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     The Oriental hornet, Vespa orientalis L. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is one of the most important and serious enemies of honeybees. In this study, the annual population dynamics and daily activity rhythm of Oriental hornet were examined, based on the number of adults trapped in an apiary located in Ahvaz (southwest of Iran) during a period of two years (January 2021 to December 2022). Samplings were performed using the box traps available in the market. The bait used in the traps was fresh chicken liver, with the traps checked daily in four time periods. The results revealed that the first overwintering queens (gynes) emerged in March and two population peaks of newly emerged hornet workers occurred during the year, one in July and the other in October. In late November and early December, no adult hornet was trapped. The daily activity rhythm of adult hornets was observed mostly during 9 - 12, almost twice as much as in the afternoon period (12 - 15). The lowest activity was recorded in the evening period and night (6 pm - 9 am). During both years of sampling, the seasonal abundance of adult hornets displayed a significant positive correlation with air temperature and a significant negative correlation with relative humidity. By comparing the result of our findings with other studies performed in the same and different climate zones, it can be hoped to present effective methods to control the population of V. orientalis, especially in areas that have extensive beekeeping.

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Climate change is one of the challenges of today to affect the agriculture sector. Climate change in Iran in recent years has caused a decrease in rainfall and an increase in temperature and continuous droughts. Agricultural production in Iran has been affected by climate change and has faced a decrease in the production of various products. The purpose of this research was to identify social, economic and environmental consequences of climate change in Iran's agricultural sector and designing a model of Planned Management Behavior (PMB). A mixed qualitative and quantitative method was used in this research. The study sample of this research in the qualitative phase included 15 key experts who have knowledge of the consequences of climate change and in the quantitative section, there were 100 experts of the agricultural Jihad of Khuzestan province. Based on the qualitative results, the consequences of climate change were identified. In the quantitative phase, it was determined that 69.3% of attitude towards the consequences of climate changes are explained by the independent variables of concerns about social, economic and environmental consequences, feeling the need for risk management, and perceived value. Also, 71.2% of changes in planned management intention to control the consequences of climate changes are affected by the attitude towards the consequences, tendency to control behavior, personal and mental norms. Finally, 69.8% of changes in PMB for control the consequences of climate changes are caused by the use of planned management intention to control the consequences, action planning and coping planning.

 

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To identify the fungi associated with foot and root rot of wheat in the Khuzestan province, diseased samples were collected at all growth stages in three growing seasons of 2004-2007. Pieces of infected parts of the root and foot were surface sterilized and cultured on acidic and non acidic PDA media. One hundred and fifteen isolates were obtained and on the basis of macroscopic and microscopic characters and valid keys were identified as Fusarium solani, F. equiseti, F. moniliforme, F. subglutinans, F. sambucinum, F. culmorum, F. proliferatum, F. pseudograminearum, F. longipes, F. avenacium, F. nygamai, F. semitectum, F. lateritium, Rhizoctonia solani, Bipolaris sorokiniana and Pythium sp. F. equiseti, F. solani and F. culmorum with occurrence frequencies of 16.07, 16.07 and 12.5 % respectively were more frequent than all other species. Results of Pathogenicity tests indicated that F. pseudograminearum and F.culmorum were the main fungi associated with wheat root and crown rot disease in khuzestan while other Fusarium spp. such as F. equiseti are probably aggravated by moisture stress at different growth stages of crop due to poor irrigation management. Rhizoctonia solani with occurrence frequency of 8.03 % in some regions such as Ahvaz, Shoush, Shoushtar and Baghmalek was important agent of crown and root rot of wheat second to Fusarium species. Bipolaris sorokiniana and Pythium sp also caused crown and root rot but with less frequency percent.  

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Ants consume or store the honeydew which is secreted by aphids or other homopteran insects. Major benefit of ant attendance for aphids is protection against natural enemies. A study was carried out during 2009-2010, to determine the mutualistic association between ants and aphids on different host plants in some parts of Khuzestan and Esfahan provinces. A total of 20 ant species belonging to 12 genera and 3 subfamilies were collected and identified. Among them, four species are new to Iranian ant fauna as follows: Monomorium libanicum Tohme; Monomorium qarahe Collingwood & Agosti; Monomorium mayri Forel and Lasius paralienus Seifert. The collected myrmecophilous aphids were 33 species belonging to 3 families and 5 subfamilies. Details and mechanisms of such associations between ants and aphids are unknown to us. More detailed investigations are needed in each case to adequately understand them.

