AMPHIPOD NEWSLETTER 40 2016 ICA BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 14 REPORT FROM AVEIRO PAGE 63 REPORT FROM WORLD AMPHIPODA DATABASE ICA 2017 GLORIA ALONSO Interview PAGE 72 WORKSHOP IN MEMORIAM PAGE 10 BORIS SKET PAGE 9 PAGE 2 AMPHIPOD NEWSLETTER 40 Dear Amphipodologists, Statistics from this Newsletter Welcome to the 40th Amphipod Newsletter! The publication of AN during the last 25 new genera 44 years (the first came in 1972) gives us a picture of the collective publication of Amphipod literature, and at periods also news about the Amphipod workers 156 new species community - our Amphipod Way of Life. You can find some statistics for the 40 ANs at page 13. 1 new subspecies Many of the papers in the bibliography will be available at Ollis server - please send any papers you have that you see are missing on the server to the Olli, or place them on the server (info on how at page 54). Taxonomic information can be Where can you download found in the World Amphipoda Database (part of WoRMS), more about that on old Amphipod Newsletters? page 10. World Amphipod Database Sadly, the political situation has compelled Murat Özbek to postpone the (http://www.marinespecies.org/ organisation of an ICA in Izmir (Turkey) in 2017. All our thanks to Sabrina Lo amphipoda/newsletter.php) Brutto for her courageous decision to take over the organisation of the ICA at one year´s notice, now to be held at Trapani (Sicily) in 2017 (page 72). Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://biodiversitylibrary.org/ Just before the publishing date of this newsletter, the sad news that professor Ed bibliography/116387#/ Bousfield had passed away reached us, too late for an extensive obituary. This summary) will come in AN41. Best wishes from your AN Editors, Wim, Adam, Miranda and Anne Helene !1 AMPHIPOD NEWSLETTER 40 2016 Interview with Boris Sket Dear Boris, we know you are very much Short CV inclusive hobbies = "recreational interested in nature generally, in plants interests” and animals nearly equally. Wim Vader told that he met you at the meeting in the Short CV of close to 80 years? Are you USA first (is this right??), where you were joking? Well, I give you just few facts, facta the only one who knew all the names for selecta. those plants totally unknown to the other I was made long ago (very long ago) in colleagues. Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. Four classes of elementary school in Ljubljana, secondary Yes, it is most probable that we met first in school in Bjelovar, Karlovac, Beograd, USA. Wim probably exaggerated a bit, but Ljubljana (in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia). And yes, I am interested also in botany. As well as all degrees of biology studies in Ljubljana in many animal groups. Probably, responsible again. Some episodes are: president of the for my interest in amphipods and in cave Speleological Association of Slovenia (no, it animals is our (in Ljubljana, Slovenia) is not a negligible organisation), president of Natural History Museum. I was visiting it as International Society of Subterranean a child, during the war already. I admired Biology, vice-dean and dean of the (why admired ??? - are they really so sexy?) Biotechnical faculty, rector of the Univerza v there two exponats (see picture below) which Ljubljani (University in Ljubljana). But first are in my possession now. Evidently this of all, what is not just an episode, the founder poisoned me. and for some decades the head of the laboratory of zoology and speleobiology; nice, not anymore desired there. Except for skiing and transitionally numismatics, probably all my hobbies are tightly bound to research. Even when cave diving, I did not miss this - for example by meeting the most unusual, swimming asellid (not an amphipod, however) in Florida. I am a happy person. My professional work, research and teaching, they have all been my greatest hobbies. The field research at the top, of course. Not to forget: (only) some children and grandchildren. Not a hobby, but a great pleasure. With 2 children, 2 normal grandchildren and one leap-granddaughter (born on February 29 2012). Hobby again: in the living room, there is a 1m2 piece of the rain forest. The two admired exponats !2 AMPHIPOD NEWSLETTER 40 2016 The ontogeny of Boris Sket Scientific career: Did you remain at the phylogeny-biogeography of) freshwater university of Ljubljana, or did you study/ Isopoda, Hirudinea, of the cave salamander work elsewhere? Proteus (we are calling it človeška ribica, humane fish) and cave tube-worm Marifugia Yes, I started and finished in Ljubljana. Of etc. But in fact, within taxonomy, I enjoyed course I could profit in a more competitive most fun in aquatic Isopoda. environment abroad, but evidently, my Sorry, I nearly forgot to mention an important university was not such a bad school! By the field of my research, the ancient lakes. Very way, I was giving lessons there on