Diversity of most above-ground organisms increases with decreasing latitude, but the biogeographical and macroecological diversity patterns of below-ground animals have been poorly studied. We investigated the latitudinal diversity gradient in a primarily below-ground living soil taxon, oribatid mites. Furthermore, oribatid mite species richness from islands and mainlainds was tested for correlation with the size of the respective area (island or mainland) to evaluate if their species Áarea relationships are similar to those of above-ground taxa. The results suggest that for oribatid mites 1) diversity increases from the boreal to the warm temperate region but not further to the tropics, and 2) species Áarea relationships for islands and mainlands are similar to those of aboveground taxa, but this is mainly caused by very small islands, such as Cocos islands, and very large islands, such as Madagascar. When these islands are excluded the species Áarea relationship strongly differs from those of typical islands. The results support the view that below-ground animal taxa are generalists that inhabit wide niches. Most small islands have relatively rich oribatid mite faunas, supporting the observation that a large number of species can coexist in a small area (high a-diversity).

In zoological nomenclature, to be potentially valid, nomenclatural novelties (i.e., new nomina and nomenclatural acts) need first to be made available, that is, published in works qualifying as publications as defined by the International Code of zoological Nomenclature ("the Code"). In September 2012, the Code was amended in order to allow the recognition of works electronically published online after 2011 as publications available for the purpose of zoological nomenclature, provided they meet several conditions, notably a preregistration of the work in ZooBank. Despite these new Rules, several of the long-discussed problems concerning the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts have not been resolved. The publication of this amendment provides an opportunity to discuss some of these in detail. It is important to note that: (1) all works published only online before 2012 are nomenclaturally unavailable; (2) printed copies of the PDFs of works which do not have their own ISSN or ISBN, and which are not obtainable free of charge or by purchase, do not qualify as publications but must be seen as facsimiles of unavailable works and are unable to provide nomenclatural availability to any nomenclatural novelties they may contain; (3) prepublications online of later released online publications are unavailable, i.e., they do not advance the date of publication; (4) the publication dates of works for which online prepublications had been released are not those of these prepublications and it is critical that the real release date of such works appear on the actual final electronic publication, but this is not currently the case in electronic periodicals that distribute such online prepublications and which still indicate on their websites and PDFs the date of release of prepublication as that of publication of the work; (5) supplementary online materials and subsequent formal corrections of either paper or electronic publications distributed only online are nomenclaturally unavailable; (6) nomenclatural information provided on online websites that do not have a fixed content and format, with ISSN or ISBN, is unavailable. We give precise examples of many of these nomenclatural problems. Several of them, when they arise, are due to the fact that the availability of nomenclatural novelties now depends on information that will have to be sought not from the work itself but from extrinsic evidence. As shown by several examples discussed here, an electronic document can be modified while keeping the same DOI and publication date, which is not compatible with the requirements of zoological nomenclature. Therefore, another system of registration of electronic documents as permanent and inalterable will have to be devised. ZooBank also clearly needs to be improved in several respects. Mention in a work of its registration number (LSID) in ZooBank would seem to be possible only if this registration has occurred previously, but some works that have purportedly been registered in ZooBank are in fact missing on t...

Diversity of most above-ground organisms increases with decreasing latitude, but the biogeographical and macroecological diversity patterns of below-ground animals have been poorly studied. We investigated the latitudinal diversity gradient in a primarily below-ground living soil taxon, oribatid mites. Furthermore, oribatid mite species richness from islands and mainlainds was tested for correlation with the size of the respective area (island or mainland) to evaluate if their species Áarea relationships are similar to those of above-ground taxa. The results suggest that for oribatid mites 1) diversity increases from the boreal to the warm temperate region but not further to the tropics, and 2) species Áarea relationships for islands and mainlands are similar to those of aboveground taxa, but this is mainly caused by very small islands, such as Cocos islands, and very large islands, such as Madagascar. When these islands are excluded the species Áarea relationship strongly differs from those of typical islands. The results support the view that below-ground animal taxa are generalists that inhabit wide niches. Most small islands have relatively rich oribatid mite faunas, supporting the observation that a large number of species can coexist in a small area (high a-diversity).

The community structure, stable isotope ratios (15N/14N, 13C/12C) and reproductive mode of oribatid mites (Acari, Oribatida) were investigated in four habitats (upper tree bark, lower tree bark, dry grassland soil, forest soil) at two sites in the Central Alps (Tyrol, Austria). We hypothesized that community structure and trophic position of oribatid mites of dry grassland soils and bark of trees are similar since these habitats have similar abiotic characteristics (open, dry) compared with forest soil. Further, we hypothesized that derived taxa of oribatid mites reproducing sexually dominate on the bark of trees since species in this habitat consume living resources such as lichens. In contrast to our hypothesis, the community structure of oribatid mites differed among grassland, forest and bark indicating the existence of niche differentiation in the respective oribatid mite species. In agreement with our hypothesis, sexually reproducing taxa of oribatid mites dominated on the bark of trees whereas parthenogenetic species were more frequent in soil. Several species of bark-living oribatid mites had stable isotope signatures that were similar to lichens indicating that they feed on lichens. However, nine species that frequently occurred on tree bark did not feed on lichens according to their stable isotope signatures. No oribatid mite species could be ascribed to moss feeding. We conclude that sexual reproduction served as preadaptation for oribatid mites allowing them to exploit new habitats and new resources on the bark of trees. Abiotic factors likely are of limited importance for bark-living oribatid mites since harsh abiotic conditions are assumed to favor parthenogenesis.

-