JOURNAL OF TAXONOMY AND BIOSISTEMATICS
Year:2012 | Volume:4 | Issue:12|Papers Count:7

In a faunistic study, eviphidoid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) in Nowshahr county (western Mazandaran province) during 2009-2010, a total of 23 species from superfamily Eviphidoidea belonging to eight genera and three families were collected and identified from different soil and manure habitats. Five species of Pachylaelaps insularis (Berlese), Olopachys compositus (Koroleva), Olopachys caucasicus (Koroleva), Onchodellus cf alpinus (Willmann), Gamasholaspis incises Petrova and the genus Gamasholaspis Berlese were new records from Iran. Among collected families, Macrochelidae had the highest relative frequency (55.77 percent), and the families Pachylaelapidae and Parholaspididae with frequencies of 30.21 and 14.02 percents were in next ranks, respectively. No specimen of Eviphididae was collected in this study. The most frequent species of the first three families were Glyptholaspis americana (Berlese) (8.52 percent), Olopachys caucasicus (Koroleva) (9.3 percent), and Holaspina alstoni Evans (13.25 percent).

Iranian wolf is found in different habitats of Iran and possesses different morphological characteristics with respect to its cranium shape based on its distribution. This study was conducted to investigate the allometric growth and geometric changes of cranium in relation to its growth. A total of 35 skulls were collected from different regions and divided into two groups (adult and subadult). Seventeen angles that were drown by joining the measuring points on the whole, neurocranium, and viscerocranium. The correlation between skull index and angle measurements were analyzed in three categories. The decreasing of angles among dorsal face point on the external occipital crest, junction on the median plane of the right and left nasofrontal sutures, the most lateral point of the zygomatic arch and anterior end of the interincisive suture located between the roots of the upper central incisor teeth showed width of the skull increased more than the skull length with age, therefore, skull index increased with age. Results of geometry surveys showed that cranial width did not increase as much compared to the length of neurocranium length. Therefore, the angles of this section increased with age. Also, viscerocranium width increased more than viscerocranium length and the skull became widened with age.

Identification and recognition of rice cultivars help to improve the nutritional quality of this product. In the present study, four rice cultivars including Lenjani, Feridonkenar, Tarom and Indian known as Sarashpaz were analyzed based on the electrophoresis pattern of Glutellin, Globulin, Albomin and Prolamin. Glutellin and globulins showed higher number of protein bands while prolamins had lower protein content as well as number of bands. The relationship among cultivars showed that, cultivars Lenjani and Ferindonkenar were very close to each other while cultivar Indian (Sarashpaz) had the higest distance and cultivar Tarom was somewhere in between.

Beauvois (1812) described the genus Catabrosa as a group of perennial and rhizomatous grasses in the tribe Poeae Barnhart. (Poaceae). It is believed that two species namely: C. aquatica(L.) P. Beauv and C. capusii Franche. occurr in Iran. In this study, the chromosomes of the genus Catabrosa were investigated. Based on the diploid numbers counted among 10 accessions belonging to two putative species, only 2n=20 were observed among the materials studied. This is in accordance with the literature and based on x=5, confirms the tetraploid nature of the genus in Iran. Several karyotypic parameters defined in this study showed no variability among the accessions examined. Regarding morphological uniformity among the materials studied and the general tendency of the incorporation of C. capusiiin C. aquatica this genus was recognized with one species and two subspecies: aquaticaand capusii occring in this country.

AstragalusL. is the largest genus of flowering plants in Iran and has various complicated taxonomical difficulties in its classification. Astragalus sect. Hololeuce Bunge. with its closely related section (Sect. Onobrychoidei DC.) comprise a taxonomically complex group within bifurcate hair ones. Delimitation of mentioned sections is the most challenging issues. In this study, 9 species of Hololeuce plus 10 species of Onobrychoidei were analyzed phylogeneticaly using 38 morphologic characters. Some new morphological characters were represented as results for simple classification of the studied sections. On the other hand, it was demonstrated that the bulk of two sections constructed a monophyletic group but some taxonomic revisions were suggested.

Anchusa (Boraginaceae) includes weedy species in different habitats and cultivations and is composed of four species in Iran. Species delimitation is mainly based on features as zygomorphic or actinomorphic flowers, straight corolla tube and nutlet shape. In this project, morphological features of different accessions of Anchusa species were evaluated. Totally, 33 qualitative and quantitative morphological characters of 12 populations of four species were studied. Statistical analyses were done by SPSS ver. 19.0 Diagnostic value of different features in species delimitation was studied in order to provide an efficient identification key. Results indicated that adopted features were of taxonomic importance. Factor analysis revealed that two main factors had most effects. These factors were location of filaments, calyx length, middle leaf shape, location of anthers, shape of tube of corolla, length of corolla, and diameter of hair tubercles. A new identification key based on obtained results was provided. This was the first morphometric study of Anchusa species in Iran.

The genus Hymenocrater (Lamiaceae, Mentheae) comprises 11 species in Flora Iranica of which nine species are mostly distributed in Iran. Among Iranian species, five are found in the Razavi, North and South Khorasan provinces. Eighty morphological characters were measured in 44 herbarium specimens belonging to: H. calycinus, H. bituminosus, H. platystegius and H. elegans. The Kruskal-Wallis Test was implemented to evaluate which characters significantly differentiate the species. Thus, forty-two morphological characters were used in subsequent analyses. Taxonomic relationships were investigated using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). H. bituminosus and H. platystegius were separated in two distinct groups. There was no sharp distinction between the two other species, H. calycinus and H. elegans. Canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) was also applied to find the best discriminating traits among the species.