The pollen morphology of eight species of Stemodia L. (Plantaginaceae) was analysed with the aim of refining the taxonomy of this genus. The pollen grains were examined with both light and scanning electron microscopes. The pollen grains are spheroidal, sometimes prolate-spheroidal, small, with a subcircular or subtriangular amb, 3- or 4-colporate and with a long colpus that reaches the poles, defining a small, circular to slightly lalongate apocolpium with irregular margins. The exine is tectate, foveolate or microperforate, 1 µm thick and uniform. The species of Stemodia analysed here exhibit morphological homogeneity, which suggests that the genus is stenopalynous.

A new protoperidiniacean dinoflagellate cyst species recorded from the Lower Pliocene Serripes Zone of the Tjörnes beds in northern Iceland is formally described and its palaeoecological preferences are evaluated. Selenopemphix islandensis sp. nov. is a thin-walled cyst with strong polar compression and a reniform outline in apical view. The wide cingular margins are dorsally ornamented with processes of varying morphology and ventrally with large fanshaped processes. A distinct size difference between the dorsal and ventral cingular processes is a major diagnostic characteristic of this species. A differential diagnosis for Selenopemphix islandensis sp. nov. is presented. Within the Tjörnes section, Selenopemphix islandensis sp. nov. is restricted to the uppermost Serripes Zone of the Tjörnes beds. The base of this zone corresponds to the invasion of cold-water molluscs of Pacific affinity through the Bering Strait into the northern Atlantic. The sudden appearance of Selenopemphix islandensis sp. nov. from this level can possibly be related to this northern migration through the Bering Strait, and suggest a Pacific origin. The new species is not recorded in the underlying Lower Pliocene Tapes Zone and Mactra Zone of the Tjörnes beds, and is also absent in the superjacent Pleistocene Breidavík Group. Selenopemphix islandensis sp. nov. has a first and last appearance in the Tjörnes region at c. 4.5 Ma and 4.2 Ma, respectively. Palaeoecological studies on molluscs, ostracods, plants and oxygen isotopes indicate an average summer temperature of 5–10^°C for the Serripes Zone, which is comparable to the present-day situation in northern Iceland.

The Brassington Formation of Derbyshire and Staffordshire in the southern Pennine hills of central England is a succession of sands, gravels and clays preserved within karstic cavities in Carboniferous Limestone. Varicoloured clays and a thin lignite within the uppermost unit (the Kenslow Member) at Kenslow Top Pit near Friden, Derbyshire has yielded abundant pollen, spores and plant remains. The palynoflora was previously assigned to the Late Miocene to Early Pliocene. The Brassington Formation is reinterpreted here as being Tortonian (Late Miocene) in age based on the presence of the key pollen taxa Symplocos, Tricolpopollenites liblarensis and Tricolpopollenites microhenrici. The Tortonian age of the Brassington Formation means that it is the most extensive well-dated onshore Miocene unit in the UK. This refined age assessment also indicates that the rate of continuous uplift of the southern Pennines during Alpine mountain building was 0.03–0.06 mm a^-1; this is significantly lower than has been recently suggested. Using the coexistence approach on the Kenslow Member palynofloras, a median value for the mean annual temperature is about 16°C.

This is the first detailed stratigraphic correlation of Lower and Middle Miocene deposits in the Gulf of Suez, Egypt using dinoflagellate cysts. The correlation is based on 273 ditch-cutting samples from five onshore boreholes located along the southwestern margin of the Gulf of Suez. The interval studied is represented by the Nukhul, Rudeis and Kareem formations of the Gharandal Group, and the lower part of the Belayim Formation of the Ras Malaab Group. These Miocene deposits unconformably overlie the Lower or lower Middle Eocene. The dinoflagellate cyst record is more diverse than previously reported and many taxa are documented for the first time in Egypt. Five biozones are established and tied to a chronostratigraphic framework by calibration to calcareous nannofossils (NN biozones) obtained from the same set of samples: (1) Lingulodinium machaerophorum Assemblage Biozone (GOSl), Aquitanian through mid-Burdigalian; (2) Exochosphaeridium insigne Taxon-range Biozone (GOS2), lower through mid-Burdigalian; (3) Apteodinium spiridoides Interval Biozone (GOS3), mid-Burdigalian through lower Langhian; (4) Cleistosphaeridium placacanthum Interval Biozone (GOS4), upper Burdigalian, Langhian, and lower Serravallian?); and (5) Polysphaeridium zoharyi Assemblage Biozone (GOS5), upper Langhian and Serravallian?Comparison with other Miocene biozonations from the Mediterranean, Central Paratethys, North Atlantic region, and eastern USA indicate that the highest occurrences of Apteodinium spiridoides, Cordosphaeridium cantharellus, Distatodinium paradoxum, Exochosphaeridium insigne and Cleistosphaeridium placacanthum, and the lowest occurrences of Exochosphaeridium insigne and Sumatradinium soucouyantiae are important datums, whereas the lowest occurrences of Hystrichosphaeropsis obscura, Labyrinthodinium truncatum, and Operculodinium? borgerholtense provide useful supporting age control.

