A new species of short-palped crane fly, Antocha (Antocha) chonsaniana, is described from specimens collected in 1940 at Chonsani, North Korea and preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, U.S.A. Descriptions and illustrations of the distinguishing morphological features, particularly wing and male genitalic characters, are provided.

Tipula (Vestiplex) scripta immunda Alexander, 1934 is synonymized with Tipula (V.) scripta scripta Meigen, 1830. T. (V.) scripta hartigi Mannheims, 1950 is restored to species level. T. (V.) scripta intermixta Riedel, 1913 is restored to species level. T. (V.) hartigi is synonymized with T. (V.) intermixta.

Austromitra rosenbergi sp. nov., is described and compared to Austromitra maculosa Turner & Simone, 1998.

During a review of the molluscan type specimens at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) it was discovered that in 1909 Anton Wagner inadvertently validated one of Henry Pilsbry's manuscript names for a helicinid species from the Ogasawara islands in Japan, and designated its holotype. In a 1956 paper, Tokubei Kuroda unintentionally validated two further Pilsbry manuscript names for taxa in this fauna. In 1980, Hiroshi Minato published a synopsis of the Helicinidae of the Ogasawara Islands, in which he introduced all three names as new.

A review is given here of the history of the three names, with selections and figures of two lectotypes. Taxonomically this is an unusual and interesting case, as ICZN Articles 11.6.1 and 50.7 are cited. The status of the apparently unpublished name subdiscrepans is reviewed.

Latirus vexillulum (Reeve, 1842), described without locality, is redescribed and reported from Caroline Island in the Southern Line Islands, Kiribati, central Pacific. Specimens of L. vexillulum found at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and previously reported as L. amplustre (Dillwyn, 1817) are here distinguished from that species.

In a previous paper (Snyder and Callomon, 2010) the types of the fasciolariid species described by C. M. Tapparone-Canefri and held in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Genoa, Italy were examined and figured. Here we review the material held in the Museo Zoologico de “La Specola” at the Universita degli Studi in Firenze (Florence), Italy, and select lectotypes. Peristernia kobeltiana Tapparone-Canefri, 1879 is here transferred to Benimakia and maintained as a junior synonym of Benimakia rubens (Lamarck, 1822) comb. nov. Fusus xantochrous Tapparone-Canefri, 1880 is here transferred to Latirus.

The Paul Hesse Collection, purchased by ANSP in 1926, focused on non-marine mollusks of Europe and countries bordering the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It contains about 7,500 lots totaling about 50,000 specimens and is thus an important resource for studying Palearctic mollusks. Type lots of more than 40 European authors are included therein. Hesse himself introduced available names for 62 species-group, 62 genus-group and 4 family-group taxa, all of them gastropods and most terrestrial. Five additional species-group names were introduced by other authors in Hesse's works. Among Hesse's species-group names, 7 were replacements for preoccupied names of other authors. We found type specimens for 32 Hesse taxa in the ANSP collection and report their current type status. H. B. Baker listed primary type material at ANSP for 22 of these and designated lectotypes where ANSP held more than one specimen. For the 10 names not treated by Baker, it has not been previously reported that ANSP holds type material. We designate a lectotype for one of them, Archelix punctata melanostoma. Hesse's primary type specimens at ANSP are figured and the current placement of species-group taxa that he named is provided based on recent literature, except for replacement names. Buliminus phazemonicus Hesse, 1910 is synonymized with Buliminus ufjalvyanus Ancey, 1886, which is currently placed in Laevozebrinus, and its type locality, originally stated to be Merzifon, Turkey, is identified as the Fergana Valley of central Asia. Theba teheranensis is reclassified as a Monacha but considered a nomen dubium. Other type localities represented by the Hesse type material at ANSP are in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia.

We report on the partial skull of a small juvenile Mammut americanum Kerr from the Monmouth brooks area of New Jersey. Most Pleistocene mammal specimens from the brooks occur as disarticulated fragments. This specimen, the left side of a skull, includes portions of the premaxillae, maxillae, nasals, lacrimals, frontals, and four teeth: three sequential deciduous premolars and the permanent tusk. The skull bones are loosely articulated and essentially unfused, and the reconstructed skull shows gaps representing unossified growth zones between bones. The two anterior left deciduous teeth (DP² and DP³) are much worn and very fragile, while the posterior left deciduous tooth (DP⁴) is essentially unworn. The crypt for the left first molar (M¹) is partially preserved. The interior of the braincase is characterized by shallow pitting; it is neither smooth nor does it show molding against gyri and sulci of the brain. The pits are not characteristic of the inner surface of a normal mammalian skull, and appear to represent lytic lesions due to a disease process. Radiocarbon dating of the skull yielded an age of 11,680 ± 30 years.

