The praying mantises of the Maltese Islands: distribution and ecology (Mantodea)

This study presents a species account of the mantises of the Maltese Islands, including notes on the ecology and distribution of each species. A total of three species are known to exist locally; Ameles spallanzania (Rossi, 1792), Mantis religiosa (Linnaeus, 1758) and Rivetina baetica Rambur, 1839. The presence of Ameles decolor (Charpentier, 1825) cannot be confirmed by any recently collected material, but the species is not excluded from the Maltese entomofauna. Two doubtful records are also discussed. All species present in the archipelago are typically found in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean basin.

Dragonfly assemblages in four Mediterranean wetlands of Samos Island, Greece (Odonata)

Dragonflies (Odonata) are considered to be valuable indicators of hydroecosystems. This study reports the composition of the dragonfly assemblages in four wetlands of Samos Island, Greece, in a geographic area especially vulnerable to climate change where a trend towards a drier climate has been observed in the last decades. Dragonfly assemblages have not yet been studied on Samos. The analysis based on the number of different species and their autochthony revealed clear differences among the wetlands. The eutrophic Glyfada Lake, despite its variable hydrology resulting from drought – the seasonal decrease in water availability – harboured the largest diversity of dragonflies, larger than the oligotrophic Mesokampos Lake. The assemblage of the spring and rivulet at Mytilini, although also influenced by drought, had its own set of species of high autochthony. The seasonal brackish lake and marsh of Psili Ammos had the lowest number of species and was dominated by one very abundant breeding species. Drought was the main factor affecting the number and composition of species. The collected data create a reference for the future monitoring of trends in the composition of odonatofauna under the changing climate of Samos Island.

Phyllodes diversipalpus resurrected from taxonomic extinction (Lepidoptera: Erebidae)

Morphological evidence supporting the validity of Phyllodes diversipalpus sp. rev. from New Guinea is provided. This species is only superficially similar to P. eyndhovii and P. staudingeri and, having been associated with either of the two, was eventually wrongly subsumed under the latter.

Four peculiar new Metallactus species from Argentina (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Cryptocephalinae)

Metallactus canescens sp. nov., Metallactus aemulus sp. nov., Metallactus diaguita sp. nov., Metallactus nugator sp. nov. are described from Northern and Central Argentina. The new species are very similar to one another regarding their external look but can be distinguished above all on the basis of internal characters, in particular the morphology of the aedeagal median lobe. Besides, some traits of their external features, i. e. the thick dorsal setosity and the weak metallic hue, look quite uncommon within the genus Metallactus Suffrian, 1866 and remind of some species of genus Coscinoptera Lacordaire, 1848 (in particular C. tibialis Harold, 1875) and other undescribed species belonging to the genus Griburius Haldeman, 1849. This might be due to some kind of adaptive convergent evolution.

Revision of the Calotheca nigrotessellata species group from southern Africa, with description of two new species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae, Alticini)

Calotheca Heyden is a mostly sub-Saharan flea beetle genus, comprising twenty-seven species previously included in Blepharida Chevrolat. The examination of new material is revealing a high species richness, as there is high intraspecific variability. Calotheca luteomaculata sp. nov. from Zimbabwe and the Republic of South Africa, and C. luteotessellata sp. nov. from the Republic of South Africa are here described and attributed to the C. nigrotessellata (Baly) species group, mainly based on genitalic characters. Photographs of the main diagnostic characters are supplied, including the median lobe of the aedeagus and spermatheca. A forward stepwise discriminant function analysis, using morphometric variables, has been performed. It supports the attribution of the examined specimens to the three species here considered, thus adding characters useful for their identification. Information on geographical distribution and host plants are also provided.

Challenges for understanding lacewings: how to deal with the incomplete data from extant and fossil larvae of Nevrorthidae? (Neuroptera)

Within Neuroptera, the group of lacewings, the ingroup Nevrorthidae is special in several aspects: 1) the group may represent the sister group to all other neuropterans; 2) the group is quite species-poor with only 19 extant species known so far; 3) its representatives show a disjunct relict distribution; 4) it has very unusual appearing larvae. These larvae are very elongate, almost worm-shaped. Our overall knowledge of these larval forms is still very limited. We here review all known occurrences of extant larvae, amended by fossil larvae, all preserved in amber. So far there have been only 17 extant larval specimens of Nevrorthidae depicted in the literature. We also present new fossil larvae, with this reaching a total number of 16 known fossil larvae of Nevrorthidae. When plotting measured lengths, larvae cluster into more than three clusters. Also reconstructed size gains between these clusters indicate that Nevrorthidae might in fact develop through more than three larval stages, unlike other lacewings. A special subdivision of the trunk segments observed in many larvae indicates a specialisation for moving in confined spaces. Comparison of syn-inclusions and literature data make it likely that not all larvae lived in running waters, as previously assumed. Overall our knowledge remains rather limited, yet the data allow to draw some new conclusions about the life and evolution of these larval forms.

