JOURNAL OF TAXONOMY AND BIOSISTEMATICS
Year:2013 | Volume:5 | Issue:15|Papers Count:9

The aim of this research was to estimate the age of wild boar (Sus scrofa) using various methods and examine the correlation between body measurements and age classes of the species. Twenty four wild boars were collected in Minoo Island and Khabr National Park during mid January 2010 until the end of March 2011. The following techniques were used for estimating the age of wild boars: The dental formula of different ages and the growth patterns of tooth, patterns of tooth eruption and wear and observing juxtaposition of spina ristae facialis relative to the position of upper molar (M3). In total, the age of these specimens ranged about six to 108 months. The most observed abundance of age classes were the ages between 1.5-3 years. Spearman test showed that there was a significant correlation among different techniques of age estimation (P<0.05). The results of linear regression indicated that there were significant and highly significant correlations between age classes and body measurements (P<0.05; P<0.01).

The family Entomobryidae is a group of Collembola which is also called "slender springtails". They are considered as a group of springtails characterized as having an enlarged fourth abdominal segment and a well-developed furcula. Fourth segmented antenna always is present. The species in this family may be heavily scaled and can be very colorful. They can be found throughout the world in a wide range of habitats but most species live in leaf litter, on the soil surface, under the bark of trees, in the forest canopy or in caves. In order to investigate the fauna of the Entomobryidae, different soil samples were taken from leaf litter in Caspian regions located in Mazandaran province (orchards, agricultural crops and forests). The Collembola specimens were extracted by heat in Berlise funnel during 1388-1390. Furthermore, some specimens were caught by pitfall traps. In general, five genera and five species were collected among which three species (indicated by *) were new for Iran. The specimens belonging to the genus Lepidocyrtus (Bourlet, 1839) were not matched with available taxonomic keys. The identified species were as follows: Entomobrya atrocincta *, E. multifasciata*, Seria domestica*, Heteromurus major, Pseudosinella octopunctata.

To judge and to evaluate the ecological characteristics of a region, vegetation is of prime importance. In fact, it reflects the biological reactions against the environmental conditions, plant evolution process and geographical condition of the past. The purpose of this study was to collect and identify aquatic plants of the East and the West of Mazandaran province. Therefore, sampling sites viz. stagnant water stops and irrigated farms were selected, marked out on the map and the specimens were collected. The collected plants were identified using different references in the Herbarium of Nowshahr Botanical Garden as well as Herbarium of Research Institute of Plant Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. In this survey, a total of 126 aquatic plant species, belonging to 44 families were recognized. Among them, 56 species of Dicotyledones, 63 species of Monocotyledones, 4 species of Pteridophytes, 1 species of algae and 2 species of bryophytes were reported. Chorological studies showed that most of the species belonged to the Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian (triregional) and the rest to Pluriregional and Cosmopolitan phytochoria.

Studies of stream and river ecosystems in Iran are very sketchy and their information is rather general and vague. Understanding various aspects of river systems is vital for their management and protection. The present study was aimed to obtain and present information on key stream populations and evaluate their responses to arrays of environmental gradients as a model for other north Iran (Guilan) streams. During the study, in the period of 6 months (summer - autumn 2010) 23 diatom genera were identified from Masouleh stream. Physical and chemical parameters including temperature, electron conductivity (EC), pH, Fe, salinity, nitrate and orthophosphate were measured and analyzed in water column simultaneously. CCA test showed that EC, pH, Fe and salinity were the most important factors controlling diatom distribution. Values of two major components of CCA differed significantly (P<0.05). DCA analysis was used to observe taxonomic differences and similarities between diatom genera in different sites. We found that chemical parameters exert stronger impacts on diatom population than physical factors although studying of both parameters were essential to have an accurate understanding of stream health assessment and status. Diatom indices (diversity, evenness, TDI and PTI) provided useful information on biosenosis of the Masouleh stream and therefore application of this index is recommended for other streams in northern Iran.