The osteology and histology of two new actinopterygians, Paphosiscus circulocaudus new genus and species, and P. scalmocristus new species, are described from the Upper Mississippian Serpukhovian Bear Gulch Member of the Heath Formation of Montana (USA). These small fish (ca 50–58mm standard length) exhibit head bones and scales with cosmine, the first report of this in any actinopterygian. Other features of Paphosiscus are dorsal, anal and caudal fin margins round posteriorly, dorsal fin long with horizontal dorsal margin and achieving its greatest height immediately before its rounded posterior margin, tall unpaired predorsal ridge scales/fulcra, premaxillae not sutured to other bones, single postrostral bone, one otic canal bone (dermopterotic), dermosphenotic absent as distinct bone, mandibular articulation level with mandibular tooth row, a coronoid process, marginal teeth pleurodont, coronoid teeth with blunt crowns on a single coronoid bone. Species differ in size and features of cranial bone pore openings, pectinations of scales, shape of maxilla and distribution of teeth, position of first predorsal ridge scales.

Paphosiscus exhibits swimming and feeding specializations that previous work has identified as factors in fine niche partitioning in the Bear Gulch bay community. Its skull bones and scales reveal a distinctive form of cosmine, similar to that of the agnathan Tremataspis but differing from sarcopterygian cosmine. Recent reports of cosmine and ”cosmine-like” tissues in various sarcopterygians or putative stem osteichthyans document a range of architectural variation in integumentary tissues with a pore canal system. With the new Paphosiscus information and recent work on the origin and diversification of the vertebrate integumentary skeleton we offer a unifying hypothesis for this range of variation.

Lower Eocene fossil fish material from the Thies Formation in the region of Bargny near the Cap-Vert peninsula, Senegal, reveals predator-prey interaction between two scombrid fishes, the first ever described in the fossil record for the clade. The material is a part and counterpart concretion preserving nearly complete skulls of both predator and prey in 3-dimensions. The larger, predator-fish is here proposed as the second specimen of †Auxides huberti, the only non-Tethyan representative of †Auxides. The smaller, prey-fish is a new genus and species, †Eoscomber senegalicus, closely resembling Scomber. Evidence that †E. senegalicus gen. et sp. nov. was swallowed includes the presence of several of its caudal vertebrae obscured near the area of the opercle of †A. huberti and continuing into its pharynx. Additionally, the skull of †E. senegalicus. is partially enclosed within the abdominal ribs of †A. huberti. †Auxides huberti is the only species of †Auxides recovered with serrated pelvic fin spines, which are normally smooth. †Auxides huberti has 28–30 vertebral centra (16–17 caudal) including the urostyle. The new specimen of †A. huberti has small, pointed teeth and a thickened, sickle-shaped first haemal spine. The first dorsal fin has 6–7 interneurals and associated dorsal fin spines. The bony dorsal and anal finlets begin immediately behind the second dorsal and anal fins respectively. Ventral corselet-like scales are present, a condition similar to that of the genera Auxis, and Thunnus, but unlike the type species of †Auxides. The caudal fin has gracile hemitrichia that proximally surround the entire hypural plate and the two posteriormost epineurals. †Eoscomber senegalicus. differs from Scomber in possessing frontal bones that approach the midline anteriorly and long sigmoid shaped nasal bones that project further anteriorly past the frontal bone than the length of the nasalarticulating surface. The exceptional preservation of †E. senegalicus and the second ever recorded occurrence of †A. huberti, is the first direct evidence of scombrid feeding behavior and demonstrates that smaller ‘mackerel-like’ scombrids have been prey for larger tuna-like scombrids since at least the middle Eocene as they are today.

We describe a new genus and species of bagrid catfish from the Kreung Babah Rot drainage in northwestern Sumatra. This new taxon is distinguished from confamilials by the following combination of characters: anguilliform body, reduced supraoccipital posterior process, absence of first dorsal spinelet, first proximal dorsal-fin radial inserting on 4^th vertebra, first dorsal-fin lepidotrich ossified into spine, anterior edge of pectoral spine smooth, adipose fin in contact with base of last dorsal-fin ray, anal fin with 26 rays, and caudal fin with 17 principal rays.

