Abstract The evolution of reproductive strategies depends on the relative balance between current benefits and future costs. Geographic variation in demographic and ecological factors has the potential to affect reproductive strategies by altering this optimal cost-benefit balance. Here, we studied a population of the harvestmen Discocyrtus prospicuus inhabiting an environment never studied before in this context: a tidal freshwater wetland. We made monthly observations of male-female interactions and their association with egg clutches during a two-year field survey. Our results do not match the expected pattern for this species, consisting of males deserting females immediately after copulation, and females laying isolated eggs and abandoning them after oviposition. Conversely, we show for the first-time pairs D. prospicuus, formed by a female and a male, resting together before and after oviposition. Females of this wetland population lay the eggs in small clutches and some of the clutches had eggs in more than one stage of development. Also, we found many females alone over or near the egg clutch in the typical resting position. These findings markedly widen the behavioral specter previously reported for this species and set the stage for future research to determine the causes of these variations.

The entry in force of the Nagoya Protocol on access on genetic resources and benefit sharing has triggered, since 2014, national and provincial regulations in Argentina, which rule different activities, among them the collecting and transport of specimens with scientific purposes. In this contribution we analyze the negative consequences on the taxonomic work, derived from applying the rules without distinguishing activities with commercial use and non-profit research, and from overwhelming bureaucratic requirements. All this generates serious obstacles to the description of the biodiversity and worsens the taxonomic impediment, in contradiction to the spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It is suggested that measures should be effective to guarantee the simplified access on biological materials for taxonomists, especially relative to the stages of collecting in field and customs procedures for international collaboration.

La vigencia del Protocolo de Nagoya sobre acceso a los recursos genéticos y participación en los beneficios ha impulsado, desde 2014, normativas nacionales y provinciales en Argentina, que regulan diversas actividades, entre ellas la colecta y el traslado de especímenes con fines científicos. En esta nota analizamos las consecuencias negativas sobre la tarea taxonómica que derivan de una aplicación de las normativas sin la necesaria distinción entre actividades con fines comerciales e investigación sin fines de lucro, y de agobiantes exigencias burocráticas. Esto genera serios obstáculos a la descripción de la biodiversidad y agrava el impedimento taxonómico, en franca contradicción con el espíritu del Convenio sobre Diversidad Biológica (CBD). Se sugiere la efectiva simplificación de las medidas que garanticen el acceso a material biológico para trabajos taxonómicos, en especial en sus aspectos de colecta en campo y los procedimientos aduaneros para la colaboración internacional.