Two new species, Phora rostrata and P. concava, collected in Ningxia, China are described and illustrated. In addition, P. amplifrons is reported for the first time in China and a key is provided for the Chinese species of Phora.

Neomidadiminuta sp. n. is described, based on a single male specimen from Colombia, and a redescription of Neomidasuilla (Champion) is given. Data on the morphology of the aedeagus for both species, and on the female abdominal terminalia for Neomidasuilla are provided. New records of Neomidasuilla from Atlantic Forest remnants in the states of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais, Brazil are given.

Five scyllarine lobsters are recorded from Taiwan for the first time. They are Bathyarctus rubens (Alcock & Anderson, 1894), Biarctus sordidus (Stimpson, 1860), Chelarctus aureus (Holthuis, 1963), Crenarctus bicuspidatus (De Man, 1905) and Petrarctus veliger Holthuis, 2002. The distributions of B. rubens, C. aureus and P. veliger are extended northwards to Taiwan. Distinguishing characters of t...

Dryinus rasnitsynisp. n. is described from amber collected in the Dominican Republic. A revision and a key to the fossil Neotropical species of Dryinus Latreille, 1804 belonging to the lamellatus species group is presented.

The type and additional material from adjacent territories of species of the genus Lesteva Latreille, 1797 of Iran are revised. Eight species are recognized, three of which are described as new: L. (s.str.) frischi sp.n. (Iran, Esfahan), L. (s.str.) schawalleri sp.n. (Iran, Elburs) and L. (s.str.) antennata sp.n. (Iran, Golestan). Two synonyms are proposed: L. (s.str.) binotata Reitter, 1901 = ...

Ant queens that attempt to disperse and found new colonies independently face high mortality risks. The exposure of queens to soil entomopathogens during claustral colony founding may be particularly harmful, as founding queens lack the protection conferred by mature colonies. Here, we tested the hypotheses that founding queens (I) detect and avoid nest sites that are contaminated by fungal pat...

Harvester ants are known as one of the most renowned bio-disturbances in the arid and semi-arid ecosystems that affecte vegetation by collecting seeds and harvesting plants. It seems that physiognomy of plant association in steppe shrub land of Roodshoor, Saveh, Iran has been highly changed by harvester ants’ activities that caused to conduct this research. The study was carried out on active a...

We investigated the roles of habitat fragmentation and the invasion of an exotic species on the structure of ground-foraging ant communities in 40 scrub habitat fragments in coastal southern California. In particular, we asked: how do fragment age, fragment size, amount of urban edge, percentage of native vegetation, degree of isolation, and the relative abundance of an exotic species, the Arge...