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Author Archives: EW
Presentation at the 8th International Crustacean Congress (ICC-8)
Almost 300 researchers from many nations were convened last week at the beautiful Campus Westend of the Goethe–University in Frankfurt for the 8th International Crustacean Congress (ICC-8). Many interesting talks and high quality posters were presented over six days. A special workshop on DNA-identification and barcoding filled the auditorium to the the edge and left many attendants standing through the session. EW gave a 15 minutes talk on results from our barcoding of decapods and stomatopods. He particularly emphasized how barcoding can reveal discordant species identifications among different labs and research environments and pinpoint the need for reidentification and / or taxonomic revision of species.
The Casino building of the Goethe University
MIWA workshop gets publicity in Barcode Bulletin
Barcode Bulletin is the Newsletter of the International Barcode of Life (IBOL). Last summer’s NIWA workshop in Bergen is mentioned in Barcode Bulletin Vol. 4, No. 2 – December 2013
JRS Biodiversity Foundation has launched new web site
JRS is supporting biodiversity research projects and training particularly in developing countries. JRS is a very important sponsor of the MIWA project. JRS grantees have separate web pages in the presentation of the grant portfolio.
MIWAs page is here: http://jrsbiodiversity.org/grant/university-of-bergen-museum/
Presentation at CCLME meeting in Dakar, September 2013
A left-handed hermit
Ciliopagurus caparti belongs to the group of hermit crabs that is sometimes called left- handed because the left claw is larger than the right, as opposed to the situation in other hermit crabs. C. caparti was originally described as a new genus Trizopagurus. The original description in Bulletin, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, 28(39): 1–8 is available for download from ATOL:Decapoda. We hope that our just submitted samples will yield DNA-barcodes of the species in the BOLD database.
Ciliopagurus caparti expelled from its snail shell residence
Geographic position of a new sample to the BOLD-database
List of sampling stations
Access list of sampling stations with map in Google.
Click the link and select “Map of Latitude” to view map. Select “Satellite” for satellite image. Use filter to include or exclude data.
Opportunities for master studies
The “Nansen material” offers many possibilities for master projects on the species rich Polychaeta.
A master study of Diopatra polychaete worms has been proposed by Dr. Budaeva. More information on this link.
Workshop summary of Crustacea
The crustacea work-group focused particularly on crabs and shrimps. Some of the hermit crabs, a particularly difficult group, were also identified to species. A few species of squat lobsters, slipper lobsters, and five species of mantis shrimp were also identified. Three 95 sample plates were prepared for DNA-barcoding.
Workshop summary of gastropods
The mollusca work-group identified more than 200 species of snails (Gastropoda) in the material. They took 1763 digital images and prepared 606 lots for the catalogued museum collection. At present, one sample plate has been prepared for DNA-barcoding.