The Neotropical Lonchophyllini (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) currently comprise four genera and thirteen species of nectar-feeding bats. These species often are separated into larger-bodied (eight species) and smaller-bodied (five species) forms to aid in identification. Our morphological and morphometrical analyses of the smaller Lonchophyllini revealed the existence of two distinctive, previously undescribed species of bats of the genus Lonchophylla from western South America. We describe a new form from Amazonian Peru as Lonchophylla pattoni and one from western Colombia as Lonchophylla cadenai. Phyllogenetic analysis of the Lonchophyllini based primarily on morphological characters indicates that these two new species are closely related to Lonchophylla thomasi.

Morphological and morphometric comparisons of Otomys orestes dollmani, known only from Mount Gargues in the Mathews Range, central Kenya, indicate that the taxon is a valid species distinct from other African forms under which it has been previously synonymized (O. irroratus, O. orestes, O. tropicalis). Based also on these comparisons, the morphological recognition and distribution of O. orestes (including thomasi Osgood) are further clarified in relation to O. tropicalis (including elgonis Wroughton) in Kenyan mountains and O. typus proper in Ethiopian highlands; another taxon relegated to junior synonymy within O. typus, O. uzungwensis Lawrence and Loveridge from south-central Tanzania, is resurrected to species. Certain traditional characters used in Otomys taxonomy, in particular molar lamination, demonstrate conservative patterns of variation that complement spatial structure derived from morphometric analyses of craniometric data and that vindicate their continued utility in delimiting species. We argue that uncritical emphasis of polytypic species, applied following the biological species concept during the latter 1900s, has led to chronic underestimation of species diversity of Otomys confined to the Afromontane Biotic Region in eastern Africa, in particular those populations that inhabit afroalpine environments.

The unique hummingbird specimen collected by J. W. Sefton, Jr., in 1932 in the Rincon Mountains, southeastern Arizona, is confirmed to be a hybrid, Calypte costae × Selasphorus platycercus. The hybrid exhibits a blended mosaic of plumage characters of the parental species. Other parental hypotheses were ruled out on the basis of plumage color and on measurements of the outermost rectrix (R5).

We offer a new generic name for the stipple-throated assemblage of antwrens (Thamnophilidae) currently placed in the genus Myrmotherula. Molecular studies demonstrated that Myrmotherula is polyphyletic, with the stippled-throated group forming a clade that is not sister to any other currently recognized Myrmotherula species. The stipple-throated assemblage is distinguished morphologically by at least one sex having a black throat stippled white or buffy white combined with a comparatively long, unmarked tail, although three populations considered subspecies have lost one of these characters. The distinct evolution of this assemblage is supported by diagnostic behavioral characters derived from foraging behaviors, vocal repertoires, and nest architecture.

I describe a new species of Rhadinaea of the godmani species group from a cloud forest locality in the Sierra de Omoa of northwestern Honduras. The red ventral and subcaudal surfaces, the presence of 21–21–21 dorsal scale rows, bold vertebral and lateral stripes with poorly defined supplemental stripes will distinguish it from all other species in the group. The type locality of the species lies in an area that contains an unusually high number of Honduran endemic species of reptiles and amphibians.

A new species of Petrotilapia from the Nkhata Bay region of Lake Malaŵi is described. The black submarginal band in the dorsal fin distinguishes it from Petrotilapia tridentiger Trewavas and Petrotilapia chrysos Stauffer & van Snik, which lack this band. The bright blue color of the males distinguishes it from males of Petrotilapia genalutea Marsh, which have a dull blue ground color and orange flanks, and males of Petrotilapia nigra Marsh, which are predominately black with 7–10 gray/brown bars. A plot of the sheared second principal components of the morphometric data and the first principal components of the meristic data further support that these latter three species are distinct. Females of the new species are light beige to whitish laterally with 5–7 faint brown vertical bars. Juveniles are bright yellow. The new species is sympatric with P. genalutea and P. tridentiger, but underwater observations show preferences for different habitats and assortative mating among these sympatric species.

