Natural History Museum Basel examined the taxonomy of pear psyllids within the Hemiptera family Psyllidae, describing the history of continuing misidentifications. Emmanuel Toussaint of the Natural History Museum of the City of Geneva delivered Saturday’s principal lecture on insect phylogenomics, the use of molecular sequence data to reconstruct evolutionary relationships and build phylogenetic trees. He described how sequencing and tree-building methods had become more accurate, faster and less expensive over time.

He also noted that older DNA can increasingly be prepared and used, adding to the research value of museum collections. Projects on skipper butterflies, the family Hesperiidae, illustrated the method’s application to a group that had received comparatively little study. According to the protocol, phylogenomic work in recent years substantially improved knowledge of the systematics of these butterflies and allowed researchers to investigate possible historical spread across Arabia, Africa and Asia.

These routes represent interpretations of evolutionary history, not direct observations of living insects moving between regions. Toussaint also presented recent work on the evolution of large ground beetles using hyRAD-X methods. His lecture placed this work within a broader account of the historical development of molecular phylogenetics, including the increasing use of archived DNA from natural-history specimens.

The protocol does not provide the number of genes, taxa or specimens analysed, nor does it report confidence intervals or other measures of uncertainty. Accordingly, the account establishes the methods and taxonomic scope discussed at the meeting but does not permit independent evaluation of the strength or precision of the inferred relationships and dispersal pathways. Armin Coray of the Natural History Museum Basel asked why insects are still drawn, while Kay Lucek of the University of Basel presented work on intraspecific differentiation during secondary contact between subspecies of the Eurebia euryale species complex.

Rudolf Bryner discussed his revision of the Nematopogon adansoniella species group within Lepidoptera and the family Adelidae. José D. Gilgado of the University of Basel reported a shift in the elevational distribution of several millipede species in the Swiss National Park over the previous 100 years.

Because the protocol does not reproduce the underlying distribution data or define the species-level scope of the comparison, the reported shift cannot be extended to all millipedes or to the Swiss Alps as a whole. Several talks focused on inventories and the organisation of entomological data. Vivien Cosandey of the University of Lausanne presented an inventory and analysis of beetles in Eurasian eagle-owl nest boxes in the canton of Vaud.

Christian Monnerat of the Swiss Centre for the Faunal Mapping discussed the dragonfly genus Omans, and Anne Freitag of the Cantonal Zoology Museum in Lausanne introduced Opération Fourmis, a participatory inventory of ants in the canton of Vaud. The protocol lists the subjects and institutional affiliations of these presentations. It does not provide complete species lists, sampling denominators, detection probabilities or comparative abundance estimates, and it therefore does not establish how representative the resulting records were for the wider regional fauna.

Digitization and scientific communication were also prominent. Hannes Baur of the Natural History Museum Bern presented “Ans Licht geholt,” a project making the museum’s insect holdings accessible through the internet. In the society’s institutional report, the president noted that the Swiss Academy of Sciences had launched an initiative to digitize all natural-history collections in Switzerland, with members of the Swiss Entomological Society involved in that work.

The annual report also described continuing public and professional engagement with insect decline, including media inquiries, panel discussions and contributions to a Hotspot issue devoted to insects. Those activities were reported as society business rather than as new measurements of insect abundance, and the protocol did not present a new trend analysis or causal assessment. At the general meeting, Hannes Baur opened proceedings at 10:10, and the members present approved the 2019 minutes without amendment.

The report said that requests for financial support had been granted in full by the Swiss Academy of Sciences, the Biedermann-Mantel Foundation and Syngenta, which contributed CHF 7,500, CHF 6,000 and CHF 6,000 respectively. The 2019 accounts showed an annual profit of CHF 6,581.53 and assets of CHF 109,416.19. Auditors Michel Sartori and Yannick Chittaro found that the opening balance, annual accounts and receipts corresponded with the accounts submitted, and the members granted discharge to the treasurer.

The 2020 budget anticipated a profit of CHF 0, while membership fees remained CHF 60 for members in Switzerland and CHF 30 for students or others in training for three years. Members elected Oliver Martin of ETH Zurich as president for the 2020–2023 term. Baur moved to the position of vice-president, and Stefan Ungricht became an assessor, while the other board changes were also approved unanimously.

