Instructions for authors

The Israel Journal of Entomology is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes original contributions in all areas of entomology and has a world-wide scope. Authors are entirely responsible for statements, whether fact or opinion. Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that they have not been submitted elsewhere for prior or simultaneous publication. Manuscripts are reviewed by at least two independent referees and approved by the Editorial Board before acceptance. Authors may suggest referees for consideration by the Editorial Board. Reviewers will remain anonymous unless they expressly request to be identified. Articles are first published online as soon as they are ready; a hard copy of the journal is printed annually and contains reprints of papers published in the preceding year

A scuttle fly (Diptera: Phoridae) parasitizing a beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Russia

Megaselia opacicornis Schmitz is reported parasitizing the pupae of Melasoma lapponica (L.). The hitherto unknown male of the fly is described and the recognition of the female clarified. Life history data are summarised

Extreme adaptations for aquatic ectoparasitism in a Jurassic fly larva

The reconstruction of ancient insect ectoparasitism is challenging, mostly because of the extreme scarcity of fossils with obvious ectoparasitic features such as sucking-piercing mouthparts and specialized attachment organs. Here we describe a bizarre fly larva (Diptera), Qiyia jurassica gen. et sp. nov., from the Jurassic of China, that represents a stem group of the tabanomorph family Athericidae. Q. jurassica exhibits adaptations to an aquatic habitat. More importantly, it preserves an unusual combination of features including a thoracic sucker with six radial ridges, unique in insects, piercing-sucking mouthparts for fluid feeding, and crocheted ventral prolegs with upward directed bristles for anchoring and movement while submerged. We demonstrate that Q. jurassica was an aquatic ectoparasitic insect, probably feeding on the blood of salamanders. The finding reveals an extreme morphological specialization of fly larvae, and broadens our understanding of the diversity of ectoparasitism in Mesozoic insects.The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication. This paper was supported by the following grant(s): Alexander von Humboldt Foundation CHN 1149090 STP to Bo Wang. National Basic Research Program of China 2012CB821900 to Jun Chen. National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) FundRef identification ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001809 41272013, 41372014, J1210006 to Jun Chen. Natural Scientific Foundation of Shandong Province ZR2013DQ017 to Jun Chen. National Science Foundation (NSF) FundRef identification ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001 DEB-0542909 to Michael S Engel. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) FundRef identification ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002367 CAS 2011T2Z04 to Edmund A Jarzembowski

Yuri Popov — as we remember him

Dr. Yuri Popov, born 5 March 1936, passed away 16 November 2016. Upon graduation from the Entomology Department of Moscow State University, he joined the Arthropoda Lab of the Paleontological Institute, where he studied fossil and living true bugs and their kin and became a major expert in that area. He was a man of many talents and had lots of friends all over the world. The few flashbacks collected here are but a small tribute to his memory

Changes to the Fossil Record of Insects through Fifteen Years of Discovery

The first and last occurrences of hexapod families in the fossil record are compiled from publications up to end-2009. The major features of these data are compared with those of previous datasets (1993 and 1994). About a third of families (>400) are new to the fossil record since 1994, over half of the earlier, existing families have experienced changes in their known stratigraphic range and only about ten percent have unchanged ranges. Despite these significant additions to knowledge, the broad pattern of described richness through time remains similar, with described richness increasing steadily through geological history and a shift in dominant taxa, from Palaeoptera and Polyneoptera to Paraneoptera and Holometabola, after the Palaeozoic. However, after detrending, described richness is not well correlated with the earlier datasets, indicating significant changes in shorter-term patterns. There is reduced Palaeozoic richness, peaking at a different time, and a less pronounced Permian decline. A pronounced Triassic peak and decline is shown, and the plateau from the mid Early Cretaceous to the end of the period remains, albeit at substantially higher richness compared to earlier datasets. Origination and extinction rates are broadly similar to before, with a broad decline in both through time but episodic peaks, including end-Permian turnover. Origination more consistently exceeds extinction compared to previous datasets and exceptions are mainly in the Palaeozoic. These changes suggest that some inferences about causal mechanisms in insect macroevolution are likely to differ as well

Triphleba Rondani 1856

Genus Triphleba Rondani, 1856 So far, only two ‘endemic’ species of this speciose genus have been recorded in Israel, i.e. T. circumflexa Schmitz, 1932 and T. extrema Schmitz, 1932 (Disney & Nussbaum, 1990; Lengyel, 2011 a). The former was described from female, whereas the latter from male only (Schmitz, 1932). T. extrema is quite distinct in having greatly enlarged epandrial lobes and occurs on both Judean hills and the coastal plain.Published as part of Mostovski, Mike B., 2016, A review of scuttle fly genera of Israel (Diptera: Phoridae), with new records and an identification key, pp. 61-72 in Zootaxa 4137 (1) on page 70, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4137.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/26484

Metopina obsoleta Beyer 1960

<i>Metopina obsoleta</i> Beyer, 1960 <p>(Figs 4, 8, 11)</p> <p> <i>Metopina obsoleta</i> Beyer, 1960: 429; Disney & Kistner, 1989: 86.</p> <p> <b>Material. Israel:</b> 1♀ Almagor [32°55'N 35°36'E], 2.xi.2010, W. Kuslitzky, Malaise trap; 1♀ same data but 16–31.xi.2010; 1♂ same data but 12–31.i.2011.</p> <p> <b>Distribution.</b> This species was described from Uganda (Beyer, 1960) and subsequently found in Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Disney & Kistner, 1989). This is the first record of it in Israel.</p> <p> <b>Biology.</b> In Zimbabwe, this species was collected from a fungus garden of <i>Odontotermes transvaalensis</i> (Disney & Kistner, 1989).</p> <p> <b>Remarks.</b> <i>Metopina obsoleta</i> belongs to a group of species that also includes <i>M. hamularis</i> Liu, 1995, <i>M. rotundata</i> Liu, 2012, <i>M. ventralis</i> Schmitz, 1927, and <i>M. vanharteni</i> Disney, 2006. The female of each species is easily identifiable based on the structure of its tergite 5. On the contrary, recognition of males may pose some difficulty, although they all are distinct in having a club- or sausage-like spine on the trochanter (Fig. 11) and sclerotized plates on the abdominal venter. Males of <i>M. obsoleta</i> are very similar to those of <i>M. vanharteni</i> known from Saudi Arabia; however, females of the former species immediately differ in the semilunar shape of their fifth abdominal tergite.</p>Published as part of <i>Mostovski, Mike B., 2016, Metopina Macquart (Diptera: Phoridae) of Israel, with description of a new species, new records and an identification key, pp. 61-68 in Zootaxa 4111 (1)</i> on pages 63-65, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4111.1.5, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/271454">http://zenodo.org/record/271454</a&gt

Phora tincta Schmitz 1920

Phora tincta Schmitz, 1920 Material. Israel: 1 ♂ Hermon Mt [33 ° 25 'N 35 ° 51 'E], 1650 m, 17–18.vii. 1995, I. Yarom; 1 ♂ Hermon Mt., 1600 m, 12.vi. 2003, A. Freidberg; 1 ♂ Meron Mt [33 °00'N 35 ° 25 'E], 30.ix. 1976, A. Freidberg.Published as part of Mostovski, Mike B., 2016, A review of scuttle fly genera of Israel (Diptera: Phoridae), with new records and an identification key, pp. 61-72 in Zootaxa 4137 (1) on page 69, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4137.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/26484