Megalepthyphantes lydiaeWunderlich, 1994 is redescribed and illustrated on the basis of new material from Greece. Judging from the structure of the palp, this species is similar to the north-African M. auresensisBosmans, 2006 and M. bkheitae (Bosmans & Bouragba, 1992). In the peculiar shape of its embolus M. lydiae resembles the Irano-Caucasian M. camelus (Tanasevitch, 1990). From these species M. lydiae is clearly distinguished by structural details of the genitalia in both sexes.

Ceratophysella macrocanthaStach, 1946 is redescribed on the basis of a syntype specimen from the Austrian Alps which is here designated as the lectotype. This species has the chaetotaxy of the type B and an empodium with a long filament. It is closely related to nine species/forms, two of which, C. attenuataGisin, 1960 nec Cassagnau, 1959 from the Swiss Alps and C. rectaCassagnau, 1959 from the Pyrenees, are most similar.

This publication reviews the literature on the ecology of Protura. Current knowledge is scarce, fragmentary and scattered among papers which do not all strictly deal with ecology or soil arthropods communities. Therefore all available information is summarized in order to better understand the ecology of these arthropods. The density of Protura ranges from hundreds to thousands of individuals per m^2. Their aggregate distribution is probably related to food (fungal hyphae) availability and quality, and to the production of aggregation pheromones. Protura tend to form species assemblages characterizing different habitats. Their populations often show an unbalanced sex ratio in favour of females, suggesting that a single male can fertilize several females, perhaps via spermatophores. For some species only females have been collected, which suggests the possibility of parthenogenesis. Our analysis of the available information on phenology and population dynamics of Protura points toward annual cycles with one, two or more peaks of reproductive activity.

The genus PselaphodesWestwood, 1870 is poorly known from the Himalayas, and represented in Nepal by a single species. In this paper 15 new Nepalese species are described: P. ampliatus sp. nov., P. bagmatius sp. nov., P. bilobatus sp. nov., P. corniger sp. nov., P. coxatus sp. nov., P. khandbarius sp. nov., P. loebli sp. nov., P. procerus sp. nov., P. psomus sp. nov., P. robustus sp. nov., P. rotundatus sp. nov., P. sagephorus sp. nov., P. smetanai sp. nov., P. symmetricus sp. nov., and P. tmesisternus sp. nov. Main characters distinguishing species include secondary sexual characters of males and morphological differences in the aedeagi. New collecting records for P. unicornisBekchiev & Hlaváč, 2013 in Nepal are given. Pselaphodes spinosusChampion, 1925, previously known from northern India and southwestern China, is newly recorded from Nepal.

Two new species of the Pselaphodes-complex of genera, Labomimus consimilis sp. nov. and Pselaphodes lianghongbini sp. nov., are described from Xizang, southwestern China. New collecting data are provided for P. cuonausYin, Li & Zhao, 2011 and P. monocerosYin & Hlaváč, 2013 in Xizang, and Taiwanophodes minorHlaváč, 2003 in Hunan.

A revised diagnosis of the genus Palliduphantes Saaristo & Tanasevitch, 2001 is given and a new species, Palliduphantes curvus sp. nov., is described from Spain and Portugal. Eight new combinations are proposed: Palliduphantes bigerrensis (Simon, 1929), P. constantinescui (Georgescu, 1989), P. corfuensis (Wunderlich, 1995), P. eleonorae (Wunderlich, 1995), P. fagei (Machado, 1939), P. garganicus (Caporiacco, 1951), P. ligulifer (Denis, 1952) and P. zaragozai (Ribera, 1981), all comb. nov. ex LepthyphantesMenge, 1866. New male and female specimens of P. corfuensis comb. nov. are described and illustrated.

The Natural History Museum of Geneva holds a mounted specimen of a dwarf emu, which is believed to be the only preserved skin of the extinct Kangaroo Island Emu, Dromaius baudinianus. We obtained new radiographs that show the absence of remaining bones in the preparation, confirming previous statements found in the museum's archives. Moreover, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of this specimen and we compared it to all available emu sequences. The mitogenome of the specimen held in Geneva is very close to that of Common Emus Dromaius novaehollandiae. Overall, the genetic results on insular emus support a shallow divergence between the mainland population and the – now extinct – populations from King Island, Kangaroo Island and Tasmania. Based on these results, we agree with previous molecular studies that the insular emu taxa should be treated as three different subspecies of the Common Emu.

The broad fish tapeworm Dibothriocephalus latus (syn. Diphyllobothrium latum) is one of the most common causative agents of human diphyllobothriosis, a significant fish-borne parasitic zoonosis. In Europe, the occurrence of D. latus has been repeatedly reported in lakes of the Alps region, the Baltic region, Fennoscandia and Russia. Regular detection of D. latus plerocercoids in fish coming from different subalpine lakes linked with ongoing D. latus infection in humans indicates that Alpine region is a rather specific area from the medical, epidemiological and ecological point of view. Results from the examination of 688 European perch (Perca fluviatilis) from six subalpine lakes in Switzerland, France and northern Italy (Lakes Geneva, Neuchâtel, Biel, Como, Maggiore and Iseo) confirmed the ongoing occurrence of D. latus in the Alps region. The detected prevalence of D. latus in the studied Alpine lakes (2% in Lake Neuchâtel; 37.5% in Lake Biel; 6.4% in Lake Geneva; 22.8% in Lake Iseo [2018]; 12.8% in Lake Iseo [2017]; 15.2% in Lake Como; 16.7% in Lake Maggiore) was compared with previously published data. In addition, the importance of the Alpine lakes region and data on the epidemiology and ecology of D. latus related to subalpine lakes were discussed.

