Two new species of Anax Leach, 1815 from the Solomon Islands and Tonga (Odonata: Aeshnidae).

Species of the cosmopolitan genus Anax Leach, 1815 are among the largest dragonflies and the most powerful flyers. Within the genus the proportion between body length and wing and the body shape of both sexes are of great taxonomic importance. Here we describe two new Anax species: Anax insulanus sp.

Two new species of crane fly (Diptera: Limoniidae) from Tasmania, Australia.

Two new species of Australian crane fly are described, illustrated and with COI sequences included: Gynoplistia (Gynoplistia) lutruwita Billingham & Theischinger sp. nov., and Molophilus (Molophilus) serricauda Billingham & Theischinger sp.

Molecular phylogeny and phylogeography of the freshwater-fish genus Pethia (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Sri Lanka.

Background: Sri Lanka is a continental island separated from India by the Palk Strait, a shallow-shelf sea, which was emergent during periods of lowered sea level. Its biodiversity is concentrated in its perhumid south-western 'wet zone'. The island's freshwater fishes are dominated by the Cyprinidae, characterized by small diversifications of species derived from dispersals from India.

Conserved ancestral tropical niche but different continental histories explain the latitudinal diversity gradient in brush-footed butterflies.

The global increase in species richness toward the tropics across continents and taxonomic groups, referred to as the latitudinal diversity gradient, stimulated the formulation of many hypotheses to explain the underlying mechanisms of this pattern. We evaluate several of these hypotheses to explain spatial diversity patterns in a butterfly family, the Nymphalidae, by assessing the contributions of speciation, extinction, and dispersal, and also the extent to which these processes differ among regions at the same latitude. We generate a time-calibrated phylogeny containing 2,866 nymphalid species (~45% of extant diversity).

Global phylogeography suggests extensive eucosmopolitanism in Mesopelagic Fishes (Maurolicus: Sternoptychidae).

Fishes in the mesopelagic zone (200-1000 m) have recently been highlighted for potential exploitation. Here we assess global phylogeography in Maurolicus, the Pearlsides, an ecologically important group. We obtained new sequences from mitochondrial COI and nuclear ITS-2 from multiple locations worldwide, representing 10 described species plus an unknown central South Pacific taxon.

The genus Gynacantha Rambur, 1842 in the South Pacific (Odonata: Anisoptera: Aeshnidae).

Available information on Gynacantha Rambur, 1842 species from the South Pacific is reviewed. Specimens were found to be sufficiently similar to G. rosenbergi Kaup in Brauer, 1867 to be placed in the same species group (G.

Evolution of Sri Lanka's Giant Danios (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: Devario): Teasing apart species in a recent diversification.

The small, colourful freshwater fishes of the cyprinid genus Devario are among the many vertebrate groups that appear to have diversified on Sri Lanka, a continental Indian Ocean island, which is part of the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot. Despite Sri Lanka having been connected with India via a wide isthmus intermittently until the Plio-Pleistocene and almost continuously since then, during sea-level low-stands, the number of species of Devario on Sri Lanka is comparable with that on the Indian Peninsula, some 25 times its size. Here, from a sampling of 27 Devario populations across Sri Lanka's major river basins and climatic zones, we present and analyze a phylogeny based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data.

Osteological evidence for monophyly of the Leiognathidae (Teleostei: Acanthomorpha: Acanthuriformes).

Osteological characters supporting monophyly and identification of extant Leiognathidae are reviewed. Ten osteological synapomorphies support monophyly of the Leiognathidae, involving modification of the ribs, gill arches, palatoquadrate, median fins and branchiostegals. Fourteen additional characters are noted that nest the Leiognathidae within the Acanthuriformes (sensu Gill Leis).

The antiquity of Australian silcrete heat treatment: Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes.

The evolution of heat treatment for stone artefact production is a subject of major interest for our understanding of early modern humans. In this study, we examine the evidence from one region in Australia to provide a new record of the antiquity of heat treatment, explore chronological shifts in the frequency of heat treatment, and discuss the implications of these findings for early population dynamics and the technical knowledge early settlers might have brought with them. Until now, Australian heat treatment has only dated back 25000 years.

Description of a second species of Gymnoxenisthmus from the Red Sea (Teleostei: Gobioidei: Xenisthmidae).

Gymnoxenisthmus flavicinctus n. sp. is described from the 20.

The identity of the Sri Lankan (Teleostei, Cyprinidae).

Morphological and molecular analyses of specimens representative of the geographic range of the cyprinid genus in Sri Lanka suggest the presence of only a single species in the island, for which the name Jordan & Starks, 1917, is available. is a species endemic to Sri Lanka, distributed across the lowlands of both of the island's main climatic zones. It is distinguished from all other species of , including the three species recorded from peninsular India (, , and ), by a suite of characters that includes a body depth of 26.

Röber, 1940; a remarkable butterfly mystery resolved.

