The fifteen species of Elasmus Westwood (Eulophidae) from Japan are keyed including seven taxa that are newly recorded from the country. Three new species of Elasmus are described: E. dimidiatus sp. n., E. kobensis sp. n. and E. kashiharaiensis sp. n. Lectotypes are designated for E. atamiensis Ashmead and E. hakonensis Ashmead.

A key is provided to six species of the genus Melanthrips (Thysanoptera: Melanthripidae) from Iran, including one new species, Melanthrips hei sp. nov. The geographical distribution for Iranian Melanthrips is also provided.

Paraphlebia zoe Selys in Hagen, 1861, an endemic Mexican species included in the IUCN Red List of threatened species, is recorded for the first time in Querétaro state. Based on recent collections in mountain cloud forests during the dry and rainy seasons, we added three new records for Hidalgo. There were compiled 16 historical records of the species, that permitted us to generate a range map for P. zoe showing that most records are from the southern region of the Sierra Madre Oriental with some records from the Mexican Gulf provinces. This distributional pattern also occurs in several species of Staphylinidae, Passalidae and Scarabaeidae.

A new genus and species, Exagallia pluma, is described from Guatemala. Also a new species, Agalliota hondurensis, is described from Honduras, and three new species in the genus Agalliopsis from Guatemala, Agalliopsis cornuta, Agalliopsis bilobata and Agalliopsis capilla.

Sinochernes wuzhiensis gen. n., sp. n., belonging to the family Chernetidae Menge, 1855, is described on the basis of sixteen specimens collected from tropical forest leaf litter in Wuzhi Mountain, Hainan Island, China. The genus is characterized by the presence of only 4 setae on cheliceral hand and of 3 blades in rallum, by the spermathecae having 2 thin tubes, by the presence of a tactile seta on tarsus IV and by the trichobothrial pattern. Detailed diagnosis, descriptions and illustrations are presented in this paper.

Two new species, Hymenaphorura wusuliensis sp. nov. and Psyllaphorura raoheensis sp. nov., of the tribe Hymenaphorurini are described from Northeast China. Hymenaphorura wusuliensis sp. nov. is placed in an isolated position within the genus as having 9 chaetae in the distal whorl of the tibiotarsi and m0 axial chaeta on Abd. V. The new species can be easily distinguished by pso dorsal formula, position of chaeta p2 on Th. II–III, labium type and relative length of chaetae p2 and p3 on Abd. I–III terga. Psyllaphorura raoheensis sp. nov. is similar to a Russian species Psyllaphorura sensillifera (Martynova, 1981), but they can be separated by the dorsal S-chaetae formula, dorsal pso formulae, teeth on tenaculum, number of vesicles in PAO and ratio of AS/unguis.

Glyptapanteles aristolochiae (Wilkinson) comb. nov. is reassigned and notes on host-parasitoid interactions are provided. The extended host range of the genus Glyptapanteles includes four families— Papilionidae, Nymphalidae, Arctiidae and Noctuidae from India. Five braconid parasitoids viz., Glyptapanteles aristolochiae (Wilkinson) comb, nov., Apanteles folia Nixon, Apanteles javensis Rohwer, Apanteles phycodis Viereck and Apanteles machaeralis Wilkinson are documented with diagnostic details including illustrations of various life stages of the unparasitized host. Spindasis vulcanus (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), a solitary endoparasitoid, is reported for the first time as a host of A. folia. Both wasps, G. aristolochiae parasitizing larva of Pachliopta hector (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and A. javensis parasitic on larva of Pelopidas conjuncta (Herrich-Schaffer) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae), exhibit a gregarious habit. For all the species, information on parasitoid distribution, brief diagnosis with illustrations, host association, host caterpillar, and caterpillar host plant are provided for easy identification. Also host specificity of Glyptapanteles species is discussed in context with an extensive literature review of host records from India.

Communities of both transient and resident organisms, interacting in different ways, occur inside tanks (rosettes) of bromeliads. Abundance and composition of the communities differ seasonally. The objectives of this work were to make an initial exploration of the arthropod fauna associated with Tillandsia deppeana in order to obtain a preliminary species list, and to document the abundance of organisms occurring in the rosettes. The arthropods were collected from four plants in a fragmented mountain cloud forest in La Misión municipality, in the north of Hidalgo State, México. A total of 375 arthropod specimens (249 adults and 126 juveniles) belonging to Arachnida, Chilopoda and Hexapoda were obtained and they represent 10 orders, 15 families, and adults and juveniles correspond to 23 and 15 morphospecies respectively. Veliidae (Hemiptera) had the highest number of organisms, while Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) had the highest number of morphospecies. The dryophthorid Metamasius callizona and the staphylinids Hesperus fasciatus and Scaphidium tzinti are reported for the first time from Hidalgo State. In this work we report for the first time the chilopod Scolopendra viridis occurring in an epiphytic bromeliad tank.

Five cDNA fragments (I–V) representing five P450 isoforms were cloned and a novel P450 cDNA was isolated from Ummeliata insecticeps (Bösenberg & Strand), using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The full cDNA is 2708 bp in length and contains an open reading frame (ORF) encoding 521 amino acid residues. The putative protein contains the conserved structural and functional regions characteristic of all P450 enzymes. The P450 shows the highest percentage of amino acid identities (47%) with CYP4V18 from Litopenaeus vannamei (Boone, 1931). Phylogenetic analysis showed that the P450 was grouped in the lineage containing some of the CYP4 family members. The GenBank accession number is FN773088. This is the first report of P450 genes cloned in spiders (Araneae).