Life Sciences Commons^™

Dacar Cas/Somali Red Aloe: A New Species Of Aloe (Asphodelaceae) From Somaliland, Mary E. Barkworth, Ahmed Ibrahim Awale, Faisal Jama Gelle

Biology Faculty Publications

A new species of Aloe (Asphodelaceae) is described from Somaliland. It differs from other species in forming large clumps and in having sap that is initially yellow but quickly turns bright red and then dark red or reddish-brown, paniculate red-flowered inflorescences and uniformly coloured leaves with red teeth. Its recognition raises the number of species known from the combined area of Somaliland and Somalia s.s. from 31 to 36. A map portraying species density of Aloe by country, as that genus is now interpreted, shows that Aloe has its highest density on islands in the Indian Ocean but that, within …

Comparison Of African And North American Velvet Ant Mimicry Complexes: Another Example Of Africa As The 'Odd Man Out', Joseph S. Wilson, Aaron D. Pan, Erica S. Limb, Kevin A. Williams

Biology Faculty Publications

Africa has the most tropical and subtropical land of any continent, yet has relatively low species richness in several taxa. This depauperate nature of the African tropical fauna and flora has led some to call Africa the “odd man out.” One exception to this pattern is velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), wingless wasps that are known for Müllerian mimicry. While North American velvet ants form one of the world’s largest mimicry complexes, mimicry in African species has not been investigated. Here we ask do African velvet ant Müllerian mimicry rings exist, and how do they compare to the North American complex. …

Persistence And Stability Of Eastern Afromontane Forests: Evidence From Brevicipitid Frogs, Simon P. Loader, F. Sara Ceccarelli, Michele Menegon, Kim M. Howell, Roman Kassahun, Abebe A. Mengistu, Samy A. Saber, Fikirte Gebresenbet, Rafael O. De Sá, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

Aim: The persistence and stability of habitats through time are considered predictors of high levels of biodiversity in some environments. Long-term habitat persistence and stability may explain the species-rich, endemic forest fauna and flora of the Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Region (EABR). Using comple- mentary phylogenetic and biogeographical approaches, we examine evolution- ary patterns in EAR brevicipitid frogs. Using these data, we test whether brevicipitid history reflects patterns of long-term forest persistence and/or sta bility across the EABR.

Location: East Africa.

Methods: A dated phylogeny for brevicipitids was constructed using two nuclear and three mitochondrial markers. Alternative diversification modes were used …

Evolutionary Relationships Of The Critically Endangered Frog Ericabatrachus Baleensis Largen, 1991 With Notes On Incorporating Previously Unsampled Taxa Into Large-Scale Phylogenetic Analyses, Karen Siu-Ting, David J. Gower, Davide Pisani, Roman Kassahun, Fikirte Gebresenbet, Michele Menegon, Abebe A. Mengistu, Samy A. Saber, Rafael O. De Sá, Mark Wilkinson, Simon P. Loader

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: The phylogenetic relationships of many taxa remain poorly known because of a lack of appropriate data and/or analyses. Despite substantial recent advances, amphibian phylogeny remains poorly resolved in many instances. The phylogenetic relationships of the Ethiopian endemic monotypic genus Ericabatrachus has been addressed thus far only with phenotypic data and remains contentious.

Results: We obtained fresh samples of the now rare and Critically Endangered Ericabatrachus baleensis and generated DNA sequences for two mitochondrial and four nuclear genes. Analyses of these new data using de novo and constrained-tree phylogenetic reconstructions strongly support a close relationship between Ericabatrachus and …

Long-Term Data For Endemic Frog Genera Reveal Potential Conservation Crisis In The Bale Mountains, Ethiopia, David J. Gower, Roman K. Aberra, Silvia Schwaller, Malcolm J. Largen, Ben Collen, Stephen Spawls, Michele Menegon, Breda M. Zimkus, Rafael O. De Sá, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

Populations of many frogs have declined alarmingly in recent years, placing nearly one third of the > 6,000 species under threat of extinction. Declines have been attributed largely to habitat loss, environmental degradation and/or infectious diseases such as chytridiomycosis. Many frogs undergo dramatic natural population fluctuations such that long-term data are required to determine population trends without undue influence of stochastic factors. We present long-term quantitative data (individuals encountered per person hour of searching) for four monotypic frog genera endemic to an Afromontane region of exceptional importance but growing conservation concern: one endemic to the Ethiopian highlands (Spinophrynoides osgoodi) and three …

High Prevalence Of The Amphibian Chytrid Fungus (Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis) Across Multiple Taxa And Localities In The Highlands Of Ethiopia, David J. Gower, Thomas M. Doherty-Bone, Roman K. Aberra, Abebe Mengistu, Silvia Schwaller, Michele Menegon, Rafael O. De Sá, Samy A. Saber, Andrew A. Cunningham, Simon P. Loader

Biology Faculty Publications

Surveys of the potentially lethal amphibian chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis - Bd) in Africa are patchy, especially in some regions of high species endemicity. We present results of the first Bd surveys of wild amphibians in Ethiopia, for two upland regions on either side of the Rift Valley: the Bale Mountains and the Kaffa region. Surveys were opportunistic so that robust interpretation of the data is limited. Utilizing diagnostic qPCR assays, 51 out of 120 frogs (14 species in 10 genera) tested positive for Bd at altitudes of 1,620–3,225 m, across all genera and species, and all but …

Effect Of Variable Transmission Rate On The Dynamics Of Hiv In Sub-Saharan Africa, Diego F. Cuadros, Phillip H. Crowley, Ben Augustine, Sarah L. Stewart, Gisela García-Ramos

Biology Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The cause of the high HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa is incompletely understood, with heterosexual penile-vaginal transmission proposed as the main mechanism. Heterosexual HIV transmission has been estimated to have a very low probability; but effects of cofactors that vary in space and time may substantially alter this pattern.

METHODS: To test the effect of individual variation in the HIV infectiousness generated by co-infection, we developed and analyzed a mathematical sexual network model that simulates the behavioral components of a population from Malawi, as well as the dynamics of HIV and the co-infection effect caused by other infectious diseases, …

Phylogenetic Relationships Of African Microhylid Frogs Inferred From Dna Sequences Of Mitochondrial 12s And 16s Rrna Genes, Simon P. Loader, David J. Gower, Kim M. Howell, Nike Doggart, Mark-Oliver Rödel, Barry T. Clarke, Rafael O. De Sá, Bernard L. Cohen, Mark Wilkinson

Biology Faculty Publications

The phylogenetic relationships of microhylid frogs are poorly understood. The first molecular phylogeny for continental African microhylids is presented, including representatives of all subfamilies, six of the eight genera, and the enigmatic hemisotid Hemisus. Mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA sequence data were analysed using parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian methods. Analyses of the data are consistent with the monophyly of all sampled subfamilies and genera. Hemisus does not nest within either brevicipitines or non-brevicipitines. It is possibly the sister group to brevicipitines, in which case brevicipitines might not be microhylids. Phrynomantis and Hoplophryne potentially group with non-African, non-brevicipitine microhylids, in …