Gibbobruchus Pic, 1913 belongs to the subtribe Acanthoscelidina, which encompasses ∼50% of the subfamily Bruchinae (Coleoptera : Chrysomelidae). These species are distributed in the Americas and are mainly associated with Bauhinia seeds (Fabaceae). The monophyly of Gibbobruchus and its species groups were tested based on 26 adult morphological characters and 15 taxa. Of these taxa, 13 species were recognised including two new species, G. vinicius, sp. nov. and G. bolivianus, sp. nov. Gibbobruchus is monophyletic and supported by seven synapomorphies. The currently proposed composition of species groups is: Group speculifer: G. speculifer, G. ornatus, G. vinicius, Manfio & Ribeiro-Costa, sp. nov.; Group polycoccus: G. polycoccus; Group wunderlini: G. wunderlini; Group scurra: G. cavillator, G. bolivianus, Manfio & Ribeiro-Costa, sp. nov., G. scurra; and Group mimus: G. guanacaste, G. iturbidensis, G. mimus, G. cristicollis, G. divaricatae. A lectotype is designated for G. triangularis and a neotype for G. mimus; two new synonyms are proposed: Gibbobruchus cavillator (Fåhraeus, 1839) = Gibbobruchus triangularis (Pic, 1926) syn. nov. = Gibbobruchus nigronotatus (Pic, 1931) syn. nov. Four species have new distribution records. An identification key for the species, descriptions, redescriptions, and illustrations, are also provided.

Male secondary genitalia (pedipalps) are useful characters for species discrimination in most spider families. Although efforts have been made to establish pedipalp sclerite homologies, there are still many inconsistencies in their use. The majority of the morphological characters used to reconstruct the linyphiid phylogeny address male genitalic variation; these inconsistencies may affect the phylogeny and our understanding of linyphiid evolution. Stemonyphantes Menge, 1866, has been hypothesised to be sister to all remaining Linyphiidae. However, despite the basal position of Stemonyphantes, its pedipalp sclerite homologies are not well understood and, along with its monophyly, have never been thoroughly tested in a phylogenetic context. We tested the homology of tegular and radical structures of five Stemonyphantes species to the known linyphioid and araneoid sclerites. All minimum-length trees found under all analytical methods used support Stemonyphantes monophyly and its placement as the sister group to all other Linyphiidae. Our study suggests that Stemonyphantes, unlike any other linyphiids, does have homologues of the araneoid median apophysis and conductor. As Stemonyphantes is the sister group of all other linyphiids, resolving its pedipalp sclerite homologies is critical for understanding sclerite homologies and the phylogeny of the entire family.

We investigated the relative phylogenetic position of the spider genera Psechrus Thorell, 1878 and Fecenia Simon, 1887 comprising the family Psechridae Simon, 1890 within the order Araneae (plus 50 outgroup taxa) using molecular data of the nuclear 28S rRNA gene and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. We further revised the placement of genera formerly hypothesised in Psechridae and tested morphological species and species-group hypotheses recently proposed for Psechrus and Fecenia. Our results showed both genera as monophyletic and included within Lycosoidea but indicated no support for a monophyletic family Psechridae. Support for relationships to particular genera of other families (Lycosidae, Pisauridae) was found to be equally low. Previous removal of the genera Stiphidion Simon, 1902, Poaka Forster & Wilton, 1973, Tengella Dahl, 1901 (Metafecenia F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1902) and Themacrys Simon, 1906 from Psechridae is confirmed by recovering most of them outside Lycosoidea. For Tengella (part of Lycosoidea) a close relation to Psechridae is not supported. In the species-rich genus Psechrus, morphologically predefined species groups were generally recovered as monophyletic. COI information was applied to test the morphological species hypotheses for 28 Psechridae species, most of them represented by more than one specimen. Our analyses corroborated all proposed species and indicated COI as reliable for barcoding both Psechrus and Fecenia. COI enabled assignment of a juvenile specimen to Fecenia protensa, establishing the first species record for Brunei.

Understanding the impact of collection and storage preservatives is important for all specimen-based research, ranging from morphological studies to genetic- and genomic-based research. We evaluated the effectiveness of four commonly used preservatives for their ability to preserve insect DNA for several ant species as well as the DNA from host-associated microbes of one ant species. We made replicated collections of ant specimens of different sizes and from three different environmental climates into four different preservatives (95% ethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), propylene glycol and RNAlater), isolated DNA across two different time periods and performed PCR on all DNA extracts (n = 180 samples   10 controls). Although ethanol returned the best overall results for DNA yield and PCR success, our analyses did not show a significant difference between specimens preserved in ethanol or propylene glycol on the timescales we investigated. We found that average DNA yield was significantly higher when specimens were originally collected in ethanol instead of DMSO, propylene glycol, or RNAlater™ (Applied Biosystems/Ambion). PCR results for both the insect and endosymbiotic bacteria showed a significant advantage for preserving ants in ethanol or propylene glycol over DMSO or RNAlater for room temperature storage. Our findings suggest that collection of insect specimens into ethanol is the preferred method for preserving host and host-associated bacterial DNA, but that propylene glycol is a suitable alternative when ethanol is not available or permitted.

The freshwater shrimp family Kakaducarididae Bruce, 1993 is revised and its familial status reappraised using morphological characters and the results of a complementary molecular study (Page et al. 2008). Based on combined morphological–molecular data, the Kakaducarididae is synonymised with the Palaemonidae Rafinesque, 1815 and the monotypic genus Kakaducaris Bruce, 1993 is synonymised with Leptopalaemon Bruce & Short, 1993. The Texan cave shrimp, Calathaemon holthuisi (Strenth, 1976), provisionally included in the Kakaducarididae by Bruce (1993), is re-assigned back to the Palaemonidae. Leptopalaemon is re-diagnosed and three new species, L. gibbosus, sp. nov., L. gudjangah, sp. nov. and L. magelensis, sp. nov., are described from the north-western edge of the Arnhem Land plateau/escarpment complex, Northern Territory, Australia. The two previously described species, L. gagadjui Bruce & Short, 1993 and L. glabrus (Bruce, 1993), comb. nov. are re-diagnosed. A key to the five presently recognised Leptopalaemon species is provided.

Individuals of the aquatic oligochaete species Stylodrilus heringianus Claparède, 1862 were collected across a part of this species’ distribution range in Sweden, Estonia, Great Britain and Spain to test whether they represent a single metapopulation or several separately evolving lineages. Using sequences of the barcoding gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) and two nuclear genes (internal transcribed spacer region and histone 3), three different approaches were conducted: pairwise distance-method, Bayesian inference and network analysis. Both the COI phylogeny and network analyses were concordant in recovering six haplotype clusters, which showed a maximum genetic distance of 7.7% (K2P) among each other. Nevertheless, nuclear genes failed to confirm any lineage separation, and we conclude that the sampled specimens all belong to the same species. A phylogeographic history with allopatric divergence and secondary contact is suggested to explain this intraspecific pattern of mitochondrial divergence and nuclear non-divergence. The study shows that a mitochondrial single-locus approach can be problematic for the accurate delimitation of species, and we emphasise the need for nuclear genes as supplementary markers, when taxonomic resolution is assessed with COI barcodes.