Iranian journal of animal biosystematics
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2011

In this study, the earthworms of Tehran Province were investigated. Specimens were collected from wet soil in 48 stations during 2011 and 2012. During the course of the study, eight earthworm species were identified, including: Aporrectodea caliginosa (Savigny, 1826), Ap. rosea (Savigny, 1826), Dendrobaena veneta (Rosa, 1886), Dendrodrilus rubidus (Savigny, 1826), Eisenia fetida (Savigny, 1826), Eiseniella tetraedra (Savigny, 1826), Octolasion lacteum (Örley, 1881), Perelia kaznakovi (Michaelsen, 1910). All of them were common in this area except Perelia kaznakovi and Dendrobaena veneta.

The skull of two lacertid lizards of Iran including Eremias persica from Isfahan Province, Central Iranian Plateau and Mesalina watsonana from Birjand in Southern Khorasan Province, Eastern Iran, was described and compared based on seven dry skull preparations. Prominent differences included: the shape of the premaxilla and its articulation with other skull elements, the shape of the frontal (particularly the form of its processes), the number of dentary teeth, the shape of the jugal, and the position of the parietal opening. Also in E. persica, the nasals were in contact with each other whereas in M. watsonana they were separated by the nasal process of the premaxilla and anteromedial process of the frontal. Absence of pterygoid teeth in M. watsonana and extended pyriform recess in E. persica also represented further differences. Our study contributes to the baseline understanding of squamate osteology and more specifically will facilitate further studies on lacertid morphological disparity.

Malaysian Mahseer, Tor douronensis, locally known as “kelah” in Peninsular Malaysia or semah in Sarawak is one of the important Mahseers used for food as well as the aquarium industry and game fishing. This species is endemic to Malaysian Borneo river basins. The wild stocks of T. douronensis have declined substantially in recent years, due to over exploitation, pollution and illegal fishing practices. DNA sequencing based on a partial sequence of the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene, was used to determine genetic variation in wild stocks of T. douronensis originated from eight different populations in Sarawak River Basins of Malaysian Borneo. The highest haplotype diversity was found in Entabai river population while the lowest were marked in four populations of Lundu, Terbat, Bau and Kg. Pa Puti. The population structure analyses based on ANOVA or found low level of intra and high level of inter population variations in samples of T. douronensis of Sarawak. The presence of unique haplotype in some populations, along with high FST values indicated that there has been restricted or no migration among the existing population which were separated by geographical barrier or river systems. The population structure of the three regions was also analysed using ANOVA and revealed that most of the variations occurred among regions and among subpopulations within a region. Population structure of T. douronensis showed high degree of genetic heterogeneity and appeared to be significantly structured into geographically discrete population.

This study investigates skull variation in Persian jird, Meriones persicus (Blanford, 1875) in relation to the geoclimatical conditions across its distribution range. The pattern of correlations between geoclimatical variables and geometric shape descriptors for 221 ventral crania was studied by landmark-based geometric morphometric techniques. The covariation between shape and geoclimatical variables was explored using the Two-Block Partial Least-Squares (2B-PLS) method. The studied geoclimatical variables are: altitude, temperature (mean annual, monthly maximum and monthly minimum), annual rainfall and seasonal variation in rainfall represented by the Shannon rainfall diversity index. The phenotypes of this species reflect a particular pattern of correlated shape variation to the geoclimatical variation. The Persian jirds from the Southern populations living in lower, warmer and drier localities are characterized by bulla hypertrophy, less convex zygomatic arch, narrower zygomatic plate, longer incisive foramen and slightly a shorter nasal. The studied populations which belong to different subspecies differ from each other through a smooth variation in cranial characters.

Wood mice of the genus Apodemus are widespread in temperate areas of the Palaearctic region. Four species A. hyrcanicus, A. flavicollis, A. witherbyi, A. avicennicus and A. uralensis were reported for Iran. The shape variation among three species of the genus Apodemus (A. witherbyi, A. hyrcanicus, A. uralensis) and a subfossil specimens from Kordestan (Kani Mikaiil cave) dated to 6000-4800 cal. BC, were investigated using outline-based geometric morphometrics of the second lower molar. In a second step, morphological differences among four populations of Iranian wood mice belonging to A. witherbyi were studied by the same method. The results indicated that subfossil specimens from Kani Mikaiil belong to A. witherbyi. The discriminant analysis also shows that A. witherbyi of East Azerbaijan was separated from populations of Tehran, Khorasan and Gorgan, based on variations in the shapes of the second lower molar. Moreover, results of clustering analysis show that those fossil specimens which belong to A. witherbyi are ancestral and close to the population of East Azerbaijan.

Two specimens of Ophiomorus nuchalis from the northern part of Isfahan province were collected, one of them on June 6, 2010, and the other one on June 9, 2011. The new records were collected in southern part of the type locality. The habitat of Ophiomorus nuchalis in this region varies greatly from the previous records.

In our ecological study on Planktonic copepods of Bahrakan waters in August 2010, (Hendijan Harbor- NW Persian Gulf- Iran) a copepod species, Acartia (Acartiella) faoensis Khalaf, 1991 was collected. This current report is the first record of this species in Iranian waters of NW Persian Gulf. A. faoensis is a calanoid copepod which belongs to the family Acartidae. This species was first reported from Khor Al-Zubair and Khor Abdulla, Iraq (Khalaf, 1991) which after wasfound in coastal waters of Bubiyan Island in North of Kuwait (Ali et al., 2009; AL-Yamani et al., 2011). Therefore, this is the fourth report of A. faoensis in region. This finding can increase the probability of the idea that this species is endemic to NW Persian Gulf.