Type catalogue of the Orthoptera collection in the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

Types represent the most important specimens in natural history museums as they define a species and should usually be studied within the framework of revisions and new taxon descriptions, hence their documentation is of high importance. Orthoptera is a medium-size order of insects, but its members are important in many food chains as herbivores and as food for other animals. While the documentation of types in Orthoptera is overall very good thanks to the Orthoptera Species File site, there are still many gaps that need to be filled.

A new species of Contarinia (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) from flower galls on the relict tree Zelkova abelicea (Ulmaceae) endemic to Crete (Greece).

Contarinia ampelitsiae n. sp. Dorchin & Fazan is described as a newly discovered gall-midge species (Diptera: Cecidoymiidae) forming galls in flowers of Zelkova abelicea (Ulmaceae), a tree species endemic to the Mediterranean island of Crete (Greece).

Hidden Diversity-A New Speciose Gall Midge Genus (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) Associated with Succulent Aizoaceae in South Africa.

Aizoaceae (Caryophyllales) constitute one of the major floral components of the unique Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR), with more than 1700 species and 70% endemism. Within succulent Aizoaceae, the subfamily Ruschioideae is the most speciose and rapidly diversifying clade, offering potential niches for the diversification of specialized herbivorous insects. Nevertheless, insect diversity on these plants has not been studied to date, and knowledge of gall-inducing insects in the Afrotropics is generally scarce.

Reclassification of Gall Midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae: Cecidomyiini) from Amaranthaceae, with Description of Ten New Species Based on an Integrative Taxonomic Study.

The genus includes 99 species restricted to host-plants of the Amaranthaceae, virtually all of which are from Central Asia. The discovery of numerous undescribed species putatively belonging to this genus in Israel instigated an exhaustive review of the original descriptions of all known species in this genus. This study revealed that the generic concept of and some of the genera synonymized under it should be redefined based on morphological and life-history attributes, such that is limited to only 13 species developing in plant tissues without obvious gall formation or as inquilines in galls of other cecidomyiids.

Phylogeny of the gall midges (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Cecidomyiinae): Systematics, evolution of feeding modes and diversification rates.

Gall midges (Cecidomyiidae) constitute one of the largest and most diverse families of Diptera, with close to 6600 described species and thousands of undescribed species worldwide. The family is divided into six subfamilies, the five basal ones comprising only fungivorous taxa, whereas the largest, youngest and most diverse subfamily Cecidomyiinae includes fungivorous as well as herbivorous and predatory species. The currently accepted classification of the Cecidomyiinae is morphology-based, and the few phylogenetic inferences that have previously been suggested for it were based on fragmentary or limited datasets.