In Nebraska, the ranges of Trimerotropis maritima (eastern species) and T. agrestis (western species) overlap but populations usually remain separated by habitat preferences. The morphological and color differences between the species are described. However, around Lake McConaughy, a reservoir on the North Platte River which has declined markedly in depth as a result of recent drought, a habitat was created in which the two species coincide and hybridize frequently. The water level in this reservoir had dropped in excess of 20 meters as of 2007, resulting in large expanses of dunes grading into beach habitats. Grasshoppers were collected in the area from 2005 to 2007 and based on morphological characteristics appear to represent hybrids. Surveys of many other habitats in Nebraska produced no hybrids. This study indicates that the alteration of habitat by impoundment of a river followed by climatic change may have the potential to disrupt environmental boundaries that maintain the integrity of parapatric sibling species.

As this habitat is the result of human landscape alterations, it suggests that our alterations have the potential to disrupt environmental characteristics that maintain the integrity of parapatric sibling species.

As part of a long-term arthropod biodiversity study, we operated six Malaise traps in Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve (DMWP), Virginia from April 1998 through December 1999 and obtained 104 adult mecopterans in five species. They were present in samples from late May through early November. Samples indicate that as a group, the mecopterans were more abundant in the forest than in the marsh and the forest-marsh ecotone, and the mecopterans had a female-biased sex ratio. Two of the trapped species are uncommon or of limited distribution in North America. Malaise traps can be used efficiently to survey and monitor certain mecopteran species in DMWP and similar places. To understand the mecopteran biodiversity and phenology in the Preserve more completely, it would be worthwhile to survey the entire Preserve for at least 10 yr with all appropriate sampling methods.

This study uses morphological and natural history data, along with molecular data derived from the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 (ITS1 and ITS2), to investigate the status of species that are morphologically similar to Dasymutilla quadriguttata. Genetic distances, UPGMA cluster analyses, and maximum parsimony analyses were performed. In addition to those species that are morphologically similar to Dasymutilla quadriguttata, for our analysis we chose other species from the D. quadriguttata species-group that differ sufficiently in morphology as outgroups, as well as species from the D. bioculata and D. nigripes species-groups. These species include D. californica, D. chattahoochei, D. lepeletierii, D. nigripes, and D. wileyae. Conclusions from the analyses are that D. alesia, D. allardi, D. atrifimbriata, D. biguttata, D. castor, D. cypris, D. electra, D. hersilia, D. hora, D. interrupta, D. mediatoria, D. miamensis, D. mutata, D. nigridia, D. nitidula, D. permista, and D. rubricosa are indistinguishable from and junior synonyms of D. quadriguttata. With this knowledge and with past sex associations, the D. castor, D. monticola, and D. quadriguttata species-groups are updated and an addendum to Mickel's (1936) Dasymutilla key is provided.

Aquatic insects were collected on the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP), in Sandoval County, New Mexico in 2003 and 2004. We surveyed running water and standing water habitats for Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Plecoptera, Hemiptera, Trichoptera, and Coleoptera. In general, species were typical southern Rocky Mountain and southwestern fauna. A total of 130 species was collected, representing 46 families and 90 genera; 14 of these species were new state records. Trichoptera was the most diverse order and seven species represented new state records, including Agraylea multipuctata Curtis, Hydroptila xera Ross, Ochrotrichia logana (Ross), Psychoglypha subborealis (Banks), Polycentropus gertschi Denning, and new species of Neotrichia Morton and Helicopsyche von Siebold. Collections of the mayfly species Cinygmula ramaleyi (Dodds) and Paraleptophlebia temporalis (McDunnough) represented new state records. The aquatic beetles Haliplus immaculicollis Harris, H. leechi Wallis, and Ametor scabrosus Horn and the hemipterans Callicorixa audeni Hungerford and Gerris gillettei Lethierry and Severin, also represented new state records. Small creeks fed by spring runs were the most diverse aquatic systems on the VCNP.

Three new species of Palmanura are described and illustrated. Palmanura sernaius, new species, of Colombia differs from most Palmanura species in having more abundant and barbulate rather than palmate chaetotaxy. The Mexican Palmanura goyai, new species, lacks the cephalic seta “G” and is the biggest in the genus (1.1 mm), while Palmanura hieronimus, new species, presents the cephalic seta “G,” has only one palmate seta on the dorsolateral cephalic tubercle and it is very small (0.55 mm). A key for the species in the genus is included.