نشریه تاکسونومی و بیوسیستماتیک
سال دوازدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 43، تابستان 1399)

 Rivers are a part of the national and natural treasures of the country with a variety of living organisms have high importance. In the present study, in order to investigate the flora of Zayandeh-Rood River, a list of aquatic macrophytes (submerged and emergent) and coastal plants along with geographical distribution (chorotype) and their life forms were compiled. A total of 92 species and 79 genera belonging to 36 families were identified. Poaceae (15 genera and 16 species), Amaranthaceae (8 genera and 10 species), Asteraceae (7 genera and 7 species), Brassicaceae (5 genera and 5 species), Fabaceae (4 genera and 4 species), and Potamogetonaceae (3 genera and 6 species) were the most important plant families. The highest number of identified species had the life forms of hemicryptophytes and throphytes (31.52%), helophytes and hydrophytes (13.04%), geophytes and phanerophytes (4.35), and chamaephytes (2.18%), respectively. Investigating the geographical distribution showed that the largest portion of the geographical distribution of plants in the region belonged to plural elements (25%), cosmopolitan elements (14.13%), Irano–Turanian elements (13.04%), and Irano-Turan-Euro-Sieberian elements (7.61%). The study indicated the diversity of aquatic and coastal vegetation of Zayandeh-Rood River that should be considered for conservation.

 Identification and protection of habitats are essential to protect wildlife. Identifying the habitats used by some mammal species with low population density requires the application of practical techniques in this field. Molecular studies on mammalian remains in nature and genome sequencing have facilitated the process of identifying habitats as well as monitoring their populations. Therefore, designing and launching a local molecular database to identify the sequences obtained from mammalian remains and ultimately facilitate the identification of their habitats is the main purpose of this study. For this purpose, some Iranian mammal species that were in conservation categories according to national laws or IUCN criteria, as well as the keystone species, were selected for this study. The non-invasive sampling of different mammalian species was performed from all over Iran and two gene regions including D-loop and COXI were chosen for sequencing. Additional sequences of the selected species belonging to D-loop, COXI, and Cyt b mitochondrial genes were also obtained from NCBI and a Local Molecular Database (LMD) was prepared. The performance of the LMD was determined using a known query sequence, and the database recognized the query sequence correctly. This database potentially enables the correct identification of the studied mammals’ habitats by identifying sequences belonging to species that remain in their habitats and resolves the existing challenges in the field of habitat identification and conservation planning.

 Mole vole Ellobius lutescens Thomas, 1897 is an interesting subterranean animal. They live in rangelands, dryland farms, and gardens of the country and West Azarbaijan and cause serious damages to farmers. To conduct morphological and karyological studies, this animal needs to be raised. In the present study, designing a live trap for the first time in the country was carried out. To build a trap, the first step was to select the main body of the trap. In this case, the pvc pipe was selected because this trap is constantly used in the outdoor environment and will always struggle with the soil, moisture, and various environments, and there is a risk of rust, and also for the lightness of the trap and the ease of moving. According to the diameter of the well drilling tunnel, which is between five to six centimeters, a two-inch pipe with a diameter of 7 and a length of 30 cm was used. Using a trap, seven mole voles were collected alive that were identified after applying morphological and Karyological methods under the name Ellobius lutescens.

 During 2018-2019, to investigate the sexual dimorphism in the body shape and morphological variations of Aphaniops hormozensis inhabiting in Mehran and Shur rivers of the Hormozgan basin using the geometric morphometric method, 80 specimens were collected.  In the laboratory, the left side of the samples was photographed and 17 landmark points were digitalized on the 2D images. To eliminate non-shape data including size, direction, and position, the extracted data were analyzed by the generalized procrustes analysis using discriminant function analysis based on the p-value of T-test Hoteling. The results of the present study showed significant differences between the body shape of males and females within the population and male-male and female-female inter-populations (p < 0.05). Male species in both populations had a smaller head, lower body depth, and longer caudal peduncle than those of females. Males and females of the Mehran River have a deeper and longer caudal peduncle than those of Shur Rivers.

 In the present study, the species ‘Dendrothrips octosparsusWang, Mound and Tong 2019’ collected from Ilam Province is recorded in Iran for the first time. Currently, the genus Dendrothrips has seven species in Iran, and the identification key for Iranian species is provided. Diagnostic morphological characteristics and the geographical distribution of the newly-recorded species are briefly discussed.

 The oak trees are considered the most important plant species in western forests of Iran and cynipid wasps create various galls on different parts of the oak trees. There are two oak species including Quercus brantii Lindl. and Q. infectoria Oliv. with different distribution in the forests of Kermanshah province. The present study aimed at investigating the biodiversity of oak gall wasps in different regions of Kermanshah. The oak galls were collected from six regions of Paveh, Javanrood, Gahvareh, Ghalajeh, Chalabeh, and Sarmil during 2011 and 2012 and the diversity indices were calculated based on the obtained data. In this study, a total of 30 different sexual and asexual galls were collected from catkin, buds, fruits, and leaves of Q. brantii (16 galls) and Q. infectoria (14 galls). Neuroterus lanuginosus Giraud, Dryocosmus israeli (Sternlicht), and N. saliens (Kollar) were recognized as the most abundant species and Andricus coriariformis (Melika), A. megalucidus (Melika), A. istvani Melika, Pseudoneuroterus macropterus (Hartig), and Synophrus olivieri (Kieffer) as rare species, respectively. Also, N. lanuginosus, N. saliens and Aphelonyx persica (Melika) were found from all regions and recognized as the dominant cynipid gall wasps species of the oak forests of Kermanshah. The calculated values for the Shannon-Wiener diversity index revealed that the diversity of cynipid wasps in Javanrood (1.878) and Gahvareh (1.870) was greater than Chalabeh (0.873), Paveh (0.681), and Ghalajeh (0.188). Also, the species diversity of gall wasps on Q. infectoria (1.573) was more than Q. brantii (0.574) based on the Shannon-Wiener Index. The greatest diversity of cynipid wasps was obtained at an altitude of 1500-1800 meters. Overall, 17 parasitoid wasp species (Chalcidoidea) were collected from 13 different galls on both oak species which were belonged to Torymidae, Eurytomidae, Ormyridae, Eupelmidae, Eulophidae, and Pteromalidae.