Crop wild relatives are an important socio-economic resource that is currently being eroded or even extinguished through careless human activities. If the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD 2010 Biodiversity Target of achieving a significant reduction in the current rate of loss is to be achieved, we must first define what crop wild relatives are and how their conservation might be prioritised. A definition of a crop wild relative is proposed and illustrated in the light of previous Gene Pool concept theory. Where crossing and genetic diversity information is unavailable, the Taxon Group concept is introduced to assist recognition of the degree of crop wild relative relatedness by using the existing taxonomic hierarchy.

Summary Compton, J. A., Culham, A. & Jury, S. L.: Reclassification of Actaea to include Cimicifuga and Souliea (Ranunculaceae): phytogeny inferred from morphology, nrDNA ITS, and cpDNA trnL‐F sequence variation. – Taxon 47: 593‐634. 1998. – ISSN 0040‐0262 Phylogenetic analyses using parsimony were performed on three independent data sets to test generic relationships between Actaea, Cimicifuga, and Souliea. Analyses of morphology and nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS were performed on 23 species of Cimicifuga, 4 species of Actaea, and the single species of Souliea. Analysis of chloroplast DNA trnL‐F was applied to the same species, less two of Cimicifuga. The outgroup taxa Eranthis and Anemonopsis both resolved outside the ingroup in all parsimony analyses, whereas Souliea resolved within it. Jukes‐Cantor pairwise sequence distances confirm Eranthis and Anemonopsis to be most distant. Souliea distances are comparable with those of taxa within the Actaea‐Cimicifuga assemblage. A strongly supported monophyletic clade including all studied species of Actaea, Cimicifuga, and Souliea was found in all analyses. Evidence presented here allows a broader concept of Actaea to be adopted, reverting to the circumscription of Linnaeus in 1753. Seven sections, based on clades found in the total analysis, could be defined by morphological characters: A. sect. Actaea, sect. Podocarpae, sect. Cimicifuga, sect. Dichanthera, sect. Oligocarpae, sect. Pityrosperma, and sect. Souliea. One species, A. taiwanensis, is newly described and 23 new combinations are made in the ranks of section, species, and variety. Keys are provided to identify taxa at all ranks within the revised circumscription of Actaea. Maps showing the distributions of all seven sections and their constituent species are presented. Phytogeographic patterns suggest a Tertiary origin for the newly redefined genus, with species surviving in refugia during the glacial periods of the Pleistocene.

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A new paper listing the 961 described bee species of Morocco was recently published in the journal Zootaxa. This paper includes a review of historical records from the literature on the bee fauna of Morocco and recent records compiled from contemporary entomologists. Bee species richness in Morocco is almost half of European bee diversity while surface area of Morocco represents only 7% of the European surface area.Thanks to an extensive collaboration between local and world bee experts we were able to cross-check between independently assembled global, regional, and local databases to achieve a complete and precise coverage of the wild bee fauna of Morocco as far as identified by now. The list of bees was compiled from several sources including scientific literature, online databases and records compiled by the authors based on study of public museum and private collections. This complete checklist [The wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Morocco, 2020] includes also information about Moroccan type material (specimens used to describe Female of the Morrocan endemic bee Rhodanthidium ordonezi (Credit: Nicolas Vereecken), used for the cover of the monograph.