We examined global records of accessible natural history voucher collections (with publicly available data and reliable locality data) for terrestrial and freshwater vascular plants, fungi, freshwater fishes, birds, mammals, and herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) and highlight areas of the world that would be considered undersampled and sometimes called ‘unexplored’ (i.e., have relatively low, or no evidence of, past sampling efforts) under typical Western-scientific descriptions. We also question what ‘unexplored’ may mean in these contexts and explain how replacing the term in favor of more nuanced phrasing (e.g., ‘biodiversity blindspots,’ which emphasizes the lack of publicly available data about specimens) can mitigate future misunderstandings of natural history science. We also highlight geographic regions where there are relatively few or no publicly available natural history records to raise awareness about habitats that might be worthy of future natural history research and conservation. A major finding is that many of the areas that appear ‘unexplored’ may be in countries whose collections are not digitized (i.e., they don’t have metadata such as GPS coordinates about their voucher specimens publicly available). We call for museums to prioritize digitizing those collections from these ‘biodiversity blindspots’ and for increased funding for museums to aid in these efforts. We also argue for increased scientific infrastructure so that more reference collections with vouchers can be kept in the countries of origin (particularly those countries lacking such infrastructure currently).

Bats are killed at wind energy facilities worldwide and we must improve our understanding of why this is happening and implement effective strategies to minimize impacts. To this end, we need accurate assessments of which individuals from which bat species are being killed at individual wind projects and at regional and range-wide scales. Traditional fatality searches have relied on physical characteristics to ascertain species and sex of bat carcasses collected at wind turbines; however, the resulting data can be incomplete and inaccurate. In contrast, the use of readily available and low-cost molecular methods improves both the quality and quantity of available data. We applied such methods to a bat fatality dataset (n = 439 bats) from far-south Texas, USA. Using DNA barcoding, we increased accurate species identification from 83% to 97%, and discovered the presence of 2 bat species outside of their known geographic ranges. Using a PCR-based approach to determine sex, the number of carcasses with correct sex assignment increased from 35% to 94%, and we documented a female-biased sex ratio for all species combined and for Dasypterus ega. We recommend that molecular methods be used during future survey efforts to accurately assess the impacts of wind energy on bats.

Crunomys and Maxomys are closely related murine genera from forested regions of Southeast Asia and western portions of the Indo-Australian Archipelago. Previous phylogenetic analyses suggested that a taxonomic reappraisal is necessary for these genera, but limited taxon sampling prevented formal changes. We produced a mitochondrial DNA dataset that includes 376 individuals representing all 22 recognized species and a nuclear dataset comprising thousands of ultraconserved elements missing only 1 recognized species. Our phylogenetic inferences consistently show that Crunomys is nested within Maxomys. We transfer all Maxomys species to the older genus Crunomys to resolve the paraphyly. We also conducted a morphological analysis of species from Sulawesi and described a new species of Crunomys from the eastern peninsula of the island. We identify 43 geographically defined mitochondrial haplogroups across all species of Crunomys, many of which also are inferred as distinct in a multilocus species delimitation analysis. Historical biogeographic reconstructions consistently inferred multiple dispersal events to and from oceanic islands and among continental shelf islands and mainland Southeast Asia. On both large continental shelf islands like Borneo and large oceanic islands like Sulawesi, in situ divergence produced high levels of diversity.

