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The genus Coridius Illiger, 1807 (Heteroptera: Dinidoridae) comprises a group of phytophagous terrestrial bugs consisting of 36 species distributed in the Afrotropical and Indo-Malayan regions. In several communities in northeastern India, insects are recognised as a delicacy, medicine, and a nutritional supplement, with Coridius being a popular delicacy. However, Coridius has received little taxonomic attention to date due to large intraspecific variations, inadequate taxonomic treatments, and the rarity of many species. To address this gap, an integrative taxonomy of the genus was performed. Two mitochondrial genes, viz., cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and 16S rRNA, were sequenced to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships within Coridius. We performed both maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) to develop a species tree, followed by the Bayesian implementation of the Poisson tree process (bPTP) and Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP) as an additional test to assess species boundaries and delimit operational taxonomic units. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of four key morphological characters was then performed to identify species groups. Overall, our analysis supported the establishment of three new species: Coridius adii sp. nov., Coridius esculentus sp. nov., and Coridius insperatus sp. nov., and revealed six distinct lineages within Coridius chinensis (Dallas, 1851). Linear discriminant analysis of morphological characters indicated the clustering of eight species. The species status of Coridius nigriventris (Westwood, 1837) stat. rev, formerly synonymized under Coridius nepalensis (Westwood, 1837), is reinstated in this study. Further, we revised the genus Coridius from India and rediscovered Coridius assamensis (Distant, 1902) and Coridius fuscus (Westwood, 1837) after 100 years., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Boyane et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The thread-legged assassin bug Bagauda avidus Bergroth, 1903 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Leistarchini), the type species of the genus Bagauda Bergroth, 1903, is redescribed based on light microscopic observations and scanning electron microscopy images. Additional five species of Bagauda occurring in India are briefly reviewed.

A new species of longhorn beetle, Pelossus indicus sp. nov., is described from Chhattisgarh State, India. This is the first report of this genus from India and the sixth species of Pelossus from Asia. Images of the habitus and genitalia have been provided.

The thread-legged assassin bug Eugubinus araneus Distant, 1903 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Emesini) was described from India on the basis of two nymphs. This paper provides the first description of the adult with illustrations of both the adult and the nymph. A checklist of and a key to species of Eugubinus Distant, 1903, and images of the type material of six additional species of the genus, i.e., E. intrudans Distant, 1915, E. reticolus Distant, 1915, E. canalanus (Distant,1914), E. annulatus (Villiers, 1948), E. forsteri Wygodzinsky, 1953 and E. papuensis Wygodzinsky, 1966, are provided.

The leaf-beetle genus Platypria Guérin-Méneville, 1840 comprises two subgenera and 34 species (Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae: Hispini). Host plants are documented for eight species and indicate mostly perennial species of Fabaceae and Rhamnaceae. Larvae and pupae have been documented for two Platypria species. This paper presents novel natural history data, based on a field study of populations of Platypria (Platypria) hystrix (Fabricius, 1798) on Erythrinastricta Roxb. and Puerariaphaseoloides (Roxb.) Benth. in Kerala, south India and on Erythrinavariegata L., Puerariamontanavar.lobata (Willd.) Maes. & S. Almeida and Mucunapruriens (L) DC in Assam, northeast India. Three new Fabaceae hosts are reported for P. (P.) hystrix. Brief notes and new host records, based on field observations, are also provided for the other three species of Platypria in India - P. (P.) chiroptera Gestro, 1899, P. (P.) echidna Guérin-Méneville, 1840 and P. (P.) erinaceus (Fabricius, 1801). Platypria females slit the leaf to lay a single egg which is covered with secretions that harden as an ootheca, the egg covering in Cassidinae s. l. There are five larval stages, each with the typical 'hispine' mining form and behaviour - a flattened cream-coloured body, chitinised head capsule and claws, and feeding on mesophyll and leaving irregular blotch mines on the host leaves. Pupation occurs in an independent pupal mine and lasts about a week. These observations suggest new potential phylogenetic character hypotheses that can stimulate better data collection on leaf-mining Cassidinae and help resolve evolutionary patterns amongst these basal mining genera., (Sachin Ranade, Kaniyarikkal Divakaran Prathapan, Hemant V. Ghate, Caroline S. Chaboo.)

A new species of Cerambycidae, Miccolamia (Miccolamia) arunachalensis Sreedevi Ghate sp. nov. (Lamiinae: Desmiphorini) is described from northeast India. This is the fourth species of Miccolamia from India. Additionally, an updated key to the Indian species is also provided along with comments on related species of the subgenus.

A new species of a tessaratomid bug, namely Pycanum occidentale sp. nov, is described with comments on the other species of the genus found in India. This species can be easily distinguished from the other species of Pycanum by the shape of male genitalia, especially pygophore and parameres. This becomes the fourth species of Pycanum in India and the first one from western India. A key to the extant species of the genus is also provided along with diagnostic images of pygophores and parameres for three species found in India.

