One must imagine Sisyphus happy: Integrative taxonomic characterization of 22 new Ceroptres species (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Ceroptresini).

We describe new species in the genus Ceroptres Hartig, 1840 (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Ceroptresini) represented by voucher material sequenced by Ward et al. (2024). We describe 22 new species, all authored by Nastasi, Smith, & Davis: C.

Aulacidea manchuria Nastasi sp. nov., a new herb gall wasp from China (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Aulacideini), with commentary on hawkweed (Asteraceae: Hieraciinae) gall wasps.

We describe Aulacidea manchuria Nastasi sp. nov., a new species of herb gall wasp from China and the second species of Aulacidea Ashmead, 1897 to be described from the country.

Description of two new species of Diastrophus Hartig, 1840 from Taiwan, Diastrophus renai and D. wushei (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Diastrophini).

We describe Diastrophus wushei Davis & Nastasi sp. nov. and D.

New herb gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Aulacideini) from Kyrgyzstan, with description of a new genus and a review of the genus Panteliella Kieffer, 1901.

We describe three new aulacideine herb gall wasp species (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Aulacideini) from Kyrgyzstan, a country from which only two Aulacideini species were previously known. One of our new species represents a new genus, which we describe here as Soparia oshensis Nastasi gen. and sp.

GallOnt: An ontology for plant gall phenotypes.

Galls are novel plant structures that develop in response to select biotic stressors. These structures, extended phenotypes of the inducer, usually serve to protect and feed the inducer or its progeny. This life history strategy has evolved dozens of times, and tens of thousands of species - including many bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mites and insects - are capable of manipulating plants in this way.

Diversity and complexity of arthropod references in haiku.

Haiku are short poems, each composed of about 10 words, that typically describe moments in nature. People have written haiku since at least the 17th century, and the medium continues to be popular with poets, amateurs, educators, and students. Collectively, these poems represent an opportunity to understand which aspects of nature-e.

Key to the North American tribes and genera of herb, rose, bramble, and inquiline gall wasps (Hymenoptera, Cynipoidea, Cynipidae).

Robust keys exist for the family-level groups of Cynipoidea. However, for most regions of the world, keys to genera are not available. To address this gap as it applies to North America, a fully illustrated key is provided to facilitate identification of the tribes and genera of rose gall, herb gall, and inquiline gall wasps known from the region.

Extreme acidity in a cynipid gall: a potential new defensive strategy against natural enemies.

The morphology of insect-induced galls contributes to defences of the gall-inducing insect species against its natural enemies. In terms of gall chemistry, the only defensive compounds thus far identified in galls are tannins that accumulate in many galls, preventing damage by herbivores. Intrigued by the fruit-like appearance of the translucent oak gall (TOG; , Cynipidae, Hymenoptera) induced on red oak (), we hypothesized that its chemical composition may deviate from other galls.

Catalogue of Rose Gall, Herb Gall, and Inquiline Gall Wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Background: Cynipidae (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea) is a diverse group of wasps, many of which are capable of inducing plants to make galls, novel structures that protect and nourish the wasps' larvae. Other cynipids, especially those species in Ceroptresini and Synergini, are understood to be usurpers of galls made by other cynipids. The North American cynipid fauna has not been fully catalogued since 1979, but there is renewed interest in revising the taxonomy and in doing research that sheds light on the mechanisms of gall induction, the evolution of this life history, and their ecological interactions more broadly.

A Taxonomic Revision of Nearctic Conostigmus (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea: Megaspilidae).

We revise the species of Conostigmus Dahlbom, 1858 (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea: Megaspilidae) found in North America, north of Mexico. We describe the following 12 new species: Conostigmus dessarti Trietsch Mikó sp. nov.

Multi-gene phylogeny and divergence estimations for Evaniidae (Hymenoptera).

Ensign wasps (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae) develop as predators of cockroach eggs (Blattodea), have a wide distribution and exhibit numerous interesting biological phenomena. The taxonomy of this lineage has been the subject of several recent, intensive efforts, but the lineage lacked a robust phylogeny. In this paper we present a new phylogeny, based on increased taxonomic sampling and data from six molecular markers (mitochondrial and , and nuclear markers , , , and ), the latter used for the first time in phylogenetic reconstruction.

A new megaspilid wasp from Eocene Baltic amber (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea), with notes on two non-ceraphronoid families: Radiophronidae and Stigmaphronidae.

Ceraphronoids are some of the most commonly collected hymenopterans, yet they remain rare in the fossil record. Mikó and Trietsch, sp. nov.

