Rowland M. Shelley

New records and species of leeches (Annelida: Hirudinea) from North and South Carolina

Summary Twenty freshwater, one euryhaline, one terrestrial, and six marine leeches are now known to occur in the Carolinas. Haemopis septagon, the second terrestrial leech discovered in North America, and five aquatic taxa—Placobdella nuchalis, P. translucens, Mooreobdella melanostoma, M. tetragon, and Erpobdella punctata coastalis—are previously undescribed. Specimens of Placobdella papillifera and P. multilineata, are examined in detail. Four additional species—Batracobdella phalera, B. picta, Helobdella elongata and Haemopis marmorata—have been found in the Carolinas for the first time. The distribution of leeches in the Carolinas is determined in part by the boundaries of the three physiographic provinces. Batracobdella picta, Oligobdella biannulata, and Haemopis marmorata occur only in the Appalachian Mountains, while Placobdella nuchalis, P. translucens, Glossiphonia swampina, Batracobdella phalera, Helobdella stagnalis, H. elongata and Macrobdella ditetra were found only in the coastal plain. Along...

Biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine in the fat body of Phormia regina larvae

Abstract The biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine from choline by the intact fat body of larval Phormia regina as well as by cell-free preparations from the fat body has been demonstrated. ATP and CTP stimulate this synthesis. O-phosphorylcholine and cytidine diphosphate choline are intermediates and time course studies indicate that the pathway proceeds in the following sequence: choline→O-phosphorylcholine→cytidine diphosphate choline→phosphatidycholine, as has been demonstrated in other animals. Studies with subcellular fractions indicate that choline kinase (ATP: choline phosphotransferase, E.C. 2.7.1.32) and phosphorylcholine cytidyltransferase (CTP: choline phosphate cytidyltransferase, E.C. 2.7.7.14) are located in the 100,000 g supernatant whereas phosphorylcholine glyceride transferase (cytidine diphosphate choline: 1,2: diglyceride cholinephosphotransferase, E.C. 2.7.8.2) appears in the particulate fraction.

Choline kinase from the fat body of Phormia regina larvae

Abstract Using a partially purified choline kinase preparation from the fat body of Phormia regina, the following optimum conditions for choline phosphorylation were determined: pH, 8·0 and 8·77; temperature, 37 to 44°C; 17·5 mM Mg2+; 7·0 mM ATP. In addition, the enzyme was slightly more active at low ionic strengths and with l -cysteine present at a concentration of 8 m-molar. Mg2+ was thirteen times as active as Co2+, the next best divalent cation tested; and ATP was 1·2 times as effective as dATP and 9·9 times as effective as the next best nucleotide, GTP. Under the optimal conditions for choline phosphorylation, ethanolamine was found to react even faster; however, the Km values relative to the two substrates were similar, 1·65 × 10−3 M choline and 2·0 × 10−3 M ethanolamine. The enzyme was inactive toward both dl -carnitine and dl -serine. Studies with non-labelled choline and 14C-ethanolamine, and vice versa, indicated that there may be two enzymes (or two molecular species of the same enzyme) present, one specific for choline and one that will react with both substrates. The data from stability experiments and from the pH curves support this tentative conclusion.

A synopsis of the milliped genus Brachycybe Wood, 1864 (Platydesmida: Andrognathidae)

The milliped genus Brachycybe Wood, 1864 (Platydesmida: Andrognathidae) comprises seven species in the eastern and western United States (two and three species, respectively) and Japan/South Korea and China (onespecies each); it is provisionally assigned to a broad-bodied platydesmid in Taiwan that may constitute an eighthspecies. Brachycybe is characterized by long, alate paranota, distinct dorsal tubercles, and closely proximate opposing legs that are separated by an anteriorly directed process. Species are identified by somatic features like the configurations of the colla, the presence or absence of notches on the caudal paranotal margins, the relative sizes of the tubercles and lengths of the rows, and the relative lengths of the legs; a key and anatomical illustrations facilitate determinations. Distributions are characterized by allopatric populations indicative of age; extreme disjunctions exist in B. lecontii Wood, 1864, and B. producta Loomis, 1936, in the eastern and western US, respectively. The former is projected for the southeastern corner of Kansas and is newly documented from Missouri and Texas; the latter is newlyrecorded from Oregon. Sinocybe Loomis, 1942, is placed in synonymy under Brachycybe, and S. cooki Loomis, 1942,is transferred into the genus; the synonymy of Platydesmus californicus Karsch, 1881, under B. rosea Murray, 1877, is confirmed.

