2026-03-30
Tomáš Navara, Pavel Chvojka, Stanislava Pekarová, Michal Tkoč
We report the first record of Hydroptila ivisa Malicky, 1972 in Slovakia. The faunistic survey of caddisflies was conducted on the eastern slopes of the Veľká Fatra Mountains in the village of Blatnica (Turiec River Basin, central Slovakia) in 2024. One male and two females of Hydroptila ivisa were attracted by UV light traps at the Blatnický potok stream. In 2025, the presence of the species was confirmed at the same locality with the capture of two additional females. Furthermore, one male and one female were recorded upstream in the Gaderský potok stream, the main tributary of the Blatnický potok stream, located within the Veľká Fatra National Park. This is only the third known location of the species in the Carpathians; consistent with its already known habitat preferences, it was found in the rhithral. We also present a list of caddisfly species recorded during the survey, which expands the known species diversity of the region.
2026-03-30
Zahra Ghaderipour, Ali Asghar Talebi, Mohammad Mehrabadi, Seyed Masoud Madjdzadeh
The genus Miscophus Jurine, 1807 (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) was studied in two discrete fragments of the Northern (Alborz, Qazvin, Guilan, Mazandaran and Tehran provinces), and southern (Khuzestan and Hormozgan provinces) inlands of Iran. The specimens were collected using Malaise traps in the years 2010, 2011 and 2017. Twelve species were identified, of which five species are new records for the fauna of Iran: Miscophus ctenopus Kohl, 1885; M. niger Dahlbom, 1844; M. aenigma Honore, 1944; M. irwini Schmid-Egger, 2022 and M. caninus Andrade, 1953. An identification key for all Iranian species of the genus Miscophus and brief diagnoses for the new records are provided.
2026-03-30
Chao Xue, Dan Zhang, Yujian Li, Ran Li, Xianfeng Yi
Mitochondrial genomes are powerful molecular markers for investigating phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary dynamics among closely related taxa. In this study, we sequenced and analyzed the complete mitochondrial genome of Coptotettix longtanensis for the first time. The circular mitogenome is 16,861 bp in length and encodes the typical set of 37 genes, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), and two ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), as well as a non-coding A+T-rich control region. The overall A+T content is 74.82%, exhibiting a strong bias consistent with other members of Tetriginae. The gene arrangement is identical to the ancestral insect pattern, except for a trnK–trnD translocation. Codon usage analysis revealed a clear preference for A- and T-ending codons, and the Ka/Ks ratios of all 13 PCGs were below 1, indicating strong purifying selection. Phylogenetic relationships among 17 Tetriginae species and two outgroups were reconstructed using Bayesian inference (BI) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods based on concatenated PCGs. Our results showed that the two Coptotettix species, C. longtanensis and C. longjiangensis , formed a distinct and well-supported clade, thus clarifying the phylogenetic position of C. longtanens is within Tetriginae. This analysis enhances our understanding of the mitogenome characteristics of Tetriginae grasshoppers and provides a foundation for future phylogenetic research on the family Tetrigidae.
2026-03-30
Halil Ibrahimi, Astrit Bilalli, Milaim Musliu, Donard Geci
In this study we report the first systematic investigation of the caddisfly fauna from the Bajgorë area in northern part of Kosovo. Specimens were collected from four stations during July 2024 using ultraviolet light traps. A total of 316 adult specimens were identified belonging to 19 species and 8 families. The most species-rich family was Rhyacophilidae, while Philopotamus montanus (Donovan, 1813) and Psychomyia pusill a (Fabricius, 1781) were the most abundant species. The presence of Hydroptila occulta (Eaton, 1873) is here reported for the first time from Kosovo. This species was found at all three studied sites which represent upstream areas of relatively undisturbed freshwater habitats located between 566m and 677 m asl altitudes. This represents a significant contribution for the knowledge of distribution of this species, representing one of the few records for the Balkan Peninsula and Ecoregion 5, Dinaric Western Balkans. These findings contribute to the knowledge of the insufficiently known caddisfly species of the region in function of the conservation of freshwater habitats in the Balkans.
2026-03-30
Vladimír Langraf, Mariana Eliašová, Kornélia Petrovičová
The agricultural landscape, which includes viticulture and grape growing, significantly affects the spatial distribution and the development of biodiversity in the landscape. Therefore, in our study, we focused on the development of epigeic arthropods under the conditions of the vineyard landscape. We conducted the research over the three years 2021-2023 in 8 study areas representing 4 types of vineyard landscape use (Intensive vineyard, semiintensive vineyard, abandoned vineyard, meadow (original vineyard)). We collected epigeic arthropods using the pitfall traps method at monthly intervals. During the research, we recorded 56,403 individuals belonging to 22 taxa, eudominant representation was confirmed in the taxa Hymenoptera (40.59%), Coleoptera (18.67%), and Araneida (11.65%). Statistical analysis confirmed the highest number of species and individuals in the intensive vineyard and meadow (original vineyard). Using machine learning, we confirmed the same evolution of epigeic arthropods over time for all types of vineyard land use except semiintensive vineyard. We also predicted an increase in epigeic arthropods for the month of July 2025 for all types of land use. The results of our research provide new information on the development of epigeic arthropods in vineyard ecosystems, which is important for the maintenance of sustainable agriculture that supports the preservation of biodiversity.
2026-03-30
Harun İnci, Gonca Yeşilyurt, Tunç Dabak, Nilgün Kaya, Fatih Dikmen
The fragmentation of urban green spaces in megacities such as Istanbul has raised concerns about the biodiversity of insects, particularly solitary hymenopterans. This study reports the first occurrence of Psenulus fuscipennis (Dahlbom, 1843) in Istanbul, Türkiye, and evaluates its nesting behaviour across an urbanisation gradient using artificial nest blocks. Twenty-five nest blocks, with entrance cavity diameters of 1.0, 0.7, and 0.4 cm, were monitored from March to September 2020. Nesting occurred exclusively in 0.4 cm cavities (n = 325 emergence events). The adults were identified morphologically, while the immature stages were confirmed by COI DNA barcoding. Importantly, the relationship between abundance and urbanisation depended on the analytical framework used. A non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test comparing abundance among three urbanisation categories (low, semi, high) found no significant differences. However, a Generalised Linear Model (Poisson, log-link), which treated urbanisation as an ordinal predictor and controlled for habitat type (garden, park or rural), revealed a significant positive association between higher urbanisation intensity and abundance. This model also indicated higher abundance in rural locations than in gardens and lower abundance in parks. Thus, while categorical comparisons alone did not detect differences, model-based inference revealed a positive relationship between urbanisation and abundance once habitat variation was accounted for. Our results demonstrate that P. fuscipennis can utilise fragmented green spaces under urban pressure, with microhabitat (cavity size) remaining the primary constraint and the urbanisation signal likely reflecting unmeasured covariates rather than a general increase.