The society’s publishing activities included the third issue of Alpine Entomology in 2019, which comprised 15 articles on 217 pages: 13 research articles, one short note and a meeting report. Ten of the 13 research articles were in English, and the journal had entered the Emerging Sources Citation Index in March 2019. Fauna Helvetica published volumes on vespid wasps and amphipods, and Meloe proscarabaeus, the black-and-blue oil beetle, was chosen as the insect of the year for 2020.

The protocol concluded with the announcement that the next annual meeting would take place on 5 and 6 March 2021 at the Museo cantonale di storia naturale in Lugano.

Subject of Research: Meeting report on Swiss insect research, invasive species, phylogenomics, taxonomy and digital natural-history collections

Article Title: Protokoll der Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft vom 6. und 7. März am Naturhistorischen Museum Basel

Article References: Neumann, M. (2020). Protokoll der Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft vom 6. und 7. März am Naturhistorischen Museum Basel. Alpine Entomology, 4, 189-193. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.4.59809

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/alpento.4.59809

Keywords: Swiss entomology, annual meeting, invasive insects, insect phylogenomics, taxonomy, biodiversity inventories, museum collections, citizen science, digital collections, agricultural pests, Protokoll, Jahresversammlung

The synonymization rests on close examination of the type material of S. razalii and comparison with specimens of F. dubius in Malaysian collections and photographs of the latter species’ type material available through the Orthoptera Species File. The authors detected no morphological differences supporting treatment of the two names as separate species. Falconius can be distinguished from other scelimenine genera by a swollen hind tarsus in females, a relatively stout head, a frontal costa that forks relatively close to the fastigium, anterior eye margins raised slightly above the fastigium, and relatively high positions of the paired ocelli and antennal grooves in relation to the compound eyes. The study also corrected an incorrect type-material listing in an earlier thesis and presented the museum records as the first official record of F. dubius from Peninsular Malaysia. Material reported as S. razalii from Pakistan was not examined, so its identity remains uncertain and requires re-examination.

The reappraisal also corrected numerous earlier identifications of S. gombakensis. Some Malaysian specimens had been labeled Scelimena producta, a species described from Java whose body coloration can resemble that of S. gombakensis. The two can be distinguished by features of the pronotum and hind femora: S. producta has pointed tubercles at the pronotal humeral angles and numerous clearly visible teeth on the ventral side of the hind femora, whereas S. gombakensis has rounded humeral angles and only two small teeth. Re-examination of museum holdings showed that the species had been present in collections for decades without being recognized as distinct from S. producta. This correction produced locality records in Selangor, Penang, Pahang, Perak, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Terengganu, supplementing the physical and verified iNaturalist records assembled by the study.

The revision shows that S. gombakensis is not as restricted as an earlier account suggested. When it was described in 2018, the species was known from Sungai Gombak in the Gombak Catchment of Selangor. Museum material and verified citizen-science observations now place it across much of Peninsular Malaysia, especially along the west coast. The study included iNaturalist records available before its submission on 29 August 2022, with observers’ identifications checked by the authors. One record from Waeng district in Narathiwat, southern Thailand, close to the Malaysian border, is reported as the first official record outside Peninsular Malaysia and the first for Thailand. The authors did not directly compare S. gombakensis with Scelimena discalis specimens from Thailand because the physical specimens were inaccessible and molecular and suitable online data were lacking. They note that some Thai material identified as S. discalis may warrant renewed comparison.

Field observations at the Ulu Gombak Field Study Center indicate that S. gombakensis occupies a cool, humid and shaded habitat in lowland secondary rainforest. Individuals perch on river rocks near flowing water and tend to gather close to the surface, where the stream environment is humid. Lichen and moss are reported as the species’ food source. Juveniles were more often observed near the water than adults. The authors associate this pattern with two characteristics of immature individuals: their exoskeletons may make them more susceptible to desiccation, and they are less agile and unable to fly. Remaining near the water may therefore increase a juvenile’s chance of escaping a predator by diving. Adults and juveniles can occupy the same rock, but the egg-laying site of S. gombakensis remains unknown. Sand along riverbanks has been suggested as a possible egg-laying location for other Scelimena species.

