Iranian journal of animal biosystematics
Volume:16 Issue: 1, Winter-Spring 2020

The morphology and structure of the hemipenis play a significant role in the recognition of species, and could be an excellent indicator of the phylogenetic relationships among male taxa. The hemipenes have value in distinguishing taxa. Laudakia nupta and Paralaudakia caucasia are sympatric in Kalekan Neck (Northeastern regions of Kermanshah Province, 34° 42’ N, 47° 17’ E, Elevation: 1880 m). In this study, we investigated and compared hemipeneal structure of Laudakia nupta and Paralaudakia caucasia as character displacement in sympatric populations. Hemipenes of eight adult collected males (four from each species)were removed and examined morphology and histology. The results indicate that there are differences in the structure of their hemipenis betweentwo species. In Laudakia nupta, hemipenes are black organs, approximately smooth tubular with groove and split in tips but in Paralaudakia caucasia, hemipenes are pink organs, bilobed, branched and bifurcated structure. It seems that the difference between the structure of hemipenises in two species can be a factor in the separation of male species in Kalekan Neck (Northeastern regions of Kermanshah Province). The structure of hemipenis is potentially important for distinguishing male species.

Typical gobies are small in size and usually found as marine fishes. They inhabit on or whitin the substrates holes, and are mostly invisible. The present study identified two goby generaincluding Valenciennea and Gobiodon in Qeshm Island for the first time. Nuclear rhodopsin gene was sequenced in four goby species including G. citrinus, V. puellaris, V. sexguttata, as well as V. strigata. Furthermore, nuclear rhodopsin and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences of 38 Gobiidae species from GenBank were used to obtain a representative data-set in order to assess the phylogenetic position of the new samples and to compare the resultant tree with other related molecular reconstructions. Our phylogenetic tree was composed of two Clades. Clade 1 involved two genera including Gobiodon and Paragobiodon and Clade 2 involved three genera, including Valenciennea, Signigobius and Amblygobius. While, Valenciennea and Signigobius species were nested within Sub-Clade X, only Amblygobius species was nested within Sub-Clade Y. This study examined the phylogenetic relationships of four goby species using Rhodopsin and COI, as new markers. Our results on molecular phylogenetic analysis were in agreement with those of other studies using different molecular markers and morphological examinations.

The Sexual dimorphism (SD) in body size is very common among the scorpions. In this study, the SD was investigated in two aspects of size and shape in the genus Odontobuthus Vachon, 1950 as a small genus of the family Buthidae. This genus has six fossorial species of which four are distributed in Iran. For this purpose, 43 morphometric variables, consisting of 38 metric measurements and five meristic characters were digitized in the six species, O. bidentatus, O. doriae, O. tavighiae, O. tirgari, O. sp.1 and O. sp.2. The results show that Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD) were significant in three species: O. doriae, O. tavighiae and O. sp.2. While O. sp.1 represented a SD for more aspects of shape, O. bidentatus did not show a significant SD for all studied traits. The amount of SD in size and shape were not the same in different species. The results showed that males have larger metasoma than females even when they are pulled to the same size. Having larger metasoma may correspond to a more efficient performance during mating, predation or combat with other males, so it should be under a high sexual selection. Type II ANOVA showed a significant interaction between species and sex for shape, but not for size. It suggests that the evolution of SD for size has been in parallel for all studied species, while it has been in different directions for shape. Among meristic variables, only the number of pectin denticles were sexually dimorphic, with males having more denticles than females in all studied species.

There is an urgent need for quality control of marine species data published in domestic journals and open access databases. We extracted 149 accepted Cnidarian species after the quality control process on available published records on the OBIS data scheme. In total, 75 species belong to the hard corals(Scleractinia); 16 species belong to soft corals (Alcyonacea); 4 species of sea anemones (Actiniaria); 7 species of colonial anemones (Zoantharia); 24 species of thecate hydroids (Leptothecata); 2 species ofathecate hydroids (Anthoathecata); 4 species of sea pens (Pennatulacea); 14 species of Siphonophora hydra, 2 species for Trachymedusae hydra and only one species for Narcomedusae. Our checklist can be considered as a reliable Cnidarian species list in future research and making a decision for biodiversity and conservation of corals in the country. We also updated species richness data on Iran hard corals to 75 species (Scleractinia).

Carabidae is the third most species-rich family of the order Coleoptera. Most members of the family are predators considered beneficial components of natural and agricultural ecosystems. A faunistic study was conducted on the carabids of northeastern Iran, including Khorasan-e-Razavi, Khorasan-e-Shomali, and Golestan provinces, during 2016–2018. A total of 35 species belonging to 22 genera and seven subfamilies were identified from collected ground beetles in the studied area. The subfamily Harpalinae (58.90%) had the most number of individuals, followed by Carabinae (17.45%), Broscinae (13.45%), Scartinae (4.36%), Trechinae (3.37%), Cicindelinae (2.18%) and Siagoninae (0.36%). The dominant species was Calosoma imbricatum deserticola (15.27%). In total, 18 species, including six species from Khorasan-e-Razavi province, seven species from Khorasan-e-Shomali province, and five species from Golestan province, are reported for the first time for these regions. Moreover, Calathus distinguendus (subfamily Harpalinae) is recorded for the fauna of Iran for the first time. Key words:Carabidae, Coleoptera, fauna, Iran, new record.

In this paper, which is the first contribution inthe series devoted to the camel spiders of Iran, seven species from Kohgilouyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province are reported. The genus Gluviopsilla and twospecies; Gluviopsilla discolor (Kraepelin, 1899) (♀)and Paragaleodes nesterovi Birula, 1916 (♂♀) are new to the fauna of Iran, and five species Galeodes cf. krausi Harvey, 2002 (♂♀), Galeodes trichotichnus Roewer, 1934 (♂), Gylippus (Paragylippus) spinimanus Birula, 1905 (♀), Karschia (Karschia) persica Kraepelin,1899 (♂) and Rhagodes caucasicus Birula, 1905 (♂♀) are new records for the province. Also, the females of P. nesterovi and G. cf. krausi are firstly recorded. Key words:diversity, fauna, Iranian Plateau, new records, sun spider, Zagros Mountains.

The new report on the Persian gecko is based on one adult male and two adult females from Qasr-e-Shirin, Kermanshah Province. This is the most western point of distribution recorded for Hemidactylus persicus Anderson, 1872. The collected specimens were examined based on metric, meristic, and pholidotic characters. These were larger than previously measured specimens from southwestern Iran. Moreover, color patterns were different from previous specimens