---

The Meloidae, known as blister beetles, a widespread family of Tenebrionoidea that includes approximately 2500 species, is still scarcely known faunistically in several areas of the world. Because of specific biogeographical feature, Iran harbors a rich diversity of meloids and due to the lack of basic and integrated studies, particularly in eastern parts of Iran, our current knowledge of Iranian meloids should be considered preliminary. In order to improve the knowledge of the meloidae species of north eastern Iran, faunistic investigations on blister beetles of this region were carried out during 2011-2012. Collected specimens as well as deposited specimens in Insect Museum of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad were examined, in detail. As a result, 31 species belonging to 11 genera from 2 subfamilies were identified. Among the identified specimens, 24 species were new for fauna of Khorasan provinces. Ctenopus sinuatipennis Fairmaire (1892) is reported for the first time from Iran.  

---

Some experiments with the aim to identify insects feeding on the dodder Cuscuta campestris Yuncke as an important parasitic flowering plant, resulted in the discovery of two new potential biological control agents namely Oxycarenus hyalinipennis (Costa, 1843) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) and Aphis fabae Scopoli, 1763 (Hemiptera: Aphididae). Oxycarenus hyalinipennis was observed feeding extensively on dodder seed capsules that were parasitizing Christ's thorn Jujube tree Ziziphus spina-christi (L.) Wild. Also aphid feeding caused severe damage to the dodder vine wraps on native hopbush Dodonaea viscosa (L.) Jacq. This is the first report of O. hyalinipennis and A. fabae feeding on C. campestris highlighting their potential as a biological control agent in Iran. 

---

The ladybird Hyperaspis pseudopustulata Mulsant, 1853 was recently reported as the 13^th species of the genus Hyperaspis of Iran. Because of the lack of sufficient details in the original description, here we provide more details of morphological features by the help of electron microscope and quantitative morphometric measurements of Iranian H. pseudopustulata. The differential characters of the species in comparison with other close species are presented.

---

View on Scopus
A checklist of the bees of the genus Hylaeus Fabricius, 1793 of Iran, based on the literature data and also field surveys in northeastern Iran (North Khorasan and Khorasan-e Razavi provinces) is presented. The resulting checklist comprises nine subgenera and 63 species. Four species of the genus Hylaeus, including H. (Lambdopsis) rinki (Gorski, 1852), H. (Spatulariella) hyalinatus Smith, 1842, H. (Spatulariella) punctatus (Brullé, 1832) and H. (Prosopis) lionotus (Alfken, 1909), are newly recorded for the fauna of Iran. The later species is considered as ″ very rare″ , has only known in Kazakhstan. A re-description of the male of H. (Prosopis) lionotus together with the illustrations of morphological characters is given.

---

Onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman, is a broadly distributed pest that attacks a wide range of crops. To investigate the intra-specific morphometric variation and the genetic diversity of the species in Iran, four populations from tobacco plus 18 populations from onion were studied in some 17 provinces of Iran. Morphological analysis, using principal components and canonical discriminant analyses indicated that the populations living on tobacco were significantly different from those living on onion. DNA sequence data for the COI gene was obtained for all the populations including some other 21 population sequences retrieved from the GenBank database. Maximum parsimony analyses revealed the distinct clades of T. tabaci on tobacco and on onion with the exception of one population collected from tobacco grown in Golestan Province. The results were identical for maximum likelihood and neighbor-joining analyses. Both molecular and morphometric analyses show heterogenecity of T. tabaci populations representing at least two different biotypes on tobacco and on onion.

---

Quick and authentic identification of exotic and potentially invasive taxa with capability of causing high economic losses or detriments is essential prerequisite for effective plant quarantine and biological control initiatives. The order Thysanoptera includes several agricultural pest species that, not only because of their minute size but also due to their cryptic behavior, incline to undetected transport through international trade of plants. Identification of thrips, particularly at species level, is pretty demanding and requires expertise in knowledge about Thysanoptera. Moreover, in most cases, identification of larval Thysanoptera to species is impossible without presence of adults. Hence, there is a great desire for a facile, accurate, and highly reliable technique for thrips identification. The present study describes species-specific primers for four pest thrips species, and the use of a multiplex PCR assay to detect and to distinguish between the four target species. Five primers were used to simultaneously amplify a specific region of the mitochondrial DNA and produce species-specific fragments. Results indicated that the primers were capable of detecting these four species and amplifying uniquely sized, species-specific PCR products. Furthermore, using a multiplex PCR assay, the primers maintained specificity and sensitivity, and allowed detection of each of the four species in a single reaction. The stringency of the method was tested using specimens of different developmental stages and consistent results were obtained for all of the examined samples. This method is simple enough to be implemented by non-experts and also can be extended to any organism for which quick and reliable identification is needed.

---

Molecular species identification has become more ubiquitous in diagnostics of insects, particularly in situations where morphological identification is a laborious or time-consuming process. Tetranychid mites are serious agricultural pests. Identification of tetranychid mites is usually arduous and requires a high level of taxonomic expertise because of their minute size, their close morphological similarities as well as limited number of diagnostic characters. Most species of the spider mites of the genus Tetranychus Dufour in Iran are morphologically similar, differing only in the diameter of the aedeagal knob in males. Because this genus contains many important pests, the unambiguous identification of species is crucial for effective pest management. In this study, a single-step multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (multiplex PCR) was used to discriminate two predominant spider mite species occurring in greenhouses in Iran: Tetranychus urticae Koch and Tetranychus turkestani (Ugarov and Nikolskii). The single-step multiplex PCR developed here, based on ITS regions, is rapid, reliable, sensitive and relatively simple. The entire identification protocol from DNA extraction to electrophoresis could be completed in four hours. Moreover, it is adequately simple to be implemented in any molecular laboratory.
 

---

The common cutworm, Agrotis segetum, is a serious soil pest of many vegetable and field crops all over the world. Morphological identification of Agrotis species is predominantly performed on adults due to the deficiency of adequate identification keys for immature stages. In international trade, the immature life stages are frequently being intercepted at point of inspection, challenging the possibilities of morphological identification. To realize a rapid and reliable identification for all stages of A. segetum, a TaqMan real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) was developed based on the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) gene. All specimens of A. segetum (including various life stages) were detected and no cross-reactivity was observed with 5 non-target Agrotis species in the specificity tests. The tests showed to be repeatable, reproducible, and robust. The assay performed equally well with crushed insects and purified DNA, so, the efficiency was added by removing DNA extraction step. The method has proven to be suitable tools for routine identification of all life stages of A. segetum considering the speed, specificity, as well as sensitivity of the assay.