Eduardo Mateos

University of Barcelona | UB · Department of Evolutionary Biology

Partial mitochondrial cox1 gene sequences from four recently recognised European species of terrestrial planarians, and ribosomal ITS1 sequences for two of them, are presented: Marionfyfea adventor, Artioposthia exulans (both introduced from New Zealand), Australopacifica atrata (from Australia) and specimens putatively identified as Microplana edw...

The cave fauna of the Macaronesian archipelagos is rich in endemic species. Unlike the Azores and the Canary Islands, the cave fauna of the Madeira archipelago is little known. The only two cave complexes studied, Machico and São Vicente, lack protection measures. São Vicente is seriously threatened because it is being exploited for touristic purpo...

Springtails are a group of hexapods whose true diversity is currently underestimated. This is because the morphological characters normally used in species diagnosis do not have the necessary resolution. This situation is especially evident in Entomobryidae, which is currently the most diverse family of springtails. The combination of morphological...

The Mediterranean is one of the most biodiverse areas of the Paleartic region. Here, basing on large data sets of single copy orthologs obtained from transcriptomic data, we investigated the evolutionary history of the genus Dugesia in the Western Mediterranean area. The results corroborated that the complex paleogeological history of the region wa...

Cryptic species are organisms which look identical, but which represent distinct evolutionary lineages. They are an emerging trend in organismal biology across all groups, from flatworms, insects, amphibians, primates, to vascular plants. This book critically evaluates the phenomenon of cryptic species and demonstrates how they can play a valuable...

Lepidocyrtus is one of the genera of springtails with the largest number of species in the world. Molecular studies carried out to date on this genus have revealed the existence of a large number of cryptic species. Molecular and morphological studies done with four European populations of the genus have allowed us to describe three new species wit...

Campylomma miyamotoi Yasunaga, 2001, an alien plant bug species (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Miridae) associated to the Persian silk tree Albizia julibrissin Durazz, 1772 (Fabaceae), is recorded for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula. Described from Japan, it is also found in Korea. The species was recently reported for the first time from Turkey....

The correct identification of morphological species is a key task for species richness estimation of any ecosystem. Although body colour is a widely used character identifying European Lepidocyrtus species, recent investigations using molecular data have revealed that species delineation using body colour can result in an underestimation of real sp...

The genus Lepidocyrtus Bourlet is currently considered to consist of eight subgenera of which Setogaster Salmon is one. Here we describe three new species in this subgenus, L. agricolus sp. nov., L. coorongensis sp. nov., and L. nashi sp. nov. It appears to be the most widespread and numerically dominant subgenus of Lepidocyrtus in Australia. The t...

Millipedes (Diplopoda) are a group of terrestrial arthropods with high specific diversity at a global scale. There are 12,000 species worldwide, distributed in 16 orders and 145 families. The family Polyzoniidae is represented in Europe by three species, being Polyzonium germanicum Brandt, 1837 the one with the widest distribution. To date there ar...

Los milpiés (Diplopoda) son un grupo de artrópodos terrestres con una alta diversidad específica a escala global. En el mundo están citadas unas 12,000 especies distribuidas en 16 órdenes y 145 familias. La familia Polyzoniidae está representada en Europa por tres especies, siendo Polyzonium germanicum Brandt, 1837 la que presenta una distribución...

Terrestrial planarians found in a plant nursery in Spain in 2012 are described as a new species, Caenoplana decolorata. Dorsally they are mahogany brown with a cream median line. Ventrally they are pastel turquoise fading to brown laterally. Molecular data indicate that they are a member of the genus Caenoplana, but that they differ from other Caen...

Some European species of the genus Lepidocyrtus were described almost a century ago and are only known from the type locality. This is the case of the Italian species L. pulchellus Denis, 1926, whose original description is very brief and does not allow its proper identification according to the current standards of the genus taxonomy. The study of...

The Collembolan genus Lepidocyrtus is subdivided into up to eight subgenera, of which only Lepidocyrtus s.str. (Bourlet, 1839) and Lanocyrtus (Yoshii & Suhardjono, 1989) are represented by European species. The discovery of unique characters in the European species Lepidocyrtus tomosvaryi (rounded dental tubercle) and L. peisonis (lateral tuft of l...

Terrestrial planarians with a dorsal yellow stripe and dark lateral surfaces and up to 15-20 cm long have been found in several countries in Europe, the earliest in 2008. They are similar to two species originally from Australia, Caenoplana variegata (Fletcher & Hamilton, 1888) and C. bicolor (Graff, 1899), both described on external characters onl...

DNA sequence data and phylogenies are useful tools for species delimitation, especially in taxa comprising cryptic species. The Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus species group (Collembola: Entomobryidae) comprises three morphospecies and distinct cryptic species. We applied three DNA-based methods to delimit species boundaries in the L. lanuginosus species...