A macropterous species, Ploiaria mellea McAtee Malloch, 1926 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Leistarchini) is reported for the first time from India; the previously unknown male is illustrated and described. The species was originally described from the Philippines. Since the species was found in three climatically different localities near Pune, it must be a well-established emesine bug that has so far remained undetected or unidentified in India.

A new Emesinae species, Bagauda atypicus sp. nov., is described from Maharashtra, India. It is an atypical member of the genus Bagauda and the tribe Leistarchini because both male and female are micropterous and display a character not found in any Leistarchini described so far, namely presence of prominent, erect and blunt, humeral tubercles. The species is cavernicolous because the specimens were collected in old caves. Association with spider webs was observed.

Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) sequences of roughly 509 bp length for various species of the Infraorder Pentatomomorpha were generated. K2P divergences within and between species and genera were calculated and compared using newly generated sequences and the ones available on online portals. Mean interspecific (within-genus) genetic divergence (14.23%) was ∼ eight times greater than mean intraspecific (within-species) divergence (1.79%). Distance-based as well as character-based approaches were used towards constructing (COI) trees. In total, 20 sequences were of the species that were previously not part of the Barcode Of Life Database (BOLD), hence representing additions to the barcode library of Indian Heteroptera. Some of the analyzed species are well-known agricultural pests. All the COI sequences and the associated specimen data have been deposited on BOLD.

A new thread-legged assassin bug species, Myiophanes (Myiophanes) wygodzinskyi sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Emesini), collected from Ravana Cave in Uva Province of Sri Lanka, is described. It is the largest species of the genus described so far.

The Copelatus species occurring in Maharashtra State, India, are reviewed. Altogether, nine species are recorded, three of which are described as new: Copelatus deccanensis sp. nov. (C. nigrolineatus species group), C. maushomi sp. nov. (C. consors group) and C. bezdeki sp. nov. (C. irinus group). Habitus and male genitalia are illustrated for all Copelatus species from Maharashtra, a key to the species and distribution maps are presented. New distributional records along with short diagnoses of already known species are provided. In addition, the study of extensive material of Copelatus species from the Indian subcontinent outside Maharashtra revealed the following new synonymies: Copelatus freudei Guignot, 1955 = C. gibsoni Vazirani, 1974 syn. nov. = C. gibsoni Vazirani, 1975 syn. nov. = C. spangleri Vazirani, 1974 syn. nov. = C. spangleri Vazirani, 1975 syn. nov.; Copelatus oblitus Sharp, 1882 = C. karnatakus Holmen Vazirani, 1990 syn. nov.; C. sociennus J. Balfour-Browne, 1952 = C. bangalorensis Vazirani, 1970 syn. nov.; Copelatus tenebrosus Régimbart, 1880 = C. ceylonicus Vazirani, 1969 syn. nov. = C. assamensis Vazirani, 1970 syn. nov.

The thread-legged assassin bug species Ploiaria anak Distant, 1909 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) from India is redescribed based on recently collected material from Pune District, India. Notes on the biology of the species and a key to species of the genus from India are provided. A lectotype is designated for P. anak. Both P. nuda and P. nude appear in the original description of the Ploiaria species described by Ravichandran Livingstone (1989); nuda is selected as the correct original spelling. As this name is a junior homonym of P. nuda Miller, 1950, it is replaced by the new name P. raviaspinosa nom. nov.

We present additional taxonomic descriptions, with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) illustrations, field observations documented by colour photographs, and notes on habitats and ecology of Corvospongilla ultima (Annandale), Eunapius crassissimus (Annandale), Stratospongilla bombayensis (Carter), S. gravelyi (Annandale) and S. indica (Annandale) from recent sponge collections made in western Maharashtra, India. Stratospongilla gravelyi is rediscovered after a century, and along with it, C. ultima and S. indica are illustrated with SEM images for the first time, unequivocally differentiating these two species. Additional taxonomic, ecological data and illustrations of Corvospongilla lapidosa (Annandale), Dosilia plumosa (Carter), Ephydatia meyeni (Carter), Eunapius carteri (Bowerbank) and Radiospongilla cerebellata (Bowerbank) are also provided to supplement the previously published SEM illustrations. All ten spongillid species treated here were originally described from India and three of them are known to be endemic to the Indian region. Present study is the first re-examination of these Indian spongillid species using SEM, providing greater resolution of their important taxonomic characters and careful documentation of their habitats.

A new cavernicolous, thread-legged assassin bug, Bagauda ernstmayri sp. nov. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae), collected from a cave near Satara, in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India, is described. Its interaction with the web of an uloborid spider Zosis geniculata (Olivier, 1789) (Araneae: Uloboridae) is discussed.