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The chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) is one of the largest groups of wasps with tremendous morphological, ecological, biological, and taxonomic diversity whose economic importance is being pest natural enemies or plant pests. The unknown chalcid fauna of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran generated the execution of a faunistic study to elucidate its chalcidoid biodiversity. The material was collected by sweeping and trapping during 2014-2015 from fields, ranges and grasslands. This contribution lists 56 species belonging to 35 genera and 11 families (Agaonidae, Aphelinidae, Chalcididae, Encyrtidae, Eulophidae, Eupelmidae, Eurytomidae, Mymaridae, Pteromalidae, Signiphoridae and Trichogrammatidae). Eupristina saundersi Grandi, 1916 (Agaonidae) and Dirhinus bakeri (Crawford, 1914) (Chalcididae) are new records for the fauna of Iran, while Euplectrus liparidis Ferrière, 1941 and Hemiptarsenus zilahisebessi Erdös, 1951 (Eulophidae), Eupelmus sp. (Eupelmidae) and Mymar taprobanicum (Ward, 1875) and Polynema sp. (Mymaridae) are new for the Khuzestan province fauna.

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A faunal study of leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae) was conducted in some parts of Khuzestan Province (southwest of Iran) in 2014 and 2015. Totally, 90 species belonging to 49 genera and seven subfamilies were collected and identified. Most of samples were collected by using sweeping net and Malaise trap and a few by aspirator and sticky yellow trap. As a result of this study 47 species are recorded from Khuzestan Province for the first time and eight species are new records for the fauna of Iran including Euscelidius schenckii (Kirschbaum, 1868); Hardya (Hardya) melanopsis (Hardy, 1850); Paradorydium (Paradorydium) lanceolatum (Burmeister, 1839); Hecalus prasinus (Matsumura, 1905); Psammotettix emarginatus Singh, 1969; Grammacephalus pallidus (Linnavuori, 1978); Helionidia punctulata (Ramakrishnan and Menon, 1974) and Eupteryx (Eupteryx) kaghanensis Ahmed, 1969. For each species geographical distribution in Iran are completely mentioned. In addition morphological data and illustration of adults and their male genitalia are given for the eight newly recorded species.

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Archaeology with the help of other sciences in this era has been applied to solve the ancient environment and settlement of ancient sites. On the other hand, the high expenditure of interdisciplinary research for solving the environmental archaeology research takes less attention in the field of archaeological science. Meanwhile, chemical analysis, which gives information about the depth of soil in archaeological sites, needs suitable laboratory methods that, can provide much helpfal data to recognize the archaeological layers. These data also helped us to find the exact place of archaeological settlement in the Shusthar plain. Archaeological dating showed that the Shushtar plain was occupied in last phase of Holocene seven thousands before by the seasonally migrating people. In this article, the use of XRF chemical spectroscopy with AMS dating guided us to construct the ancient environment and environment development in the Shushtar plain in the Holocene period?

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A survey of cereal fields of Khuzestan province during 2008-2011 revealed that cereal cyst nematodes (CCNs) are widely distributed in this region. The CCNs were present in 37 and 35% of the 200 samples collected from wheat and barley fields respectively. The species were identified as Heterodera avenae type B and H. filipjevi the morphological and morphometric identifications of which were confirmed by rRNA-ITS RFLP. Population density of CCNs ranged from 2 to 103 cysts (mean 18)/100 g of dried soil with an average of 395 (0-3400) J2 and eggs in wheat samples. Whilst the number of cysts in barley samples were counted 3-71 cysts (mean 11) /100 g soil, the J2 and eggs averaged 166 (0-900). The lowest and the highest rates of infestation (8 and 83%) were observed in the regions of Ahvaz and Behbahan respectively. The number of J2 and eggs of CCNs in some regions were greater than the damage threshold level considered for CCNs and it is likely they could cause economic yield loss in these regions.  

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This contribution reports 15 species of Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) belonging to 12 genera from Khuzestan province of Iran of which 11 species were determined to species level. Five genera and seven species are new for the fauna of Khuzestan province. Three genera viz. Apoleptomastix, Rhopus and Thomsonisca, and three species viz. Apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (Girault, 1915), Leptomastidea bifasciata (Mayr, 1876) and Rhopus nigroclavatus (Ashmead, 1902) are new for the Iranian fauna.

