Background and methodsThe appearance of bluetongue virus (BTV) in 2006 within northern Europe exposed a lack of expertise and resources available across this region to enable the accurate morphological identification of species of Culicoides Latreille biting midges, some of which are the major vectors of this pathogen. This work aims to organise extant Culicoides taxonomic knowledge into a database and to produce an interactive identification key for females of Culicoides in the Western Palaearctic (IIKC: Interactive identification key for Culicoides). We then validated IIKC using a trial carried out by six entomologists based in this region with variable degrees of experience in identifying Culicoides.ResultsThe current version of the key includes 98 Culicoides species with 10 morphological variants, 61 descriptors and 837 pictures and schemes. Validation was carried out by six entomologists as a blind trial with two users allocated to three classes of expertise (beginner, intermediate and advanced). Slides were identified using a median of seven steps and seven minutes and user confidence in the identification varied from 60% for failed identifications to a maximum of 80% for successful ones. By user class, the beginner group successfully identified 44.6% of slides, the intermediate 56.8% and the advanced 74.3%.ConclusionsStructured as a multi-entry key, IIKC is a powerful database for the morphological identification of female Culicoides from the Western Palaearctic region. First developed for use as an interactive identification key, it was revealed to be a powerful back-up tool for training new taxonomists and to maintain expertise level. The development of tools for arthropod involvement in pathogen transmission will allow clearer insights into the ecology and dynamics of Culicoides and in turn assist in understanding arbovirus epidemiology.

It is time to synthesize the knowledge that has been generated through more than 260 years of botanical exploration, taxonomic and, more recently, phylogenetic research throughout the world. The adoption of an updated Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) in 2011 provided the essential impetus for the development of the World Flora Online (WFO) project. The project represents an international, coordinated effort by the botanical community to achieve GSPC Target 1, an electronic Flora of all plants. It will be a first-ever unique and authoritative global source of information on the world's plant diversity, compiled, curated, moderated and updated by an expert and specialist-based community (Taxonomic Expert Networks-"TENs"covering a taxonomic group such as family or order) and actively managed by those who have compiled and contributed the data it includes. Full credit and acknowledgement will be given to the original sources, allowing users to refer back to the primary data. A strength of the project is that it is led and endorsed by a global consortium of more than 40 leading botanical institutions worldwide. A first milestone for producing the World Flora Online is to be accomplished by the end of 2020, but the WFO Consortium is committed to continuing the WFO programme beyond 2020 when it will develop its full impact as the authoritative source of information on the world's plant biodiversity.

Xper(2) software can be freely downloaded at http://lis-upmc.snv.jussieu.fr/lis/?q=en/resources/softwares/xper2

Aim Our aims were: (1) to use recently published phylogenies of six widely distributed clades of highland-type fishes in a comparative analysis that investigates relationships among North American highlands; (2) to construct a map of relevant (pre-historic) river geography; and (3) to apply ecological paradigms to interpret patterns of highland-fish cladogenesis. Our principal questions were: (1) does highland endemism correspond to pre-historic river drainages; and (2) do patterns of speciation conform to any relevant paradigm?Location Twenty-two North American highlands, east to west from Appalachia to the Basin and Range, north to south from the Canadian Shield to the Mesa Central.Methods We used three-item analysis to find shared highland-area relationships, and we used dated phylogenies and geological literature to construct a map of relevant, pre-historic river drainages. We applied the taxon-cycle concept to interpret results.Results Three-item analysis identified 375 most-parsimonious trees with a retention index of 80.4%. An intersection tree reconstructed from shared three-area statements had a completeness index of 80.3%. Nodes on the tree identified seven major branches of one to eight highland areas each that were congruent with late Miocene river drainage patterns. Sister-area relationships within nodes were congruent with Plio-Pleistocene events. Older taxa have restricted distributions and some younger members of each clade are broadly distributed, consistent with predictions of the taxon cycle.Main conclusions Progenitors of highland endemics were widespread across an aggraded, alluvial landscape by the early Miocene. Middle Miocene drainage rearrangements facilitated further range expansion. Accelerated erosion in the middle Miocene, caused by tectonic uplift and climate change, created highland-type (sediment-starved) habitats. Parallel colonization and adaptation to these habitats and geographical isolation in the late Miocene and early Pliocene led to speciation of highland endemics. Plio-Pleistocene drainage rearrangements allowed populations of tolerant (derivative) taxa to expand again and colonize highland areas, including emerging ones.

Motivation Species delimitation (SD) is on the verge of becoming a fully fledged research field in systematics, but the variety of available approaches tends to result in significant—sometimes striking—incongruences, when tested comparatively with a given taxonomic sampling. Results We present LIMES, an automatic calculation tool which qualitatively compares species partitions obtained by distinct SD approaches, regardless of their respective theoretical backgrounds, and even in absence of reference topology. The program implements four different previously published indexes, and allows their automated calculation. Availability and implementation LIMES is freely downloadable at www.limes.cnrs.fr. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

We present the largest comparative biogeographical analysis that has complete coverage of Australia's geography (20 phytogeographical subregions), using the most complete published molecular phylogenies to date of large Australian plant clades (Acacia, Banksia and the eucalypts). Two distinct sets of areas within the Australian flora were recovered, using distributional data from the Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH) and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA): younger Temperate, Eremaean and Monsoonal biomes, and older southwest + west, southeast and northern historical biogeographical regions. The analyses showed that by partitioning the data into two sets, using either a Majority or a Frequency method to select taxon distributions, two equally valid results were found. The dataset that used a Frequency method discovered general area cladograms that resolved patterns of the Australian biomes, whereas if widespread taxa (Majority method, with >50% of occurrences outside a single subregion) were removed the analysis then recovered historical biogeographical regions. The study highlights the need for caution when processing taxon distributions prior to analysis as, in the case of the history of Australian phytogeography, the validity of both biomes and historical areas have been called into question.

The relationship between the areas of Southeast Asia and the West Pacific region is still debated because of their complex historical geology and the enormous diversity of taxa. Cladistic methods have previously been used to reconstruct the relationships between areas in the region but never with such a high number of unrelated taxa (35). We use a compilation of phylogenies to investigate area relationships among Southeast Asia and the West Pacific region, run the comparative analysis with LisBeth [based on three-item analyses (3ia)] and compare the results with recently published geological reconstructions of the region. We discuss the relevance of such an approach to the interpretation of general pattern. The two questions addressed are: (1) is there an emerging common pattern; and (2) how to explain actual distributions of taxa in Southeast Asia and the West Pacific region. Three-item analysis found 27 optimal trees. An intersection tree reconstructed from the common threearea statements had an overall retention index of 84.8% and retrieved 13 nodes with two major branches compatible with a separation between Southeast Asia and the West Pacific region (i.e. congruent with some geological reconstructions). Any congruent patterns revealed by the combination of unrelated taxa should reflect a common cause. The extraction of information on area relationships contained in phylogenetic analyses of taxa consists of testing for area homologues. We obtained the tree from this region based on an empirical dataset which we hope will contribute to new insights into area classification in the region.

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