Search

We found two species of oribatid mites from Babeldaob Island of Palau Republic, which is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Eurhynchoribates brevisensillatus sp. nov. is proposed from mosses growing in the forest, and a diagnostic key to adults of all known species of Eurhynchoribates is provided. Another species, Basilobelba foliata Hammer, 1982 is reported for the first time from Palau, which was known previously from island of Bali, Indonesia. Following the descriptions and comparisons, we discuss aspects of the diversity, distribution and habitat ecology of species belonging to each genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the supplementary description of adults ofEremaeozetes octomaculatualong with illustrations is provided, which is recorded for the first time from Indonesia.Eremaeozetes octomaculatusis an Oriental and Oceanian species, currently known from the Western Samoa Island of Polynesia, Luzon and Mindanao Islands of the Philippines, Okinawa Island in the Ryukyu Archipelago of Japan, and recently we found it in the Java Island of Indonesia. This species appears to be primarily an inhabitant of tropical forests, and it prefers mosses and fungi growing on stones, tree trunks, as well as forest floors and decomposed plant debris. Data of analysis on 28S D3 gene sequence of this species is provided. Comparison of theE. octomaculatussequence with other oribatid mites 28S D3 sequences identifies thatScapheremaeusis the closest relative toE. octomaculatuswith regard to the species included in this analysis, but the relationship was supported by week bootstrap value. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To minimize the degradation of soil organic matter (SOM) content in conventional sugarcane cropping, it is important to understand how the fungal community contributes to SOM dynamics during the decomposition of sugarcane leaf litter. However, our knowledge of fungal diversity in tropical agroecosystems is currently limited. Thus, we determined the fungal community structure on decomposing sugarcane leaf litter and their response to different soil management systems using the internal transcribed spacer region 1 (ITS1) amplicon sequencing method afforded by Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM). The results indicate that no-tillage had positive effects on the relative abundance of Zygomycota and of some taxa that may prefer a moist environment over conventional tillage, whereas bagasse mulching decreased the richness of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and had positive effect on the relative abundance of slow-growing taxa, which may prefer poor nutrient substrates. Furthermore, a combination of no-tillage and bagasse mulching increased the abundance of unique OTUs. We suggest that the alteration of fungal communities through the changes in soil management practices produces an effect on litter decomposition.