North-American Plant Taxonomy

The Destabilization of North American Colubroid Snake Taxonomy

The classification of taxa has always been an area of debate among systematists—empirically, methodologically, and philosophically. Arguably, the single most important change over the past forty years is the widespread recognition that a classification system is only useful when it functions as a storage and retrieval system of phylogenetic information. Although the type of information to be st...

Principles Op Plant Taxonomy

Phylogeny and taxonomy of the North American clade of the Ceratocystis fimbriata complex.

Ceratocystis fimbriata is a widely distributed, plant pathogenic fungus that causes wilts and cankers on many woody hosts. Earlier phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences revealed three geographic clades within the C. fimbriata complex that are centered respectively in North America, Latin America and Asia. This study looked for cryptic species within the North American clade. The internal trans...

North American species of Agrostocynips Diaz (Hymenoptera: Figitidae: Eucoilinae), parasitoids of Agromyzidae (Diptera): bionomics and taxonomy

The genus Agrostocynips Diaz is redescribed, as well as two species endemic to the Nearctic: Agrostocynips diastrophi (Ashmead) and A. robusta (Ashmead). Previous to this study, only Neotropical species of Agrostocynips were well diagnosed both taxonomically and biologically. Agrostocynips belongs to the Zaeucoila group of genera, which are Neotropical eucoilines that principally parasitize Agr...

Taxonomy and morphology of plant-parasitic nematodes associated with turfgrasses in North and South Carolina, USA

Twenty-nine species of plant-parasitic nematodes were recovered from 282 soil samples collected from turfgrasses in 19 counties in North Carolina (NC) and 20 counties in South Carolina (SC) during 2011 and from previous collections. These nematodes belong to 22 genera in 15 families, including Belonolaimus longicaudatus, Dolichodorus heterocephalus, Filenchus cylindricus, Helicotylenchus dihyst...