Another species named after Professor Coulson
UNIS professor Steve Coulson has yet another mite species named after him. The Platynothrus coulsoni is the fifth (!) species named in his honour.
UNIS Professor Steve Coulson. Photo: Geir Wing Gabrielsen
Text: Eva Therese Jenssen
In a recent paper published in Systematic & Applied Acarology, the Platynothrus coulsoni is described and illustrated. The mite species was collected by Steve Coulson in Petuniabukta back in July 2009.
Coulson is very happy that they decided to name the species after him. “I am ridiculously proud and honoured to work with such skilled and enthusiastic colleagues as Anna and Stanislaw,” he says.
This is far from the first species named after Professor Coulson. In 2012, Polish scientists identified a new species of water bears in Svalbard and named it Isohypsibius coulsoni. In 2014, Polish and Russian scientists found and described a new mite species found in the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia, Russia, and named it Orthadenella coulsoni.
The last two are both soil mites; Fuscozetes coulsoni, (Acari; Oribatida) and Halolaelaps coulsoni (Acari; Mesostigmata).
Reference:
Seniczak, Anna and Seniczak, Stanislaw: Morphological ontogeny of Platynothrus coulsoni sp. nov. (Acari, Oribatida, Camisiidae) from Spitsbergen (Norway). Systematic & Applied Acarology 27(7): 1436-1453 (June 2022). https://doi.org/10.11158/saa.27.7.10