The study of a springtail population from Krka National Park (Croatia) has allowed us to describe the new species Lepi-docyrtus chorus sp. nov. and its dance-like behaviour. This study represents the first record of peculiar dancing behaviour related to search for food and feeding among Collembola. The new species is molecularly and morphologically...

Changes in habitat structure are the main driving forces for responses of animal assemblages to fire. According to the disturbance theory, generalist species are expected to outperform specialists in variable environments. Thus, we hypothesized that omnivorous and polyphagous species will become more abundant in unstable postfire successional veget...

Terrestrial flatworms (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, and Geoplanidae) belong to what is known as cryptic soil fauna of humid forests and are animals not easily found or captured in traps. Nonetheless, they have been demonstrated to be good indicators of the conservation status of their habitat as well as a good model to reconstruct the recent and ol...

The genus Lepidocyrtus is fairly well explored in Hungary and was up to now represented by 18 species. Systematic mesofauna survey of a swamp woodland gave us the opportunity to describe the new species, L. florae sp. nov., characterized by the dark blue color, the dorsal macrochaetae formula A0A2aA2A3S3Pa5/00/0101+2 and the absence of scales on th...

High intraspecific genetic variance in Collembola indicates that cryptic species are widespread and this chal- lenges the delimitation of morphologically defined species. Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus (Gmelin, 1788) is a widely distributed habitat generalist with high genetic variance between populations from different locations in Europe. In this study...

Two new species of the genus Pseudosinella Schäffer, 1897 from Hungary are described and illustrated. Characters shared by both species are the number of eyes (0+0), the labial chaetotaxy (M1M2rEL1L2) and the chaetotaxy of abdominal segment II (pABq1q2). P. csafordi sp. nov., characterized by dorsal macrochaetae formula R0R1R2R3TP/32/0201+2s, inhab...

Two species of Lepidocyrtus Bourlet have been studied. L. peisonis Traser & Christian, 1992 has been redescribed based on the type material and newly collected specimens. This species is characterized by dorsal macrochaetae formula R0R1sR1R2So/00/0101+3, truncate unguiculi and a newly observed character missing in the original description: a latera...

European Lepidocyrtus species are usually grouped into five species-groups within two subgenera, Lepidocyrtus s.s. and Lanocyrtus, defined by the distribution of scale covering and dorsal head and body macrochaetotaxy. The discovery of several Lepidocyrtus populations with morphological characters intermediate between two species-groups suggested t...

Las planarias terrestres, un grupo poco conocido de criaturas que habitan en los suelos forestales, pueden proporcionar información útil sobre los efectos de los cambios climáticos del pasado reflejado en la distribución actual de su diversidad. Por esta razón, hemos llevado a cabo varias campañas de muestreo en un estudio comparativo centrado en d...

This study forms a major step towards a comprehensive morphological and molecular analysis of the species diversity of European microplanid land planarians. It presents a molecular phylogenetic tree on the basis of information from the genes Cox1, 18S, 28S and elongation factor 1-α, and applies molecular and morphological species delimitation metho...

The present study forms a first and major step towards a comprehensive morphological and molecular analysis of the species diversity of European microplaninid land planarians by presenting a molecular phylogenetic tree on the basis of alignments of the mitochondrial Cox1 gene from 158 specimens as well as a concatenated phylogeny (Cox1 and 18S gene...

Soil is home to an extraordinary quantity and diversity of organisms of equally varying sizes and lifestyles. Microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), protozoa, plants and animals interrelate in complex edaphic food webs, fueled by organic detritus and ultimately resulting in decomposition and mineralization of these detritus. Animals play a key role i...

The taxonomic status of the subgenera of Lepidocyrtus Bourlet is confused. Currently ten subgenera are recognised but their separation, using the existing set of diagnostic characters, is not clear. Collections over the last forty years have shown that species of Setogaster Salmon, originally described as a genus (Trichogaster Handschin) and curren...

Field margins act as shelters for different arthropod taxa in agricultural fields. Several factors may promote seasonal changes in arthropod communities, especially in regions with marked seasonality, such as Mediterranean areas. Epigeic arthropods were sampled from the margins of fields located in northwestern Portugal during 2 contrasting seasons...

Many tropical terrestrial planarians (Platyhelminthes, Geoplanidae) have been introduced around the globe. One of these species is known to cause significant decline in earthworm populations, resulting in a reduction of ecological functions that earthworms provide. Flatworms, additionally, are a potential risk to other species that have the same di...

File S1 Supporting information file including Text S1, Tables S1–S4, and Figure S1. Text S1. Description of the sampling methods. Table S1. Basic data of the 15 sampled plots and abundances of animal species: burnt logging (L1 to L5), burnt subsoiling (S1 to S5) and unburnt (U1 to U5); Data: species included (Y) and excluded (N) in statistical anal...

Fire is a major agent involved in landscape transformation and an indirect cause of changes in species composition. Responses to fire may vary greatly depending on life histories and functional traits of species. We have examined the taxonomic and functional responses to fire of eight taxonomic animal groups displaying a gradient of dietary and mob...