(Hymenoptera: Ceraphronidae), a new species from Lower Saxony with unusual male genitalia.

Background: Male genitalia phenotypes of (Jurine, 1807) are informative for species delimitation, but due to their minute size, these characters have not been used extensively. Recent developments in visualisation techniques, confocal laser scanning microscopy and high resolution bright field imaging, allow for more thorough examination of these minute anatomical structures and the development of a robust, male genitalia-based taxonomic system. We also establish a character set, a template, that will facilitate future revisions of these wasps.

Unique extrication structure in a new megaspilid, Trietsch & Mikó (Hymenoptera: Megaspilidae).

Background: A new species, Trietsch & Mikó (Hymenoptera: Megaspilidae), is described here from male and female specimens captured in Costa Rica. This species is the only known ceraphronoid wasp with a straight mandibular surface and raised dorsal projections on the scutellum, called the mesoscutellar comb. It is hypothesised that the function of the mesoscutellar comb is to aid the emergence of the adult from the host, especially since the mandibles lack a pointed surface to tear open the pupal case.

Dessart new to the USA (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea).

Background: is a monotypic genus that can be recognized by its unique, lanceolate wing shape. Until now the only described species, Dessart 1981, was known only from specimens collected in Canada.

New Information: Here, for the first time, we report Dessart 1981 specimens collected in the USA.

Malagasy (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronoidea) and the secret of scutes.

We revise the genus 1858 occurring in Madagascar, based on data from more specimens than were examined for the latest world revision of the genus. Our results yield new information about intraspecific variability and the nature of the atypical latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) observed in Ceraphronoidea. We also investigate cellular processes that underlie body size polyphenism, by utilizing the correspondence between epidermal cells and scutes, polygonal units of leather-like microsculpture.

Dendrocerus mexicali (Hymenoptera, Ceraphronoidea, Megaspilidae): Novel antennal morphology, first description of female, and expansion of known range into the U.S.

Dendrocerus mexicali has been described by Paul Dessart from a single male specimen collected in Mexico. Using 87 newly identified specimens we expand the known range to include the Southwestern United States and Florida, provide an expanded description of the species, and provide the first record of the female. We also use confocal laser scanning microscopy and in vitro hydrostatic pressure changes to investigate the functional morphology of apparently unique basally flexible antennal branches.

Emerging semantics to link phenotype and environment.

Understanding the interplay between environmental conditions and phenotypes is a fundamental goal of biology. Unfortunately, data that include observations on phenotype and environment are highly heterogeneous and thus difficult to find and integrate. One approach that is likely to improve the status quo involves the use of ontologies to standardize and link data about phenotypes and environments.

Finding our way through phenotypes.

Despite a large and multifaceted effort to understand the vast landscape of phenotypic data, their current form inhibits productive data analysis. The lack of a community-wide, consensus-based, human- and machine-interpretable language for describing phenotypes and their genomic and environmental contexts is perhaps the most pressing scientific bottleneck to integration across many key fields in biology, including genomics, systems biology, development, medicine, evolution, ecology, and systematics. Here we survey the current phenomics landscape, including data resources and handling, and the progress that has been made to accurately capture relevant data descriptions for phenotypes.

Folding wings like a cockroach: a review of transverse wing folding ensign wasps (Hymenoptera: Evaniidae: Afrevania and Trissevania).

We revise two relatively rare ensign wasp genera, whose species are restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa: Afrevania and Trissevania. Afrevania longipetiolata sp. nov.

A semantic model for species description applied to the ensign wasps (hymenoptera: evaniidae) of New Caledonia.

Taxonomic descriptions are unparalleled sources of knowledge of life's phenotypic diversity. As natural language prose, these data sets are largely refractory to computation and integration with other sources of phenotypic data. By formalizing taxonomic descriptions using ontology-based semantic representation, we aim to increase the reusability and computability of taxonomists' primary data.

The need for data standards in zoomorphology.

eScience is a new approach to research that focuses on data mining and exploration rather than data generation or simulation. This new approach is arguably a driving force for scientific progress and requires data to be openly available, easily accessible via the Internet, and compatible with each other. eScience relies on modern standards for the reporting and documentation of data and metadata.

Utilizing descriptive statements from the biodiversity heritage library to expand the Hymenoptera Anatomy Ontology.

Hymenoptera, the insect order that includes sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants, exhibits an incredible diversity of phenotypes, with over 145,000 species described in a corpus of textual knowledge since Carolus Linnaeus. In the absence of specialized training, often spanning decades, however, these articles can be challenging to decipher. Much of the vocabulary is domain-specific (e.