Eocene amber provides the first fossil record and bridges distributional gap in the rare genus Robsonomyia (Diptera: Keroplatidae).

Until now, the genus Robsonomyia was represented by two extant species: R. reducta Matile & Vockeroth, 1980 from North America and R. sciaraeformis (Okada, 1939) from Asia. This paper presents the first fossil members of the genus Robsonomyia, which is also the first record from Europe. Two new fossil species from Baltic amber are described: R. baltica Pelczynska, Krzeminski & Blagoderov, sp. nov. and R. henningseni Pelczynska, Krzeminski & Blagoderov, sp. nov.. The presence of fossil Robsonomyia spp. on the European continent suggests Holarctic distribution of the genus in the past. We also discuss possible pathways of its intercontinental dispersion.

Signatures of increasing environmental stress in bumblebee wings over the past century: Insights from museum specimens.

Determining when animal populations have experienced stress in the past is fundamental to understanding how risk factors drive contemporary and future species' responses to environmental change. For insects, quantifying stress and associating it with environmental factors has been challenging due to a paucity of time-series data and because detectable population-level responses can show varying lag effects. One solution is to leverage historic entomological specimens to detect morphological proxies of stress experienced at the time stressors emerged, allowing us to more accurately determine population responses. Here we studied specimens of four bumblebee species, an invaluable group of insect pollinators, from five museums collected across Britain over the 20th century. We calculated the degree of fluctuating asymmetry (FA; random deviations from bilateral symmetry) between the right and left forewings as a potential proxy of developmental stress. We: (a) investigated whether baseline FA levels vary between species, and how this compares between the first and second half of the century; (b) determined the extent of FA change over the century in the four bumblebee species, and whether this followed a linear or nonlinear trend; (c) tested which annual climatic conditions correlated with increased FA in bumblebees. Species differed in their baseline FA, with FA being higher in the two species that have recently expanded their ranges in Britain. Overall, FA significantly increased over the century but followed a nonlinear trend, with the increase starting c. 1925. We found relatively warm and wet years were associated with higher FA. Collectively our findings show that FA in bumblebees increased over the 20th century and under weather conditions that will likely increase in frequency with climate change. By plotting FA trends and quantifying the contribution of annual climate conditions on past populations, we provide an important step towards improving our understanding of how environmental factors could impact future populations of wild beneficial insects.

A new species of Lygistorrhina (Lygistorrhina) Skuse, 1890 (Diptera: Keroplatidae, Lygistorrhininae) with a key to the subgenus.

A new species of Lygistorrhina (Lygistorrhina) Skuse, 1890, Lygistorrhina woodi sp. nov., is described. The specimen was dissected from an alcohol-preserved flower of Ceropegia aristolochioides ssp. deflersiana Bruyns (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae, Ceropegieae) stored in the Kew herbarium. This is the first occurrence of the lygistorrhine gnats in a hot, semi-arid climate. A key to all known species of the subgenus Lygistorrhina (Lygistorrhina) is provided.

Twenty years of Dipterology through the pages of Zootaxa.

We present a summary and analysis of the Diptera-related information published in Zootaxa from 2001 to 2020, with a focus on taxonomic papers. Altogether, 2,527 papers on Diptera were published, including 2,032 taxonomic papers and 1,931 papers containing new nomenclatural acts, equivalent to 22% of all publications with new nomenclatural acts for Diptera. The new nomenclatural acts include 7,431 new species, 277 new genera, 2,003 new synonymies, and 1,617 new combinations. A breakdown by family of new taxa and new replacement names proposed in the journal during the last two decades is provided, together with a comparison of Zootaxa's output to that of all other taxonomic publications on Diptera. Our results show that the journal has contributed to 20% of all biodiversity discovery in this megadiverse insect order over the last 20 years, and to about 31% in the last decade.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Comprehensive Molecular Phylogeny of Keroplatidae and Lygistorrhinidae (Diptera) Reveals Parallel Evolution and Leads to a Revised Family Classification.

