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BACKGROUNDCurrent treatment strategies in pediatric oncology are intensive and lead to high survival rates but also to treatment-related complications. Therefore, supportive care plays an increasingly important role. This study was designed to evaluate variations in supportive care practice in children with cancer in the Netherlands and adherence to selected existing international guidelines through an in-depth review of local guidelines and protocols at all 6 Dutch pediatric cancer centers. METHODSBased on shared expert opinion, a questionnaire regarding current supportive care practice was compiled. For each center, the required information was extracted from local supportive care guidelines, and the list was sent to a pediatric oncologist of that center to verify its correspondence with local daily practice. Subsequently, it was determined whether clinical practice was concordant (same in5 of 6 centers), partly concordant (highly overlapping in5 of 6 centers), or discordant (same in

Many, mostly older, names of animal species are nomenclaturally problematic, either because their orthography is unstable, or they cannot be linked reliably to a taxonomic identity, due to the lack of recognisable descriptions and/or types. Yet, they represent available (sensu International Code of Zoological Nomenclature) names and must be taken into account in zoological works. This situation, with available senior, yet dubious names confounding nomenclature, is undesirable. It creates uncertainties at a time when molecular approaches are revolutionizing our concepts of species diversity, and fails us when the current extinction crisis calls for efficient, accurate, and constructive approaches to document, monitor, and conserve biodiversity.The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (The Code) provides a means to address this issue by restricting availability, application and orthography of names to those included in the List of Available Names in Zoology (LAN). The Code (Art. 79) allows an international body of zoologists in consultation with the Commission to propose a candidate part of the LAN for a major taxonomic field. We explore this possibility for 3570 species-group names of Phylum Rotifera (of which 665 are problematic), by presenting such a candidate Rotifera part of the LAN. The web site of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (http://www.iczn.org) will hold both the candidate list and a forum to facilitate consultation on the candidate list, while the list itself also can already be freely downloaded from three other Internet sites: http://fada.biodiversity.be, http://rotifer.ansp.org/LAN, and www.hausdernatur.at/rotifera. We give here an overview of the general approach and procedures applied in preparation of the candidate list, and anticipate that our effort will promote the process as well as result in a standard list of names for use in taxonomy, the Global Names Architecture and other biodiversity information initiatives.

This EPBRS e-conference on “Strategies for Taxonomy: Research in a Changing World” focused on identifying the key research questions allowing taxonomy to address policy needs in a better way and, vice versa, allowing policy makers to get responses from taxonomists on specific subjects related to the use of taxonomic knowledge. Taxonomy, as a collectively assembled ‘Body of Knowledge’ formally started with the work of Linnaeus, is the most comprehensive and reliable source of information about biodiversity today. This includes specimen collections, character descriptions, geographic distributions, occurrence details, classification system(s), and links to associated information in literature and other resources. This accumulated ‘Body of Knowledge’ is well structured around the Linnaean system and is our baseline knowledge to monitor changes in biodiversity. Although there are few doubts that taxonomic information is essential for reliable environmental science, applied users often complain about the inability to get adequate access to taxonomic information to respond to -for instance- the biodiversity crisis. This ‘taxonomic impediment’ is recognised within taxonomy by currently attempting to expand its capacity to explore and accommodate more species and to improve the dissemination and use of taxonomic information on the internet. Due to these internal and external constraints, pushing taxonomy to advance its working routines and support the applied use of taxonomic information, taxonomy stands, at the moment, at a crossroads. Therefore it is critical for policy makers to make the right decisions for the future of taxonomy, now. This should, for instance, balance not only the emphasis stakeholders, researchers and society often place on new technologies and research tools but also the maintenance of core taxonomic research respecting the often exceptional level of expertise needed to explore and recognise species diversity. Finding the right connection between taxonomists and policy makers is complicated because of the different intermediate parties (e.g. data centres, agencies and stakeholders) frequently obscuring a profound understanding of the relevance of taxonomy for biodiversity assessments for policy makers, but also hampering a closer commitment of taxonomists to fundamental questions on what information is needed (at what level and at what depth) for policy makers to make the right decisions. I hope this e-conference has contributed to a better understanding among decision makers and taxonomists of the relevant scientific priorities for future strategic policy plans.