Non-native insect pests from the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal): new records and further data (Insecta: Orthoptera; Thysanoptera; Hemiptera; Coleoptera; Diptera; Lepidoptera; Hymenoptera)

In this study, the results of recent surveys on non-native insect pests from the Madeira Archipelago are reported. Overall, 13 non-native species were recorded: Tessellana tessellata (Charpentier) (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae), Gynaikothrips ficorum (Marchal) (Thysanoptera, Phlaeothripidae), Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Hemiptera, Coreidae), Macrohomotoma gladiata Kuwayama (Hemiptera, Homotomidae), Platycorypha nigrivirga Burckhardt and Cacopsylla fulguralis (Kuwayama) (Hemiptera, Psyllidae), Greenidea ficicola Takahashi (Hemiptera, Aphididae), Aloephagus myersi Essig (Hemiptera, Pemphigidae), Protopulvinaria pyriformis (Cockerell) (Hemiptera, Coccidae), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier (Coleoptera, Dryophthoridae), Phytoliriomyza jacarandae Steyskal & Spencer (Diptera, Agromyzidae), Lantanophaga pusillidactylus (Walker) (Lepidoptera, Pterophoridae), and Josephiella microcarpae Beardsley & Rasplus (Hymenoptera, Agaonidae). Particularly, T. tessellata, L. occidentalis, M. gladiata, P. jacarandae, and J. microcarpae are reported for the first time from the island of Madeira. L. occidentalis is also reported for the first time from the island of Porto Santo. For P. jacarandae this is the first record from Macaronesia, while for M. gladiata this is the first record also for Portugal. Most of these species are associated with allochthonous plants. Details on current distributions, host plants, biological remarks, and natural enemies are given for each species.

Description of eight new Paratrichius Janson, 1881 from Vietnam (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae)

Increased availability of recently collected beetle material from Vietnam has stimulated numerous taxonomic studies. Several specimens representing new species of the genus Paratrichius Janson, 1881, were discovered among this material. These are described here as Paratrichius bartolozzii sp. nov., P. caobangi sp. nov., P. dangvanboi sp. nov., P. parvolaetus sp. nov. , P. saetosus sp. nov. , P. triguttatus sp. nov., P. inexpectatus sp. nov. and P. variiscoloratus sp. nov., thereby bringing the total number of known Vietnamese species to 29. The distribution of the species highlights three major areas of endemism for the genus within the country: northern provinces, Central Highlands and southern provinces. To date, no species has been found to inhabit more than one of these areas. Further research in intermediate areas is needed to better clarify boundaries between these areas of endemism.

Description of the unknown males of three Chinese Meligethes (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae, Meligethinae)

In this paper we present the description of male genitalia and additional information on taxonomy of three recently described and poorly known Chinese endemic members of the genus Meligethes Stephens, 1830, Meligethes (Odonthogethes) brassicogethoides Audisio, Sabatelli & Jelínek, 2015, M. (O.) inexpectatus Liu, Huang, Cline, Sabatelli & Audisio, 2017, and M. (O.) tricuspidatus Liu, Huang, Cline & Audisio, 2018.

An interesting case of polystyrene consumption by Reticulitermes lucifugus (Blattodea: Neoisoptera, Rhinotermitidae)

A colony of Reticulitermes lucifugus from Apulia (SE Italian Peninsula) was recently observed to have partially consumed some polystyrene panels applied on a wall, and used like seat for termite nest. Further observations could allow to better understand if this colony is just able to physically consume and chew this plastic material, releasing it chemically intact after the passage throughout the termites’ digestive system, or if their microbiome could allow the insects to at least partially metabolize and degrade the ingested polystyrene fragments, as recently observed in a few other insects.