We report new distribution records for amphibians and reptiles from 20 localities within the northern Cordillera Mountain Range of Ilocos Norte Province, Luzon Island, Philippines. Together with opportunistic collections of specimens from past surveys, our new data result in a total of 58 amphibian and reptile species for Ilocos Norte Province and the extreme northern Cordilleras—all of which constitute major geographic range extensions. We utilize new data and IUCN formalized conservation assessment criteria to revise the conservation status of many species. Our results highlight the degree to which fundamental distribution data are lacking for Luzon amphibians and reptiles and emphasize the manner in which many current species assessments are based on incomplete data and, as a result, may be sorely misleading. The complex biogeography of Luzon’s herpetofauna remains poorly understood, providing opportunities for future research and conservation efforts once distribution patterns and local abundances are properly documented.

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera. Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin ~100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event. We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics. Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants.

The taxonomy and systematics of the armored harvestmen (suborder Laniatores) are based on various sets of morphological characters pertaining to shape, armature, pedipalpal setation, and the number of articles of the walking leg tarsi. Few studies have tested the validity of these historical character systems in a comprehensive way, with reference to an independent data class, i.e., molecular sequence data. We examined as a test case the systematics of Podoctidae, a family distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific. We tested the validity of the three subfamilies of Podoctidae using a five-locus phylogeny, and examined the evolution of dorsal shape as a proxy for taxonomic utility, using parametric shape analysis. Here we show that two of the three subfamilies, Ibaloniinae and Podoctinae, are non-monophyletic, with the third subfamily, Erecananinae, recovered as non-monophyletic in a subset of analyses. Various genera were also recovered as non-monophyletic. As first steps toward revision of Podoctidae, the subfamilies Erecananinae Roewer, 1912 and Ibaloniinae Roewer, 1912 are synonymized with Podoctinae Roewer, 1912 new synonymies, thereby abolishing unsubstantiated subfamilial divisions within Podoctidae. We once again synonymize the genus Paralomanius Goodnight & Goodnight, 1948 with Lomanius Roewer, 1923 revalidated. We additionally show that eggs carried on the legs of male Podoctidae are not conspecific to the males, falsifying the hypothesis of paternal care in this group.

Aim: We sought to illuminate the history of the arachnid orders Schizomida and Uropygi, neither of which have previously been subjected to global molecular phylogenetic and biogeographical analyses.Location: Specimens used in this study were collected in all major tropical and subtropical areas where they are presently found, including the Americas, Africa, Australia and the Indo-Pacific region.Methods: From field-collected specimens, we sequenced two nuclear and two mitochondrial markers, combined these with publicly available data, and conducted multi-gene phylogenetic analyses on 240 Schizomida, 24 Uropygi and 12 other arachnid outgroups. Schizomid specimens included one specimen from the small family Protoschizomidae; other schizomid specimens were in Hubbardiidae, subfamily Hubbardiinae, which holds 289 of the order's 305 named species. We inferred ancestral areas using the Dispersal-Extinction-Cladogenesis model of range evolution, and we used fossil calibrations to estimate divergence times. Results:We recovered monophyletic Schizomida and Uropygi as each other's sister group, forming the clade Thelyphonida, and terminals from the New World were usually positioned as the earliest diverging lineages. The ancestral area for

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have diversified via coevolution with plants and in response to dispersals following key geological events. These hypotheses have been poorly tested at the macroevolutionary scale because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets on global distributions and larval hosts of butterflies are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,000 butterfly species to construct a new, phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera and aggregated global distribution records and larval host datasets. We found that butterflies likely originated in what is now the Americas, ~100 Ma, shortly before the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, then crossed Beringia and diversified in the Paleotropics. The ancestor of modern butterflies likely fed on Fabaceae, and most extant families were present before the K/Pg extinction. The majority of butterfly dispersals occurred from the tropics (especially the Neotropics) to temperate zones, largely supporting a "cradle" pattern of diversification. Surprisingly, host breadth changes and shifts to novel host plants had only modest impacts.

Elevation is an important determinant of ecological community composition. It integrates several abiotic features and leads to strong, repeatable patterns of community structure, including changes in the abundance and richness of numerous taxa. However, the influence of elevational gradients on microbes is understudied relative to plants and animals. To compare the influence of elevation on multiple taxa simultaneously, we sampled phytotelm communities within a tropical pitcher plant (Nepenthes mindanaoensis) along a gradient from 400 to 1200 m a.s.l. We use a combination of metabarcoding and physical counts to assess diversity and richness of bacteria, micro-eukaryotes, and arthropods, and compare the effect of elevation on community structure to that of regulation by a number of plant factors. Patterns of community structure differed between bacteria and eukaryotes, despite their living together in the same aquatic microhabitats. Elevation influences community composition of eukaryotes to a significantly greater degree than it does bacteria. When examining pitcher characteristics, pitcher dimorphism has an effect on eukaryotes but not bacteria, while variation in pH levels strongly influences both taxa. Consistent with previous ecological studies, arthropod abundance in phytotelmata decreases with elevation, but some patterns of abundance differ between living inquilines and prey.

The limits of zalmoxid distribution in Southeast Asia are poorly understood, but a focus of recent research. Here we describesix new species of litter-inhabiting harvestmen in the genus Zalmoxis Sørensen, 1886 (Opiliones: Laniatores: Zalmoxidae)using light microscopy and SEM. Three of these species are from the Philippine Islands (Zalmoxis gebeleizis sp. nov., Zalmoxisderzelas sp. nov., and Zalmoxis sabazios sp. nov.) and the other three from Borneo (Zalmoxis zibelthiurdos sp. nov., Zalmoxisbendis sp. nov., and Zalmoxis kotys sp. nov.). The collecting localities of these species add to the known range of Zalmoxidae,which have not previously been reported from Borneo. The new species add to known morphological variation of Zalmoxis, specifically with respect to sexually dimorphic tarsomeres, body size, and armature of the anal plate.

The Philippine archipelago harbours a remarkable diversity of harvestmen, with respect to both taxonomy and complexity of biogeographic origins. Among the armoured harvestmen (suborder Laniatores), six families of distantly related groups occur in this archipelago. Here, we describe a new species of the family Tithaeidae, Tithaeus odysseus sp. nov., discovered during a collecting campaign on the island of Mindanao. The description of this species expands the known distribution of the family and demonstrates another exception to the zoogeographic boundary known as Huxley’s Line which putatively separates the biota of the Philippines (excluding the Palawan island group) from the Sunda Shelf biota. Given the coincident distributions of Tithaeidae and the mite harvestman family Stylocellidae (Cyphophthalmi), a group renowned for its poor dispersal ability, we inferred phylogenetic relationships and divergence times of the Philippines lineages of both families by using a comprehensive molecular dating analysis of all Opiliones. The internal phylogeny of Tithaeidae mirrored the biogeography of Philippine Stylocellidae, showing a close affinity between the Philippine and Bornean species. Molecular dating showed contemporaneous colonisation of Mindanao by both families in the Cretaceous. We infer these patterns to reflect faunal connections between the southern Philippines and Borneo via the Zamboanga Peninsula. To render the genus Tithaeus monophyletic, we synonymise Metatithaeus with Tithaeus (new synonymy).