New species and new records of Eastern Palaearctic scythridids from the Irano-turanian Region (Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea: Scythrididae)

Four new Scythrididae species are described fromthe Eastern Palaearctic region. Scythris pamirica sp.n., S. balkhi sp.n., and S. brandti sp.n. were collected in North-Eastern Afghanistan, while S. elburzi sp.n.was collected in Northern Iran. The lectotype of S. paelopyga (Staudinger, 1880) is established here, and the male genitalia are described. Morphological affinities and differences of the new species are reported, and related to the scythridid taxa that are closer to them. New records of little known species from the Irano-turanian region are listed

Male horn lack of allometry may be tied to food relocation behaviour in lifting dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Eucraniini)

The small dung beetle tribe Eucraniini includes extremely specialized species that have been defined as “lifters” according to their food relocation behaviour. They are characterized by the presence of well-developed expansions on the head and pronotum, which can be included in the large and varied group of horns, whose presence is usually related to complex reproductive tactics. In this study, two closely related species, Anomiopsoides cavifrons and A. heteroclyta, were examined employing traditional and geometric morphometrics to test whether the Eucraniini has polymorphic males that might exhibit different reproductive tactics, as in the sister tribe Phanaeini, for which a male trimorphism was demonstrated. If also present in Eucraniini polyphenism could be considered a plesiomorphy common to the two clades. The inter- and intraspecific shape variation and object symmetry of the head and the scaling relationships between body size and traits were evaluated. Marked interspecific and small intraspecific differences in shape variation, high symmetry, and similar isometric growth patterns were shown in both species. The hypothesis of male polymorphism in Anomiopsoides was thus rejected. Instead, the results supported the alternative hypothesis that Eucraniini lacks male polymorphism, perhaps due to functional constraints affecting the shape of the structures involved in their peculiar food relocating behaviour