Morulina delicata n. sp. (Neanuridae), from Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding areas, differs from other Morulina spp. in having eight large tubercles on the prothorax, rather than six, and a slender mandible with narrow, elongated basal teeth. Morulina callowayia, originally described from western North Carolina, is redescribed from type specimens and freshly collected specimens, and a lectotype is designated. It resembles M. gigantea of the northern Palearctic and Alaska but has only four setae on the ocular tubercle (five or six in M. gigantea) and is highly plurichaetotic. Morulina crassa is redescribed from numerous specimens.

We describe a new species of Strengeriana Pretzmann, 1971, S. villaensis, from Villahermosa, Tolima Department, on the eastern slope of the Central Andes. The genus is endemic to Colombia and is distributed in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Western and Central Andes, at elevations ranging from 700 to 2000 m. With the addition of S. villaensis the total number of species in the genus rises to 16. This new species is distinguished from its congeners primarily by the morphology of the first male gonopod, particularly by the shape of the mesial, cephalic and lateral lobes, and the mesial and cephalic processes. We present a key for the identification of the species of the genus based on the morphology of the first male gonopod and the third maxilliped.

A survey of cave and spring fauna in Oklahoma resulted in the discovery of Caecidotea mackini, new species, which is described from specimens collected in Long's Cave, Delaware County. Within the hobbsi group of the genus Caecidotea, C. mackini belongs to a subset of nine species termed the tridentata assemblage. All nine are subterranean, but several retain vestigial eyes or pigmentation. Correlated with zoogeographic and climatic evidence, the invasion of groundwaters by an epigean progenitor during the middle to late Tertiary is suggested. Besides C. mackini, new records for C. macropropoda, C. acuticarpa, C. stiladactyla, C. steevesi, C. ancyla, C. antricola, C. adenta, and C. simulator expand the known ranges of these cryptic species. With the recognition of two patterns of fourth pleopod morphology in C. acuticarpa, the species specificity of this character has become questionable. Although previously used to differentiate C. simulator and C. steevesi, further splitting or synonymy based on this pleopod anatomy is reserved until a better understanding of its differentiation is achieved.

Katianira platyura, new species, is described from the mid-bathyal zone of the Kumano Basin, southern Japan, the first record for the family from the North Pacific. Katianira platyura differs from its congeners by having the head with a pair of broad, deeply divided, bilobed lappets; pereonite 1 laterally rounded; anterior and posterior corners of pereonites blunt; mandibular molar process rudimentary; pereopod 3 flattened and broad; distal part of pleopod 1 with 32 setae; protopod of pleopod 2 trapezoidal; tip of endopod of pleopod 2 reaching to approximately 0.9 of protopod; and broad, leaf-shaped uropods.

We re-describe Planctoteuthis levimana (Lönnberg, 1896), a poorly known species of oegopsid squid in the Chiroteuthidae, based on two specimens taken from near the type locality. We also designate a neotype for P. levimana. We demonstrate that P. levimana is a valid taxon through brief comparisons with other members of the genus, and we assess the importance of the funnel locking-apparatus as a species-level character in Planctoteuthis.

Malacoceros samurai, new species, (Spionidae) is described from deep-sea hydrothermal vents of the southern East Pacific Rise, at 17°25′S. It is a large species, living on chimney walls along with Avinella spp. Although this species is described in the genus Malacoceros, it possesses unidentate hooded hooks and anterior scalpel-like aristate neurosetae, both characters which clearly differentiate it from other species of the same genus. These unusual characters require the modification of the generic diagnosis of Malacoceros.

The South Asian genus Monosis D.C. is resurrected from synonymy of Vernonia and Gymnanthemum. It is distinguished by a unique lophate pollen type and leaves with thick petioles, cuneate leaf bases, and spreading secondary veins. Taxa included are the type species, M. wightiana D.C. and six other species newly transferred here: M. aplinii, M. parishii, M. shevaroyensis, M. talaumifolia, M. travancorica, and M. volkameriifolia.