We provide the first molecular phylogeny of Keroplatidae and Lygistorrhinidae, families of fungus gnats (Diptera: Bibionomorpha: Sciaroidea). Phylogenies reconstructed by Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian methods, based on four nuclear and four mitochondrial gene markers (5106 base pairs) sequenced for 75 genera and 105 species, show Keroplatidae as monophyletic only with the family Lygistorrhinidae included, herewith treated as the subfamily Lygistorrhininae stat. nov. The subfamily Arachnocampinae is retained in the family, although lowering its overall support. An early branching clade, comprising species of Platyura Meigen, 1803 and Paleoplatyura melanderi Fisher, 1941, forms subfamily Platyurinae Loew, 1850 stat. nov. The subfamilies Sciarokeroplatinae and Macrocerinae grouped together with three genera considered here as Keroplatidae incertae sedis. Subfamily Lygistorrhininae forms a sister clade to subfamily Keroplatinae, both retained monophyletic with high support. The traditional division of the subfamily Keroplatinae into the tribes Orfeliini and Keroplatini appears as outdated, resting largely on adaptive characters prone to parallel evolution. We find support for an alternative tribe corresponding to the Cloeophoromyia-Asindulum genus group, but a tribal reclassification of the Keroplatinae is left for future studies. The genus Heteropterna Skuse, 1888 is considered as identical with Ctenoceridion Matile, 1972 syn. nov.

Review of Mesozoic Perissommatidae (Insecta: Diptera).

Perissommatidae is a peculiar relict nematoceran family with one extant genus inhabiting Australia and South America. The family is known since the Middle Jurassic, but the fossil record is very poor and is restricted to Asia. The description of three species of Collessomma gen. nov. from Lower Cretaceous of Transbaikalia and Mongolia-C. sibirica sp. nov., C. gnoma sp. nov., and C. mongolica sp. nov.-expands our understanding of the family in the Mesozoic, when Perissommatidae were much more diverse morphologically and spread geographically then now. Two previously described genera Gurvaniella Kovalev, 1986 and Limnorhyphus Hong, 1983 are transferred to the Perissommatidae.

Review of the fossil record of Bolitophilidae, with description of new taxa and discussion of position of Mangas Kovalev (Diptera: Sciaroidea).

The dipteran family Bolitophilidae, with the single extant genus Bolitophila, is a small family of mycophagous flies. In marked contrast to related families such as Sciaridae and Mycetophilidae, the family has a poor fossil record with no definite species assigned to the genus. In addition, the position of the extinct Cretaceous subfamily Mangasinae Kovalev, 1986 (described in Bolitophillidae) has been controversial and it has been suggested that species in this clade may belong to other sciaroid families. This situation is made worse by misplacement of the type specimen. We herein describe two new species of Bolitophila, Bolitophila warreni sp. nov. from the 46-million-year-old Kishenehn Formation in Montana, USA and Bolitophila rohdendorfi sp. nov. from Baltic amber. Bolitophila pulveris Lewis, 1969 is reassigned to Sciaroidea incertae sedis. The subfamily Mangasinae is reviewed and its position within the Bolitophilidae confirmed. Two new species of Mangas, M. kovalevi sp. nov. and M. brevisubcosta sp. nov., both from the Lower Cretaceous of Khasurty in Western Transbaikalia, are described.

Staminate flower of Prunus s. l. (Rosaceae) from Eocene Rovno amber (Ukraine).

The late Eocene ambers provide plethora of animal and plant fossils including well-preserved angiosperm flowers from the Baltic amber. The Rovno amber from NW Ukraine resembles in many aspects the Baltic amber; however, only fossilized animals and some bryophytes have yet been studied from the Rovno amber. We provide the first detailed description of an angiosperm flower from Rovno amber. The flower is staminate with conspicuous hypanthium, double pentamerous perianth and whorled androecium of 24 stamens much longer than the petals. Sepals are sparsely pubescent and petals are densely hirsute outside. The fossil shares important features with extant members of Prunus subgen. Padus s. l. (incl. Laurocerasus, Pygeum and Maddenia), especially with its evergreen paleotropical species. It is described here as a new species Prunus hirsutipetala D.D.Sokoloff, Remizowa et Nuraliev. Our study provides the first convincing record of fossil flowers of Rosaceae from Eocene of Europe and the earliest fossil flower of Prunus outside North America. Our record of a plant resembling extant tropical species supports palaeoentomological evidences for warm winters in northwestern Ukraine during the late Eocene, as well as suggesting a more significant role of tropical insects in Rovno amber than inferred from Baltic amber.

iCollections methodology: workflow, results and lessons learned.

The Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collections. The first phase of this programme was to undertake a series of pilot projects to develop the workflows and infrastructure needed to support mass digitisation of very large scientific collections. This paper presents the results of one of the pilot projects - iCollections. This project digitised all the lepidopteran specimens usually considered as butterflies, 181,545 specimens representing 89 species from the British Isles and Ireland. The data digitised includes, species name, georeferenced location, collector and collection date - the what, where, who and when of specimen data. In addition, a digital image of each specimen was taken. A previous paper explained the way the data were obtained and the background to the collections that made up the project. The present paper describes the technical, logistical, and economic aspects of managing the project.

iCollections methodology: workflow, results and lessons learned.

The Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collections. The first phase of this programme was to undertake a series of pilot projects to develop the workflows and infrastructure needed to support mass digitisation of very large scientific collections. This paper presents the results of one of the pilot projects - iCollections. This project digitised all the lepidopteran specimens usually considered as butterflies, 181,545 specimens representing 89 species from the British Isles and Ireland. The data digitised includes, species name, georeferenced location, collector and collection date - the what, where, who and when of specimen data. In addition, a digital image of each specimen was taken. A previous paper explained the way the data were obtained and the background to the collections that made up the project. The present paper describes the technical, logistical, and economic aspects of managing the project.

iCollections - Digitising the British and Irish Butterflies in the Natural History Museum, London.

BACKGROUND: The Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collections . The first phase of this programme has been to undertake a series of pilot projects that will develop the necessary workflows and infrastructure development needed to support mass digitisation of very large scientific collections. This paper presents the results of one of the pilot projects - iCollections. This project digitised all the lepidopteran specimens usually considered as butterflies, 181,545 specimens representing 89 species from the British Isles and Ireland. The data digitised includes, species name, georeferenced location, collector and collection date - the what, where, who and when of specimen data. In addition, a digital image of each specimen was taken. This paper explains the way the data were obtained and the background to the collections which made up the project. NEW INFORMATION: Specimen-level data associated with British and Irish butterfly specimens have not been available before and the iCollections project has released this valuable resource through the NHM data portal.

Inselect: Automating the Digitization of Natural History Collections.

The world's natural history collections constitute an enormous evidence base for scientific research on the natural world. To facilitate these studies and improve access to collections, many organisations are embarking on major programmes of digitization. This requires automated approaches to mass-digitization that support rapid imaging of specimens and associated data capture, in order to process the tens of millions of specimens common to most natural history collections. In this paper we present Inselect-a modular, easy-to-use, cross-platform suite of open-source software tools that supports the semi-automated processing of specimen images generated by natural history digitization programmes. The software is made up of a Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux desktop application, together with command-line tools that are designed for unattended operation on batches of images. Blending image visualisation algorithms that automatically recognise specimens together with workflows to support post-processing tasks such as barcode reading, label transcription and metadata capture, Inselect fills a critical gap to increase the rate of specimen digitization.

IMp: The customizable LEGO(®) Pinned Insect Manipulator.

We present a pinned insect manipulator (IMp) constructed of LEGO® building bricks with two axes of movement and two axes of rotation. In addition we present three variants of the IMp to emphasise the modular design, which facilitates resizing to meet the full range of pinned insect specimens, is fully customizable, collapsible, affordable and does not require specialist tools or knowledge to assemble.

A new species of Lygistorrhina Skuse (Diptera: Sciaroidea: Lygistorrhinidae) from South Africa.

