Three new minute leaf litter beetles discovered by citizen scientists in Maliau Basin, Malaysian Borneo (Coleoptera: Leiodidae, Chrysomelidae)

Abstract

BackgroundWe coin the term "taxon expeditions" for citizen scientists' field courses to carry out publishable taxonomic work in close association with trained taxonomists.New informationDuring the first-ever taxon expedition, in Maliau Basin Studies Centre, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, the participants sampled leaf litter beetles from lowland dipterocarp forest using the Winkler apparatus. The collected material proved to contain at least three undescribed species of small-bodied (ca. 1 mm long) hemispherical litter-dwelling Coleoptera. As part of the field course work, taxonomic descriptions were prepared for the chrysomelid Clavicornaltica sabahensis sp. n. and the leiodids Colenisia chungi sp. n. and Dermatohomoeus maliauensis sp. n.

A new parasitoid wasp, Aphaereta vondelparkensis sp. n. (Braconidae, Alysiinae), from a city park in the centre of Amsterdam

“…The new species belongs to the Aphaereta minuta group (as defined by Oliveira et al (2012)) and runs to A. minuta (Nees, 1811), also because some specimens have 21 or 22 antennal segments (19-22 segments in A. minuta), convex ventral area of pronotal side wide, vein r of fore wing emitted before middle of pterostigma and vein r-m of fore wing usually vertical. It differs from A. minuta by having the first tergite paler than second tergite and orange or yellowish-brown (tergites similarly coloured and first tergite dark to pale brown in A. minuta) and lateral smooth and flattened areas wider than medial convex and sculptured area (narrower), third and fourth segments of hind tarsus medium-sized and basitarsus similarly coloured as hind femur (slender and basitarsus often darker than hind femur), distance between base of pterostigma and base of vein r approx.…”

“…Images were acquired with a KEYENCE VHX-5000 Digital Microscope imaging system and processed with Photoshop CS5 software. Terminology follows van Achterberg (1988). RMNH stands for Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden.…”

“…The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution and contains 45 valid species (Yu et al 2016). During a citizen science 'Taxon Expedition' (for the term see Schilthuizen et al (2017) and http://www.taxonexpeditions.com) in the oldest park of Amsterdam (Vondelpark, opened in 1865), an undescribed species of Aphaereta was found. The holotype of A. vondelparkensis was collected in a trap baited with decaying meat and its biology is uncertain, but paratypes were reared as parasitoids of Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae larvae living on decaying carcasses.…”

Three new species of Grouvellinus Champion, 1923 from Maliau Basin, Sabah, Borneo, discovered by citizen scientists during the first Taxon Expedition (Insecta, Coleoptera, Elmidae)

“…During the first biodiversity discovery field course for citizen scientists, termed “taxon expedition” ( Schilthuizen et al 2017 ), participants collected six new species for science from Maliau Basin, Malaysian Borneo. Three of them, litter-dwelling Coleoptera , were recently described jointly by taxonomists and citizen scientists ( Schilthuizen et al 2017 ). The taxonomic treatments for the other three species, all belonging to the genus Grouvellinus ( Elmidae ), are provided here.…”

“…Our taxon expeditions are in fact such an exception, as the ultimate goal is to publish the descriptions of the new species that have been discovered and tentatively named by our participating citizen scientists. We also encourage their direct involvement as co-authors in the process of the verbal species’ descriptions and scientific illustration of diagnostic characters (although not embraced in this paper, but see Schilthuizen et al 2017 ). The focus on publishing species discoveries by citizen scientists makes our initiative unique, since such approaches are only seen in student volunteer funded programs before (e.g., Opwall 2018 ).…”