Filling the Gondwana gaps: new species and new reports of Beatogordius Heinze, 1934 (Nematomorpha) from Australia and Madagascar
We describe two new species of Beatogordius Heinze, 1934 (Nematomorpha), B. australiensis and B. lineatus, from Queensland, Australia. One further species, B. abbreviatus (Villot, 1874), which was known from Reunion, is reported from Madagascar. These new reports extend the range of Beatogordius from Africa and South America to include Madagascar and Australia. Beatogordius was likely distributed over the Gondwana continent prior to the separation of continental plates in the Mesozoic. This extends the existence of the taxon Nematomorpha, which was only known from young brown coal and amber, into the Mesozoic. Adhesive warts, structures anterior of the cloacal opening in males of B. abbreviatus, were originally described as characteristic structures of Gordionus Müller, 1927, but their occurrence in B. abbreviatus and one South American species indicates a wider distribution of this character.
First report of the Gondwana genus Beatogordius from India, with further records of two Chordodes species (Gordiida, Nematomorpha)
Abstract Three horsehair worms (Nematomorpha) are recorded from Nagaland, India. The first species is Chordodes combiareolatus, which was recently described from Nagaland. The second is Chordodes cf. furnessi, earlier reported from Meghalaya, and some new observations are added. The third is a new species, described as Beatogordius nagalandis sp. n. This is the first report of the genus Beatogordius in India and this observation fits well into the Gondwana distribution of the genus. The species is quite similar to Beatogordius chinensis, reported from South China.
Shape and surface texture of molten droplets deposited on cold surfaces
When a molten droplet impacts on a cold surface, the interaction between solidification and fluid dynamics can lead to different shapes and surface textures of deposited droplets. This article presents an experimental study on deposition of small droplets (39 μm diameter) of molten wax ink on solid surfaces. Our results show that both the final shape and the surface texture of deposited droplets are extremely sensitive to deposition conditions, which include initial temperature of droplets, type of substrate surface and distance between substrate and printhead. Different surface textures are observed and shown to depend on the thermal and flow histories of ink droplets during the process of impact. A test using crystalline wax reveals crystallization as one of the major factors in determining the final texture.