The Mediterranean orthotyline genus Platycranus is revised. Updated diagnoses and descriptions, data on distribution and hosts are provided for the genus and included species, and a key is presented to facilitate identification of species. Pictures of the dorsal habitus, scanning electron micrographs, and figures of genital structures are given. The following new synonymies are established: P. ...

Platydesma, an endemic genus to the Hawaiian Islands containing four species, has long been considered of obscure origin. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have unequivocally placed Platydesma within the widespread genus Melicope as sister to the rest of the Hawaiian species of Melicope. This makes submerging Platydesma into Melicope necessary. We make the necessary new combinations: Melico...

Geigy & Wagner (1957) and Wagner-Jevseenko (1958) studied normal mitoses in squash preparations of metaphase nuclei in the argasid tick Ornithodoros moubata during the transition of the oogonia to the primary oocytes and anived at the diploid chromosome number 20. Morphologically the chromosomes could be differentiated into two main groups: three large, rod-shaped chromosomes, ca. 1· 7 p. long,...