Cotton (Gossypium, Malvaceae) has been spun, woven and dyed since prehistoric times. Four cotton species are economically important; these are Gossypium arboreum (tree cotton), G. barbadense (American pima cotton), G. herbaceum (levant cotton) and G. hirsutum (American upland cotton). Previous research has been conducted examining the pollen grains of the Malvaceae and there is a key that differentiates the four economically important species of Gossypium by their pollen grains. However, the cotton pollen found in boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis Boheman, and other insect pests cannot be keyed to the species using the published key. The objective of this research was to determine if the pollen grains of these four species could be differentiated and develop a key that works for cotton pollen found in insect pests. Flowers of the four taxa were collected from USDA greenhouses and fields and dried. Both unacetolysed and acetolysed pollen grains were examined with light and scanning electron microscopy. The length and width of 300 pollen grains and 100 processes (spines) of each taxon were measured. There were no size differences between the acetolysed and the unacetolysed grains. Gossypium barbadense and G. hirsutum represent the largest grains (mean =106.7 and 94.9 µm, respectively) and the longest processes (mean= 17.7 and 15.2 µm, respectively). Differentiation of these taxa can be useful in the determination of the origin of insect pests that attack cotton when different cotton species are grown within a region. However, additional research is needed on the varieties and cultivars of cotton.

Numerous insect species feed on the pollen, nectar and other plant exudates that are associated with flowers. As a result of this feeding activity, pollen becomes attached to the insects. Analysis of this pollen can reveal what insects eat, their dispersal patterns in and around cropping systems and their role in pollination. However, finding pollen on and/or in an insect depends on the technique used to recover pollen from the insect. Six different techniques are described in detail that have been used to recover pollen from a variety of insects including pests such as boll weevils, Mexican corn rootworms and corn earworm moths. These techniques can be use to recover pollen from internal insect tissues (gut, alimentary canal, crop, etc.), external tissues (proboscis, legs, eyes, etc.) or both. By using the most appropriate technique, better pollen recovery can be made and thus better data obtained.

The Late Cretaceous organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst species Microdinium? sincfalensis Louwye 1997 and Invertocysta flandriensis Louwye 1997 are considered to be junior synonyms of Membranigonyaulax wilsonii Slimani 1994 and Turnhosphaera hypoflata (Yun 1981) Slimani 1994, respectively.

Organic and clay-rich lignite samples from the upper Mississippi Embayment, United States, are known from organic petrography to be extremely palynomorph-rich; however, they are notoriously difficult to process. This leads to difficulty in determining the biostratigraphic placement of individual deposits and in interpreting depositional environments. Six ‘standard’ and non-standard processing techniques for extracting palynomorphs from these samples are presented and the results of each methodology analyzed. Results of these experiments led to the development of a new, hydrofluoric-acid-free processing technique which is presented, along with subsequent refinements to this technique. Samples processed with the new technique, referred to as the ‘O'Keefe technique’, are extremely palynomorph-rich and contain biostratigraphically significant taxa. These taxa allow the deposit to be placed within the middle Eocene Claibornian Stage, and show that it is likely correlative with NP 15.

The three subgenera of alder (Alnus, Clethropsis and Alnobetula) are taxonomically distinctive, but how does their pollen match up with their gross morphology? This study links pollen characters with the taxonomic divisions of the genus alder based on nrDNA ITS sequence data. The value of the study is in the breadth of the taxonomic coverage of the three subgenera, as the samples per species only range from 1 to 6. From 29 Alnus species, the authors studied pollen from 59 modern reference collections (prepared by acetolysis) and recorded the number and type of apertures (pores), thickness of the arci, pollen size and polar arci. Tallies of the number of pores on the pollen grains in a reference collection typically have a range of ±1 or 2. Exceptions are presumed hybrid collections in Alnus rugosa with a range of ±5, which have malformed pollen cells suggesting infertility. The presumed hybrids show a greater range of both pore number and size of pollen grains. The dominant pore number is a key feature that separates the subgenus Alnobetula (= Alnaster) from the other two subgenera by consistently having predominantly 5-, 6- or 7-pored pollen grains, while all other Alnus taxa sampled have pollen with predominantly 4- or 5-pored pollen. The dominant pore number is a consistent feature within the subgenus Alnobetula (10 species), but is inconsistent in 3 out of 16 species of the subgenus Alnus and within the subgenus Clethropsis (3 species). Thickenings of the pore lip, aspidate (protruding) and vestibulate pores are important features of Alnus pollen on a species level. Alnus-like pollen morphology occurs occasionally in certain other betulaceous genera (Betula and Carpinus). Differences in character or thickness of arci (band-like thickenings on the pollen wall between pores) tend to be somewhat consistent within a species and vary within subgenera. Two Alnobetula species in the Alnus viridis complex (Alnus crispa and Alnus sinuata) have arci that are weakly developed or appear as simple folds; walls are fragile and pores are typically less aspidate. Pollen sizes in different species overlap greatly, may be partly influenced by processing methods and do not seem to be generally helpful in characterizing species. Circular doughnut-shaped arci thickenings on the polar area of pollen grains are a common feature ( 16–40 %) in two closely related East Asian taxa of subgenus Alnobetula with large pollen (‘Clade A’: Alnus firma and Alnus sieboldii). These ‘Clade A’ features have been reported from Miocene collections of Alnus pollen from Alaska, and support megafossil evidence in determining the biogeography of this group along the Pacific Rim in the Neogene. The Miocene appearance of subgenus Alnobetula megafossils in both Alaska and Japan can only have occurred via a Bering Land Bridge. This relation is now confirmed by Reinink-Smith's Miocene ‘Clade-A-type’ pollen data of Alaska. These taxa had Pacific Rim distributions, similar fruiting carposamaras and now correspond to a DNA ITS subgroup within Alnobetula. Depending on the geographic location with limited number of local alder species, certain Holocene identifications are possible based on pore structure and arci thickness, e.g. the Alnus crispa-type in eastern Canada and the Alnus sinuata-type in the Pacific northwest.