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The genus Ononis comprises 86 species worldwide distributed in temperate regions. It is represented in Egypt by ten species. During recent excursions to the mountains of southern Sinai Peninsula, a newly recorded species, namely O. viscosa subsp. breviflora, was collected. This new record was previously confused with O. sicula. These two species can be differentiated by corolla length and shape. This study provides a full taxonomic revision of the genus for the flora of Egypt, updated nomenclature for all taxa, amended descriptions, detailed hand drawings, and a diagnostic key to the species. The most valuable diagnositic characters in the taxonomy of the genus in Egypt are discussed. After critical examination and literature study, we found that two names (O. serrata and O. vaginalis) needed to be lectotypified.

Trifolium kurdistanicum, a new species of Trifolium sect. Trifolium from Kurdistan Province, west of Iran is described. It grows at high altitude on subalpine regions with steep slopes and shallow soil. The new species is morphologically close to T. longidentatum and can be considered as a member of the subsect. Ochroleuca. Trifolium kurdistanicum is characterized by large, multiple and branched stems, less than half of the stipule length adnate to the petiole, inflorescences without bracts, calyx with 3-nerved lower and 1-nerved upper teeth and all slightly longer than the tube, calyx nearly half the length of corolla, flowers violet or rarely white and seeds reniform.

A new species, Trigonella bakhtiarica, from the Iranian province Chahar Mahal Va Bakhtiari is described, illustrated and compared to its most closely related species, T. aphanoneura. Trigonella bakhtiarica has a longer corolla and differs in the shape, surface and size of its pods, which are taxonomically informative characters in Trigonella sect. Ellipticae. Chromosome counts and meiosis assays show that both species are diploid, and that their euploid plants possess a somatic chromosome number of 2n = 2x = 16, which is consistent with the predicted base number of x = 8.

Larvae of 14 species and pupae of 12 species of Palaearctic Tychius Germar, 1817 are described for the first time. Larvae and pupae of T.meliloti Stephens, 1831, T. squamulatus Gyllenhal, 1835 and T. quinquepunctatus (Linnaeus, 1758), are redescribed with addition of new characters. They belong to 10 of 22 groups of species assembled through adult morphological characters in this region and, like all other Tychius with known biology, the studied species live on Leguminosae Papilionoideae, belonging to the tribes Genisteae, Loteae, Galegeae, Trifolieae and Vicieae. Generally larvae, but not pupae, show a few characters useful to support some groupings previously postulated on adult morphology, and also suggest some phylogenetic relationships among groups although these are partly weak because of several clear parallelisms or convergences. One of the most numerous and better known group of species, the T. stephensi group living on Trifolieae, is supported by two distinctive larval character states, whereas all the other groups seem to be distinguishable from each other at least by a unique larval character state. New bionomic data concerning larval and pupal development and adult emergence are reported for all the described species. These data confirm that this genus is highly homogeneous in habits and times of development, with unique adaptive differences in adult emergence and overwintering according to the single or double seasonal flowering of the host plant. On the basis of morphological characters of immatures and adults, a possible concordance between the evolution of Tychius and that of their host plants is discussed.