interesting! I discovered speciation of Invertebrate Zoology, Evolution, and Hirudinea in the lake Ohrid. Or, of Speleobiology. Amphipoda (our joint group!) in the Chinese lake Fuxian Hu. Why amphipods? Oh, I also discovered and described (with coauthors, however) the only troglobiotic Why not amphipods? In fact, I have been cnidarian and the only troglobiotic freshwater interested in a lot of topics, too many for a poriferan (sponge). Note, that each such modern scientist. I have been always ‘excursion’, each new group demands first excusing myself (in front of myself) for this finding and than digesting a heap of uneconomical behaviour by my teaching duties. A teacher has to have a broader knowledge... Did you publish also about other topics within zoology or botany? Well, botany was really only a hobby - except for being used for understanding some more general phylogenetic and biogeographic problems. No special publications. Otherwise, my main field of research and publication were different aspects of speleobiology (anchihaline caves in particular), particularly biogeography and evolution. E.g. I discovered some particular patterns of troglobiotic species distribution in the Dinaric karst. Beside that the (taxonomy- Typhlogammarus mrazeki (Montenegro – Croatia; 20 mm), one of numerous troglobiotic amphipods. In water, in the newly defined 'cave hygropetric' !3 AMPHIPOD NEWSLETTER 40 2016 additional literature. And this was mainly still in times when we were collecting literature I saw the only possible solution for this on foot and by means of the snail-mail ... intriguingcase in allozyme analysis. So I started to search for a person who could do Why did you choose amphipods? such studies. I found first the tiny Irena Zajc and then the postgraduate Peter Trontelj. In In fact, I did not choose amphipods. I really the meantime the DNA analysis substituted started with Amphipoda & Hirudinea the allozymes. We succeeded to get simultaneously, in my student years. scholarship and sent Peter to Tübingen for Followed by something else. I must deeply PhD study and then we raised a laboratory. apologise, I can not say that "studying Must I emphasize that I myself never worked Amphipoda is my 'way of life' ". But, it is an with 'molecules'? I have only been exploiting interesting part of it. results of my progressive colleagues. Since when did you find your interest for I had been only suggesting research molecular studies? Did you get "infected" directions, preparing sampling strategies and by your students, by Cene Fiser for then pulling from results some inferences. In example? general, I know well the problems and what we have to do, O, no, he is much too young for that. The I know theoretically where to go, while the main culprit or causer was a leech. I was colleagues know how to go, how to climb, studying a new (sub)species. According to and so we are jointly searching the right traditionally used external characters, that solutions. A symbiosis, an active coexistence. species could only be classified a Trocheta And, in a great part, I did the field sampling, sp. (1968 described as T. bykowskii krasense which was a particular pleasure; much less ssp. n.). But, it anatomically resembled a pleasant has been the often necessary species from another genus, Dina, sooo much molesting our foreign colleagues... ... If we return now to the above mentioned leech Trocheta bykowskii krasense Sket – some years later we were able to redefine it as Dina krasensis (Sket). My doubts confirmed. With which amphipodologist did you have the best connection for exchange of ideas or common sampling? Both were amateurs and not amphipodologists. But,I obtained much support (mainly literature) also from the late Sandro Ruffo. With Stanko Karaman we exchanged some letters, but he died before I A snapshot (some years ago) of the Research Group succeeded to visit him; in those times Skopje for Zoology and Spleleobiology, Univerza v Ljubljani. was so far away from Ljubljana! Useful contacts also with John Holsinger and, in !4 AMPHIPOD NEWSLETTER 40 2016 Boris Sket performing field work. Here in a cave (Slovenia), and in a Karaman-Chappuis-sonde (Montenegro). particular with Ed Bousfield and Gordan situation is the most complicated, unresolved. Karaman; with Gordan and John we even co- Othervise in our Dinaric area, so rich in authored some species. subterranean Niphargus and other amphipods - and other animals. Or somewhere in tropics; Which of your excursions was the best, in the amphipods are however poor there, but, your eyes? Which locality most there is some rain forest ... interesting? The best, the most prolific, was probably the iterated excursion to Dovjež, as much as nearly 5 km far from my home in Ljubljana. There was a Norton well (tubed pump) in the bank of the river Sava. Started in my student times. Little by little, I succeeded to obtain from that well more than 10 amphipod species - beside some other animals.