In this study, leaf and stem (scape) anatomy of 11 species of the genus Ornithogalum (Hyacinthaceae) in Iran were studied. Plant samples were collected and then fixed and handmade cross-sections of leave were prepared and stained with methyl green and carmine. Several slides were studies and photographed with light microscope (LM). Various anatomical characters such as: general shape of stem in transverse section, thickness- number and shape of cell layers of epidermal, sclerenchymateous-cortical parenchyma, number and thickness of vascular bundles of stem and thickness, number and shape of cell layer of epidermal, mesophylle, number and thickness of vascular bundles of leaves, number of lacunae and index of stoma from both upper and lower epidermis were compared among species. Anatomical characters consisted of shape of stem, thickness and number of cortical sclerenchymateous, vascular bundles of stem, mesophylle, lacunae and index of stoma which were all useful characters in comparative anatomy. The leaf anatomical features of the genus Ornithogalum were relatively reliable in specific level.

Comparative floral ontogeny provides new characters for phylogenetic studies. Such studies have been useful for better understanding of floral evolution within the subfamilies of Fabaceae. However, the significance of floral ontogenetic data for evaluation of systematic position among different species of a genus has not yet been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to present a complete ontogenetic pathway of Caesalpinia gilliesii, as a member of Caesalpinioideae and to compare the results with other studied species of the genus. For this purpose, flower buds of different ages were collected and fixed in FAA. After a fixation period of 24 h, the samples were rinsed, dissected in 70% ethanol and further dehydrated in 95% ethanol prior to being stained with 0.5% nigrosin black in ethanol. The results showed that differences between ontogenetic pathways of Caesalpinia species were prominent and mostly appeared early in development. In C. gilliesii all whorls initiated unidirectionally except for petals that appeared bidirectionally. Different orders of sepal initiation have been reported for other studied species including helical, tendency towards whorl and modified unidirectional. In contrast to other studied species, C. gilliesii showed overlap in the time of initiation between different whorls. Unidirectional order of initiation and overlap of organ initiation were both advanced characters that distinguished C. gilliesii from other studied species of Caesalpinia.

Floristic databases constitute the second level of plant information systems, after taxonomic-nomenclatural databases. This paper provided the details of data structure and available data resources to develop a floristic database, along with some explanations on taxonomic and floristic databases. Also, this paper proposed the availability and possibility of a shortcut to constructing a national floristic database through uniforming and compilation of dispersed floristic data contained in various botanical centers of Iran. Therefore, Iran could be the second country in SW Asia region to have a national floristic database, and the resulted services can be presented to national scientific community.

In this research, the lake of Sepidroud dam was situated which is located near Manjil in 300-400 m above sea level. Average annual precipitation reached to 213.7 mm. The dominant vegetation of this area was Amygdalus-Artemisia community. A total of 239 species were identified based on plant samples collected in 2011. They included one fern, two gymnosperms, 210 dicotyledones and 26 monocotyledones. Altogether, 57 families and 194 genera were known from the area. The following families had the highest number of species: Asteraceae (18%), Poaceae (7.5%), Brassicaceae (6.7%), Lamiaceae (6.3%), Fabaceae (5.4%), Chenopodiaceae (5.4%) and Caryophyllaceae (5%). Therophytes with 48.5% and hemicryptophytes with 25.5% were the most frequent life forms of the area. The distributions of 47.7% of species were restricted to Irano-Turanian region. Gravelly-lime lands had the most species richness between different habitats.178 species were growing in the habitat.

Acorus calamus has already been reported based on a single specimen collected from Guilan province. Yet, this species has not been reported during last 50 years in Iran and thus, its herbarium specimen is not available. A sample of the species was collected from southern area of Sari during a study on aquatic plants of Mazandaran province. According to the new finding, the natural occurrence of the species was confirmed in Iran. Complementary botanical description, photographs of plant habitat and distribution map of the species were presented. Although, according to the Flora Iranica and Flora of Iran Acorus was considered as a genus of Araceae the recent phylogenetic study considered its taxonomic position in Acoraceae as a distinct family. Therefore, Acoraceae is introduced as a new family to the Flora of Iran with a single representative i. e. Acorus calamus.