A number of records of rotifers from Turkey are discussed. An account is given on trophi morphology in 4 species of Asplanchna Gosse, 1850. Cephalodella segersi De Smet, 1998 is recorded for the second time after its description, and Lecane shieli Segers and Sanoamuang, 1994 is recorded from Turkey for the first time. Both these and a population of Hexarthra polyodonta polyodonta (Hauer, 1957) from the species’ type locality, Lake Van, are illustrated using light and scanning electron microscopic techniques.

We confront patterns in the chorology and diversity of freshwater and limnoterrestrial Rotifera with predictions following from the recently revived ubiquity theorem on the distribution of microscopic organisms. Notwithstanding a strong taxonomic impediment and lack of data, both bdelloid and monogonont rotifers appear to conform to the hypothesis’ predictions that local diversity is relatively high compared to global diversity and that cosmopolitism is important. To the contrary, however, a latitudinal diversity gradient is obvious, and endemicity is present, and exhibits diverse patterns. This is illustrated by the case of Keratella rotifers, in which we identify purported relict endemicity hotspots in the east Palaearctic (China) and in temperate and cold regions of the southern hemisphere, and a recent radiation in North America. The apparent paradox may result from an antagonism between rotifer’s high population sizes and presence of potentially highly efficient propagules, versus pre-emption of habitats and local adaptation by resident populations, specific dispersal ability, and ecological and geographical factors. We conclude that distribution patterns of microscopic organisms, as represented by rotifers, most likely span the whole range of alternatives, from full cosmopolitanism to local endemism, and suggest that studying this diversity is more productive to come to an understanding of their chorology and diversity.

Embata parasitica (Giglioli, 1863) (figures 14���16) Material examined Thirty-seven specimens among gills of a male crab; a single specimen near the mouth of a female crab. Diagnosis and comments Trophi (n ~8) have two major unci teeth, 19���21 proximal minor teeth and 23���25 distal minor teeth. Rami length is 19.86��0.24 �� m. This species is one of the three eyeless and oviparous Embata species. Its external habitus is similar to Macrotrachela cancrophila (Piovanelli, 1903), also described from the gill chamber of Italian freshwater crabs. These species are easily distinguished by their different number of toes: three in Macrotrachela, and four in Embata. Also, the trophi of E. parasitica are smaller than those of M. cancrophila [rami length of about 20 �� m in E. parasitica, about 27 �� m in M. cancrophila (Piovanelli, 1903a: 346)]. Embata parasitica is known from Europe and North America (Donner, 1965), living epizoic on various aquatic animals, such as Asellus aquaticus (Linnaeus, 1758), Gammarus pulex (Linnaeus, 1758) and caddis-fly larvae (May, 1989). We succeeded in maintaining a reproductive population using a feeding suspension of finely ground fish pellets (Friskies �� for goldfish). As for A. telphusae, we observed fungi on the surface of the body of this species (figure 16)., Published as part of Fontaneto, D., Segers, H. & Melone, G., 2004, Epizoic rotifers (Rotifera: Monogononta, Bdelloidea) from the gill chambers of Potamon fluviatile (Herbst, 1785), pp. 1225-1232 in Journal of Natural History 38 (10) on pages 1230-1231, DOI: 10.1080/0022293031000155197, http://zenodo.org/record/4658504

Fontaneto, D., Segers, H., Melone, G. (2004): Epizoic rotifers (Rotifera: Monogononta, Bdelloidea) from the gill chambers of Potamon fluviatile (Herbst, 1785). Journal of Natural History 38 (10): 1225-1232, DOI: 10.1080/0022293031000155197, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0022293031000155197