We describe a new species of Leptestheria from a rock pool in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. This species is distinguished from all other Indian congeners by its distinct telson characters and occipital condyle. We also present a comparative table of useful morphological characters of all described Indian Leptestheria species.

In an ongoing survey of aquatic beetles, the crawling water beetles Haliplus (Liaphlus) arrowi Guignot, 1936 and Haliplus (Liaphlus) angustifrons Régimbart, 1892 were found only from four (three localities for H. arrowi and one locality for H. angustifrons) out of 85 localities sampled in and around the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. Digital images and scanning electron micrographs of diagnostic characters are provided for the first time for both the species. Intraspecific and interspecific variation in the elytral maculation of H. arrowi and H. angustifrons is illustrated.

The eggs of many large branchiopods have taxonomic value and are commonly used as traits in species and/or generic descriptions. In this paper we present detailed descriptions and SEMs of resting eggs of seven of the eight species of large branchiopods found in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India. We highlight the inter- and intrapopulation egg morphological variation in Streptocephalus.

We used a combined analysis of one nuclear (28S rDNA) and three mitochondrial markers (COI, 12S rDNA, 16S rDNA) to infer the molecular phylogeny of the Notostraca, represented by samples from the six continents that are inhabited by this group of branchiopod crustaceans. Our results confirm the monophyly of both extant notostracan genera Triops and Lepidurus with good support in model based and maximum parsimony analyses. We used branchiopod fossils as a calibration to infer divergence times among notostracan lineages and accounted for rate heterogeneity among lineages by applying relaxed-clock models. Our divergence date estimates indicate an initial diversification into the genera Triops and Lepidurus in the Mesozoic, most likely at a minimum age of 152.3-233.5 Ma, i.e., in the Triassic or Jurassic. Implications for the interpretation of fossils and the evolution of notostracan morphology are discussed. We further use the divergence date estimates to formulate a biogeographic hypothesis that explains distributions of extant lineages predominantly by overland dispersal routes. We identified an additional hitherto unrecognised highly diverged lineage within Lepidurus apus lubbocki and three additional previously unknown major lineages within Triops. Within T. granarius we found deep differentiation, with representatives distributed among three major phylogenetic lineages. One of these major lineages comprises T. cancriformis, the T. mauritanicus species group and two hitherto unrecognised T. granarius lineages. Samples that were morphologically identified as T. granarius diverged from the most basal nodes within this major lineage, and divergence dates suggested an approximate age of 23.7-49.6 Ma for T. cancriformis, indicating the need for a taxonomic revision of Triassic and Permian fossils that are currently attributed to the extant T. cancriformis. We thus elevate T. cancriformis minor to full species status as Triops minorTrusheim, 1938 and include in this species the additional Upper Triassic samples that were attributed to T. cancriformis. We further elevate T. cancriformis permiensis to full species status as Triops permiensisGand et al., 1997., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract of invasive land snail Achatina fulica is known to harbor metabolically active bacterial communities. In this study, we assessed the bacterial diversity in the different regions of GI tract of Giant African snail, A. fulica by culture-independent and culture-dependent methods. Five 16S rRNA gene libraries from different regions of GI tract of active snails indicated that sequences affiliated to phylum γ-Proteobacteria dominated the esophagus, crop, intestine, and rectum libraries, whereas sequences affiliated to Tenericutes dominated the stomach library. On phylogenetic analysis, 30, 27, 9, 27, and 25 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from esophagus, crop, stomach, intestine, and rectum libraries were identified, respectively. Estimations of the total bacterial diversity covered along with environmental cluster analysis showed highest bacterial diversity in the esophagus and lowest in the stomach. Thirty-three distinct bacterial isolates were obtained, which belonged to 12 genera of two major bacterial phyla namely γ-Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. Among these, Lactococcus lactis and Kurthia gibsonii were the dominant bacteria present in all GI tract regions. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis indicated significant differences in bacterial load in different GI tract regions of active and estivating snails. The difference in the bacterial load between the intestines of active and estivating snail was maximum. Principal component analysis (PCA) of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism suggested that bacterial community structure changes only in intestine when snail enters estivation state., (© 2012 The Authors. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Members of the genus Wolbachia are intracellular bacteria that are widespread in arthropods and establish diverse symbiotic associations with their hosts, ranging from mutualism to parasitism. Here we present the first detailed analyses of Wolbachia in butterflies from India with screening of 56 species. Twenty-nine species (52%) representing five families were positive for Wolbachia. This is the first report of Wolbachia infection in 27 of the 29 species; the other two were reported previously. This study also provides the first evidence of infection in the family Papilionidae. A striking diversity was observed among Wolbachia strains in butterfly hosts based on five multilocus sequence typing (MLST) genes, with 15 different sequence types (STs). Thirteen STs are new to the MLST database, whereas ST41 and ST125 were reported earlier. Some of the same host species from this study carried distinctly different Wolbachia strains, whereas the same or different butterfly hosts also harbored closely related Wolbachia strains. Butterfly-associated STs in the Indian sample originated by recombination and point mutation, further supporting the role of both processes in generating Wolbachia diversity. Recombination was detected only among the STs in this study and not in those from the MLST database. Most of the strains were remarkably similar in their wsp genotype, despite divergence in MLST. Only two wsp alleles were found among 25 individuals with complete hypervariable region (HVR) peptide profiles. Although both wsp and MLST show variability, MLST gives better separation between the strains. Completely different STs were characterized for the individuals sharing the same wsp alleles.

