A new species of Anoplodiscus (Monogenea, Anoplodiscidae), parasitic on gills of the red porgy, Pagrus pagrus, from the coastal zone of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is described and illustrated. The new species can be differentiated from the other species of this genus by the shape of the accessory piece of the copulatory complex, and the length of the vagina. This is the first record o...

The egg and five nymphal stages, of the Neotropical species Martarega lofoides are described and illustrated for the first time. The immature stages are very similar, differing mainly in the body length, width of the body, head and pronotum, degree of wing pads development, synthlipsis width, and pattern of setae on the ventral abdomen. Adults and nymphs used in this study were collected from t...

Westindia Vincent, a new genus, is proposed for W. haxairei Vincent, a new species of Neotropical tiger-moth described from Dominican Republic. Habitus, male and female genitalia are described and figured. The systematic position of the new genus within Arctiinae is discussed in light of a comparative morphology and a molecular phylogeny derived from the DNA barcode fragment of the mitochondria...

Neotropical ecosystems house levels of species diversity that are unmatched by any other region on Earth. One hypothesis to explain this celebrated diversity invokes a model of biotic interactions in which interspecific interactions drive diversification of two (or more) lineages. When the impact of the interaction on diversification is reciprocal, diversification of the lineages should be cont...

The Neotropical Region harbors high biodiversity and many studies on mammals, reptiles, amphibians and avifauna have investigated the causes for this pattern. However, there is a paucity of such studies that focus on Neotropical insect groups. Synoeca de Saussure, 1852 is a Neotropical swarm-founding social wasp genus with five described species that is broadly and conspicuously distributed thr...

We estimate phylogenetic relationships and the biogeographic and pollination history of Costus subgenus Costus (Costaceae) using sequence data from the internal and external transcribed spacer (ITS and ETS) regions of 18S-26S nuclear ribosomal DNA. The African members of the subgenus form a series of lineages basal to a monophyletic neotropical species radiation. The neotropical species have la...

The New World species of Dohrniphora lacking large hind tibial setae are revised, with 139 species recognized, most from the Neotropical Region. Of these, 88 are described as new to science. New synonymies are as follows: D. denticulata Borgmeier is a junior subjective synonym of D. penicillata Borgmeier, D. caverna Disney and D. recurvata Borgmeier are both junior subjective synonyms of D. div...

The family Rivulidae is one of the largest families of freshwater fishes of the Neotropical region [1]. It is a diverse group of annual fish, most popularly known as “killifish”, which occurs in seasonal freshwater swamps of tropical and subtropical areas of South America [2]. Brazil has the greatest diversity of the family Rivulidae and is represented by 30 genera with approximately 120 fish s...

Four new species of the genus Thoracophorus Motschulsky, 1857 of the Neotropical region are described: T. verhaaghi n. sp., T. zicsii n. sp., T. struyvei n. sp., and T. perplexus n. sp. The new species originate from French Guiana, Peru, and Ecuador. Similar species T. filum Sharp, 1887, T. proximus Irmler, 1985, T. exilis (Erichson, 1840) and T. aequalis Sharp, 1887 are compared to discuss dif...