Eupolybothrus cavernicolus Komerički & Stoev sp. n. (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha: Lithobiidae): the first eukaryotic species description combining transcriptomic, DNA barcoding and micro-CT imaging data.
We demonstrate how a classical taxonomic description of a new species can be enhanced by applying new generation molecular methods, and novel computing and imaging technologies. A cave-dwelling centipede, Eupolybothrus cavernicolus Komerički & Stoev sp. n. (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha: Lithobiidae), found in a remote karst region in Knin, Croatia, is the first eukaryotic species for which, in addition to the traditional morphological description, we provide a fully sequenced transcriptome, a DNA barcode, detailed anatomical X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) scans, and a movie of the living specimen to document important traits of its ex-situ behaviour. By employing micro-CT scanning in a new species for the first time, we create a high-resolution morphological and anatomical dataset that allows virtual reconstructions of the specimen and subsequent interactive manipulation to test the recently introduced 'cybertype' notion. In addition, the transcriptome was recorded with a total of 67,785 scaffolds, having an average length of 812 bp and N50 of 1,448 bp (see GigaDB). Subsequent annotation of 22,866 scaffolds was conducted by tracing homologs against current available databases, including Nr, SwissProt and COG. This pilot project illustrates a workflow of producing, storing, publishing and disseminating large data sets associated with a description of a new taxon. All data have been deposited in publicly accessible repositories, such as GigaScience GigaDB, NCBI, BOLD, Morphbank and Morphosource, and the respective open licenses used ensure their accessibility and re-usability.
National Museum of Natural History, Sofia, Bulgaria ; Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Pavel
P
Stoev
Croatian Biospeleological Society, Zagreb, Croatia.
Ana
A
Komerički
Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Nesrine
N
Akkari
China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.
Shanlin
S
Liu
China National GeneBank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.
Xin
X
Zhou
Goethe-University, Institute for Ecology, Evolution and Diversity, Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; Croatian Biospeleological Society, Zagreb, Croatia.
Alexander M
AM
Weigand
Bruker microCT, Kontich, Belgium.
Jeroen
J
Hostens
GigaScience, BGI HK Ltd., Tai Po, Hong Kong, China.
Christopher I
CI
Hunter
GigaScience, BGI HK Ltd., Tai Po, Hong Kong, China.
Scott C
SC
Edmunds
Université de Rouen - Laboratoire ECODIV, Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France.
David
D
Porco
Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF), Viterbo, Italy.
Marzio
M
Zapparoli
Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Teodor
T
Georgiev
Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Berlin, Germany ; Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Daniel
D
Mietchen
The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
David
D
Roberts
National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece ; Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Greece.
Sarah
S
Faulwetter
The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Vincent
V
Smith
Institute of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Research - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Lyubomir
L
Penev
Croatia; Cybertaxonomy; biospeleology; caves; data integration; gene sequence data; micro-CT; molecular systematics