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This is a report of 11 species belonging to six genera of  Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from Khuzestan province of Iran. Four genera and 10 species are new for the fauna of province of which one genus (Notoglyptus) and five species viz. Cyrtogaster britteni Askew, 1965, Halticoptera collaris (Walker, 1836), Notoglyptus scutellaris (Dodd & Girault, 1915), Pachyneuron tonyi Narendran & Santhosh, 2007 and Spalangia drosophilae Ashmead, 1887 are new for Iran.

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An analysis of the state of Iran's water resources shows that hydro-political challenges have shifted from the national scale to the sub-national scale (at the catchment level) and the conflict of interests of users has led to a contradiction in the approach of agents, especially in times of drought. Meanwhile, Karkheh catchment in Khuzestan feeds by Kashkan river in Lorestan province. On the other hand, climate change and Kashkan floods have often been associated with losses. The basic agricultural livelihood of Delfan city and the prevention of floods have made the construction of Gaushmar dam on Kashkan inevitable. The construction of this dam has reduced the volume of water entering the downstream cities of the dam and the Karkheh catchment in Khuzestan, especially during dry seasons. The construction of this dam has led to the conflict of interests of the actors and the emergence of hydro-political challenges on a subsidence scale. The present article is applied and the methodology of the text is explanatory-analytic. The data and information required for the research were collected by library and field methods (interview). The result of the research showed that with the construction of Gaushmar Dam, hydro-political relations within the province (Lorestan) and extra-provincial relations between Khuzestan and Lorestan provinces have been brought hydro-political tension. The adaptation of these conflict of interests eventually led to a reduction in the height of the dam and the volume of water stored behind the dam due to the authorities’ policies.

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In this paper we analyze word Order in four Persian Dialects of Khuzestan, namely Behbahani, Dezfuli, Shushtari and Hendijani, from the typological perspective. The main theoretical framework in this research is Dryer’s word order research (1992). Dabir Moghaddam (1392) has studied 24 features in his research about Iranian languages, which 19 of them are selected from Dryer (1992) and others from Dryer’s Database. In the present research, we also consider the same 24 features. The founded results are compared with the world languages and those of Europe and Asia. The data collection tool and method is a questionnaire based on the features and interviewing the native speakers of these dialects, which were Totally 30. Then, these recordings were transcribed and analyzed on the basis of the mentioned features. The typological behavior of these dialects both in comparison with the world languages and languages of Europe and Asia were studied. Broadly speaking, it was observed that these four dialects have a tendency toward VO languages and in this respect are different from the intermediate type suggested by Dabir Moghaddam (1392) in the case of Persian. It should be noted that these dialects only in 9th and 11th features behave differently and in all other features they share common behavior.

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Habrobracon kopetdagi Tobias, 1957 and H. ponticus (Tobias, 1986) are collected from Khuzestan province and recorded for the first time from Iran. In addition, three species (viz., H. crassicornis (Thomson, 1892), H. iranicus Fischer, 1972, H. stabilis (Wesmael, 1838)) are new provincial records. A faunistic list of Iranian Habrobracon species with distribution, host records and brief diagnoses for new recorded species from Iran are provided.

 

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During a faunistic study on the springtails (Collembola) of Khuzestan in south-western Iran, eight species including three Hypogastruridae, four Isotomidae and one Sminthuridae were collected and identified. Acherontiella and Acherontiella bougisi Cassagnau et Delamare Deboutteville, 1955 (Hypogastruridae), Ballistura tuberculata (Stach, 1947) (Isotomidae) and Sminthurus wahlgreni Stach, 1920 (Sminthuridae) are new for Iran while Hypogastrura manubrialis (Tullberg, 1869) (Hypogastruridae),  Isotomurus palustris (Müller, 1776) and Parisotoma notabilis (Schäffer, 1896) (Isotomidae) are new for Khuzestan fauna

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Tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta, is the most destructive pest of tomato in Iran. Resistance levels of six tomato cultivars to the pest damage were evaluated during two tomato growing seasons (2014-2015). Samplings were done weekly. Leaf and fruit damages as well as the total yield of the cultivars were compared. Furthermore, leaf trichome density was evaluated. The highest to lowest leaf infestation rates were recorded for the Primo early, CaljN3, Petomek, Rio grande, Early urbana and Super 2270 cultivars respectively. Fruit infestation rate in Early urbana was significantly lower than the other cultivars in both growing seasons. Total yield of tomato (from the highest to the lowest) belonged to Super 2270, Early urbana, Rio grande, Petomek, Calj N3 and Primo early cultivars.
 

