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Simple Summary: The bright red color of Erythraeid mites is conspicuous. The Erythraeid larvae are usually ectoparasitic on arthropods and easily observed. Both the genera Charletonia and Leptus are distributed worldwide. Charletonia has 86 species and Leptus has more than 240 species based on larvae, respectively. To date, two species of the genus Charletonia and 11 species of the genus Leptus have been reported from China. Here, four new species, Charletonia rectangia Xu and Jin sp. nov. collected from tropical rainforests in the Guangxi Province and Yunnan Province, Leptus (Leptus) bomiensis Xu and Jin sp. nov. from the Tibet Autonomous Region, where the altitude ranges from 2673 to 3374 m, Leptus (Leptus) longisolenidionus Xu and Jin sp. nov. from jungles in the Hainan Province (Hainan Island), and Leptus (Leptus) striatus Xu and Jin sp. nov. from Xishuangbanna tropical rainforests in the Yunnan Province. We believe that this study will contribute to further research on the taxonomy and phylogeny of the family. Four new species, Charletonia rectangia Xu and Jin sp. nov., Leptus (Leptus) bomiensis Xu and Jin sp. nov., Leptus (Leptus) longisolenidionus Xu and Jin sp. nov., and Leptus (Leptus) striatus Xu and Jin sp. nov. are described and illustrated based on larvae. All four new species are from biodiversity hotspots, L. (L.) bomiensissp. nov. from the Eastern Himalayas biodiversity hotspot, while the other three species from the Indo–Burma biodiversity hotspot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphate-solubilizing fungi (PSF) play an important role in increasing the bioavailability of phosphorus in soils for plants. Thirteen fungal strains, one collected from air and 12 from soil, were screened and described here in detail. These fungal strains were tested for their ability to solubilize tricalcium phosphate (TCP) on both solid and liquid Pikovskaya (PVK) media in vitro. The airborne fungal strain KUMCC 18-0196 (Aspergillus hydei sp. nov.) showed the most significant phosphate solubilizing activity on a solid PVK medium with the solubilization index (SI) (2.58 ± 0.04 cm) and the highest solubilized phosphates (1523.33 ± 47.87 μg/mL) on a liquid PVK medium. To the best of our knowledge, A. hydei sp. nov. is the first phosphate-solubilizing fungus reported from air. We also provide the identification especially for Aspergillus , Penicillium and Talaromyces , generally reported as PSF. It is important to not only screen for PSF but also identify species properly so that researchers have a clearer taxonomic picture for identifying potential taxa for future plant growth-promoting applications. Herein, A. hydei (section Nigri), Gongronella hydei , Penicillium soli (section Lanata-Divaricata) and Talaromyces yunnanensis (section Talaromyces) are fully described and introduced as new to science. These four new species are identified based on both morphological characteristics and multigene phylogenetic analyses, including the genealogical concordance phylogenetic species recognition method where necessary. Penicillium austrosinense is considered to be a synonym of P. guaibinense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ottelia acuminata var. songmingensis is an Endangered freshwater submerged macrophyte occupying only a portion of a stream ca. 300 meters long in Songming County of the Yunnan Province, China. Here, we report and characterize the complete chloroplast genome sequence of O. acuminata var. songmingensis to provide genomic resources useful for promoting its conservation. The complete chloroplast genome is 157,645 bp in length, consisting of a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions (24,973 bp), a small single copy (SSC) region (20,055 bp), and a large single copy (LSC) region (87,644 bp). The chloroplast genome contained 116 genes, including 71 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The overall GC content of the whole genome is 36.6%. Phylogenetic analysis of 19 selected chloroplast genomes revealed that O. acuminata var. songmingensis was closely related to Elodea canadensis of Hydrocharitaceae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]