The global environment is faced with growing threats from anthropogenic disturbance, propelling the Earth into a 6th mass extinction. For the world's mammals, this is reflected in the fact that 25% of species are threatened with some risk of extinction. During this time of species loss and environmental alteration, the world's natural history museums (NHMs) are uniquely poised to provide novel insight into many aspects of conservation. This review seeks to provide evidence of the importance of NHMs to mammal conservation, how arguments against continued collecting of physical voucher specimens is counterproductive to these efforts, and to identify additional threats to collecting with a particular focus on small mammals across Africa. NHMs contribute unique data for assessing mammal species conservation status through the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened species. However, NHMs' contributions to mammal conservation go well beyond supporting the IUCN Red List, with studies addressing topics such as human impacts, climate change, genetic diversity, disease, physiology, and biodiversity education. Increasing and diverse challenges, both domestic and international, highlight the growing threats facing NHMs, especially in regards to the issue of lethally sampling individuals for the purpose of creating voucher specimens. Such arguments are counterproductive to conservation efforts and tend to reflect the moral opposition of individual researchers than a true threat to conservation. The need for continued collecting of holistic specimens of all taxa across space and time could not be more urgent, especially for underexplored biodiversity hotspots facing extreme threats such as the Afrotropics.
Olej na plátně, 4, 5 x 2, 8 m. Figurální scéna: uprostřed obdélné kompozice sedí žena se znakem Ostravy v klíně, za ní stojí Merkur, v levé ruce drží kaduceus. Kolem dvojice scény - horníci v dolech těžící uhlí, hutníci, rolníci na poli, rodina s dětmi. and Obraz visel v hotelu do roku 1949, pak nezvěstný, objeven roku 1992, restaurován (2009) a vrácen na původní místo. (Srov. M. Pleva, Obří obraz s pohnutým osudem je k vidění v hotelu ve Stodolní, in Moravskoslezský deník 1.10. 2011).
The following four species (only females available) of the Philometridae (Nematoda: Dracunculoidea) were recorded from freshwater fishes of Lake Turkana, northwestern Kenya in 2007-2008: Philometra bagri (Khalil, 1965) from the subcutaneous tissue around the mouth, on gill covers and the fin base of the bayad Bagrus bajad (Forsskål) (Bagridae: Siluriformes), Philometra lati sp. n. from the abdominal cavity of the Nile perch Lates niloticus (Linnaeus) (Latidae: Perciformes), Philometra spiriformis sp. n. from capsules on the inner surface of gill covers of L. niloticus and Afrophilometra hydrocyoni (Fahmy, Mandour et El-Nafar, 1976) comb. n. from the fins of Hydrocynus forskahlii (Cuvier) (Alestidae: Characiformes). The new species P. lati is characterized mainly by the presence of distinct oesophageal teeth, absence of large cephalic lobes and caudal projections, and by a combination of other features. Philometra spiriformis differs from all congeners principally in the spirally coiled body and from individual species by a combination of other morphological features. The already known species P. bagri and A. hydrocyoni are redescribed based on light and scanning electron microscopy; findings of both these species in Kenya represent new geographical records.
A new species of philometrid nematode, Philometroides africanus sp. n., is described from female specimens found encapsulated in gill arches and inner surface of gill covers of the African pike, Hepsetus odoe (Bloch), an endemic freshwater fish in Africa, from the Okavango River and Delta in Botswana. This new nematode is characterised mainly by a markedly small and plump body of gravid females (body length 6-9 mm), a separate anterior oesophageal bulb, a conspicuously small oesophageal gland, presence of four pairs of very small submedian cephalic papillae, and absence of any caudal processes. The prevalence of P. africanus in African pike of the Okavango Delta was 29%, with the intensity 1-8 (mean 3) encapsulated nematodes per fish. The genus Margolisianum Blaylock et Overstreet, 1999 is considered a junior synonym of Philometroides Yamaguti, 1935 and, consequently, its type species is transferred to the latter as Philometroides bulbosus (Blaylock et Overstreet, 1999) comb. n.
Hlavní sál v prvním patře, v kupoli nástěnná malba - čtyři fikurální kompozice ve štukových kartuších, alegorie čtyř světadílů - Afrika, Amerika, Asie a Evropa., Poche 1980#, 78-80., Vlček 2001#, 413., and Ferdinand I. rakouský, později císař Přemalba původních kompozic, jejichž autorem byl patrně V. V. Reiner.
Na atice paláce, po obou stranách fasády, alegorické sochy čtyř světadílů. Žena, na hlavě koruna (Evropa), drží štít se znamením koně u pravé nohy, v levé ruce drží koruny a tiáru, které podpírá putto. Mouřenínka (Afrika), nahá s pérovou čelenkou na hlavě, v pravici drží papouška, u nohou krokodýl. Žena (Amerika) ozdobená šňůrou perel, v levé ruce drží škebli?, u nohou lev. Žena v kaftanu, na hlavě vysoký homolovitý turban s půlměsícem, v pravé ruce štít se znamením velblouda., Blažíček 1976#, 104-105., and Sochy světadílů jsou inspirovány Ikonologií C. Ripy.
Vnější parapet schodiště zdobí dvanáct bust, tři čtveřice alegorií světadílů, živlů a ročních dob., Horyna, Neubert 2000#, 41-51., and Sochařskou výzdobu schodiště zahradního průčelí vytvořil Jan Jiří Heermann a jeho synovci Pavel a Zachariáš Heermannové ze Saska.
Skleněná číška s broušeným motivem. Na plášti alegorie čtyř světadílů s určujícími nápisy. Sedící žena s korunou (Evropa), nahý divoch se slonem a krokodýlem (Afrika), Indián se lvem a pumou (Amerika), muž v turbanu s velbloudem (Asie)., Drahotová 1989#, 116., and Alegorie čtyř světadílů - Evropa, Amerika, Afrika, Asie.
Two new species of the subfamily Picobiinae (Acari: Prostigmata: Syringophilidae) are described: Picobia ploceus sp. n. from Ploceus ocularis Smith (Passeriformes: Ploceidae) and Picobia lamprotornis sp. n. from Lamprotornis superbus (Rüppell) (Passeriformes: Sturnidae), both from Kenya. Additionally, new hosts are recorded: Turdoides jardineii (Smith) (Passeriformes: Leiothrichidae) from Kenya and Tanzania, T. rubiginosa (Rüppell) from Kenya, T. leucopygia (Rüppell) from Zambia and Namibia, for Picobia dziabaszewskii Glowska, Dragun-Damian et Dabert, 2012; Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines) (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae) from Kenya, for Picobia pycnonoti Glowska, Skoracki et Khourly, 2007; Dendropicos griseocephalus (Boddaert) (Piciformes: Picidae) from Tanzania and D. goertae (St. Müller) from Kenya, for Neopicobia freya Skoracki et Unsoeld, 2014; Dendropicos fuscescens (Vieillot) from Zambia and Campethera nubica (Boddaert) from Kenya, for Picobia dryobatis (Fritsch, 1958).