Urbanization dramatically modifies landscapes, fragments habitats, and is spreading rapidly. Urbanization can inhibit gene flow in a variety of species, but identifying the impact of specific landscape features on gene flow is difficult without prior knowledge of which landscape features may represent barriers to dispersal. We employed a landscape genetics approach to investigate the effects of urbanization on dispersal and gene flow in the swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus), a forest‐obligate species, within the largest urban forest fragment in the United States, the Great Trinity Forest (GTF) in Dallas, TX. We employed a range of spatially explicit genetic analyses to investigate how landscape features, such as roads and the urban matrix, influence dispersal. We used noninvasive techniques to obtain 367 swamp rabbit fecal DNA samples representing 80 individuals from 2019 to 2021. We used traditional population genetics approaches, including STRUCTURE, F_ST, and genetic spatial autocorrelation, to quantify genetic differentiation within our study population. We then employed a resistance to dispersal mapping landscape genetics approach to link observed genetic differentiation in swamp rabbits to specific landscape features. Global F'_ST (0.182) showed significant subdivision within the population, and spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that individuals were genetically more similar than expected at distances under 3000 m and less similar than expected at distances over 7000 m. An examination of the spatial relationships between isolation by distance (IBD) residuals and urban landscape features revealed that the urban matrix inhibited gene flow, and groups of individuals separated by large highways were less related than expected based on the population's IBD trend. Swamp rabbits in the GTF, a single large and continuous forest fragment, showed equivalent genetic differentiation to other small mammals in widely disparate habitat fragments, revealing that even the largest urban habitat fragments may be unable to conserve urban‐avoiding species when they are bisected by highways and surrounded by a dense urban matrix.

From 2002 to 2018, we conducted 525 events to survey bats (nights of mist-netting and visits to bridges, mines, caves, etc.) and captured or observed 6119 bats, including all 9 species that regularly reside in Iowa. Our captures include a total of 142 new county records, and we located an additional 11 county records in specimens deposited in museums; we present at least 8 county records for each species in the state. Since the geographic distributions of most species span the entire state, many of these county records simply fill in gaps within hypothesized distributions. Records for Lasionycteris noctivagans, Lasiurus borealis, Myotis lucifugus, Myotis septentrionalis, Myotis sodalis, Nycticeius humeralis, and Perimyotis subflavus, however, extend the known range for these species or fill large gaps in their suspected distribution. Additionally, our captures provide evidence of reproduction occurring across the state for most species. Previously, little information had been published on the geographic extent of reproduction for bats in Iowa. Lastly, we report new information regarding timing of seasonal activities for bats in Iowa. For most species, we present new early and/or late records for lactation, postlactation, appearance of flying young, and flight activity outside of hibernation. Collectively, these records expand our knowledge of the biology of bats in Iowa.

The Philippine island of Mindoro is a moderately large (ca. 9,735 km2) oceanic island surrounded by deep seas, with no known history of dry-land connection to potential sources of terrestrial biodiversity. This makes it ideal for investigating the occurrence of over-water colonization events from other land masses, and the impact of post-colonization speciation on species richness. A previous study of Apomys (Muridae) showed that a single colonization event ca. 4.7 mya resulted in subsequent diversification that produced 4 extant, currently allopatric species, making Mindoro the smallest island known to have supported within-island speciation by mammals. We now report a second case of speciation on Mindoro, involving the genus Crunomys (Muridae; now including all species formerly known as Maxomys). Field work in 2013 produced 40 specimens of Crunomys from 2 separate montane areas on Mindoro; these 2 populations differ in external features, and in discrete and quantitative craniodental characters. Genetic data from mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cytb) and nuclear ultraconserved elements (UCEs) demonstrate that each forms a reciprocally monophyletic unit, and species delimitation analysis of UCEs supports their distinctiveness. These analyses also show that the 2 Mindoro populations are sister-species that diverged from their relatives on the Sunda Shelf of Southeast Asia about 5.7 mya, with subsequent in situ speciation occurring about 1.3 mya. The 2 Crunomys species are currently allopatric on isolated mountain regions on Mindoro. The 2 cases of speciation within Mindoro (in Apomys and Crunomys) account for a total of 4 species in excess of those resulting from direct colonization; these 4 are 22% of the 18 extant, native, non-volant mammals on the island. This pattern reinforces the importance of within-island speciation by mammals in determining species richness on islands large enough to support the process. Nomenclatural statement: A Life Science Identifier (LSID) number was obtained for this publication: urn: lsid: zoobank.org: pub: E5D479F2-215C-41AD-8633-8D9339AB3D27