The most distinctive species of , , described from a single specimen said to be from North Sulawesi, Indonesia, has been a great mystery since it was first described by Röber, in 1940. The holotype, originally illustrated in monochrome in the journal , was lost very soon after it was described, almost certainly destroyed during allied bombing of Dresden in the 1940s. No other specimen was known for almost eight decades.

Evolution of Hypolimnas butterflies (Nymphalidae): Out-of-Africa origin and Wolbachia-mediated introgression.

Hypolimnas butterflies (Nymphalidae), commonly known as eggflies, are a popular model system for studying a wide range of ecological questions including mimicry, polymorphism, wing pattern evolution, and Wolbachia-host interactions. The lack of a time-calibrated phylogeny for this group has precluded understanding its evolutionary history. We reconstruct a species-level phylogeny using a nine gene dataset and estimate species divergence times.

The Senticaudata, a suborder of the Amphipoda - A commentary on d'Udekem d'Acoz and Verheye (2017).

A response is given to criticisms in a recent paper of the validity of the amphipod suborder Senticaudata. The tacitly assumed status of truth implied in some molecular higher phylogenies is called in to question.

Building essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) of species distribution and abundance at a global scale.

Much biodiversity data is collected worldwide, but it remains challenging to assemble the scattered knowledge for assessing biodiversity status and trends. The concept of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) was introduced to structure biodiversity monitoring globally, and to harmonize and standardize biodiversity data from disparate sources to capture a minimum set of critical variables required to study, report and manage biodiversity change. Here, we assess the challenges of a 'Big Data' approach to building global EBV data products across taxa and spatiotemporal scales, focusing on species distribution and abundance.

The genus (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Anthophorini) in Australia: A revision of the subgenera and .

The Australian bees in the subgenera and of the genus are revised. Commonly in Australia the species in these subgenera are called blue-banded bees, although not all species have blue bands. A phylogeny based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase 1 sequence data was used to delineate the species and a set of morphological criteria was developed for species identification.

A new genus and new species of Potamidea (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Potamoidae), the first stygomorphic cave crab known from China and East Asia.

A new genus and species of freshwater crab, Diyutamon cereum n. gen., n.

Zaramillidae, a new amphipod family from the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands (Amphipoda, Senticaudata, Gammaroidea, Zaramillidae fam. nov.).

A new senticaudate amphipod family, Zaramillidae is described from the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands, based on the genus Zaramilla Stebbing, 1888. It is placed in the gammaridiran amphipods.

Yuebeipotamon calciatile, a new genus and new species of freshwater crab from southern China (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura, Potamidae).

A new genus and species of freshwater crab, Yuebeipotamon calciatile gen. n., sp.

A new family, genus and species of freshwater amphipod Australomicroprotopus megacoxa gen. nov. sp. nov. (Senticaudata, Corophiidea, Microprotopoidea, Australomicroprotopidae fam. nov.) from Australia.

A new species of fresh-water amphipod is described from Australia. Australomicroprotopus megacoxa gen. nov.

New talitrids from South Africa (Amphipoda, Senticaudata, Talitroidea, Talitridae) with notes on their ecology.

Based on new talitrid amphipod collections from South Africa one new genus, Capeorchestia gen. nov., and one new species, Africorchestia meridionalis sp.

A re-appraisal of the widely-distributed freshwater crab genus Sinopotamon Bott, 1967, from China, with establishment of a new genus (Crustacea: Decapoda: Potamidae).

Freshwater crabs of the genus Sinopotamon Bott, 1967 (family Potamidae) are widely distributed along the Yangtze River (= Chang Jiang) drainage and are endemic to China. Two distinct clades can be distinguished within Sinopotamon s. lato.

Large branchiopod (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) egg morphology of Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India.

The eggs of many large branchiopods have taxonomic value and are commonly used as traits in species and/or generic descriptions. In this paper we present detailed descriptions and SEMs of resting eggs of seven of the eight species of large branchiopods found in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. We highlight the inter- and intrapopulation egg morphological variation in Streptocephalus.

New species Victoriopisa bruneiensis and Apocorophium acutum (Chevreux, 1908) from Brunei (Crustacea: Peracarida: Amphipoda).

One new and one invasive species of amphipod are described from the subtidal waters of Brunei. The new species Victoriopisa bruneiensis (Melitidae) and the invasive species Apocorophium acutum (Chevereux, 1908) (Corophiidae) were collected from the Sungai Brunei Estuary. Victoriopisa bruneiensis sp.

Identification and qualification of 500 nuclear, single-copy, orthologous genes for the Eupulmonata (Gastropoda) using transcriptome sequencing and exon capture.

The qualification of orthology is a significant challenge when developing large, multiloci phylogenetic data sets from assembled transcripts. Transcriptome assemblies have various attributes, such as fragmentation, frameshifts and mis-indexing, which pose problems to automated methods of orthology assessment. Here, we identify a set of orthologous single-copy genes from transcriptome assemblies for the land snails and slugs (Eupulmonata) using a thorough approach to orthology determination involving manual alignment curation, gene tree assessment and sequencing from genomic DNA.