Substrate specificity and inhibition of choline and ethanolamine kinases from the fat-body of Phormia regina larvae

Abstract Dimethylethylcholine, dimethyl-n-propylcholine, dimethyl-i-propyl choline, and 2-dimethylaminoethanol are substrates for choline kinase, partially purified from the fat-body of Phormia regina larvae by ammonium sulphate fractionation. Choline analogues and related compounds, which have been previously reported to be effective substitutes for dietary choline, are effective competitive inhibitors of choline phosphorylation. Some additional compounds, triethylcholine, diethylcholine, and 3-trimethylamino-1-propanol, are effective inhibitors of choline phosphorylation yet inadequate as substitutes for dietary choline. Further evidence for separate choline and ethanolamine kinases is provided by studies of both competitive and non-competitive inhibitors. The criteria for an effective inhibitor of ethanolamine phosphorylation are the presence of only one N-alkyl group (except dimethylaminoethanol) and a 2-carbon distance between the nitrogen atom and the hydroxyl group. The I50 values for the inhibition of choline and ethanolamine kinases by Cu2+ are 2.2 and 8.0 × 10−3 M respectively.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE MILLIPED GENUS NARCEUS RAFINESQUE, 1820 (SPIROBOLIDA: SPIROBOLIDAE): OCCURRENCES IN NEW ENGLAND AND WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER; A SUMMARY OF PERIPHERAL LOCALITIES; AND FIRST RECORDS FROM CONNECTICUT, DELAWARE, MAINE, AND MINNESOTA

Abstract The milliped genus Narceus Rafinesque, 1820 (Spirobolida: Spirobolidae) occupies parts or all of 2 Canadian provinces, Québec and Ontario; every U.S. state east of the Mississippi River; and 9 states to the west including Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Records are detailed for the “western” states and New England and include the first from Minnesota, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maine; occurrence is projected for southeastern Minnesota and the Delmarva Peninsula. The genus presently comprises 2 valid species that are endemic to Florida—N. gordanus (Chamberlin, 1943) and N. woodruffi Causey, 1959—and 2 of uncertain status that occur throughout the generic range and are referenced as the “N. americanus/annularis complex”; geographic evidence suggests greater diversity, particularly in the south, and a 2nd generic revision is in order to update the existing one by Keeton (1960). Records cluster within a large, semicontinuous area whose northern, southern, and western range extremes, respectively, are Saint-Nicolas, Lévis Census Division, Québec; Key West, Monroe County, Florida, and northeastern Duval County and Rockport, Aransas County, Texas; and Garner State Park, Uvalde County, Texas. The eastern limit is the Atlantic Ocean, and records are available from Cape Cod and Tuckernuck Island, Massachusetts; Long Island, New York; Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; and James Island, South Carolina. The projected western boundary, based on peripheral localities, angles southwestward from Omaha, Nebraska, to Uvalde County; and the northern boundary passes through central Iowa and Wisconsin (encompassing the Door Peninsula) and the southern periphery of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The lone Minnesota locality, from Lyon County in the southwest, lies substantially north of the projected border in Iowa and well west of the expected area of occurrence in southeastern Minnesota. The northernmost record west of the Mississippi River, it may represent an allopatric population that extends westward into eastern South Dakota.

