The Agabinae, with more than 350 species, is one of the most diverse lineages of diving beetles (Dytiscidae). Using the mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA and cytochrome oxidase I we present a phylogenetic analysis based on 107 species drawn mostly from the four main Holarctic genera. Two of these genera (Ilybius and Ilybiosoma) are consistently recovered as monophyletic with strong support, Platambu...

BACKGROUND The causes for the higher biodiversity in the Neotropics as compared to the Nearctic and the factors promoting species diversification in each region have been much debated. The refuge hypothesis posits that high tropical diversity reflects high speciation rates during the Pleistocene, but this conclusion has been challenged. The present study investigates this matter by examining co...

The biodiversity and the biogeography are still poorly understood for freshwater invertebrates. The crustacean Chydorus sphaericus-brevilabris complex (Cladocera: Chydoridae) is composed of species that are important components of Holarctic freshwater food webs. Recent morphological and genetic study of the complex has indicated a substantial species diversity in the northern hemisphere. Howeve...

Three new species of Palearctic Protearomyia McAlpine, 1962 are described, P. iberica sp. nov., P. rameli sp. nov. and P. withersi sp. nov. These are compared with the three previously described species, a key is provided to the males of all the Palearctic species.

A striking feature of white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection of hibernating bats, is the difference in infection outcome between North America and Europe. Here we show high WNS prevalence both in Europe and on the West Siberian Plain in Asia. Palearctic bat communities tolerate similar fungal loads of Pseudogymnoascus destructans infection as their Nearctic counterparts and histopathology indi...

The polytene chromosomes of three North American species in the subgenus Chaetolabis of the genus Chironomus are described and compared to the published karyotypes of two Palearctic species. Chironomus (Chaetolabis) atroviridis has four polytene chromosomes, like the Palearctic C. globulus, while C. ochreatus and the North American populations of C. bitumineus each have three chromosomes due to...

Palearctic naked-toed geckos are a group of gekkonid geckos that range from North Africa to northern India and western China, with their greatest diversity in Iran and Pakistan. Relationships among the constituent genera remain incompletely resolved and the monophyly of key genera remains unverified. Further, competing classifications are in current use and many species have been allocated to d...

The damselfly genus Enallagma originated in the Nearctic, and two Nearctic lineages recently underwent radiations partly associated with multiple independent habitat shifts from lakes dominated by fish predators into lakes dominated by dragonfly predators. A previous molecular study of four Palearctic morphospecies and all representative Nearctic species identified the presence of two cryptic s...

forty eight species of odonata families, including libellulidae (23 species), aeschnidae (7species), gomphidae (5 species), cordulegastridae (1 species) from suborder anisoptera and euphaeidae (1species), calopterygidae (1 species), lestidae (3 species), platycnemididae (1 species) and coenagrionidae (6species) from suborder zygoptera were collected from 46 sampling sites in iran between early ...

Four new species of Dermatopelte Erdős & Novicky (Hymenoptera, Eulophidae), D. bavilucus n. sp., D. collis n. sp., D. hanoica n. sp. and D. heratyi n. sp., are described from the Indo-Malayan biogeographic realm, the first three based on females and the last on a male. While similar to previously described Nearctic and Palearctic species, these new species comprise a distinct species group defi...