Mimosa pigra (giant sensitive plant).

M. pigra is a small prickly shrub that infests wetlands and is also an agricultural weed in rice fields in many parts of the old world tropics. In natural wetlands the shrub alters open grasslands into dense thorny thickets and negatively impacts on native biodiversity. It is regarded as one of the worst alien invasive weeds of wetlands of tropical Africa, Asia and Australia, and the cost of control is often high.

First report of Atherigona reversura Villeneuve, 1936 (Diptera, Muscidae) in Uruguay

We present the first record of Atherigona reversura Villeneuve, 1936 in Uruguay, from Pando, Canelones department a rural area used for livestock. Atherigona reversura, this muscid, commonly known as shoot-fly, is a significant pest of cereal crops throughout the Old World tropics and subtropics and its main host is Bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon L.Pers., an exotic species which is widely distributed in South America and in Uruguay and has economic value as forage for livestock and is damaged by the feeding of A. reversura larvae.

Tapinoma melanocephalum (ghost ant).

T. melanocephalum is a small ant species around 1.5 mm in length originating from the Old World tropics. It is considered an invasive and "tramp" ant species: widely associated with humans, it has been moved around the subtropical and tropical world by human activity. This ant is also recorded in heated buildings in areas such as Canada and Finland. It is primarily a household pest, nesting in housing and consuming household food. In areas such as Florida it is considered one of the most important house-infesting pests. However it has been known to affect agricultural production in situations such as greenhouses, especially if it tends honeydew-producing insects and protects these pests from biological control organisms. T. melanocephalum is thought to be capable of transporting pathogenic microbes and is often abundant in hospitals. Some people can suffer a slight, red irritation of the skin following contact with this ant. This ant is listed on the ISSG global invasive species database.

Merremia cissoides (roadside woodrose).

Merremia cissoides is a climbing weed native to tropical America that has been introduced to several Old World countries, presumably as an ornamental. It typically grows in disturbed areas and has been reported as a weed of several crops within its native range. However, it is not as widespread and common as other weedy species of Merremia. In several countries outside its native range, its occurrence has only been documented from one or few herbarium specimens. Nonetheless, the species is considered to be increasingly naturalized in the Old World tropics. It is invasive in Florida (USA) and Cuba.

Do racket-tailed drongos make tree guards for their nest trees?

Greater racket-tailed drongos are renowned for their splendid mimicking abilities, and for their significant roles within mixed species flocks in the Old World tropics. Yet, we know little about their basic ecology and breeding behaviour. Here we describe a set of unique behaviours of these drongos during their nesting season. Racket-tailed drongos nested in trees in an open patch of forest, often returning to the same tree year after year. The nesting pair also smoothened the bark of the nest tree trunk with their beaks. These findings suggest that the nest tree is a crucial resource for this species, and have implications for the cognitive abilities of drongos, as well as for hitherto unknown interactions between an avian species and tropical forest trees.

First North American Records of the Old-World Tramp Ant Syllophopsis sechellensis(Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Syllophopsis sechellensis (Emery) (formerly Monomorium sechellense) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) is a small, inconspicuous ant species native to the Old-World tropics. Syllophopsis sechellensis is widespread in Asia and Australia, and on islands the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans. In the New World, all published records come from West Indian islands. Here, I report the first records of S. sechellensis from North America: from four sites in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Florida, more than 1500 km from the closest records in the West Indies. The ants of Florida have been well-studied in the past, so S. sechellensis appears to be a recent arrival.

Frugivore-fruit size relationships between palms and mammals reveal past and future defaunation impacts

Mammalian frugivores are critical seed dispersers, but many are under threat of extinction. Futhermore, the impact of past and future defaunation on plant assemblages has yet to be quantified at the global scale. Here, we integrate palm and mammalian frugivore trait and occurrence data and reveal a global positive relationship between fruit size and frugivore body size. Global variation in fruit size is better explained by present-day frugivore assemblages than by Late Pleistocene assemblages, suggesting ecological and evolutionary reorganization after end-Pleistocene extinctions, except in the Neotropics, where some large-fruited palm species may have outlived their main seed dispersers by thousands of years. Our simulations of frugivore extinction over the next 100 years suggest that the impact of defaunation will be highest in the Old World tropics, and an up to 4% assemblage-level decrease in fruit size would be required to maintain the global body size–fruit size relationship. Overall, our results suggest that while some palm species may be able to keep pace with future defaunation through evolutionary changes in fruit size, large-fruited species may be especially vulnerable to continued defaunation.

One new species of Mycterothrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from southern Iran

The genus Mycterothrips, with 36 species worldwide, is primarily Holarctic, but with several species occurring in the Old World tropics including Australia and Africa (ThripsWiki 2019). The species apparently all feed and breed on leaves, although adults can disperse widely onto many plants. An identification key to 27 species was provided (Masumoto & Okajima 2006), but seven further species were subsequently described from Iran (Mirab-balou et al. 2011; Alavi et al. 2013; Minaei et al. 2017) and a key for distinguishing nine species from this country was presented by Alavi et al. (2013). Recently two further new species were described from tea plants together with a key for 10 species in China (Li et al. 2017).

Secondary Metabolites of Genus Pandanus: An Aspect of Phytochemistry

Genus Pandanus belongs to the family Padanaceae, which is widely distributed in old world tropics and subtropics, and has been applied in traditional herbal medicines, pharmacological uses, food chemical products and handicrafts. Original research articles related to this genus are available but an insight account highlighted phytochemical aspects of secondary metabolites is now insufficient. The reliable sources of literature data for this systematic manuscript were obtained from the literatures published from 1960s to now, utilizing data information from ACS journals, Taylor Francis, Springer, IOP Science, SCI-finder, Chemical Abstracts, the Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed and Googlescholar. A vast amount of data showed that genus Pandanus contained various classes of the secondary metabolites. Herein, approximately 180 constituents were isolated, comprising alkaloids, phenols, lignans, steroids, terpenoids, lipids, flavonoids, coumarins, lactones and amino acids. In addition, the crucial information involved in food chemistry suggests that Pandanus species can also be a good candidate to provide essential oils and nutrient contents of vitamins and sugars.

A Laurasian origin for a pantropical bird radiation is supported by genomic and fossil data (Aves: Coraciiformes)

The evolution of pantropically distributed clades has puzzled palaeo- and neontologists for decades regarding the different hypotheses about where they originated. In this study, we explored how a pantropical distribution arose in a diverse clade with a rich fossil history: the avian order Coraciiformes. This group has played a central role in the debate of the biogeographical history of Neoaves. However, the order lacked a coherent species tree to inform study of its evolutionary dynamics. Here, we present the first complete species tree of Coraciiformes, produced with 4858 ultraconserved elements, which supports two clades: (1) Old World-restricted bee-eaters, rollers and ground-rollers; and (2) New World todies and motmots, and cosmopolitan kingfishers. Our results indicated two pulses of diversification: (1) major lineages of Coraciiformes arose in Laurasia approximately 57 Ma, followed by independent dispersals into equatorial regions, possibly due to tracking tropical habitat into the lower latitudes—the Coracii (Coraciidae + Brachypteraciidae) into the Afrotropics, bee-eaters throughout the Old World tropics, and kingfishers into the Australasian tropics; and (2) diversification of genera in the tropics during the Miocene and Pliocene. Our study supports the important role of Laurasia as the geographical origin of a major pantropical lineage and provides a new framework for comparative analyses in this charismatic bird radiation.