Annotated checklist of the millipeds of California (Arthropoda: Diplopoda)

Abstract The milliped fauna of California consists of 11 orders, 24 families, 83 genera, and 226 species and subspecies. A complete listing of these taxa and intergrades is provided, with published and new records from the state and type localities. Cylindroiulus caeruleocinctus (Wood), C. truncorum (Silvestri), Ophyiulus pilosus (Newport) (all Julida: Julidae), and Opiona fisheri Gardner and Shelley (Chordeumatida: Caseyidae) are newly recorded from California. The new combination Atopetholus wheeleri (Chamberlin) is proposed.

COMPOSITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE MILLIPED TRIBE PACHYDESMINI WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (POLYDESMIDA: XYSTODESMIDAE)

Abstract The xystodesmid milliped tribe Pachydesmini is supported by the autapomorphic absence of bold aposematic pigmentations and possibly also by relative somatic inflexibility; it comprises 3 component genera: Pachydesmus Cook, 1895; Dicellarius Chamberlin, 1920; and Thrinaxoria Chamberlin and Hoffman, 1950. Three representatives occur west of the Mississippi River—P. clarus (Chamberlin), P. crassicutis crassicutis (Wood), and T. lampra (Chamberlin). New localities are documented in Louisiana and Texas, and literature records are summarized for these states and Arkansas; records of P. clarus from Cherokee County, Texas, are the westernmost in this state for the east-Nearctic xystodesmid fauna. An apparently allopatric population of P. crassicutis crassicutis occurs in Evangeline and Lafayette Parishes, Louisiana. These are the first records of this species from west of the Mississippi River, and new localities of this form are cited from east of the watercourse. Thrinaxoria lampra, known previously in Texas from only Gregg County, is documented from Bowie, Cass, Harrison, Rusk, Sabine, and Titus Counties plus Webster Parish, Louisiana. Diagnoses and pertinent anatomical illustrations are provided for each species including the first cyphopod drawings for P. clarus and T. lampra; occurrences west of the river are depicted on a map. A new tribal diagnosis is published along with a distribution map.

INTRODUCTION OF THE MILLIPED, TRIGONIULUS CORALLINUS (GERVAIS, 1847) (SPIROBOLIDA: TRIGONIULIDAE), IN FLORIDA, U.S.A

The milliped, Trigoniulus corallinus (Gervais, 1847), presumably native to the area around Thailand and Myanmar in southeast Asia, has been introduced to South America and islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and Caribbean Sea; it has been recorded in extensive literature under numerous synonyms, particularly T. lumbricinus (Gerstäcker, 1873) (Shelley 1998; Shelley and Lehtinen 1999 and papers referenced therein; Hoffman 1999; Jeekel 2000, 2001). Judging from preserved specimens, occasional individuals are grayish in life, but most are subuniformly reddish, particularly along the caudal pleurotergal margins, and any spirobolidan with this pigmentation found in areas impacted by human modification is probably T. corallinus. Though unknown from the Bahamas and Cuba, the milliped occurs in the rest of the Greater Antilles (both Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Hispaniola) and 11 islands of the Lesser Antilles. Among territories of the United States, it has been recorded from Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas and St. Croix), and also Guam, American Samoa, and the Hawaiian Islands (Oahu, Kauai, and Hawaii) in the Pacific (Attems 1938; Chamberlin 1918, 1923; Schubart 1947; Shelley 1998; Shelley and Lehtinen 1999; Hoffman 1999; Jeekel 2001). On 11 June 2005, the second and third authors collected seven bright red spirobolidan millipeds (2%, 2

The Sigmocheirini, a xystodesmid milliped tribe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, U.S.A. (Polydesmida: Xystodesmidae)

, 3 juveniles) in an unnamed park at the intersection of SW 64th Ave. and SW 69th St. in South Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida. Three individuals were discovered in leaf litter under a decaying log, two were beneath bark of a log, and two were in decomposing litter; the introduced spirobolidan Eurhinocricus sp. (Rhinocricidae) occurred syntopically (Shelley and Edwards 2002). The locality and pigmentation suggested T. corallinus, and the first author confirmed this determination by examining the gonopods of an adult male. On 27 August 2005, the third author collected 2%, 2