Scanning electron micrographs revealed microscopic features on the hind tibia and first tarsal segment of S. gombakensis. The first tarsal segment is laterally compressed along its entire length, while both the tarsal segment and tibia carry serrations along their lateral edges. The authors suggest that compression may provide a wider surface for paddling and aid propulsion during swimming. Because the claws lack an arolium, the adhesive pad normally associated with them, the tarsal serrations may help the insect grip wet, slippery and porous rock surfaces. The serrations could also have a hydrodynamic function by reducing drag as the legs move underwater, limiting vortex formation and potentially making swimming more energy-efficient. Their orientation parallel to the direction of water movement is consistent with that possibility. These remain functional hypotheses based on morphology, not results from direct measurements of swimming performance, grip strength or energy use.

Behavioral observations suggest that S. gombakensis uses both its hind legs and hindwings for navigation and escape. The species was observed flying long distances and maneuvering effectively in flight, contrasting with the related S. songkrana from Thailand, which seldom flies and relies more often on jumping. Scelimena melli from China has been described as behaving similarly to S. gombakensis, although it can leap at least 10 metres. Mating behavior in S. gombakensis was consistent with observations of other Scelimena species, with the male positioning himself on top of the female. The authors also propose that S. gombakensis may disperse passively with water after diving, potentially connecting its distribution to large flowing bodies of water. That transport mechanism was inferred from the ecology and behavior rather than demonstrated directly.

Examination of the large museum series also revealed substantial variation in S. gombakensis. Adult males measured 18.0–24.0 millimetres, while females measured 24.0–31.0 millimetres. Nymphs broadly resemble adults in coloration and general appearance, although their shorter pronotum makes them readily distinguishable from other Tetrigidae in Peninsular Malaysia. One living individual had a brown body with orange markings rather than the more typical dark green coloration with yellow markings. The authors could not determine whether this unusual appearance was recessive or caused by an infection. Pinned specimens also faded from dark green with yellow markings toward brown, and older examples were generally more degraded than recent ones. Uneven fading among specimens collected around the same time and stored under similar conditions suggests that conditions before pinning, including collection, euthanization, pinning and preservation practices, may affect color retention, but information about those historical conditions was unavailable.

Malaysian Tetrigidae remain incompletely studied, with earlier publications concentrating largely on taxonomy, species descriptions and occurrence records. The present study combined revision of historical museum material, author-verified citizen-science observations, daytime field observations of behavior and food preference, and scanning electron microscopy of preserved legs. These approaches changed both the taxonomic arrangement and the known distribution of the genus. Type examination showed that S. razalii should be merged with F. dubius, while re-identification of older specimens and compilation of observation records showed that S. gombakensis extends well beyond its original Selangor locality and has been recorded in southern Thailand. The study also documented its association with humid river-rock habitat and described leg features consistent with possible swimming and gripping functions. Its conclusions remain bounded by the material available: the Pakistani S. razalii specimens were not reassessed, Thai S. discalis material could not be compared directly, and the proposed functions of the leg structures and water-mediated dispersal were not tested experimentally.

Subject of Research: Taxonomy, distribution, ecology and hind-leg morphology of Peninsular Malaysian Scelimena grasshoppers

Article Title: Towards a better understanding of the genus Scelimena ( Orthoptera , Tetrigidae , Scelimeninae ): New insights and notes on the taxonomy, ecology, and physiology of the genus in Peninsular Malaysia

Article References: Muhammad, A. A., Deranja, M., Adžić, K., & Abdullah, N. A. (2023). Towards a better understanding of the genus Scelimena (Orthoptera, Tetrigidae, Scelimeninae): New insights and notes on the taxonomy, ecology, and physiology of the genus in Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 32(1), 55-62. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.32.91153

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jor.32.91153

Keywords: Scelimena gombakensis, Falconius dubius, pygmy grasshoppers, Tetrigidae, Peninsular Malaysia, taxonomic revision, citizen science, scanning electron microscopy, aquatic adaptations, species distribution, Towards, better