Peter Nagel

University of Basel | UNIBAS · Department of Environmental Sciences

The new species Paussus agatae sp. nov. could not easily be allocated to an established subgenus or even species group. The informal Paussus lanxangensis species group is established to include the new species and other related species. Its diagnostic characters are described and screened for possible use in cladistic analyses in the future. Curren...

Check list and Ecology Atlas of Swiss Staphylinids (Roove Beetles)

The destruction of natural habitats is among the major factors responsible for the decrease in species diversity and distribution. This study focused on the effect of vegetation and its interaction with the season on ant species richness, density, activity, and composition in the three dominant habitats – forest, fallow, and mixed crop field – prev...

Current studies on European Scolopendra Linnaeus, 1758 revealed inconsistencies in the use of the date of publications containing original descriptions by C. L. Koch. These dates are reviewed in the present paper. As a result, the following commonly attributed dates of description have to be amended: S. clavipes C. L. Koch, 1847, S. italica C. L. K...

The sterile insect technique (SIT) is an exceptionally promising pest control method in terms of efficacy and environmental compatibility. Assessments of environmental risks vary according to the status and origin of the target pests. The suppression or eradication of non-native pest populations with the sit raises few environmental concerns, and t...

The taxonomic validity of the East African reed frogs Hyperolius mitchelli Loveridge, 1953 and Hyperolius rubrovermiculatus Schiøtz, 1975 has been questioned in the literature, with the latter having been recognised as a distinct lineage, but also synonymised as a colour variant of H. mitchelli. The recent description of a new closely related conge...

In 1977 aquatic invertebrates were collected at 36 localities at the river Saar and several tributaries between Sarreguemines and the Moselle river. This programme formed part of a project to document the biological-ecological status of the river Saar before the start of intensive construction work to convert the river into a waterway. The project...

Endemic to the Palaeotropic and southern Palaearctic regions, ant nest beetles (Carabidae: Paussus ) are specialized predators that depend on ants for their survival. This obligate relationship has driven extreme morphological adaptations that obscured our understanding of Paussus species relationships and subgeneric clades for centuries. Molecular...

http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/dating/sherbornia/issue5.html Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer published 80 fascicles (Hefte) (1829–1844) entitled Deutschlands Insecten … (= the “Herrich-Schäffer series”), in continuation of G.W.F. Panzer’s famous work Faunae Insectorum Germanicae Initia … (1792–1810, 1823). The work contains new species descr...

We report the Carabidae collected at the Shada Al-A’Ala Nature Reserve (SANR) in Baha Province in southwestern Saudi Arabia during 2013–2015. In total, 62 carabid species and subspecies representing 39 genera, 17 tribes, and 10 subfamilies were identified, including one new species, Paussus minutulus Nagel & Rasool, sp. n, four new country records,...

We report the Carabidae collected at the Shada Al-A’Ala Nature Reserve (SANR) in Baha Province in southwestern Saudi Arabia during 2013–2015. In total, 62 carabid species and subspecies representing 39 genera, 17 tribes, and 10 subfamilies were identified, including one new species, Paussusminutulus Nagel & Rasool, sp. n , four new country records,...

Study of ground beetles of the Garf Raydah Nature Reserve, located in the Asir Mountains of southwestern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) resulted in one species, Paussus abditus Nagel, sp. n. described as new to science. Thirteen species (21.3%) are reported as new country records and fifteen species (24.6%) are new records for Asir Province. Adult b...

An annotated list of Paussinae reported from Nepal is given, representing the first detailed overview of the country fauna. Most species are illustrated. Three new species of Paussinae are introduced to science: Protopaussus vignai sp. nov., Melanospilus chitwanensis sp. nov. and Paussus (Paussus) yubaki sp. nov. Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes c...

High‐throughput sequencing data have greatly improved our ability to understand the processes that contribute to current biodiversity patterns. The “vanishing refuge” diversification model is speculated for the coastal forests of eastern Africa, whereby some taxa have persisted and diversified between forest refugia, while others have switched to b...

The importance of the right food source for the survival and reproduction of certain insect species is well documented. In the case of biocontrol agents, this is even more important in order to reach a high predation or parasitation performance. The egg parasitoid Telenomus laeviceps (Förster, 1861) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) is a promising candida...

We present the first annotated amphibian checklist of Shimba Hills National Reserve (SHNR). The list comprises of 30 currently known amphibians (28 anurans and two caecilians), which includes 11 families and 15 genera. In addition, individual records per species, distribution in the reserve and brief remarks about the species are presented. The che...

This proceedings contains papers dealing with issues affecting biological control, particularly pertaining to the use of parasitoids and predators as biological control agents. This includes all approaches to biological control: conservation, augmentation, and importation of natural enemy species for the control of arthropod targets, as well as oth...

Ecological niche models (ENMs) have been used in a wide range of ecological and evolutionary studies. In biogeographic studies these models have, among other things, helped in the discovery of new allopatric populations, and even new species. However, small sample sizes and questionable taxonomic delimitation can challenge models, often decreasing...

Constant water temperature is thought to be a key factor for macroinvertebrates inhabiting springs. Springs in low mountain ranges are usually fed by deep groundwater. At high altitudes, they are, to a certain degree, fed by surface-near aquifers and are influenced by snow and permafrost meltwater. This may alter temperature constancy. In this stud...

Aims To quantify the spatial distribution of amphibian phylogenetic endemism ( PE ), an indicator of potential refugia, to test PE for correlations with current and historical environmental predictors, and to evaluate the effectiveness of current protected areas at conserving evolutionary history. Location Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa ( CFEA...

Amphibians are in decline globally due to increasing anthropogenic changes, and many species are at risk of extinction even before they are formally recognised. The Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa is a hotspot of amphibian diversity but is threatened by recent land use changes. Based on specimens collected in 2001 we identify a new species from t...

Multiple sources of data in combination are essential for species delimitation and classification of difficult taxonomic groups. Here we investigate a cicada taxon with unusual cryptic diversity and we attempt to resolve seemingly contradictory data sets. Cicada songs act as species-specific premating barriers and have been used extensively to reve...

Maximum likelihood mtDNA phylogeny (COI and COII) with bootstrap values from RAxML analysis for the Cicadetta brevipennis and Cicadetta cerdaniensis groups. (PDF)

Maximum likelihood mtDNA phylogeny (COI and COII) with bootstrap values from RAxML analysis for the Cicadetta brevipennis group. (PDF)

Database of the records of the Cicadetta brevipennis group. (XLSX)

Nomenclature of Cicadetta brevipennis. (PDF)

Power differences between phrases 1 and 2 in a spatial context. (PDF)

Spatial origin of the specimens analysed acoustically, morphologically or molecularly. (PDF)

List of collecting permits within the Cicadetta brevipennis group distribution. (PDF)

Based on partial sequences of three mitochondrial (cox1, cox2, trnL) and two nuclear genes (18S and 28S) we conducted a molecular phylogenetic analysis of Prionoceridae represented by all three valid genera, 34 species and a large number of informal species groups from the Palaearctic, Afrotropical and Oriental regions. Analyses indicate the split...

The niche-filling process predicted by the 'ecological opportunity' (EO) model is an often-invoked mechanism for generating exceptional diversity in island colonizers. Whether the same process governs lineage accumulation and trait disparity during continental colonization events is less clear. Here we test this prediction by investigating the rate...