Biosystematics and Ecology

The “shrimp mushroom”, Russula xerampelina, has a strong cooked shellfish odour. Headspace volatiles from fresh sporocarps of this mushroom were analysed using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Trimethylamine and trimethylamine N-oxide were the only volatile compounds detected emanating from the fruiting body. Trimethylamine is noted for its fishy, cooked crab or cooked shrimp-like odour.

Schlagworte: GC-MS, Russula xerampelina (Agaricales; Russulaceae), Shrimp Mushroom, SPME, Trimethylamine, Trimethylamine N-oxide

The oyster plant (Britain) or oyster leaf (North America), Mertensia maritima (L.) Gray has a strong oyster-like odour. Headspace volatiles from fresh crushed leaves of this plant were analysed using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Dimethyl sulphide was detected emanating from the crushed leaves, a compound that is noted for being a major part of the odour profile of raw oysters.

Schlagworte: GC-MS, Mertensia maritima (Boraginaceae), Oyster Leaf, Oyster Plant, Oyster Odour, SPME

The checklist of louse flies in Austria currently comprises 16 species. With Crataerina melbae and Ornithophila metallica, this includes two first records compared to the status of previous publications. The state of research in the federal states varies considerably. With reference to the occurrence of their hosts in Austria, at least four further species are to be expected.

Schlagworte: Diptera, Hippoboscidae, Checklist, Austria

The production of semantic annotations has gained renewed attention due to the development of anatomical ontologies and the documentation of morphological data. Two methods are proposed in this production, differing in their methodological and philosophical approaches: class-based method and instance-based method. The first, the semantic annotations are established as class expressions, while in the second, the annotations incorporate individuals. An empirical evaluation of the above methods was applied in the morphological description of Neotropical species of the genus Lepidocyrtus (Collembola: Entomobryidae: Lepidocyrtinae). The semantic annotations are expressed as RDF triple, which is a language most flexible than the Entity-Quality syntax used commonly in the description of phenotypes. The morphological descriptions were built in Protégé 5.4.0 and stored in an RDF store created with Fuseki Jena. The semantic annotations based on RDF triple increase the interoperability and integration of data from diverse sources, e.g., museum data. However, computational challenges are present, which are related with the development of semi-automatic methods for the generation of RDF triple, interchanging between texts and RDF triple, and the access by non-expert users.

Schlagworte: class-based methods, instance-based methods, resource description framework (RDF), Neotropical region, Hexapoda