House flies (Musca domestica L.) are cosmopolitan, ubiquitous, synanthropic insects that serve as mechanical or biological vectors for various microorganisms. To fully assess the role of house flies in the epidemiology of human diseases, it is essential to understand the diversity of microbiota harbored by natural fly populations. This study aimed to identify the diversity of house fly gut bacteria by both culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches. A total of 102 bacterial strains were isolated from the gut of 65 house flies collected from various public places including a garden, public park, garbage/dump area, public toilet, hospital, restaurant/canteen, mutton shop/market, and house/human habitation. Molecular phylogenetic analyses placed these isolates into 22 different genera. The majority of bacteria identified were known potential pathogens of the genera Klebsiella, Aeromonas, Shigella, Morganella, Providencia, and Staphylococcus. Culture-independent methods involved the construction of a 16S rRNA gene clone library, and sequence analyses supported culture recovery results. However, additional bacterial taxa not determined via culture recovery were revealed using this methodology and included members of the classes Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and the phylum Bacteroidetes. Here, we show that the house fly gut is an environmental reservoir for a vast number of bacterial species, which may have impacts on vector potential and pathogen transmission., (© 2011 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Two Gram-negative-staining, aerobic, non-motile, rod-shaped bacteria, designated strains FFA1(T) and FFA3(T), and belonging to the class Gammaproteobacteria were isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of adult flesh flies (Diptera: Sarcophagidae). Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequence data placed these two strains within the genus Ignatzschineria with similarities of 98.6 % (FFA1(T)) and 99.35 % (FFA3(T)) to Ignatzschineria larvae L1/68(T). The level of gene sequence similarity between strains FFA1(T) and FFA3(T) was 99 %, 97.15 % and 78.1 % based on the 16S rRNA, 23S rRNA and gyrB gene sequences, respectively. Strains FFA1(T) and FFA3(T) shared 24 % DNA-DNA relatedness. DNA-DNA hybridization revealed a very low level of relatedness between the novel strains (22 % for strain FFA1(T) and 44 % for strain FFA3(T)) and I. larvae L1/68(T) genomic DNA. The respiratory quinone was Q-8 in both novel strains. The DNA G+C contents were 41.1 mol% and 40.1 mol% for strains FFA1(T) and FFA3(T), respectively. The cell membrane of both strains consisted of phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phospholipids and aminophospholipid. The major fatty acids for both strains were C(16 : 0), summed feature 8 (C(18 : 1)ω7c and/or C(18 : 1)ω6c), CyC(19 : 0)ω8c and C(14 : 0). The results of DNA-DNA hybridization between the two new strains and I. larvae L1/68(T), in combination with phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, biochemical and electron microscopic data, demonstrated that strains FFA1(T) and FFA3(T) represented two novel species of the genus Ignatzschineria for which the names Ignatzschineria indica sp. nov. (type strain FFA1(T) = DSM 22309(T) = KCTC 22643(T) = NCIM 5325(T)) and Ignatzschineria ureiclastica sp. nov. (type strain FFA3(T) = DSM 22310(T) = KCTC 22644(T) = NCIM 5326(T)) are proposed.

The intracellular bacteria, Wolbachia, are well known for inducing reproductive alterations in arthropod hosts, especially insects. The ancient origin and huge diversity, combined with the ecological, biological and behavioral plasticity of termites, make the latter exciting candidates for studying the interactions of Wolbachia. In the present study, we investigated the distribution of Wolbachia in populations of Odontotermes spp. and Coptotermes heimi termites occurring in 14 colonies (12 Odontotermes spp. and two C. heimi) from different locations in India. A striking diversity was observed among Wolbachia strains in closely related hosts based on five MLST genes (ftsZ, coxA, fbpA, hcpA and gatB) and the 16S rRNA gene. Wolbachia variants from two supergroups (B and F) were found in both the termite genera under study. This is the first report of Wolbachia infection in the Odontotermes genus. Although F Wolbachia supergroup infection is already reported in Coptotermes lacteus and Coptotermes acinaciformis, in this study, the two C. heimi species exhibited infection by two distinctly different Wolbachia supergroups (B and F).