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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious and communicable disease and one of the top ten causes of death throughout the world. Monitoring and evaluating TB treatment outcomes provides the required data for taking the necessary measures to control TB. Thus, this study was carried out to find determinants of treatment failure among patients with smear-positive pulmonary TB in Khuzestan province during 2006-2014
Materials & Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted over a 9-year period in Khuzestan province. Predictors of treatment failure were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression
Findings: Among 5342 patients, the cumulative incidence of unsuccessful TB treatment was 1.85%. More than half of TB patients (59.2%) enrolled in this study were male, and most of them were living in urban areas (79.8%). Significant predictors of treatment failure were age (p=·001), weight (p= ·039), number of delayed days in diagnosis (p=·01), isoniazid resistance (p≤·001), and number of bacilli in patients` sputum at the beginning of treatment (p≤·001).
Conclusion: In this study, the rate of successful treatment was quite high; nevertheless, new cases of treatment failure could be prevented with special efforts such as prompt diagnosis and precise follow-up under Direct Observation Treatment Short course (DOTS) strategy.

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Eleven species of Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) belonging to Aphelinidae, Encyrtidae, Eriaporidae and Signiphoridae associated with the cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) were collected and identified during 2017-2018 from Khuzestan province in the southwestern Iran. Prochiloneurus rex (Girault) (Encyrtidae) is new record for the fauna of Iran. Meanwhile, biological associations of Bothriothorax serratellus (Dalman), Leptomastix dactylopii Howard and L. mayri Özdikmen (Encyrtidae) as parasitoids and Marietta picta (André), P. rex and Chartocerus kurdjumovi (Nikolskaya) (Signiphoridae) as hyperparasitoids of Ph. solenopsis were new.
 

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Plant endophytes deployment at the field level affects the productivity of agricultural products. Savory Satureja khuzestanica Jamzad is a valuable medicinal plant native to Iran. In this study, in order to improve the quantitative and qualitative yield of the plant, the development of a suitable method for inoculation of native fungal endophytes to S. khuzestanica is surveyed. Three fungal endophytes (P.I.S.7, D.2.F.1 and D.1.S.1), isolated from savory plants, were inoculated on S. khuzestanica using four different methods (stem injection, foliar spray, soil drench and adding fungi to the soil in granular form) and their impact on plant's growth and its physiological response was analyzed. All inoculation methods, except adding granular form of fungi to the soil, resulted in endophytic colonization of the savory tissues. However, P.I.S.7 isolate was not established in these plants using any inoculated methods. Extent of fungal colonization showed a significant difference with the inoculation method, such that foliar spray had the highest colonization level, followed by stem injection and root drench. The highest rate of fungal colonization belonged to D.1.S.1. isolate. Spraying leaves and stem injection with endophytic fungi, especially in the case of D.1.S.1, significantly enhanced the morphological and physiological characteristics of host plants and the percentage of essential oil yields in these plants. All in all, using the D.1.S.1 isolate and foliar spray method led to savory plants' improved quantitative and qualitative product.

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This study tries to investigate relationship between rainfall parameters and USLE R factor. To gain R-factor, at first, shower kinetic energy was calculated and then its erosivity computed by using maximum 30 minutes rainfall intensity. Therefore 3 meteorological stations in Khuzestan province and one station per Kohgiloyeh & BoyerAhmad and Boushehr provinces were selected and their recorded hyetographs of 13 years were analyzed. For any hyetographs, rainfall erosivity was computed in any one month, season, or year and corresponding rainfall parameters were extracted too. Temporal and spatial variation of rainfall erosivity was studied and relationships between R factor and rainfall characteristics were investigated by using regression analysis. It was resulted that February to March and winter season has the most erosivity risk. Spatial analysis of rainfall erosivity in selected area showed that Dezful and Ramhormuz have the maximum erosivity factor. Mean annual erosivity factor of Khuzestan province was computed 28.07 ton.m/ha.h. Regression analysis showed strong relationships between rainfall amount (mm) and maximum 30 minutes rainfall intensity (cm/h) with R factor. A model that computes R-factor by means of rainfall amount was suggested.