The blister beetles fauna from Niger is studied and 22 species are recorded in this paper, 13 for the first time, for a total of 31 species recorded from this country. One species, Hycleus adrarensis (Pic, 1942), is resurrected from its synonymy, and Hycleus kaszabi (Pardo Alcaide, 1968) is regarded as conspecific with Hycleus adrarensis.

Three new records of hydroids from the Chilean side of the Strait of Magellan are dealt with herein: Symplectoscyphus marionesisMillard, 1971 is redescribed, the occurrence of Sertularella implexa (Allman, 1888) in Chile is confirmed, and the new species Egmundella magellanica sp. nov. is described.

The surprising discovery of a new species of grass huntsman spider, Pseudomicrommata mokranica sp. nov. (♂♀), belonging to “the African clade”, is reported and described from south-eastern Iran, more than 4000 km away from the nearest recorded locality of the genus in Kenya. Similar vicariant occurrences of other sparassid taxa in Africa and Asia are discussed.

Primary type specimens of ten species described by Franz Werner have been identified in the collections of the Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Genève. These are listed alphabetically, the condition of the specimens is recorded and the valid combination is given. The status of a specimen labelled as the lectotype of an eleventh species is discussed.

Centromerus petrovi sp. nov. (male and female) is described and illustrated from a cave in the Strandzha Mountain, Turkey (European part). The new species is closely related to Centromerus milleriDeltshev, 1974, known from caves of the Rhodope Mountains, southern Bulgaria, from the Ruj Mountain, western Bulgaria and from eastern Rhodope Mountains, Greece. A new synonymy is established: Centromerus turcicusWunderlich, 1995, syn. nov. = Centromerus valkanoviDeltshev, 1983.

Hypogastrura arnei sp. nov. is described from the USA. This species has a unique combination of morphological characters: an oval and slightly flattened body, a coarse tegumental granulation, a plurichaetotic dorsal chaetotaxy, antennal segment IV with 4-6 lateral sensilla and 1 dorsal cylindrical sensillum, a moderately modified furca and minute anal spines without papilla. The new species is closely related to H. iwamuraiYosii, 1960, H. reticulataBörner, 1909 and several members of the nivicola (= socialis), packardi (= sahlbergi) and crassaegranulata groups sensu Christiansen & Bellinger (1980), Babenko et al. (1994) and Skarżyński (2009).

The current taxonomy of the trapdoor spider genus Latouchia is discussed, and three new species are described from southern Vietnam. Latouchia stridulans sp. nov. and L. schwendingeri sp. nov. are described from both sexes, L. huberi sp. nov. is described from females only. Significant morphological difference between the first species and the second two species indicates that Latouchia may need to be split into two or more genera when more information becomes available.

Oochoristica varanicola sp. nov. (Anoplocephalidae, Linstowiinae) is described from Varanus albigularis in Kenya. It is the third species of this cestode genus described from monitor lizards. Oochoristica varanicola differs from other species from Varanus, as well as from the numerous other species in the genus by a unique combination of characters that include a high number of testes (92–134) and a long cirrus-sac (225–290 × 63–90 µm). Both the host and the locality are new records for the genus Oochoristica.

Four new species of the genus Hermonassa from Pakistan (H. moorei sp. n., H. tathabaya sp. n. and H. ayubia sp. n.) and Nepal (H. kalamantra sp. n.) are described and compared with their relatives of the H. anthracina and H. dispila species groups. The specific status of Hermonassa shizukoaeSugi, 1995 is re-instated (stat. rev.). The species treatments are illustrated with 32 colour images and 24 genitalia figures.

The currently known species of the Liphistius trang-group in Peninsular Malaysia are revised on the basis of genital morphology and an identification key is given. Liphistius thalebanSchwendinger, 1990 and L. rufipesSchwendinger, 1995 are placed in the synonymy of L. yangaePlatnick & Sedgwick, 1984. The previously unknown male of L. kanthan Platnick, in Platnick et al., 1997 is described for the first time. Liphistius kanthan and L. tempurung Platnick, in Platnick et al., 1997 are reported to occur together at the Tempurung Cave. Liphistius buran Schwendinger, sp. nov., an island species with a novel character of the palpal organ, is described from males and females. Information on and illustrations of intraspecific variation in most of these species is given together with data on biology and distribution. For selected Liphistius species in Malaysia a phylogenetic tree based on an analysis of COI sequences is presented and discussed in comparison with relationships inferred from morphological characters. Molecular data confirm the distinction between the malayanus-group and the trang-group in Malaysia, but, unlike an earlier interpretation of morphological evolution of genitalia, place species of the trang-group as basal to the malayanus-group.

The A. cornuta, A. spinifer, A. cribratifrons, and A. monstrata species groups sensu Jeannel (1962) of the species-rich genus Achilia Reitter, 1890 are revised. Of the ten taxa placed in these four groups of species, two belong to different groups and will be treated in a subsequent part of our revision of Achilia (i.e. A. caneloiFranz, 1996 and A. simpsoniFranz, 1996 with the A. cosmoptera and the A. bicornis groups, respectively), two names are placed in synonymy – A. parangulifronsFranz, 1996 = A. lobiferaJeannel, 1962syn. nov., and A. monstrata chilotaJeannel, 1962 = Achilia monstrata (Reitter, 1885) syn. nov. – and A. pseudangulifronsFranz, 1996 is considered as a species inquirenda. The remaining five species are redescribed, and the new species Achilia pullastran. sp., attributed to the A. spinifer group, and Achilia pugilan. sp., attributed to the A. cribratifrons group, are described. For all these species the distribution is detailed and mapped, and habitat/collecting data are summarized.