Online image databases as multi-purpose resources: discovery of a new host ant of Rickia wasmannii Cavara (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniales) by screening AntWeb.org

Abstract

Public awareness has been raised on the importance of natural history and academic collections for science and society in a time when reduced financial support and staff cuts are prevalent. In the field of biology, new species and new interspecies associations are constantly discovered by making use of museum collections, digitalised materials or citizen science programs. In our study, the Myrmica Latreille, 1804 image collection of AntWeb.org was screened for fungal ectoparasites. A total of 397 imaged specimens from 133 species were visually investigated. A single specimen of M. hellenica Finzi, 1926, collected in Greece by U. Sahlberg, showed a conspicuous fungal infection. The parasite was identified using microscopic methods as Rickia wasmannii Cavara, an ectoparasitic fungal species specialised to Myrmica ants. This finding represents a new country record and a new Myrmica species for the host spectrum of R. wasmannii. According to our results, online entomological databases can be screened relatively easily for ectoparasitic fungal infections from new hosts and new regions. However, depending on quality of the insect voucher photos, additional investigation of the material could be needed to confirm the identity of the parasite.

The history and impact of digitization and digital data mobilization on biodiversity research

“…the Darwin Core Standard [48]) [96][97][98]. The critical need for enhancing data quality has led to procedures, research methods and best practices for improving and confirming accuracy and fitness [97,99], including the combining of GBIF and GenBank data to identify potential identification anomalies in mycology [100], address pressing data quality challenges in entomology [96,101], mining and analysing palaeobiology data [102], discovering research uses for vertebrate trait data [103], reviewing and critiquing the efficacy and potential bias in species distribution models using natural history museum specimen data [52], combining El Niñ o-Southern Oscillation and 100 years of museum specimen data for the prediction of cicada emergence in Western North America [81] and the use of images to detect new ant host species for a common parasite [104]. Issues with data completeness have been documented in several studies (e.g.…”

Inter-Parasitic Interactions in Myrmica Ants: Ectoparasitic Fungus Affecting the Success of Socially Parasitic Caterpillars

“…Rickia wasmannii (Fig. 1, Supplementary Video S1) is one of the most widespread ectoparasitic 57 Laboulbeniales fungal species in Europe, infecting ten Myrmica species and some of their arthropod associates from Turkey to Portugal [58][59][60][61] . Several effects of Laboulbeniales fungi on their hosts are known, which are primarily negative 3,10,[25][26][27][28]62 but can also be indirectly positive 63 .…”

From Phenology and Habitat Preferences to Climate Change: Importance of Citizen Science in Studying Insect Ecology in the Continental Scale with American Red Flat Bark Beetle, Cucujus clavipes, as a Model Species

“…In the literature, there are numerous examples where observations by citizen scientists allow to assess, monitor, and predict biodiversity on local, regional, country, continental, or global scale, e.g., [ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. In many cases citizen scientists helped, e.g., to delimit the geographical distribution of a species, e.g., [ 15 , 16 ]; to find species for the first time in the country, e.g., [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], in the continent, e.g., [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]; or even to discover new taxa, e.g., [ 21 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Moreover, such observations allow to monitor migratory birds, e.g., [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]; rare and endangered species, e.g., [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]; expansion of pests, e.g., [ 20 , 39 , 40 ]; or alien and/or invasive species, e.g., [ 18 , 22 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ,…”

“…Moreover, such observations allow to monitor migratory birds, e.g., [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]; rare and endangered species, e.g., [ 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]; expansion of pests, e.g., [ 20 , 39 , 40 ]; or alien and/or invasive species, e.g., [ 18 , 22 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ] as well as colonization of new human-made habitats, e.g., [ 51 ]. In addition, numerous studies show that data collected by amateur scientists allow to describe new interactions between species, e.g., [ 17 , 52 ], to investigate animal phenology, e.g., [ 53 ], and behavior, e.g., [ 54 ], to find changes in species abundance and demography, e.g., [ 55 , 56 , 57 ], and other threats for local fauna and flora being important for nature conservation, e.g., [ 8 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ].…”