Ladefoged McKee (patchsphere53)

The representation in the Maltese Islands of the Order Orthoptera, including the Tettigonioidea, Grylloidea, Gryllotalpoidea, Tetrigoidea, Pyrgomorphoidea and Acridoidea, is reviewed for the first time in almost fifty years. A total of fifty-five species are treated, of which forty-six are accepted and nine are rejected on the basis of re-evaluated taxonomic evidence, including the re-examination of actual specimens from historical collections, and consideration of species' distribution. Two species, namely, Platycleis sabulosa Azam, 1901 and Oecanthus dulcisonans Gorochov, 1993, are reported for the first time from the Maltese Islands. Of the confirmed taxa, the occurrence of three species, Oedipoda caerulescens caerulescens (Linnaeus, 1767), Sphingonotus obscuratus lameerei Finot, 1902, and Sphingonotus savignyi savignyi Saussure, 1884, is considered accidental and another species, Schistocerca gregaria gregaria (Forskål, 1775), is known for its dependence on episodes of passage from the African mainland, while the status of another four taxa remains unclear. Extirpation of some of the rare and localised species, such as Conocephalus conocephalus (Linnaeus, 1767), Ruspolia nitidula (Scopoli, 1786), Brachytrupes megacephalus (Lefebvre, 1827), and Heteracris adspersa (Redtenbacher, 1889), is not excluded unless appropriate conservation measures are introduced and implemented.Trichoptera is the largest order of exclusively aquatic insects, comprising more than 16,000 described species with cosmopolitan distribution. There are about 800 species recorded from Brazil so far, mostly from the North, Southeast, and South regions. In Northeastern Brazil, the state of Rio Grande do Norte has only one Trichoptera species recorded so far (Oecetis excisa). Here, Chimarra (Chimarra) potiguar n. sp. is described and illustrated. The new species can be easily distinguished from its congeners by the following features Segment X has its mesal lobe elongate, sub-rectangular; lateral lobes long and rounded apically, dorsal margin with subapical invagination; the apex of each inferior appendage has a pronounced apicodorsal acute projection, and the phallotremal sclerite complex is curved, with small spines dorsally. Chimarra (C.) potiguar is morphologically similar to Chimarra (Chimarra) bidens, but the new species differs from it by the length and shape of the mesal lobe and lateral lobes of segment X, and by general shape of the basal regions of inferior appendages. Five additional caddisfly species are recorded for the first time from Rio Grande do Norte state three in Hydropsychidae (Leptonema sparsum, Macrostemum hyalinum, and Smicridea (Smicridea) palifera) and two in Polycentropodidae (Cyrnellus fraternus and Cernotina bibrachiata).A new species belonging to the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 is described from the Rangana Fort mountain range of the northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India. A preliminary 16S rRNA phylogeny of Indian Cnemaspis is provided and the phylogenetic position of the new species is established within the goaensis clade. The new species, Cnemaspis ranganaensis sp. nov. can easily be distinguished from all Indian congeners by having 3 or 4 spine-like tubercles on the flanks, conical tubercles absent on flank, dorsal pholidosis heterogeneous, presence of precloacal and femoral pores in males, 8 or 9 poreless scales between femoral and precloacal pores; gular scales flat, smooth; 93-101 paravertebral scales, 59-63 mid-dorsal scales; 93-101 longitudinal scales from mental to cloaca, 30-31 scales across belly; ventral scales smooth, imbricate; tail with small, granular, keeled, pointed, subimbricate scales intermixed with enlarged, strongly keeled, conical tubercles forming whorls; scales on ventral side of tail imbricate, smooth, with three rows of large, slightly elongated median subcaudals. The new species is closely related to C. goaensis, from which it differs by a genetic divergence of 1.9-3.0%. Molecular phylogen