The heretofore little-known pimelodid species Hypophthalmus oremaculatus Nani and Fuster, 1947, from the río Paraná, Argentina is redescribed and validated based on examination of its recently found holotype and extensive comparative study of specimens of all nominal species of the genus. Specimens of Hypophthalmus from the Paraná Basin have often been mistakenly labelled as H. edentatus Spix and Agassiz, 1829, and H. oremaculatus has occasionally been considered a junior synonym of H. edentatus. Examination of the syntypes of H. edentatus reveals a long-mistaken concept of its diagnostic features in the original description based on Spix's inaccurate illustration. Hypophthalmus oremaculatus is common and widespread in the Paraná Basin, including the Upper Paraná system. This species is also widespread in the Amazon and Orinoco basins.

Hypophthalmus oremaculatus is distinguished from other species of the genus by the following combination of characters: caudal fin shallowly-forked, head broad and short, membrane of skin tying the innermost pelvic-fin ray to the edge of the urogenital-anal region, 55–59 total vertebrae, 3–6 vertebrae with separate and robust neural spines between the Weberian complex and first vertebra with contact between its neural spine and a dorsal-fin pterygiophore, long mental barbels usually extending to pectoral origin or beyond, and dorsal-fin origin approximately in line with anal-fin origin.

The anatomy and development of the siluriform pectoral-fin spine is described, illustrated and a terminology is suggested for its parts. Catfish pectoral-fin spines exhibit considerable diversity of size, shape, robustness, surface texture and, especially, details of the dentated or serrated anterior and posterior margins. This study illustrates the variety, and taxonomic and phylogenetic significance of pectoral-fin spine diversity in the South American goliath catfishes of the tribe Brachyplatystomini, family Pimelodidae, based on examination of spines of post-juvenile and adult specimens representing all eight living species of Brachyplatystoma and Platynematichthys. Unique pectoral-spine characters and character combinations serve to distinguish all eight species. Features of the pectoral-spines that change with growth are also described. Within the current phylogenetic framework of Pimelodidae, brachyplatystomines show character-state transformations and synapomorphies of the pectoral-fin spines that support hypotheses of monophyly for the subgenera Malacobagrus (B. rousseauxii, B. filamentosum, B. capapretum), and Goslinia (new usage) (B. platynemum, B. juruense), and also suggest a close relationship between B. tigrinum and subgenus Goslinia. Platynematichthys notatus and B. vaillantii retain relatively plesiomorphic features of the pectoral-fin spines.

A new species of electric knifefish of the genus Microsternarchus is described from the central basin of the rio Negro, Brazil. The new species is distinguished in external features from its single congener, Microsternarchus bilineatus, by the presence of a short caudal filament, a lower number of anal-fin rays, and uniform body pigmentation. Internally, features of the skeleton also distinguish the two species, in particular in the shape of the maxilla and antorbital.

This paper reports the results of a comparative study of the mandibular, hyoid, and pectoral musculature of South American Doradidae. Sixty-one species of Doradidae were examined including representatives of all the genera. Twenty muscles are described including their ontogenetic origin, function, area of origin and insertion, and parts. Seven muscles from the cranial region: adductor mandibulae, extensor tentaculi, levator arcus palatini, dilatator operculi, levator operculi, adductor operculi, and adductor arcus palatini; six muscles from the ventral region: intermandibularis, protractor hyoidei, hyohyoides inferioris, hyohyoidei abductores, hyohyoidei adductores, and sternohyoideus; and seven muscles from the pectoral fin: adductor superficialis, adductor profundus, abductor superficialis, abductor profundus, arrector ventralis, arrector dorsalis, and abductor rotator. Comparisons between Doradidae and other catfish families (e.g. Auchenipteridae, Aspredinidae) were made in order to understand and establish variations in position and shape of different muscles. A muscle not previously described for the pectoral fin of catfishes is described and named here as abductor rotator.

Hypotrachyna virginica was long considered to be an endemic Appalachian macrolichen until it was recently reported from the Caribbean. Here we show that Neotropical material identified as H. virginica is morphologically distinct from that species and instead is conspecific with H. exsecta, a species widespread in the Paleotropics. Both species have also previously been confused with H. laevigata, which is widespread in the Americas and Europe. A revision of the three species is presented, including descriptions, illustrations, distribution maps, and global IUCN red-list assessments.