Although stable and well-supported relationships are in place for the three main clades (families) of Scutigeromorpha, the interrelationships of particular taxa within the most diverse family, Scutigeridae, are less clearly resolved. Novel molecular data for taxa from Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, southern Africa, New Guinea and previously unsampled parts of the Pacific are incorporated into phylogenetic analyses. Relationships across the tree are stable under variable analytical conditions, whether these are homology-based (multiple sequence alignment versus implied alignment; untrimmed versus trimmed datasets) or method-based (parsimony versus maximum likelihood). Hypervariable regions, contrary to common belief, add phylogenetic structure to the data, as measured by the increased support for many nodes when compared with the same alignments trimmed with Gblocks. Our analyses show that a Yule-3-rate model best explained the diversification of Scutigeromorpha during their 400 million years of history. More complete molecular data for the New Guinea genus Ballonema stabilise its position as sister group to Thereuoneminae. To reconcile scutigeromorph systematics with the phylogeny, the monotypic genus Madagassophora Verhoeff, 1936, is placed in synonymy with Scutigerina Silvestri, 1901 (n. syn.), its type species M. hova becoming Scutigerina hova (de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902) new comb. (from Scutigera), and Lassophora Verhoeff, 1905, is re-established for an Afro-Malagasy clade containing Lassophora nossibei (de Saussure & Zehntner, 1902) new comb. (from Scutigera) and a newly sequenced species from Mozambique that diverged at the base of the lineage to Thereuoneminae. The dated phylogeny of Scutigeromorpha is more consistent with ancient vicariant splits between Madagascar–southern Africa and Australia–New Caledonia than with younger dispersal scenarios, though some geologically young Pacific islands that harbour lineages dating to the Cretaceous demonstrate the potential for trans-oceanic dispersal.

Palaemonoidea is one of the most speciose superfamilies of Caridea. Since it was established, several classification schemes of Palaemonoidea have been proposed and modified. However, the current classification of Palaemonoidea is still in dispute. In this study, one mitochondrial gene (16S rRNA) and three nuclear genes (histone 3, 18S rRNA and 28S rRNA) were used to explore the phylogenetic relationships among the subgroups of the superfamily Palaemonoidea, including seven families with 25 affiliated genera. Based on the combined data with both maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses, the results support the monophyly of Anchistioididae and Hymenoceridae. In contrast, Gnathophyllidae is suggested to be paraphyletic and Palaemonidae is shown to be a polyphyletic group. Our analyses reveal that the subfamily Palaemoninae could be approximately divided into three clades, and the branchiostegal groove is the probable morphological evidence of the environmental transition from sea to fresh water. Besides, for some of the Palaemonoidea families, their taxonomic status is obscure. A revision of Palaemonoidea and a re-evaluation of its constituent taxa appear to be necessary even though the systematic status of the subfamily Pontoniinae is still undetermined.

A phylogenetic analysis of 62 species (32 genera) of the Palaearctic millipede family Julidae, including the aberrant alpine genus Pteridoiulus Verhoeff, 1913, was made based on partial sequences of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA (16S) gene and the nuclear 28S rRNA (28S) gene, respectively. The two datasets (16S rDNA and 28S rDNA) were analysed in combination but treated as different partitions using direct optimisation as implemented in POY. The 16S rDNA and the 28S rDNA sequences vary from 410 to 449 bp and from 467 to 525 bp in length, respectively. All searches were performed under six different gap opening costs, an extension gap cost of 1, and a substitution cost of 2. Based on previous investigations the optimal gap opening cost was set to 4, and the robustness of different gap opening costs ranging from 1 to 6 investigated. Additionally, the two data partitions were aligned individually using MAFTT and run in TNT both with gaps treated as a fifth state, and as missing, and finally the alignments were used as input in a maximum likelihood (ML) analysis. The order Julida and the family Julidae were recovered as monophyletic under all weight sets in POY, as well as in the TNT and ML analyses. Likewise, in all analyses Pteridoiulus was found to be sister to another monotypic alpine genus, Heteroiulus Verhoeff, 1897. The Pteridoiulus   Heteroiulus clade is robust to parameter changes but lacks morphological support. The distribution pattern of the clade, Pteridoiulus in the eastern Alps (mainly Austria), Heteroiulus in the southern Alps (Italy) seems unique, since similar pattems all involve very similar, closely related species pairs.

