State of knowledge of the ladybird beetle (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) fauna of Armenia and other Transcaucasian countries, including two new country records.

Beetles (Coleoptera) have been surveyed in Armenia and other Transcaucasian countries since the first half of the 19 century. Based on the literature reports and our new data, available information was gathered on the occurrence in Armenia of one of the beetle families, the ladybirds (Coccinellidae). 84 species of Coccinellidae have been reported from this country in the literature and/or collected during our recent field survey.

Checklist and distribution of ladybirds (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) in Iranian provinces.

Although checklists of the Iranian ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) have been made twice in recent years, they have a number of shortcomings. Moreover, since these checklist were published, several ladybird species have been added to the Iranian fauna and several previously reported have been excluded. We therefore compiled an updated checklist of Coccinellidae found in Iran and its individual provinces based on available literature and previously unpublished records.

Diversity of Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in Tenerife and La Gomera (Canary Islands): The Role of Size and Other Island Characteristics.

This paper provides new data on the ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) from two islands in the Canary archipelago: Tenerife, the largest island, and La Gomera, the second smallest. As they clearly differ in size but are similar in location and geological age, they are a suitable model for testing the species-area relationship. Our study shows that, in line with this main assumption of the theory of island biogeography, clearly more species occur on a large island (Tenerife) than on a small one (La Gomera).

(Fungi, Ascomycota) associated with ladybirds (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae): Rethinking host specificity.

Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniomycetes) are biotrophic microfungi always attached to the exoskeleton of their arthropod hosts. They do not form hyphae or a mycelium; instead, they undergo determinate growth, developing from a two-celled ascospore to form a multicellular thallus. has been reported on over 30 species of ladybirds (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae); in reality, it represents a complex of species, presumably segregated by host genus association.

The Ladybird Beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) of La Palma.

This paper provides new data on the ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) of La Palma, one of the western islands of the Canarian archipelago. The field survey of 54 study sites resulted in recording 2494 ladybird individuals belonging to 26 species. Seven of the species recorded were new to La Palma, including two, (Pontoppidan) and (Fürsch), which were not registered so far on any of the Canary Islands.

Complementary data on the distribution of Nephus (Nephus) incisus (Har. Lindberg, 1950) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in the Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions.

Nephus incisus has previously been considered to be a species endemic to the Canary Islands. In this note we present data indicating that its range is wider. The newly recorded sites are in northern Algeria, south of mainland Spain and Cape Verde.

Endemics Versus Newcomers: The Ladybird Beetle (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) Fauna of Gran Canaria.

Research on the fauna of beetles (Coleoptera) of the Canary Islands has a long tradition, which enables tracking changes in their species composition and arrival of new species. In this paper, we provide new faunistic data on the ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) recorded on Gran Canaria, one of the central islands of the archipelago, and then analyze available information on the Gran Canarian ladybird fauna from geographical and historical points of view. The field survey resulted in recording 1402 ladybird individuals belonging to 30 species.

The Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) from Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.

During this study, Coccinellidae were collected and observed at 25 sites located along the coast and inland of the island of Fuerteventura during 2016 and 2017. A total of 2825 Coccinellidae specimens belonging to 22 species was recorded, of which 11 species are newly recorded from Fuerteventura. In the case of three species taxonomical decisions are proposed.

The relationship between agricultural intensification and biological control: experimental tests across Europe.

Agricultural intensification can affect biodiversity and related ecosystem services such as biological control, but large-scale experimental evidence is missing. We examined aphid pest populations in cereal fields under experimentally reduced densities of (1) ground-dwelling predators (-G), (2) vegetation-dwelling predators and parasitoids (-V), (3) a combination of (1) and (2) (-G-V), compared with open-fields (control), in contrasting landscapes with low vs. high levels of agricultural intensification (AI), and in five European regions.

Agricultural intensification and biodiversity partitioning in European landscapes comparing plants, carabids, and birds.

Effects of agricultural intensification (AI) on biodiversity are often assessed on the plot scale, although processes determining diversity also operate on larger spatial scales. Here, we analyzed the diversity of vascular plants, carabid beetles, and birds in agricultural landscapes in cereal crop fields at the field (n = 1350), farm (n = 270), and European-region (n = 9) scale. We partitioned diversity into its additive components alpha, beta, and gamma, and assessed the relative contribution of beta diversity to total species richness at each spatial scale.