Application of DNA barcoding confirms the female, male, larva and host of Bocchus scobiolae Nagy (Hymenoptera: Dryinidae).

Bocchus scobiolae Nagy (Hymenoptera: Dryinidae, Bocchinae) was reared in Szeged, Hungary. The female, male and immature larva were associated by mitochondrial COI sequences. B. scobiolae, previously known only from Romania, is recorded for the first time from Hungary, Moldova, and Turkey. Caliscelis wallengreni (Stål) (Hemiptera: Caliscelidae) is mentioned for the first time as host of B. scobiolae. B. vernieri Olmi is indicated for the first time from Hungary. Helegonatopus rasnitzyni (Trjapitzin, 1963) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), recorded for the first time from Hungary, was reared from B. scobiolae (new record).

The growth and thermal properties of Au deposited on Rh(111): formation of an ordered surface alloy.

Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), low energy ion scattering spectroscopy (LEIS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) were applied for studying Au deposited on the Rh(111) surface. Both the deposition of Au at different substrate temperatures (400-800 K) and the effect of annealing Au deposited at 500 K were investigated. Gold deposition at 500 K, investigated by STM and LEIS methods, revealed that up to half monolayer Au the system exhibits clearly layer-by layer growth; however, above this coverage a slight deviation was identified, mainly due to kinetic and morphological effects. A continuous cover layer of Au was formed only above ∼2.5 monolayers (ML). Below this coverage, the pseudomorphic character of the Au overlayer was clearly proven by STM, but this feature disappears at 4 ML coverage. A moderate (5-10%) surface mixing of the two metals was observed only above 600 K, for both annealing the Au layer formed at lower temperatures and performing the deposition at elevated temperatures. Above 600 K a clear step-flow growth mechanism was verified. Depending on the Au coverage, a more extended mixing of the top layer and the sublayer was observed at even higher temperatures. In this case, nano-range ordering of the alloyed layer was detected by STM, where the lateral extension of the uniform commensurate (2 × 1) domains was around 4 × 4 nm2. In this case, the local intralayer mixing of Rh and Au can locally reach a value of 50%. The proposed structural model for the (2 × 1) alloy phase was also corroborated by HREELS investigations on CO adsorption.

A new ladybird spider from Hungary (Araneae, Eresidae).

According to the most recent taxonomic literature, three species of the genus Eresus are known in Central Europe, Eresuskollari, Eresussandaliatus and Eresusmoravicus. We recognized a fourth distinctive species from Hungary, which is described as Eresushermani sp. n. Eresushermani has an early spring copulation period, females have a light grey (grizzled) cephalothorax due to a heavy cover of lightly colored setae, and an epigyne with large flat areas posterior to the epigynal pit, while males are distinguished by a broad and blunt terminal tooth of the conductor. An updated and modified comparative table of Rezác et al. (2008) to include all four Central European Eresus species, and a simple key to the species group's species are given. Habitus, epigyne, vulva and conductor of Eresuskollari, Eresusmoravicus and Eresussandaliatus are also illustrated. An annotated list of papers illustrating Eresushermani due to misidentifications is presented.

Back to the past in California: a temporary retreat to a Tarasoff duty to warn.

The original Tarasoff decision created a duty for California psychotherapists to warn potential victims of their patients. After rehearing the matter two years later, the California Supreme Court, in the landmark second Tarasoff decision, changed the duty to warn to a duty to protect potential victims, with warning as only one of the options for discharging that duty. Despite this change, the Tarasoff duty frequently was referred to erroneously as a duty to warn. This misunderstanding and an ambiguous California immunity statute culminated in "simplified" jury instructions and two appellate court decisions in 2004 in which it was assumed without question that there was a duty to warn, with liability for not doing so regardless of rationale. As a result of persistent lobbying by the California Psychiatric Association and other mental health groups, a recent bill corrected the problem created by the courts, returning the Tarasoff duty to a duty to protect.