A recent sampling endeavour of freshwater crabs along the high-lying streams of the Nyanga mountain range in Mutare (Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe) yielded a morphologically distinct, as yet undescribed species. The novel Zimbabwean species is compared to the 16 described species from southern Africa based on mtDNA sequence data derived from three partial gene sequences (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA and COI). The new Zimbabwean species was found to be a sister taxon to Potamonautes mulanjeensis. These two species are morphologically and genetically easily differentiated. The new species is described as Potamonautes mutareensis, sp. nov. and is compared morphologically to the known freshwater crab species of southern Africa. A dichotomous key to the four described freshwater crab species that occur in Zimbabwe is also provided. Our results suggest that species diversity and endemism of freshwater decapods and other habitat specialists is likely to be high in unsampled mountainous regions.

The discovery of two new non-marine ameirids from the southern Yilgarn region significantly extends the geographic range for this group in Australia and exposes weaknesses in the conservation and environmental impact assessment (EIA) of subterranean species potentially threatened by mining developments. Megastygonitocrella embe, sp. nov. differs from seven previously described Australian congeners by the armature of the second leg endopod and absence of spinules on the somites. A key to world species of Megastygonitocrella is presented. Phylogenetic analysis based on 57 morphological characters and 30 species belonging to the Stygonitocrella s.l. group suggests that Antistygonitocrella pardalotos, gen. et sp. nov. has no close relatives anywhere in the world. Superficial similarities between the two new species are either plesiomorphies or homoplasies. The habitats of these new short-range endemic species are fractured-rock aquifers developed in Archaean greenstone, where the groundwater is characterised by acid conditions, high salinity and low dissolved oxygen. The population of A. pardalotos is threatened by a mining development. Despite the advanced level of environmental protection policy in Western Australia, our taxonomic study highlights limitations in EIA practices and discusses potential improvements which have global relevance in regions where short-range endemics coincide with extraction of mineral resources.

A new genus of the spider family Zoropsidae, Cauquenia, gen. nov., is proposed for Cauquenia maule, sp. nov., from the Maule region in central Chile. The familial placement is tested through the inclusion of Cauquenia in the latest major published morphological analyses of the superfamily Lycosoidea, and the subfamily placement of the South American zoropsid genus Itatiaya Mello-Leitão is also tested including them in the Raven and Stumkat (2005) analysis. Cauquenia and Itatiaya are closely related to the African genera Griswoldia Dippenaar-Schoeman & Jocqué and Phanotea Simon, with which it shares a cup-shaped median apophysis on the male pedipalp and tooth-like projections on the lateral lobes of the epigyne in females. The patterns of evolution of the cribellum and the male tibial crack in Lycosoidea are explored; the cribellum shows up as primitively present, with three losses and four independent acquisitions, and the male tibial crack is lost twice. An asymmetric cost in cribellum gain : loss of 6 : 1 produces a primitive cribellum with 12 losses.

Previous phylogenetic analyses of the centipede order Scolopendromorpha indicated a fundamental division into blind and ocellate clades. These analyses corroborated the monophyly of most families and tribes but suggested that several species-rich, cosmopolitan genera in traditional and current classifications are polyphyletic. Denser taxon sampling is applied to a dataset of 122 morphological characters and sequences for four nuclear and mitochondrial loci. Phylogenetic analyses including 98 species and subspecies of Scolopendromorpha employ parsimony under dynamic and static homology schemes as well as maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference of multiple sequence alignments. The monotypic Australian genera Notiasemus and Kanparka nest within Cormocephalus and Scolopendra, respectively, and the New Caledonian Campylostigmus is likewise a clade within Cormocephalus. New World Scolopendra are more closely related to Hemiscolopendra and Arthrorhabdus than to Scolopendra s.s., which is instead closely allied to Asanada; the tribe Asanadini nests within Scolopendrini for molecular and combined datasets. The generic classification of Otostigmini has a poor fit to phylogenetic relationships, although nodal support within this tribe is weak. New synonymies are proposed for Ectonocryptopinae Shelley & Mercurio, 2005 (= Newportiinae Pocock, 1896), Asanadini Verhoeff, 1907 (= Scolopendrini Leach, 1814), and Kanparka Waldock & Edgecombe, 2012 (= Scolopendra Linnaeus, 1758). Scolopendrid systematics largely depicts incongruence between phylogeny and classification rather than between morphology and molecules.