Pollinator-assisted plant phenotyping, selection, and breeding for crop resilience to abiotic stresses.

Food security is threatened by climate change, with heat and drought being the main stresses affecting crop physiology and ecosystem services, such as plant-pollinator interactions. We hypothesize that tracking and ranking pollinators' preferences for flowers under environmental pressure could be used as a marker of plant quality for agricultural breeding to increase crop stress tolerance. Despite increasing relevance of flowers as the most stress sensitive organs, phenotyping platforms aim at identifying traits of resilience by assessing the plant physiological status through remote sensing-assisted vegetative indexes, but find strong bottlenecks in quantifying flower traits and in accurate genotype-to-phenotype prediction.

DNA barcoding and morphology reveal European and western Asian (Linnaeus, 1758) as a complex of species (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae).

Currently, the genus Schrank, 1802 includes approximately 16 species in the Palaearctic region, depending on the taxonomic interpretation. Here, populations of the (Linnaeus, 1758) morphospecies complex were studied from Europe to the Middle East (Turkey, northern Iran) by molecular methods. Morphological treatment has traditionally revealed the presence of five nominal taxa: (Linnaeus, 1758), (Boisduval, 1829), (Freyer, 1831), de Freina, 1983, and Romanoff, 1884.

An annotated checklist of the Pyralidae of the region of Murcia (Spain) with new records, distribution and biological data (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea, Pyralidae).

Background: The Murcia Region (south-eastern Iberian Peninsula) has a great diversity of Lepidopteran fauna, as a zoogeographical crossroads and biodiversity hotspot with more than 850 butterflies and moth species recorded.

New Information: In the present paper, based on an examination of museum specimens, published records and new samples, a comprehensive and critical species list of Pyralidae moths (Lepidoptera, Pyraloidea) is synthesised. In total, three subfamilies, 67 genera and 142 species have been recorded and these are listed, along with their collection, literature references and biological data, including chorotype, voltinism and the flight period in the study area.

First record and DNA barcoding of (Zeller, 1867) from the Iberian Peninsula (Lepidoptera: Crambidae).

Background: (Zeller, 1867) is known from south-eastern Europe, Middle East and Turkey to Central Asia, northern India and China and widely distributed in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt).

New Information: (Zeller 1867) is recorded for the first time from the Iberian Peninsula and the first DNA barcode sequence is published and compared with other European and North American species.

An annotated checklist of the Crambidae of the region of Murcia (Spain) with new records, distribution and biological data (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea, Crambidae).

Background: The Murcia Region (osouth-eastern Iberian Peninsula) has a great diversity of Lepidopteran fauna, as a zoogeographical crossroads and biodiversity hotspot with more than 850 butterflies and moth species recorded.

New Information: In the present paper, based on an examination of museum specimens, published records and new samples, a comprehensive and critical species list of Crambidae moths (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea) is synthesised. In total, 8 subfamilies, 50 genera and 106 species have been recorded and these are listed along with their collection, literature references and biological data including chorotype, voltinism and the flight period in the study area.

Redescription and DNA barcoding of diurnal moth Athroolopha latimargoRothschild, 1914 bona sp., stat. rev. from the southern Iberian Peninsula (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Ennominae).

The rare and diurnal geometrid moth Athroolopha latimargo Rothschild, 1914 bona sp., stat. rev.

Close congruence between Barcode Index Numbers (bins) and species boundaries in the Erebidae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea) of the Iberian Peninsula.

The DNA barcode reference library for Lepidoptera holds much promise as a tool for taxonomic research and for providing the reliable identifications needed for conservation assessment programs. We gathered sequences for the barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene from 160 of the 176 nominal species of Erebidae moths (Insecta: Lepidoptera) known from the Iberian Peninsula. These results arise from a research project which constructing a DNA barcode library for the insect species of Spain.