Resolving an 87-year-old taxonomical curiosity with the description of Psylla frodobagginsi sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Psyllidae), a second distinct Psylla species on the New Zealand endemic plant kowhai.

A recent DNA-based assessment of the psyllid fauna of New Zealand recorded high genetic variation between populations that were expected to belong to the same psyllid species. Among these, a number of populations of the kowhai psyllid Psylla apicalis (Ferris & Klyver, 1932), from a kowhai species, Sophora microphylla Aiton (Fabaceae), presented high genetic variability. This gave new endorsement of an 87-year-old observation made by the entomologists Ferris and Klyver who, when describing the kowhai psyllid, from Sophora tetraptera J.S. Muell., suggested that morphological variations could support more than one species. Accordingly, the morphological assessment conducted here, together with the genetic information now available, resulted in the description of Psylla frodobagginsi sp. nov. as a second New Zealand endemic psyllid species hosted by S. microphylla.

Streptomyces carminius sp. nov., a novel actinomycete isolated from Sophora alopecuroides in Xinjiang, China.

A novel actinobacterial strain, designated TRM SA0054T, was isolated from the roots of Sophora alopecuroides grown in Alar, Xinjiang, north-west China, and characterised by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. Phylogenetic analysis showed that strain TRM SA0054T has 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of 98.22% with Streptomyces barkulensis RC 1831T. Whole cell hydrolysates of strain TRM SA0054T were found to contain LL-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid and ribose, glucose and xylose as the major whole cell sugars. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C16:0, iso-C16:1 G, anteiso-C17:0, anteiso-C15:0, C16:0, anteiso-C17:1 ω9c. The main menaquinones were determined to be MK-8 (H4), MK-9 (H6) and MK-9 (H8). The polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmethylethanolamine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylinositol mannoside and an unidentified lipid. The G + C content of the genomic DNA was determined to be 73.04%. Strain TRM SA0054T has a relatively low DNA-DNA relatedness value with Streptomyces barkulensis RC 1831T as determined by calculating the average nucleotide identity value (ANI = 84.1%). Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and phylogenetic data, it is concluded that strain TRM SA0054T should be designated as a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces carminius sp. nov. is proposed, with type strain TRM SA0054T (= CCTCC AA 2016041T = KCTC39903T).