The paper presents an integrative taxonomic study on dugesiid freshwater flatworms from the north-eastern Mediterranean region by applying both morphological and molecular criteria in the formulation of stable species hypotheses. The morphological information obtained for the specimens was used in a traditional way by comparing the organismal trait...

The Lepidocyrtus lanuginosus group is formed by the species L. lanuginosus and L. cyaneus, which can be differentiated by the body color pattern. In the present paper several populations of these two species from the Northeastern Iberian Peninsula have been studied. This study has allowed the detection of chaetotaxic and morphological differences d...

The land planarian species Microplana terrestris (Müller, 1774), shows a wide distribution in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, where mature humid forests can be found. Since most terrestrial planarians require the presence and good condition of wet forests to survive, a parallel evolution of the taxon and its habitat might be expected. Performin...

The genus Lepidocyrtus was up to now represented by two species in Sardinia. However, recent molecular data suggest the existence of several other species in the region. The study of a Lepidocyrtus population from the peninsula of Capo Caccia (NW Sardinia) has allowed the description of the species Lepidocyrtus apicalis sp. nov. Along with seven ot...

Published data on genus Lepidocyrtus from Greece are scarce, being L. ligonorum the most common species in the region. In this paper the analysis of several populations of Lepidocyrtus from four Greek islands has allowed to describe the new species L. juliae sp. nov. and L. barbulus sp. nov. These new taxa were previously described as a color form...

Fire is one of the commonest disturbances worldwide, transforming habitat structure and affecting ecosystem functioning. Understanding how species respond to such environmental disturbances is a major conservation goal that should be monitored using functionally and taxonomically diverse groups such as Hymenoptera. In this respect, we have analyzed...

Two new species of the genus Microplana are described from the Iberian Peninsula. The new taxa are compared with congeneric species. Distributional records for two other European species, Microplana monacensis (Heinzel, 1929) and Microplana groga Jones et al. 2008, are presented and the presence of Microplana terrestris (Müller, 1774) is confirmed...

This work is a prospective study to estimate the potential species diversity of terrestrial planarians in the Iberian Peninsula. Live specimens were collected from several Iberian localities and assigned to different morphotypes on the basis of their external morphological characteristics. From the same specimens, sequences from the mitochondrial C...

Lepidocyrtus lusitanicus is one of the species with greater color pattern variability within the genus Lepidocyrtus. Four subspecies have been described in relation to its body color variation. The study of various populations of Lepidocyrtus from the Iberian Peninsula has allowed me to describe the new chromatic form L. lusitanicus form A, as well...

Lepidocyrtus lusitanicus is one of the species with greater color pattern variability within the genus Lepidocyrtus. Four subspecies have been described in relation to its body color variation. The study of various populations of Lepidocyrtus from the Iberian Peninsula has allowed me to describe the new chromatic form L. lusitanicus form A, as well...

Genus Lepidocyrtus is represented by 25 species in Europe and the correct identification of some of them is difficult to achieve due to lack of diagnostic characters and some published errors description. In this paper I have studied specimens of Lepidocyrtus flexicollis, L. curvicollis, L. monseniensis and L. nigrescens and I have found several di...

Little is known about the taxonomy and distribution of terrestrial planarians on the Iberian Peninsula. Few studies have tried to investigate the local diversity of these animals, due to both their lack of economic interest and their low abun-dance. In this study we have made extensive searches and collections of terrestrial planarians from the Ibe...

Little is known about the taxonomy and distribution of terrestrial planarians on the Iberian Peninsula. Few studies have tried to investigate the local diversity of these animals, due to both their lack of economic interest and their low abundance. In this study we have made extensive searches and collections of terrestrial planarians from the Iber...

We report the finding of terrestrial nemerteans of the family Acteonemertidae from the northern part of Spain. The specimens were studied using molecular data from the nuclear ribosomal 18S rRNA and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I genes. The 18S rRNA data strongly suggest the presence of three species of terrestrial nemerteans in t...

S’ha analitzat l’efecte del incendi forestal ocorregut a la franja oriental del Parc Natural de Sant Llorenç del Munt l’Obac l’agost de 2003 i els posteriors tractaments post-incendi sobre la vegetació i la fauna de la zona. Quatre anys després de l’incendi s’observa una simplificació en l’estructura de la vegetació amb pèrdua dels estrats arbori i...

Resum A la conca mediterrània, els incendis han desen-volupat un paper fonamental en l'estructuració del paisatge i en la composició de les comunitats d'organismes. En el futur, s'espera que aquest tipus de pertorbació augmenti en extensió i freqüència, un fet que pot afectar el manteniment de la diversitat en els espais naturals mediterranis. En e...

As soil destruction is one of the most conspicuous environmental impacts of opencast mining, mining companies are compelled to restore the exploited areas and to develop monitoring programs to test the effectiveness of the restoration treatments. Soil physical and chemical parameters are usually used as soil quality indicators, but bioindicators ar...