A new species of Lygistorrhina (Diptera, Sciaroidea, Lygistorrhinidae) from South Africa is described and a key for Afrotropical species of the genus is provided.

Nomenclatural and taxonomic problems related to the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts in zoology, with brief comments on optical discs and on the situation in botany.

In zoological nomenclature, to be potentially valid, nomenclatural novelties (i.e., new nomina and nomenclatural acts) need first to be made available, that is, published in works qualifying as publications as defined by the International Code of zoological Nomenclature ("the Code"). In September 2012, the Code was amended in order to allow the recognition of works electronically published online after 2011 as publications available for the purpose of zoological nomenclature, provided they meet several conditions, notably a preregistration of the work in ZooBank. Despite these new Rules, several of the long-discussed problems concerning the electronic publication of new nomina and nomenclatural acts have not been resolved. The publication of this amendment provides an opportunity to discuss some of these in detail. It is important to note that: (1) all works published only online before 2012 are nomenclaturally unavailable; (2) printed copies of the PDFs of works which do not have their own ISSN or ISBN, and which are not obtainable free of charge or by purchase, do not qualify as publications but must be seen as facsimiles of unavailable works and are unable to provide nomenclatural availability to any nomenclatural novelties they may contain; (3) prepublications online of later released online publications are unavailable, i.e., they do not advance the date of publication; (4) the publication dates of works for which online prepublications had been released are not those of these prepublications and it is critical that the real release date of such works appear on the actual final electronic publication, but this is not currently the case in electronic periodicals that distribute such online prepublications and which still indicate on their websites and PDFs the date of release of prepublication as that of publication of the work; (5) supplementary online materials and subsequent formal corrections of either paper or electronic publications distributed only online are nomenclaturally unavailable; (6) nomenclatural information provided on online websites that do not have a fixed content and format, with ISSN or ISBN, is unavailable. We give precise examples of many of these nomenclatural problems. Several of them, when they arise, are due to the fact that the availability of nomenclatural novelties now depends on information that will have to be sought not from the work itself but from extrinsic evidence. As shown by several examples discussed here, an electronic document can be modified while keeping the same DOI and publication date, which is not compatible with the requirements of zoological nomenclature. Therefore, another system of registration of electronic documents as permanent and inalterable will have to be devised. ZooBank also clearly needs to be improved in several respects. Mention in a work of its registration number (LSID) in ZooBank would seem to be possible only if this registration has occurred previously, but some works that have purportedly been registered in ZooBank are in fact missing on this web application. In conclusion, we offer recommendations to authors, referees, editors, publishers, libraries and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, in the hope that such problems can be limited along with the potential chaos in zoological nomenclature that could result, if careful attention is not paid to the problems we highlight here, from a somewhat misplaced, and perhaps now widespread, understanding that electronic publication of nomenclatural novelties is now allowed and straightforward. We suggest that, as long as the problematic points linked to the new amendment and to electronic publication as a whole are not resolved, nomenclatural novelties continue to be published in paper-printed journals that have so far shown editorial competence regarding taxonomy and nomenclature, which is not the case of several recent electronic-only published journals.

Redescription of the enigmatic Thoracotropis cypriformis Freeman (Diptera, Mycetophilidae) / Redescrição do enigmático gênero Thoracotropis cypriformis Freeman (Diptera, Mycetophilidae)

The Chilean species Thoracotropis cypriformis, type species of the monotypic genus Thoracotropis, is redescribed based on the only known specimen, the holotype. Habitus, head, wing venation, and male terminalia are illustrated. Comments are made on the diagnostic features of the genus and on its position in the subfamily to which it is usually assigned, the Leiinae.

A espécie chilena Thoracotropis cypriformis, espécie-tipo do gênero monotípico Thoracotropis, é redescrita com base no único exemplar conhecido, o holótipo. Habitus, cabeça, venação alar e terminália do macho são ilustrados. Comentários são feitos sobre as características diagnósticas do gênero e sua posição na subfamília na qual ele é normalmente incluído, Leiinae.